Online Storage Replacement Strategy/Solution
I. Current Storage EnvironmentISS currently maintains a substantial online storage infrastructure that provides centralized network-accessible storage for Washburn technology resources. Currently, this storage infrastructure is highly fragmented, incorporating eleven different storage systems and utilizing seven different management interfaces. Key components, representing roughly 75% of overall disk storage utilization, are in critical need of updates in order to ensure ongoing reliability of Washburn’s online information, video, and data services and resources.
The WUSTORE systems have proven increasing unreliable and unable to adequately meet growing performance demands over the past few years. These online storage systems have raised campus-wide concerns about the trusted availability of needed data, files, or information and he current storage architecture and capacity is unlikely to meet current peak and anticipated future storage performance requirements. A major failure of these systems could lead to significant unanticipated costs to the university as well as major downtime to some or all of the following critical systems and services:
Faculty, staff, and student storage and profiles (impacts all WUAD users and computers) University website pages and files
Digital imaging data
Enrollment management data Remote access services Some Banner reports
Additionally, Excel Meridian Data, the vendor providing of the bulk of the disk storage equipment through the WUSTORE systems, has gone out of business and liquidated. No other vendors have purchased the support contracts nor have any companies offer to take on support contracts for this hardware. This action has left Washburn without any ongoing 3rd-party hardware or software support for these systems, although ISS has acquired a stock of spare parts to mitigate the risks of ongoing hardware failure. Based on the operational history of this equipment ISS believes there is a substantial risk of system failure. This risk will increase substantially as time passes and these components become even older.
II. Proposed Storage Strategy and Solution
Given these factors, ISS considers the refresh of storage infrastructure to be the number one technology priority for FY12. ISS is proposing the implementation of a Storage Area Network (SAN) solution. This widely used architecture provides a sub-network of high-speed storage devices (disks) that can be connected to multiple physical or virtual servers.
The benefits of implementing the SAN solution include:
Scalable design to meet current and anticipated future storage capacity needs Flexible design allowing ISS to address storage capacity and performance needs
No vendor lock-in for future storage purchases by using standardized SAN physical and software infrastructure
Minimized downtime requirements and improved overall storage reliability
Mirroring and redundant replication for immediate resolution of potential disk problems Increased data backup and recovery speeds
Ability to integrate, preserve, and extend the functional life of prior investments in storage for Banner, e-mail, and server infrastructure
Consolidated storage management, increasing ISS staff productivity and lowering administrative overhead
A SAN-based infrastructure will provide greater long-term reliability and performance and a solution that features:
a) Consolidated information storage and technology infrastructure, b) Scalable storage growth strategy, and
c) Flexible solution to more effectively meet changing demands over time.
A SAN storage architecture will also open up opportunities for new capabilities that will be available or necessary in the future:
Remote site (including locations outside Topeka) data replication and/or backup Integration with cloud-based storage and backup services
Enhanced data security such as encrypted storage
III. Project Costs
The total storage replacement project is an ongoing 5-6 year effort that costs approximately $250,000 through FY15. In FY11, ISS purchased a server and storage upgrades costing $54,607; of this total $11,500 was for storage modules that can be integrating with the new SAN system. This investment helped to meet ongoing storage demands while ISS finalized its storage strategies.
This FY12 request is for $120,000 for implementing the core SAN infrastructure and baseline
A proposed SAN solution would consist of the following components with the following estimated price ranges:
FY12 Cost
Estimate
SAN Fiber Channel Switch, 8Gbps or higher (2) $ 61,000
Storage Controller (Incl. Redundant Controller, NAS Gateway, Storage Manager) 43,000
Storage Management Software: 14,000
High Capacity Disk Shelf, 30TB, (16 x 2TB,7.2K RPM SATA): 32,000
Existing ISS infrastructure funding (FY11): - 30,000
TOTAL FY12 Request: $ 120,000
Future Years (2-4): (expansion will vary based on actual storage needs) Future Costs
High Performance Disk Shelf, 4.5TB (16 x 300GB, 15K RPM SATA) $ 22,000
High Capacity Disk Shelf, 30TB, (16 x 2TB,7.2K RPM SATA) – expansion step $ 32,000
VI. Planning Summary
This online storage replacement project is the #1 priority for ISS (on behalf of the University) for FY12. It is necessary to need a trusted, high-performing online storage environment that used by everyone at Washburn – to store logins/profiles, faculty/staff/students/departmental files (WUSTORE), web pages, and shared information, data and reports. The SAN solution will help to protect the University information and data assets.
VII. Implementation Considerations
The following technical specifications are important to Washburn:
1. Single point of storage management (connectivity for multiple servers and disks) 2. Tiered storage (type matched to speed of retrieval, e.g., instant to archival) 3. Integration of existing storage devices
4. Open source software foundation for commercially-available hardware. 5. System maintenance services
6. Replication to University disaster recover (DR) site 7. Failover / failback - (but with built-in redundancy)
Implementation Steps (Proposed):
The primary objective for Fall semester is to move users and data off of the servers that are the greatest concern, the WUSTORE servers. Secondary objectives are to migrate VMware servers and begin off-site backup. Not addressed at this time is storage for AIX (Banner) servers, storage for e-mail server, and reallocation and reintegration of decommissioned storage. These are anticipated to be addressed in Spring semester.
The following timeline describes the proposed migration plan for new and old storage migration. It covers the period of the Fall Semester of 2011 until the end of December.
The major initiatives for Fall semester are:
1) Initial setup and testing of new storage solution 2) Migration of group storage (WU, S: drive) 3) Migration of user data (homes and profiles)
4) Migration of the various smaller data stores on aging storage systems 5) Migration of VMware server storage
6) Deployment of off-site backup
Key milestones (tentative):
August 1st - 3rd - Receipt and installation of the new hardware
September 1st – Testing and initial data replication complete, beginning of group storage migration
September 7th – group storage migration complete
September 12th – Beginning of user data migration (profiles, homes)
October 10th- Completion of user migration, production hold while system is monitored. Also, begin planning and development of off-site backup at this time.
October 24th – Begin migration of other data stores (Imaging, secure folders, etc.)
October 28th – Migration of other data stores complete
November 7th – Begin migrating VMware servers to new storage
November 14th – Order off-site backup hardware
November 30th – Complete VMware server migration
December 1st – Production hold for end-of-semester/finals
December 8th – Deploy off-site backup
