Solution Brief IBM e BladeCenter & VERITAS Solutions for Microsoft IBM e BladeCenter and VERITAS: Working Together to Deliver High Availability For Microsoft August 2003 1
Table of Contents Executive Summary...3 Introduction...4 IBM e BladeCenter and VERITAS Software...4 Proof of Concept...5 Concept...5 Results: A Before and After...6 Typical Environment Pre Consolidation...6 Environment Post Consolidation...7 BladeCenter and VERITAS Software Solution Set Detail...8 Summary: IBM e BladeCenter and VERITAS Software...10 VERITAS Software Solutions...10 IBM e BladeCenter and Solutions...11 trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Convergence of technology is a wonderful thing when it solves real-world problems and truly makes life of an IT administrator easier. In one corner, there s Microsoft 2000 (and the upcoming release of 2003) with multiple storage groups and multiple databases per storage group. In another corner is BladeCenter providing scalable computing and hardware redundancy in one small manageable form factor. Finally, there s VERITAS with complete end-to-end solutions from simple backup all the way to High Availability of individual servers and Rapid Recovery to point-of-failure for individual databases. Consolidating servers is nothing new. IT organizations have been asking for it and hardware vendors have been delivering it for years. But one of the drawbacks to consolidating servers is the increased dependencies on the applications they run. Now, more than ever, more users are impacted by a single hardware failure. BladeCenter s ability to package all vital components including hardware redundancy and shared infrastructure resiliency into a small form factor can greatly reduce downtime causing hardware failures and helping keep up and running. However, hardware is only part of the problem. There are also failures due to database corruption, virus attacks, spam attacks, and user error. Hardware, no matter how well engineered, cannot protect you from these. Enter Microsoft. With Microsoft 2000 s ability to manage 4 Groups with 5 individual databases per Group, an IT organization can minimize the impact of a mass email attack and/or corruption by segregating users across these multiple storage groups and databases. If caught in time, a failure can be isolated thereby minimizing the impact to the general user population. The tie that binds these two strong technologies together is VERITAS. VERITAS unique ability to provide end-toend coverage affords IT administrators the confidence they need to combine 1000 s of users and many disparate individual servers into very few BladeCenter systems. Traditional backup to tape still plays a vital role but with the consolidation of users and the increasing need for application availability, restore from tape is no longer quick enough. VERITAS has this covered with Rapid Recovery for Microsoft 2000 (and soon 2003). With Rapid Recovery, a single database can often be restored to the point of failure in minutes not hours. For application and hardware failover, there s VERITAS Cluster that provides many-to-one or any-to-any application failover capability, thereby significantly reducing overall hardware requirements. Consolidating servers is nothing new. But now it s easier and safer with the combination of IBM s BladeCenter, Microsoft 2000 and VERITAS suite of end-to-end data protection, rapid recovery, and failover solutions. IT administrators no longer need to stress about putting too many eggs in one basket. Finally, in a dense BladeCenter form factor an administrator has the ability to combine all individual servers while increasing the Service Level Agreements (SLA). trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 3
INTRODUCTION Downtime for servers can cripple an organization s ability to communicate with customers, partners, and employees. Outages of several hours can have significant costs in terms of revenue and productivity. Minimizing downtime is a primary concern for all organizations users expect to be online, no excuses! All systems require some level of maintenance, and it is not an uncommon practice to plan downtime for these tasks. With the explosive growth of e-mail as the primary form of communication, and the resulting quantity of data being stored, administrators need the ability to configure, add, and grow storage on the fly. High availability can be achieved in part by providing a combination of proper planning, redundant hardware, and the appropriate software. A proper balance must be achieved in hardware and software design to minimize the effect of component failure, such that no single point of failure exists. Although data protection is a fundamental aspect of any availability solution, for many customers