Virtualisation increases flexibility and lowers campus operating costs
“We now have a flexible, responsive IT environment, which positions us to grow and change in line with the demands of today’s dynamic university environment.”
Tom Townsend, IT Data Centre Manager, University of Canberra
When the University of Canberra reached server capacity in the past they had to wait for new servers to be commissioned. And if they wanted to remove or add new services they would have to untangle services currently being offered on campus servers. Now, by virtualising on Windows Server®2008 R2 they have the flexibility of providing services quickly in virtual ‘bubbles’. This enables them to respond to a dynamic learning environment and changing business needs. Their virtual environment is managed simply from a single console, and even though they are providing more services, it takes fewer staff, freeing their IT professionals to focus on the strategic use of technology in the learning environment.
Not only has Windows Server®2008 R2 provided many sophisticated new opportunities in the area of clustering and virtual machine management, other improvements include better performance and functionality as well as improved high availability and disaster recovery. By increasing their virtual environment with Windows Server®2008 R2 the University of Canberra also enjoys a 20% reduction in power costs through further consolidations, as well as low-cost licensing for the entire campus environment.
Business Needs
The University of Canberra operates in an environment of non-stop change. Traditionally, the IT department has had to respond to demand at very short notice, continually setting up servers to support new courses, business needs, research and content requirements for an increasingly technology-centric learning environment.
Data Centre Manager, Tom Townsend comments: “The IT component of any change was often left to last. If someone wanted an additional service we had to place it on an existing server, or we had to invest in a new server – and then wait to deploy it, power it and cable it before delivering the new service. This process could take weeks.”
Solution
Recognising the need for a new, more responsive IT system, the university upgraded their data centre three years ago to a virtual environment using Windows Server®2008. More recently, it decided to upgrade to the latest Windows Server®2008 R2 to take advantage of some of the sophisticated new opportunities it offered, particularly in the area of clustering and improved virtual machine management.
Now the university has consolidated and virtualised over 60% of its servers, using Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V technology. Every new service they are asked to commission is being deployed on a virtual server – a process that can be achieved in a matter of minutes.
Tom says: “We now have a flexible, responsive IT environment, which positions us to grow and change in line with the demands of today’s dynamic university environment.”
Benefits
According to Claire Jorgensen, National University Business Manager, Microsoft Australia, the project is a great example of the positive impact virtualisation can bring to an organisation.
“The in-built flexibility and responsiveness of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V has dramatically improved the IT ecosystem at the University of Canberra,” she says. “It has also allowed staff to continue to innovate their virtual environments with Microsoft technologies.”
Greatly improved management of clusters
According to Tom, one of the most practical outcomes of the Windows Server 2008 R2 technology upgrade is the greatly improved management of clusters.
In the past, with the RTM version, clusters worked well, but were difficult to manage. Now, with R2, management has improved tenfold.
“Previously the clusters we’d created were mainly for testing and development,” says Tom. “Given the improvements, we have decided to deploy this technology for production use as well. The benefit is that we can move VMs. [virtual machines] between hosts without downtime so services are never interrupted.”
This solution provides the university with high availability for mission critical applications. For example, if a VM is presenting a website and the host gets damaged, then another host in the cluster is able to take on that VM load so there is no loss of service. For the end user the host damage goes unnoticed.
“In addition, we now have full support for our Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs,” says Tom. “Before we had unenlightened Linux VMs. Now that the VMs are enlightened (i.e., aware that they are VMs) we can use the full suite of technology. This means faster access for the VM using a gigabit virtual network and also the ability to back-up the VM from the host system for better performance and functionality.”
Easier growth
Tom believes that virtualising the data centre using Windows Server 2008 R2 has improved the university’s growth potential, because it can easily trial and deploy new services.
“Previously when we wanted to trial a new product we had two choices: we could either buy a new server or increase the complexity of an existing one,” says Tom. Now we can deploy a VM without spending any money or impacting on the performance of our existing systems.
“This makes us more agile. We can implement the technologies we want as soon as they become available. From a business perspective, being able to trial and commission new services quickly gives us a real advantage.”
Easier planning
Gone are the days when the university ran out of capacity and had to wait to get more servers in. The new technology allows Tom and his colleagues to better predict and monitor change, thereby ensuring a solid foundation for the future.
“Our attention has now turned to how much we have in terms of space and RAM rather than how many servers we have,” says Tom. “Planning is really so much easier. And as long as we give some thought to these resources, we never have to slow down.”
Powerful, efficient IT management
With increased virtualisation comes more efficient IT management. Tom says Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager lets him manage 270 VMs across 39 hosts from one console.
“We’re managing a much larger number of servers with fewer staff,” says Tom. “And we can manage the entire environment through a single view on one console, which is great. But the biggest advantage is that we can also segregate all the services in such a way that if we want to replace or change anything, we can do so without impacting on any other services the university provides.
“In the past, if one server had five applications on board it was hard to remove any of them without impacting on the remaining four. Now we have far greater flexibility. I have more time to spend on planning and strategic thinking rather than simply fire-fighting.”
Lower energy costs and emissions
“As for total cost of ownership, we’re definitely spending less money,” says Tom. “To give you an example, each computer room has a certain capacity. Our capacity was running at 90% from a power perspective, and now after virtualisation we’re down to about 70% of power consumption.
“This in turn reduces the amount of water we use for cooling. This means the running costs of the computer room have dropped by 20%, which is a substantial saving for any organisation. If you can increase your services and use fewer resources in doing so you’re talking about a significant achievement, not just for the university, but also for our environment.”
Cost-effective licensing
Tom is also a big fan of Microsoft’s licensing model for Windows®, which he believes is far more cost-effective.
“If you’re using a competitive product, you have to pay the price of the product plus a separate fee for the Windows® licences you wish to run,” says Tom. “With Microsoft you only need to buy the Datacentre Windows licence for the host and you get unlimited guests. For us, Hyper-V is actually a way of saving money on licensing. This was one of the big deal-clinchers when we considered moving to Hyper-V as it really impacts on our total cost of ownership.”
* Tom is also the author of Microsoft Hyper-V: TFM– published by Sapien Press (http://www.sapienpress.com/) – a practical guide to implementing Hyper-V technology
Microsoft Product that was featured
Microsoft Windows
Server® 2008 R2
Windows Server®2008 R2 allows organisations to enjoy even more reliable and flexible server infrastructures. R2 offers the award-winning Windows Server®2008 foundation plus new virtualisation tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows® 7 integration – all of which provide your organisation with more dynamic and efficient data centre management. Powerful tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.5, updated Server Manager, Hyper-V platforms and Windows® PowerShell version 2.0 combine to give you greater control, increased efficiency, and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before.
