If you imagine that you want a small web server an email
server and a database server each running on their own OS’s or very specifically
configured then you would have had 3 separate machines. Each server would be a
set specification and occupy space, consume power, produce heat and require
maintenance. Most of the time your servers would not use much of the CPU so in
essence would be sat idle.
Virtualisation means that you can buy a single machine and
then load each of the 3 separate servers onto the same physical machine thus
maximising your hardware usage (CPU) whilst reducing your space, power and
associated costs. You can even freely download the software to do it.
For most people the reasoning stops here you now have a
cheap way to get multiple servers!
The result very often though is that you have a single point
of failure which is now running hotter (more CPU load), has high disk failure
chance as the disk is in constant use and is unpredictable in performance as
different servers requirements collide at the same time (i.e. a junk mail regime
hits you whilst your website is busy due to a marketing campaign).
Here at IC whilst tempted by the cost savings and ability to
sell cheap hosting, we quickly realised that quality was paramount and this
model was simply inadequate.
Our customers wanted to increase server availability and
performance and this needed a different approach.
Our head end servers are all Dell Poweredge 2950 III systems
or higher with dual Quad core Intel Xeon processors specifically designed for
virtualisation. These are all covered by 4 hour support contracts with Dell for
quick response to hardware faults.
We use Equalogic SAN storage arrays each fitted with high
specification SAS drives in a RAID array (16 per cabinet) each with dual PSU’s,
dual controller boards with battery backed cache and teamed Gigabit network
interfaces for maximum throughput.
This means that we can lose up to 4 hard disks without
interruption, even if we lose power completely the on-board batteries retain the
last transactions and on power restoration the drives will be checked and
re-built to ensure maximum data integrity.
Built on VMWare Enterprise Infrastructure III architecture
we can provide a virtual server and guarantee resources to the server so it is
always able to perform plus:-
·
vMotion
Move your server ‘Live’ from one physical server (head unit) to another without
interruption or downtime
·
DRS (Dynamic
Resource Scheduling)
Improved service levels and server responsiveness, servers are continuously
monitored and automatic server balancing will take effect (using vMotion) to
dynamically move servers to ensure that minimum service levels are maintained.
This also allows additional resources (head units) to be dynamically added to
the resource pool as and when required to maintain performance.
·
Fault tolerance and HA (High Availability)
The system constantly monitors virtual machines to detect operating system and
hardware failures, it will then take corrective action including auto restarting
of servers and in the case of hardware failure auto restarting on alternative
hardware all without manual intervention.
·
Storage vMotion and HA
HA & Premium Service - Your server(s) can move heads and is guaranteed minimum performance parameters
with the system move the server(s) to ensure it is always available with
appropriate resources allocated to it. The storage will be on a high
performance SAN array running Raid 50 SAS drives with hot spare drives, dual battery backed controllers and
dual PSU's for highest resilience.
Non HA - Standard Service - Your server(s) is fixed to a single head on a four hour maintenance cover, should the head fail then the server will be restarted as soon as the head is repaired. Storage is to a standard performance SAN array.
Our network core is powered by Cisco hardware and is fed
from multiple providers and feeds to ensure high uptime. If you are wanting
server clusters then we can also provide load balancing from the industry
leaders Foundry and the Server Iron products.
The connection to the servers and the outside world is via
the industry leading Fortigate firewalls and UTM (Unified Threat Management)
devices which offer:-
·
Antivirus / Antispam / Antimalware Protection
·
Intrusion Protection System (IPS)
·
Content filtering
·
Application Control
·
Firewall, VPN & Traffic Shaping
Offering complete peace of mind that your servers are safe
and secure.
In short our system ensures your virtual servers perform
better and are more resilient than a traditional server.