who have demanding time-to-recovery requirements for their applications, backup alone is unable to meet their SLAs. This document will demonstrate the value of combining quality, redundant, small form factor hardware with solid and dependable application availability solutions to meet or exceed these SLAs. IBM eserver BLADECENTER AND VERITAS SOFTWARE IBM s BladeCenter s modular design, gathers all the computing resources into a cost-effective, high-density infrastructure that supports the latest hot-swappable Intel-based, high-performance servers. The unique BladeCenter design, addresses the most serious IT issues today: space constraints, manageability, scalability, capacity, resiliency, and high performance. BladeCenter servers need less installation time (often minutes vs. hours), can require fewer people to manage and maintain, and often cost less than traditional server solutions. BladeCenter delivers improved efficiency in both space and power consumption when compared to most of today s 1U solutions without sacrificing performance. BladeCenter solutions can make adding capacity simpler and more affordable than ever before. It offers a scale-out architecture that lets the user add server modules quickly, using a pay-as-you-grow approach. VERITAS treats as a mission critical application that allows the administrator to consolidate servers while increasing the level of availability. By hitting the 3 key areas of vulnerability: application, data, and disaster recovery; VERITAS helps meet SLAs. VERITAS Cluster allows many-toone and any-to-any failover of an application, which means that in the event the application on any server(s) fails, another server will automatically take over and continue to service users. VERITAS Volume Manager allows automatic and seamless management of the storage minimizes the possibility for Transaction Log volumes to fill up thereby causing database corruption. VERITAS Edition for Microsoft 2000 builds on the strengths of Volume Manager to automate point-in-time copies of databases. In the event of database corruption, VERITAS Edition automates the restoration of the database to the pointof-failure from these snapshot copies in many cases in just minutes. The BladeCenter hardware can allow the user to dramatically reduce the footprint of the systems required, improve hardware reliability and reduce the total number of systems. The VERITAS software solution allows the user to improve the availability of the data as well as the application, while surpassing existing SLAs. The BladeCenter and VERITAS solution treats as a mission critical application increasing availability, minimizing footprint and leaving ample room for growth. trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 4
PROOF OF CONCEPT Combining the advantages and strengths of BladeCenter with the power of VERITAS data and application availability solutions for, to demonstrate how this solution will reduce costs and management while exceeding existing service level agreements. CONCEPT Protecting a large application server like Microsoft requires careful thought and planning. There are two primary factors to be considered: Business Needs and Cost. The most common method of formalizing these needs is the implementation of Service Level Agreements. These agreements are contracts between the users and providers (e.g., IT departments) that outline such factors as: expected services, acceptable downtime, and response time for problem resolution. It is critical that you understand these factors during the design phase of your deployment, as they can heavily influence the resources you ll need to support the plan. If the SLA demands high availability as most applications now do, application failover and quick recovery are mandatory. The solution set below will demonstrate how using a BladeCenter with VERITAS High Availability solution stack not only helps keep always available but also allows rapid recovery of data in the event of corruption due to virus, or any other data failure. Consolidation of requires a consolidation of existing servers to BladeCenter. This consolidation creates fewer servers, which means each server will support an increase in users. The IT risk is to deliver an increased level of availability since there is an increase in users per server. VERITAS delivers application availability with many-to-one and any-to-any application failover and data availability with database snapshot recoveries. Additionally, this type of post-consolidation configuration will often leverage the economics of SAN based storage (as opposed to direct-attached storage). To deliver increased availability with SAN-based storage, users must protect volumes between servers, minimize single point of failures in the SAN