Dell uses its own Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager (AIM) to reduce its server requirements for training classes by a projected 50%

Benefits

• Projected50%fewerserversrequiredtorunETECtrainingclasses

• Estimated40-foldfasterprovisioningofserverimages(approximately3minutesvs.2hours)

• 2hoursaweekofITstafftimesavedafterinitialdeployment

• Potentialforhundredsmorehourssavedannually(upto90%reductionininfrastructuremanagementtime)

• Estimated25-50%reductioninpowerrequirementsforserversmanagedbyDellAIM

• Approximately$40,000costavoidanceonserverstosupportnewclasses

• Abilitytomanageresourcesandworkloadsremotely

• AIM• InfrastructureEfficiency• Power&Cooling• SystemsManagement–Server

“ Dell ETEC offers several new training classes every year. My assistant and I are maxed out as it is. Dell AIM will change our lives, potentially saving hundreds of hours a year and avoiding the hire of an additional FTE.” Tom Hall, Enterprise Technical Support Advisor, Dell

CustomerProfile

Company: DellInc.

Industry: Technology

Country: UnitedStates

Employees: 65,000+

Web: www.dell.com

BusinessNeedDellwantedtosimplifyserverprovisioningforitsDellEnterpriseTechnologyandEducationCenter(ETEC),acustomertrainingbaseforDellEducationServices.ReturningserverstoaknowngoodstatefollowingeachtrainingclasswastakinginordinateamountsofITstafftime,andtraditionalimagingtoolsweren’talwaysreliable.DellalsowantedtoreducetheamountofhardwareandassociatedpowerandcoolingresourcesrequiredtorunETEC.

SolutionDeployDell™AdvancedInfrastructureManager(DellAIM)on12DellPowerEdge™serverstodecoupleworkloadsfromtheserverssupportingthem.Serverscannowberesetinminutes,andworkloadscanbesavedforlateruse,increasingagilityandreducinghardwarerequirements.

Withmanydatacenterstomanage,DellisusingitsownDellAdvancedInfrastructureManager(AIM)solutiontoimproveefficiency.UsingDellAIM,it’spossibletoconvertisolatedsilosintoasinglepoolofserversandstoragethatmanagesitself.BecauseDellAIMseamlesslyandautomaticallyredistributesworkloadsandapplicationsbetweenphysicalandvirtualdevicesinresponsetouserdemand,ITteamscanmanageworkloadpoliciesinsteadofcomplexhardwaredevices,helpingtosavetimeandmoney.

Reinventingthewheel—everyweek

AtDellEnterpriseTechnologyandEducationCenter(ETEC)—Dell’scustomertrainingbaseforDellEducationServices—returningserverstoa“knowngood”statetoprepareforthenexttrainingclasswastakinghundredsofhoursayear.Thefacilitysupportsavarietyoftrainingcourses,fromhardwaremaintenancetoserverandstorageadministration.Attheendofeachweek,whenatrainingclassconcludes,TomHall,enterprisetechnicalsupportadvisor,andhisassistantmustre-provisiontheserversthatsupporttheclass.Untilrecently,thisrequiredre-imagingtheserversusingtraditionalimagingtools.

“Theproblemwithusingtraditionalimagingtoolsisthatit’stimeconsumingandnotalwaysreliable,”saysHall.“Youhavetopushtheimageoutoverthenetwork.Sometimesitfails,andthenyouhavetoboottheserverfromadiskandactuallypulltheimagedown,whichtakesaslongasittakestowrite

anoperatingsystemtoadiskimage.Itwasjustoverkillforwhatweweretryingtoaccomplish,whichwasbasicallyjustresettingtheserverstohowtheywerebeforethelasttrainingclass.”

Potential40-foldfasterserverprovisioning

HalldiscussedthesituationwiththeDellAIMteam,andtheysuggestedheuseDellAIMimage-basedprovisioningtosimplifytheprovisioningprocess.HalldecidedtoseewhatDellAIMcoulddo,usingDell’spopulartrainingclassonEMCstorageasafirstproject.

