We have all seen the commercial for IBM where the technician comes into the data center to find that all of his servers have been stolen. Then it is pointed out to him by a co-worker that the data center, that was once overflowing with hardware, has been condensed down into one rack with an IBM blade server in it. While this is a bit of an exaggeration by IBM, it does convey their point quite eloquently.

There are a few hidden elements to this technology that IBM could not touch on in a 30 second promo window, so they touched on the main issue. This would be a “Cost of Ownership” issue. What they want you to believe is that you can do more with less hardware.

Containing the Monster

Over time, data centers have become an ever sprawling monster that gobbles up a university’s precious space resource. We see that here at IWU as well. What seemed to be an adequately “spec’d for space” data center has been eaten up by today’s demand for more and more services. It seems that every new service we provide requires at least one of it’s own dedicated servers (as demanded by the vendor) AND in some cases, the service is spread out across as many as 4 to 5 servers.

In the past, the answer was, CONSOLIDATE!!!! Put as many services on one piece of hardware as you can. This has been found to be a bad idea. Imagine, if you will, one server that has campus authentication (LDAP), DNS and DHCP running on it. Can the server handle this? Well, maybe, if it is adequately resourced enough. However, what happens when that server goes down? All those core services that keep the campus network connectivity up and running are all down. It doesn’t matter why all these services went down, the fact remains, all of our users can not access the internet.

The latest emergent technology that promises to help with this issue is Blade technology. Ooooh, Blade Servers, doesn’t that sound cool???? Well, don’t laugh, it is cool! Network vendors have been using this technology for years and now we see it popping up all over in the server area as well. What Blades actually do is allow your data center services to be consolidated onto one piece of hardware that acts and operates virtually like many different servers. So in essence, we are doing all our processing on less hardware.

Think about Blades this way; let’s say you have a Lamboghini Diablo and it has a whopping 530Hp, but you never take it up passed 65MPH (because that is the law). How much of that car’s resources go unused? Probably enough power is left unused to push 4 Yugos at 65MPH. Where does all that unused resource go? It remains unused and is lost. The same goes with servers. You have this incredibly spec’d out server, but it is only being pushed at half it’s capacity. We have paid for resources that are not being used. Wouldn’t it be nice if when a server’s resources were not being used, it could give that resource back so other services that may need it could take advantage of it? That is exactly what Blades do! It is a big community of resources that gets shared between all the virtual servers that are running on it.

Taming The Monster

Not only does today’s hardware practices turn our data centers into monsters that consume our space resources, but someone has to power all these pieces of hardware too. We have experienced this problem first hand in the past few months here at IWU. We are continuously trying to find ways to power all the servers without tripping the breakers and bringing down the existing servers. At one time, we plugged in a monitor that tripped a breaker and brought down Mail. But, due to our system administrators skill and cat-like reflexes, it was brought back up quickly and without much notice. :)

Currently in our data center we have about 7, 110V 20Amp circuits to power all our servers and network gear. 6 of these 7 circuits are at capacity. We have 1 circuit left to add new servers on. Granted, we are trying to remove some older servers too which will gives us a few amps back, but at best, this is a stop gap measure. We seriously need to think how we can use the power we have and use it in a more environmentally friendly way. This is also in compliance with IWU’s strategic plan. Well, here is a way we can make this happen.

The beast devours power. We need to tame it’s appetite a bit. We can do this by implementing Blade technologies in the data center. Blades, as I said above, make better use of resources by sharing all the resources between all the services. By doing this, power is not wasted on unused server resources as they have been in the past. “Unused resources” becomes a phrase that is no longer used because all our resources will be utilized efficiently. Not only does the university keep with it’s strategic plan by being “green”, it gets to save a bit of “green” as well.

A Necessary Evil?

The beast does serve a purpose. Gone are the days of pens, paper and abaci. Computers are here to stay. They will require power. They will take up space. They are necessary. We just need a way to control it, and in our attempts to control it, we need to make sure it stays reliable.

Currently, IWU has 2 LDAP servers. These are 2 independent servers that act as one. If one goes down, the other takes the load. It is a reliability concern. We need campus authentication to work, and it must work always. So, let’s analyze these 2 servers as our example. Both are powered up at all times. Both are spec’d out identically. The each take up rack space. Both sit idle for over 70% of the time. But, both are necessary!!! Redundancy can not be forsaken in a solution to make us more environmentally friendly or in our strides to do more with less. All aspects must coincide in our solution if our solution is to be fair and equitable.

Again, Blades address this issue. A Blade server using virtual servers allow us to create as many servers as we wish. If we run out of resources, we simply add another blade to the chasis to increase our resources. So, given this, we can create redundant servers to our hearts content. And believe it our not, the Sys Admins here at IWU have a fondness for creating redundant servers. They are weird that way.

Check Please!

So, who is picking up the tab on this. Hahaha Oh yes, the awkward moment at the end of the meal. Well, there is good news here too, believe it or not. Initially, for IWU to get rid of about 10 old servers, we would have to come up with about 15K. Hmmmm, what would 15 new individual servers cost? What would be the power consumption of 15 new individual servers? What would the data center footprint of 15 new servers be? This is how we should be thinking.

Think about the benefits here; less hardware, less power, less cooling, better redundancy, better resource utilization etc…, at about the same cost, if not cheaper. Like any new technology, there are pains with adapting a new way of thinking, but the pains are just birthing pains to a better way of computing; a more environmentally and responsible way of computing. A way that is all ready being adopted by our peers around the world.

Bottom Line

Illinois Wesleyan University is ready to embrace such a change. We see it in our strategic planning and in our people’s attitudes to become better and more responsible with technology. All we have left to do now is act upon what we know. We should be a leader and an example here to other universities and show them that IWU acts on what it believes in.