The Blade Server decision at the University of Florida

1
The Blade Server decision at the University of
Florida

• September 19, 2005
• FAEDS 2005 Conference
• Palm Harbor, Florida

2
Overview

• Introduce UF and our ERP environment
• Bridges perspective
• Our Vision
• Our Requirements
• Our Decision

3
University 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

4
University 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

5
University of Florida Profile

• 140 academic depts
• Agric extension in 67 counties

• Law, Medicine, Eng, Business
• 4 in Merit Scholars

6
IT 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

7
UF 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

8
ERP 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.

9
ERP 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

10
Our Vision

• Simplified Server deployment
• Simplify LAN Management
• On Board SAN Switch
• Commoditization of Servers
• Simplified Physical Deployment
• Move toward next generation remote management
  capabilities

11
Our Requirements

• Established Company
• Enterprise Level Support
• Mature Product
• Highest Density Possible

12
Our Decision

• Looked at Dell, HP, and IBM
• Tried HP, and IBM
• Selected IBM

13
Contacts
Mark Palmer Computer Applications Coordinator UF
Bridges University of FloridaE-mail
mpalmer_at_ufl.edu
14
The BladeCenter in action at the Office of the
Provost
15
Overview

• Introduce Office of the Provost
• Environment Profile
• Services Provided
• Our Vision

16
University 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

17
Office 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

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IT 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

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Our 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

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IBM 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

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Bright 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.

22
Contacts
Jason Heeter Network Coordinator Office of the
Provost and Senior Vice President University of
Florida E-mail jheeter_at_aa.ufl.edu