and implement disk management to increase SAN storage utilization. VERITAS delivers on these activities providing multiple disk groups, dynamic multi-pathing and online disk moves. Finally, depending on the user s availability requirements, VERITAS is able to deliver campus clustering and wide-area disaster recovery for. Below is an example of a typical Enterprise-class environment. This proof of concept will demonstrate that combining the unique capabilities of BladeCenter servers and the power of VERITAS solutions, you can: Reduce application and server management load Improve your time to recovery Reduce your overall hardware investment Achieve economies of scale through consolidation trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 5
RESULTS: A BEFORE AND AFTER TYPICAL EXCHANGE ENVIRONMENT PRE CONSOLIDATION Today, a typical Enterprise-class environment is highly distributed across multiple sites with a relatively low number of users per server. The low number of users per server is primarily driven not by hardware or software capabilities but rather, by demanding SLAs requiring ability to recover an server within a short (< 8 hours) period of time. As has grown-up to be a mission-critical application, the IT department realizes that this topology and data protection methodologies do not match end-user expectations and SLA requirements or provide room for growth. (See Figure 1) Typical Pre-Consolidation Environment (See Figure 1) Category Pre-consolidation Environment Users 12,000 (1000 / system evenly spread across 4 storage groups) s 24 (8 clustered with MSCS (16 total) + 8 Standalone) spread across multiple physical sites Groups / Svr 4 Users / Database 250 Database Size 50GB (12.5GB X 4 Groups) 82GB per server (1.3TB total) (Formula: # of users X 50MB (Note: can vary dramatically)) Transaction Logs Size 32GB (20% of combined size of Group) Total Space Needed 1.3TB (984GB for database/logs X 16 s) Backup Process Nightly full backups Avg. Backup Time 2-6 hours Avg. Restore Time 3-9 hours Avg. Personnel Req. 4-5 Admins Figure 1: Pre Consolidation Cluster Cluster Cluster Site 1 12,000 Users 24 s 8 MSCS Clusters 8 Standalone Cluster Site 2 Cluster Cluster Cluster Site 3 Cluster Site 4 trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 6
EXCHANGE ENVIRONMENT POST CONSOLIDATION Consolidation of this environment includes a consolidation of users to BladeCenter, a reduction in the number of systems and a dramatic reduction in footprint and physical resources. The new environment receives a dramatic increase in the level of availability of with a six-node cluster with snapshot recovery capability of any database on any cluster node as well as application failover to and from any cluster node. Post Consolidation Environment (See Figure 2) Category Post-consolidation Environment Users 12,000 (3000 / Service Group X 4 Groups) Chassis Potential: 30,000 Space / user 100MB Users / Database 150 Users / Group 750 Database Size 15GB DB / Group 5 Group / Svr 4 Group Size 75GB Transaction Logs Size 15-20GB (~20% of combined size of Group) Total Space Needed 1.6TB s 8 BladeCenter s (6 nodes + 1 Management node (could be replaced with a simple workstation) + 1 Domain Controller) creating 4 Service Groups (virtual servers) Backup Process Nightly Full Backups Avg. Backup Time to Tape ~2 Hours per Group (can backup multiple simultaneously) Avg. Backup Time to VERITAS FlashSnap (Minutes) Avg. Restore Time from Tape 8-12 hours Avg. Restore Time from VERITAS FlashSnap (Seconds) Avg. Personnel Req. 1-2 Admins Scalability Potential 30,000 per chassis (3000 / Service Group * 10 Active Service Groups + 2 Passive Nodes + 1 Domain Controller + 1 Mgmt Unit) trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 7
Figure 2: Post Consolidation Configuration: 6 Node Cluster (4 Active and 2 Passive) 4 Virtual s 3,000 User per Service Group 1 Management Unit 1 Domain Controller Technologies: IBM e BladeCenter and IBM FAStT 6 Empty BladeCenter Slots Windows 2000 (Advanced ) Microsoft 2000 VERITAS Edition for Microsoft 2000 VERITAS Cluster (w/ Agents) Highlights: Application Availability: Any Service Group can run any node Any-to-any fail-over capability Data Availability: Single database quick recovery Manageability: Online storage growth and reallocation Minimize Footprint: Containable in 1 rack Scalable to 30,000 Users (using full BladeCenter Chassis) IBM eserver BLADECENTER AND VERITAS SOFTWARE SOLUTION SET DETAIL IBM e BladeCenter e BladeCenter o Can hold 14 Blade servers per 7U chassis 84 servers per standard rack 2 Intel Xeon processors per Blade Up to 8GB memory per Blade o Hardware availability Resilient infrastructure with redundant components, including mid-plane connections, cooling, power, and management modules minimizing single points of failure. VERITAS Software VERITAS Edition for Microsoft 2000 (v1.1 Service Pack 1) o Volume Management Automatic (if desired) Online Growth to protect transaction logs volumes from filling up, corrupting the database and shutting down trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 8