“Itwastakingusmorethantwohourseveryweektore-imagethe12DellPowerEdgeserversthatweuseinourEMCstoragemanagementclassroom,”saysHall.“PartofthereasonisthatwehavespecificIPaddressconfigurationsforthreeseparateNICsineachserver.

Despite the proliferation of more advanced management consoles and widespread use of imaging tools to speed deployment, most data centers still deal with the constraints of a siloed IT environment. Even when each silo is virtualized and management automated as much as possible, that separation inherently increases costs and complexity.

“Using Dell AIM, we can provision all 12 servers approximately in three minutes instead of two hours, just by assigning each server a specific AIM persona.” Tom Hall, Enterprise Technical Support Advisor, Dell

Technology at Work

Hardware

Dell™EqualLogic™PS4000EiSCSISAN

DellPowerConnect™6248networkswitches

DellPowerEdge™serversandbladeenclosures

Software

DellAdvancedInfrastructureManager(AIM)

RedHatLinux(DellAIMcontrollerOS)

Sowewouldpushtheimageouttoall12servers,andthenhavetogoaroundandlogintoeachoneandmanuallysettheIPaddresses.”

Tosolvetheproblem,HallconfiguredtheserverstobootfromaDellEqualLogicPS4000EiSCSISAN,usingDellAIMtocontrolthebootfromSAN.“InaDellAIMenvironment,serversarestateless,”Hallexplains.“Youhavethechoiceofbootingfromlocaldiskorcentralstorage.UsingDellAIM,wecanPXEbootaserver,andtheAIMcontrollermapsittotherightEqualLogicLUN,allowingtheservertobootdirectlyfromtheSAN.WetakesnapshotsofeachoftheLUNsontheEqualLogicarray,andthenreverttothesnapshotattheendoftheweekanduseDellAIMtoredeploy.Wecanprovisionall12serversinapproximatelythreeminutesinsteadoftwohours,justbyassigningeachserveraspecificAIMpersona.”

DellAIMdynamicallyprovisionstheIPaddressesforeachNIC,eliminatingthemanualconfigurationexercise.Asserverroleschange,thenetworktopologyadjustsautomatically.AIMalsoestablishesstorageaccessforeachserverdynamically,allowinganyservertobootfromanyimagewithoutmanualreconfigurationofthestoragedevice.DellAIMassignstheserver’sidentitytoaccessitsbootimageanddatavolumes.

Makingworkloadstrulymobile

Hallandhisassistantarenowgettingbackacombinedtwohoursperweekthattheycandedicatetoothertasks.OnceDellAIMisrolledouttoETEC’sotherthreeclassrooms,thepotentialforadditionaltimesavingsisincreased.

“DellAIMwillhelpusreuseconfigurationsthatwe’vealreadycreated,”saysHall.“DellETECoffersseveralnewtrainingclasseseveryyear,andsomeofthemhaveverycomplexinfrastructurerequirements.Ittakesmeatleastafull40-hourworkweektoprepareanenvironmentforanewclass,sometimeslonger.Forexample,ittookme100hoursormoretoprepareforourVMwareViewclass.Itrequiredaphysicalserverforeachstudentandtheneightdifferentvirtual

machines(VMs)allconfigureddifferentlyforeachstudent,aswellasdatabasesandalltheotherdifferentcomponentsthathadtobeinstalledandconfiguredjustforthedeliveryofthisoneclass.ItriedtosaveasmuchofthatasIcould,butthere’saprettygoodchancethatthenexttimewedeliverthisclass,I’mgoingtohavetodomostofitalloveragain.”

