Title: The Blade Server decision at the University of Florida
1The Blade Server decision at the University of
Florida
- September 19, 2005
- FAEDS 2005 Conference
- Palm Harbor, Florida
2Overview
- Introduce UF and our ERP environment
- Bridges perspective
- Our Vision
- Our Requirements
- Our Decision
3University of Florida Profile
- Largest and oldest university in Florida
- 4th largest enrollment on a single campus 49,000
students in Gainesville - 15,000 distance, continuing, and executive
students
4University of Florida Profile
- 2.0 Billion annual budget
- 475 million in research -- growing at 9 per
year - Health Sciences 55 of research
- Neuroscience, Genetics, Cancer
5University of Florida Profile
- 140 academic depts
- Agric extension in 67 counties
- Law, Medicine, Eng, Business
- 4 in Merit Scholars
6IT at the University of Florida
- 500 IT professionals across campus and the state
- Very decentralized (very!)
- Over 300 email servers
- 30,000 devices on the open network
- Directory Project 2002-2003
- PeopleSoft implementation 2002-2005
- Cognos implementation 2002-2005
7UF Bridges
- A new central IT office created to implement and
operate PeopleSoft and other enterprise
applications - UF employees functional and technical
- New hires w/ PeopleSoft experience
- Consultants with PeopleSoft Experience
- Advisory User Councils
8ERP Implementation
- Vendor Selection July 2002
- Contract with PeopleSoft Sept 2002
- Portal in production March 2003 w/ 100,000 users
- Data warehouse and Cognos in production August
2003 - Finance and HR simultaneous launch of 18 modules,
July 2004 - 25 million. On time. On budget.
9ERP Infrastructure
- Five physical environments lab, alpha, beta,
training and production - PIA on AIX/DB2 42 production p-series
processors - Reporting on W2K3 44 production Intel
processors - Dual Cisco 6509 border switches
- 22 TB storage, Shark, NetApp, SAN, NAS
- SiteScope monitoring, Tivoli backup, AppWorx job
scheduling - GatorLink single username/password for
enterprise systems
10Our Vision
- Simplified Server deployment
- Simplify LAN Management
- On Board SAN Switch
- Commoditization of Servers
- Simplified Physical Deployment
- Move toward next generation remote management
capabilities
11Our Requirements
- Established Company
- Enterprise Level Support
- Mature Product
- Highest Density Possible
12Our Decision
- Looked at Dell, HP, and IBM
- Tried HP, and IBM
- Selected IBM
13Contacts
Mark Palmer Computer Applications Coordinator UF
Bridges University of FloridaE-mail
mpalmer_at_ufl.edu
14The BladeCenter in action at the Office of the
Provost
15Overview
- Introduce Office of the Provost
- Environment Profile
- Services Provided
- Our Vision
16University of FloridaOffice of the Provost
Profile
- Oversees the Academic Affairs aspect of the
University covering all Colleges - Manages Academic departments such as Admissions,
Registrar, and Records Management
17Office of the Provost IT Profile
- Supports 20 separate departments with individual
needs - 35 servers 1u, 2u, 5u, Blade Center and SAN
- Microsoft-only environment
- 1100 end users in 10 buildings across campus
18IT in the Office of the Provost
- 4 Full time support staff providing the
following - Microsoft 2003 AD Native mode, DNS, DHCP
- MS Exchange 2003
- MS File Services
- MS SMS 2003
- Blackberry Enterprise Server, Goodlink, Barracuda
SPAM Firewall - MS Web Hosting (IIS6)
- Network Associates ePolicy
- MS SUS
- MS Live Communication Server
- MS Sharepoint Portal
- MS Rights Management Server
19Our Vision
- Centralized Server containment
- Implementation of Virtual Servers
- Centralized Storage
- Centralized Backup procedures
- Fibre connection to IBM 4560-SLX library
- Centralized Server Management
- IBM Director
- Offering Support and Services to departments that
fall under the Provost Office with IT budgetary
restraints
20IBM on the hotplate
- Our Air-con units froze up over the summer. When
we arrived the server room temp was above 120F.
Most of our servers had shut off and several APC
1400s shut down that were connected to the Cisco
switches.
- Exchange and file servers are running on the
Blade/SAN which ramped up the exhaust fans and
somehow kept these system running with no ill
effects - I know these key systems would have died had they
been on any other servers. The most visible end
user systems remained active thanks to the
efficient cooling on the blades -
21Bright Future
- The current setup is not optimal but is still a
very solid part of our environment - Im very excited to reconstruct my foundation and
move forward with the IBM Blade/SAN system I
have. I know its capable of much more than the
simple things its been doing and look forward to
expanding my horizon.
22Contacts
Jason Heeter Network Coordinator Office of the
Provost and Senior Vice President University of
Florida E-mail jheeter_at_aa.ufl.edu