o Online reallocation (adaptable architecture) enables storage to be added, modified, or even moved as needs change while remains online Monitoring, notification and automation reduces administrator load Efficient use of storage allows organizations to purchase ONLY what they need at the time, yet allow for growth over time without taking the application off-line Snapshot Technology Quick recovery for a single database in minutes (not hours) Automated point-of-failure restores replaces mistake-prone complex steps and enables a quick and dependable recovery Automated snapshots for off-host backup allow databases to be protected with traditional best-of-breed backup applications with little or no impact to server resources VERITAS Cluster (v2.0 Service Pack 2) o Consolidation Any Service Group (virtual server) can run any node in the cluster (e.g. Any-toany cluster node failover capability) Multiple failover paths provide higher levels of availability with fewer servers (e.g. Ability to support multiple failovers) o o Notification and Automation Cluster can respond to environment conditions automatically Monitoring utilities can detect hardware errors, allowing VERITAS Cluster to respond accordingly, and VERITAS Cluster can move resources if a host s CPU utilization or memory exceeds pre-defined parameters. Cluster can notify Administrators about key events including failover Certain clustering technologies do not alert and cannot integrate with SNMP or send email, as such services can failover and the Admin will not be aware of it. VERITAS notification reduces the need for the Admin to check the cluster Utilizes advanced scripting capabilities to optimize performance VERITAS Cluster can respond to CPU and memory utilization as well as criteria defined by the Admin to optimize the performance Scalability Blades / Nodes can be added or removed as necessary (hot swappable) Service Groups can be added or modified while online No Quorum disk (e.g. Nodes do NOT need to be connected by storage) VERITAS Cluster Agent for Microsoft 2000 (v2.2) Microsoft Software Windows 2000 Advanced (or Windows 2000 ) 2000 Enterprise trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 9
SUMMARY: IBM eserver BLADECENTER AND VERITAS SOFTWARE IT Objectives for Management: Improve management of individual disparate servers Leverage economies of scale by making more efficient use of storage investments Reduce plan and unplanned downtime of Reduce headcount needed to manage Increase Recovery Time Objective (e.g. the time it takes to recover a server and/or it s storage) BladeCenter and VERITAS Solution: Consolidation of multiple individual servers down to a simple few Locating consolidated BladeCenter servers in datacenters staffed by existing experienced administrators Leveraging multiple Groups and databases to minimize the impact of corruption Installing on reliable and clustered BladeCenter hardware to minimize single points of failure Using availability solutions that leverage clustered BladeCenter hardware and help provide quick recovery The BladeCenter and VERITAS solution described treats as a mission critical application and delivers a solution that allows IT administrators to consolidate servers while increasing the level of availability. The BladeCenter hardware allows users to dramatically reduce the footprint of the servers required, improve hardware reliability and reduce the total number of systems. The VERITAS solution allows users to improve the availability of the data (recovery in minutes instead of hours) as well as the application, while surpassing existing SLAs. The BladeCenter and VERITAS solution treats as a mission critical application Increasing availability, minimizing footprint and leaving ample room for growth. VERITAS SOFTWARE EXCHANGE SOLUTIONS VERITAS develops and sells several solutions that keep highly available (clustering, replication, snapshot management), slim and trim (hierarchal storage management), and protected. See below for a list of these products, but be sure to read the VERITAS white paper Introduction to Best Practices for Microsoft to review how these products can work together in the enterprise and the VERITAS white paper Rapid Recovery for Microsoft Solutions to understand VERITAS rapid recovery functionality. Introduction to Best Practices for Microsoft This introductory guide presents 3 different levels of protection for Microsoft based upon established Service Level Agreements (SLA) and the technologies needed to meet those SLAs. http://products.veritas.com/products/campaigns/end_to_end_exchange/sales_tools.htm Rapid Recovery for Microsoft Solutions This guide explains in great detail how to recover a single database in minutes instead of hours using VERITAS Edition for MS. