Using SUSE
®Linux
Enterprise to "Focus In" on
Retail Optical Sales
Patrick Mullin
Senior Technical Specialist
Scott Steele
Point of Sale Manager
2
Agenda
•
Introduction to National Vision
•
Past National Vision Retail Environments
•
Present National Vision Retail Environment
•
Future National Vision Retail Environment
•
SUSE Consulting
Introduction to National Vision
4
National Vision – Introduction
•
National Vision, Inc. (NVI) is the fourth largest optical
retailer in the United States
‒ Operates over 750 retail locations in US
‒ Employs over 6,000 employees
Past National Vision
Retail Environments
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National Vision – Past
•
Prior to 2009, a typical store consisted of:
‒ A single SCO OpenServer 5.1
‒ InterBase Database
‒ In-house Application
‒ About 12-15 users working on 5-7 Point of Sale (POS) workstations
‒ Generic PC hardware from various vendors (Lenovo, HP, Dell)
‒ Windows XP with Terminal Emulation Software
‒ Completely unmanaged
National Vision – Past
Pain Points
•
Server Performance
‒ Legacy operating system technology unable to take advantage of current hardware
•
Server Downtime
‒ 158 Store Servers crashed in one year (~3 per week)
‒ Each down server has to be shipped to Datacenter, re- imaged and shipped back to store (~48-72 hours total return time per server)
•
Database Corruption
‒ Legacy database engine (Interbase)
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National Vision – Past
SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service Implementation
•
In 2009, NVI ported their in-store application to
SUSE and replaced database with MySQL
•
Teamed up with SUSE Consulting to deploy SUSE
Linux Enterprise Point of Service 10 SP1
‒ Central Administration and Build Server
‒ HA Branch Servers in Store on generic workstation hardware
‒ ZENworks Linux Management to manage servers
‒ SLEPOS workstations managed via custom scripts
‒ Nagios to monitor
* See Session CAS1381 “ Build with SUSE Studio, Deploy with SUSE Linux Enterprise Point Of Service and Manage with
SUSE Manager”
National Vision – Past
SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service Benefits
•
Centralized and consistent POS image build
process to support store POS devices
•
Keep in-store systems updated and running
seamlessly
•
Eliminate performance issues on existing POS
systems
•
Ease the deployment of updates to the POS
environment
•
Improve end user experience
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National Vision – Past
SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service
SUSE Success
•
NVI decided to migrate from Windows devices
because SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service was:
‒ Faster to build and deploy
‒ Faster to re-image POS devices in-store
‒ Easier to maintain on day to day basis
‒ Has better licensing and support options
‒ More stable
‒ More secure
Present National Vision
Retail Environment
National Vision – Current
•
In 2012, NVI replaced their in-store POS application with
a centralized, Windows based application
•
NVI wanted to keep the features of SUSE Linux
Enterprise Point of Service, but:
‒ In-store servers were no longer required for POS application
‒ NVI wanted to reduce server management
‒ POS workstations were more desktop than registers
‒ NVI needed a more robust POS device management platform
‒ Application install/uninstall and status reporting
‒ Inventory
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National Vision – Current
•
In 2013, NVI migrated existing SUSE Linux Enterprise
Point of Service 10 SP1 infrastructure to a “server-
less” environment consisting of:
‒ SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP2
‒ rdesktop connection to POS Application
‒ LibreOffice
‒ Mozilla Firefox
‒ ZENworks Configuration Management 11 SP2
National Vision – Current
•
Key business drivers for migration
‒ Standardize POS platform management
‒ Reduce store hardware footprint
‒ Simplify workstation management
‒ Upgrade to latest supported Linux platform
‒ Mozilla Firefox-17.x to support internal Portal
‒ Kernel drivers Video/CPU
‒ Security patches
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National Vision – Current
National Vision – Current
NVI's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
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Total Store Device Management
Powered by Novell ZENworks
•
Automated store device life cycle management:
‒ OS deployment
‒ Configuration management
‒ Software distribution
‒ Remote management
‒ Power management
•
Leveraging:
‒ Location awareness with bandwidth control – retail aware
‒ Platform freedom of choice
‒ Internet-friendly from console to managed device
Web Based Management of
All POS Devices
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ZENworks Linux Package Management
ZENworks Linux Patch Management
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ZENworks Configuration Management
•
Linux Desktop Imaging
ZENworks Linux Inventory Reports
Future National Vision
Retail Environment
Future
•
In the near future, NVI will replace existing store rDesktop
RDP sessions to POS application with a Citrix XenApp
Solution
•
Benefits of Citrix ICA client on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop
‒ Provide best user experience to POS Application
‒ Support low bandwidth and high latency WAN connections
‒ Controlling and encrypting access to data and applications
‒ Simplifying and automating the process of delivering or updating applications
Using Citrix integrated tools and infrastructure to control, measure
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Future POS Environment
SUSE Consulting
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