Server Consolidation or Replacement
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Server Consolidation or Replacement
June 1st, 2006
Prepared by:
IT Manager
Reviewed by:
Prepared for:
Director of Administration
List of terms and acronyms used throughout this document
Bit – A bit is the lowest form of data. Bits are either a 1 or a 0 or more accurately it is either an On or an Off. A single character (letter, number, symbol, etc.) contains 8 bits, which is then referred to as a byte.
Megabits per Second (Mbs) – Is a reference to how fast data travels. At 1 Mbs communication bits (both actual data and overhead) is being transferred at 1 million bits per second.
Wide Area Network (WAN) – The WAN are the links that interconnect the various offices. All Beber offices have WAN links that are 1.544 Mbs circuits.
Local Area Network (WAN) – The LAN is the network that connects computers in a particular building or set of close buildings. Speeds are usually at 100 Mbs and are fast approaching gigabit speed or 1 billion bits per second or 1,000 Mbs.
Wide-area Data Services (WDS) – Wide-area data services are the concept of “speeding-up” the Wide Area Network. When data is traversing a LAN it is traveling at 100 Mbs. When that same data is traversing a WAN it is traveling at maximum speed of 1.544 Mbs. Thus a need exists to speed up the WAN or Wide-area network to ensure users do not notice any delays.
Storage Area Network (SAN) – A SAN is a network of components designed to attach computer storage devices such as disk array controllers and tape libraries to servers. Sharing storage usually simplifies storage administration and adds flexibility since cables and storage devices do not have to be physically moved to move storage from one server to another.
Active Directory Server – Active Directory servers are the security and access of all data files. This feature is where all security polices and access is administered.
File Server – A file server is where all of the data files currently reside within the Beber network. File servers do not need to be high-end but must have enough disk space to incorporate a large amount of data
Latency – is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. Latency on a LAN link is usually 1 millisecond and on a WAN that latency is usually 50 to 100 milliseconds.
Distributed Server Infrastructure – Bebers network is currently set in a distributed server infrastructure. Each site has its own file server and the data on the server is specifically for that site. There are also 4 sites with Lotus Notes servers bringing the total number of servers to 14. See page 5 for a diagram.
Consolidated Server Infrastructure – A consolidated server infrastructure would reduce the number of servers from 14 to 4 with 2 SAN components. All data would be located on the SAN and synchronized between the two sites. Users from the other offices would connect to one of these two sites. See page 9 for a diagram.
Citrix Terminal Server – is a remote access/application based in part on Microsofts Terminal Services. The primary benefit of Citrix is that it transmits high-level window images rather than graphical images. This program allows all the processing power to be done on the server and only the images are sent to the end user computer.
Primary Sites – the two locations where the servers and storage devices will be located
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – is a financial statement designed to assess direct and indirect costs associated to the purchasing of and management of capital investments. This cost usually includes items such as system outages, manpower hours to manage devices, training of support personnel, disaster preparedness and recovery, electricity, incremental growth, etc.
Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) – This definition varies depending on industry and continental location. Generally speaking, software and hardware companies consider Small as companies consisting of less than 100 employees and Medium as those with less than 500 employees.
Knowledge Management (KM) – Capturing, organizing, and storing knowledge and experiences of individual workers and groups within an organization and making this information available to others in the organization
Introduction
In its current state at each of the 10 locations, Beber , Inc. uses an Active Directory server that also is a file server. In addition to this there are four Lotus Notes servers located in various offices. Of the 14 servers, 12 are out of warranty and are approaching their end-of-life cycle. See chart below for specifics
Location
Server
Serial Number
Model
Warranty Expiration
Site A
serverA
IBM x235
Type 867121X
Site B
serverB
P1400
Site C
serverC
IBM x232
Type 866854X
Site D
serverD
IBM x235
Type 867121X
Site E
serverE
IBM x232
Type 866854X
Site F
serverF
IBM x232
Type 866854X
Site G
serverG
IBM X232
Type 866854X
Site H
ServerH
IBM X232
Type 866854X
Site I
ServerI
IBM X232
Type 866854X
Site J
serverJ
IBM x232
Type 866854X
Site K
serverK
IBM x235
Type 867121X
Site L
serverL
IBM x235
Type 867121X
Site M
ServerM
IBM x235
Type 867121X
The Site N server is not on this list and the Site C server is not out of warranty, though it has extremely low amount of available space and will need to be replaced or rebuilt with additional hard drives.
The decision comes down to either replacing each server with a new, more powerful server thus maintaining a distributive infrastructure or consolidate servers to two central locations in order to maximize efficiencies and consolidate processes and data. This document will lay out the pros and cons of each topology and provide quotes on each solution.
A consolidated approach would move all