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=editionexchange2000 VERITAS Edition for Microsoft 2000 - The VERITAS Edition for Microsoft 2000 simplifies the management of your storage by making it more available through proactive administration and configuration of heterogeneous storage. It is an integrated suite of industry-leading VERITAS technologies engineered specifically to improve manageability, increase availability and ensure quick recovery of storage. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=editionexchange2000 trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 10
VERITAS Backup Exec for Windows s - VERITAS Backup Exec for Windows s is a comprehensive, reliable backup system with scalability and storage management options to meet the needs of any network or enterprise. Advanced device and media management simplifies tape device and library configuration and administration. Users of all levels can access all features of Backup Exec through wizards and an intuitive interface. Microsoft certification assures operating system compatibility and application reliability. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=bent2000 VERITAS NetBackup Datacenter - VERITAS NetBackup DataCenter delivers mainframe-class data protection for the largest UNIX, Windows and NetWare enterprise environments, especially for corporate data centers. VERITAS NetBackup DataCenter provides the most advanced media management available, including dynamic tape sharing, and offers optional database agents like, to enable online, nondisruptive backup of mission critical applications. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=nbux VERITAS Cluster VERITAS Cluster eliminates both planned and unplanned downtime, facilitates server consolidation, and effectively manages a wide range of applications in heterogeneous environments. With support for up to 32-node clusters (16 nodes for AIX and Linux) in storage area network and traditional client/server environments, Cluster features the power and flexibility to protect everything from a single critical database instance to large multi-application clusters in networked storage environments. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=clusterserver VERITAS Volume Replicator VERITAS Volume Replicator provides the foundation for seamless availability across sites. Based on the de facto industry-standard VERITAS Volume Manager, Volume Replicator reliably, efficiently, and consistently replicates data to remote locations over any IP network when data loss and prolonged downtime cannot be tolerated. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=volumereplicator VERITAS Global Cluster Manager VERITAS Global Cluster Manager is a Web-based management solution that allows IT staff to manage geographically distributed data and application availability from a central console. Administrators can view and manage their distributed VERITAS Cluster clusters and replication jobs, such as VERITAS Volume Replicator, from a single location. By combining cluster failover with replication, Global Cluster Manager can migrate entire data centers in the event of a site disaster. http://www.veritas.com/products/category/productdetail.jhtml?productid=gcmanager IBM eserver BLADECENTER AND EXCHANGE SOLUTIONS IBM BladeCenter IBM s e BladeCenter s modular design, gathers all the computing resources into a cost-effective, high-density infrastructure that supports the latest hot-swappable Intel-based, highperformance servers. The unique BladeCenter design, addresses the most serious IT issues today: space constraints, manageability, scalability, capacity, resiliency, and high performance. BladeCenter servers need less installation time (minutes vs. hours), require fewer people to manage and maintain, and cost less than traditional server solutions. http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/bladecenter/ IBM BladeCenter 2000 MAPI Messaging Benchmark (MMB2). http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/eserver/xseries/benchmarks/benchmark.html ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/special/serverperformance/exchange_hs20_8700_feb03.pdf ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/special/serverperformance/pb_spec_blade_jan03.pdf trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation in the US and/or other countries. IBM, the IBM eight-bar logo, e, and BladeCenter are trademarks or 11