Leading Global Think Tank achieves High Availability with
a dramatic increase of I/O throughput and Watertight Disaster Recovery - through
the deployment of a software defined storage layer.
Chatham House, home of the Royal
Institute of International Affairs global Think Tank, has standardised on
DataCore’s SANsymphony-V storage virtualisation software. Famous worldwide for
the Chatham House Rule facilitating free speech
and confidentiality at meetings, the Institute promotes thought-provoking insight
into international affairs through open debates, extensive research and
analysis on the world’s leading topics. As such, Institute staff and Associate
Fellows undertake global research and analysis and require
constant access to the extensive range of research databases and infrastructure
applications.
Paul Curtin, Finance and Operations Director at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs, details the issues. “18 months ago, outages were becoming more frequent and a distinct
problem. Sporadic performance was also an issue – with unreliable access and
poor response times being delivered to staff from critical applications such as
Exchange email or database mining. Whilst we had benefitted from the success of
a consolidated virtualisation some years previously, it was recognised that we
were being dramatically hindered by the existing underlying storage supporting
the virtual servers.”
Enter DataCore’s SANsymphony-V
software proposed by DataCore Gold accredited partner of choice to the
Institute, SDT, to effectively identify and combat a number of frequent and
untraceable disruptions that were happening on the previously running SAN solution.
SDT recognised that the data degradation
and unreliability issues could be quickly stemmed through deployment of a
software defined storage layer, whilst also providing a watertight Disaster
Recovery solution.
Andrew Wayman, SDT Project Manager on the installation
comments: “Firstly we addressed the
ailing performance issues by installing two HP ProLiant DL385 standard servers
running two licences of DataCore’s SANsymphony-V in a mirrored synchronous
format to form a centrally managed virtual storage pool from which the
Institute’s 24 VMware’s Virtual Machines (VMs) could draw disk.” This immediately alleviated the previous I/O
bottlenecks, as the multiple VMs running on the same physical servers could now
access a readily available shared pool of storage. Indeed, as SANsymphony-V uses
CPUs and memory as high speed cache - automatically optimising read and write
traffic - I/O throughput is dramatically increased, hence alleviating the
Institute’s unpredictable response times from frequent performance spikes.
Interestingly, in this not-for-profit organisation where financial resources
remain a key consideration, SDT were able to repurpose its investments using
two HP ProLiant DataCore servers from the previous environment, along with the
three existing physical servers.
Paul comments: - “Previously so unstable was the storage
array, that we couldn’t even guarantee 24x7 access. The installation of
DataCore’s SANsyphony-V software layer immediately enhanced the service so
thankfully, the days of 48 hour downtime whilst we re-indexed Exchange email
and addressed database corruption, have been totally eradicated.”
Watertight Disaster
Recovery was the next milestone in deployment required due to the high profile
nature and influence of the Institute on the world’s stage, together with its Central
London location. To address the threat SDT recommended deployment of a third
asynchronous SANsymphony-node, housed outside of Central London in a secure
data centre hosted facility acting as contingency site. Within this managed
facility, SDT utilises SANsymphony-V’s low-impact and space efficient snapshot
technology to replicate data and applications. Andrew details: “Watertight Disaster Recovery is what every
high profile organisation strives for. With an asynchronous deployment of
SANsymphony-V replication services outside of the Central London risk area,
into a secure, managed location, we have achieved this and continue to test its
effectiveness regularly. We know from our full DR simulated tests, that we can
have all assets, applications and data, back and running within a two hour
window. “
In the back office, management under one single
SANsymphony-V management console is also significantly easier for the
Institute, with a central operational view of distributed resources on the SAN.
With DataCore’s integrated set of advanced provisioning, data protection, and
replication functions, legacy models and differing brands of storage devices
are managed centrally as a unified group. Provisioning new VMs therefore
becomes clicks away and non-disruptive; as is maintenance, which can now be
planned, co-ordinated and performed by switching between nodes, meaning that no
system downtime is required.
Paul concludes. “Together with SDT and deploying DataCore’s
SANsymphony-V storage virtualisation software, a monumental shift in the
efficiency of the organisation has been achieved, without the necessity of an
entire rip-out and replacement. Not only has critical performance and
considerable availability gains been achieved, but IT management is better
controlled and facilitated. It’s one Chatham House rule that we are happy to
shout about.”
About
Chatham House
Chatham House, home of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, is a world-leading source of independent analysis,
informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure
world for all. The institute engages governments, the private sector,
civil society and its members in open debates and confidential discussions
about significant developments in international affairs; produces
independent and rigorous analysis of critical global, regional and
country-specific challenges and opportunities and offers new ideas to
decision-makers and -shapers on how these could best be tackled from the near-
to the long-term.
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