Potentialtosavehundredsofhoursayear

WhenDellAIMisdeployedintheVMwaretrainingclassroom,Hallwillhavemuchgreaterflexibility.“We’llessentiallyhaveapoolofsharedresourcesthatwecanmovearoundasneeded,”hesays.“We’llhavetheabilitytojustpickupanyvirtualorphysicalworkloadasapackage,saveit,andthendropitbackonthehardwarewhenit’stimetodelivertheclass.We’llevenbeabletodothisremotelyoncewehaveDellAIMmanagingtheserversinourremotefacility,whichwillenableustomoveclassesaroundmuchmoreefficiently.”

Theabilitytonimblymanageworkloadsinsteadofconstantlyre-imagingserverswillsaveDellETECatleastonefull-timeemployeeinthenearterm,saysHall.“MyassistantandIaremaxedoutasitis,”hesays.“DellAIMwillchangeourlives,potentiallysavinghundredsofhoursayearandavoidingthehireofanadditionalFTE.”

DellwillalsobeabletoconserveenergybyusingAIMtopoweroffserverswhentheyarenotinuse.“Weonlyhaveclasseseighthoursaday,fivedaysaweek,sotherestofthetime,there’snoreasonforthoseserverstobeon,”saysHall.“Iestimatewewillbeabletoreduceserverpowerconsumptionby25to50percent.”

Projected50%lessserverhardwarerequired

TheabilitytoquicklyrepurposeserverswithoutchangingoutthephysicalhardwarewillenableETECtooperatewithfewerservers.“Spaceisatapremiuminourfacility,”saysHall.“Weusedtohaveseparatedatacentersservingeachofourfourclassrooms,

“ We used to have separate data centers serving each of our four classrooms, but that has changed, and we need to do more in less space. Once we deploy AIM throughout ETEC, we project we’ll be able to do what we’re doing now using 50 percent less server hardware.” Tom Hall, Enterprise Technical Support Advisor, Dell

butthathaschanged,andweneedtodomoreinlessspace.WehavefiveDellPowerEdgebladeenclosureswithtwobladeserversineachtosupportourbladehardwaretrainingclasses.OneofmybigdreamswithAIMistobeabletousethosebladeserversforotherclasseswhentheyarenotbeingusedforbladetraining.We’llbeabletoquicklydropaVMwareworkloaddownandusethoseserversforaVMwareclass,forexample.”

ThebenefitsofthisagilitybecameclearwhenHallwaspreparingtobuynewdedicatedhardwaretosupportaCitrixtrainingclass.“ThenitdawnedonmethatIdidn’tneedtobuydedicatedhardware,becausewecanuseAIMandjustdroptheworkloaddownonwhateverhardwareisavailable,”hesays.“RepurposingthehardwareweusetodeliverVMwaretrainingtoofferCitrixtrainingaswellmeans16fewerserversweneedtobuy,sowe’repositionedtoavoidaround$40,000inCAPEXspendthisyear.OncewedeployAIMthroughoutETEC,weprojectwe’llbeabletodowhatwe’redoingnowusing50percentlessserverhardware.”

Partofalarger,integratedsystem

DellAIMisthecornerstoneofDell’sVirtualIntegratedSystem(VIS)Architecturethatallowsforrapidprovisioningofserver,storageandnetworking.HallalsoplanstodeployDell™VISSelf-ServiceCreatortoenableaself-serviceportalforcreatingvirtualmachines.Userswillbeabletodeployandmanagetheirownworkloadsbyselectingfromamenuofstandardconfigurations;theapplicationworkloadisthenautomaticallyprovisionedanddeployed,ensuringconsistencyofbuilds.“Withallthevirtualizationtrainingthatwedo,itwillbeverybeneficialtohaveatoolthatletsuscreateVMson-the-fly,”saysHall.

“IthinkAIMisaremarkableproduct,”Hallconcludes.“ItdefinitelysimplifiesreconfiguringanetworkandserverenvironmentinwaysthatIpreviouslythoughtwereimpossible.ItreallyreducestheamountoftimeandeffortthatIhavetoputintomanagingourinfrastructureenvironment,by90percentinmanycases.Iloveit!”

ToseetheDellAIMsolutionstackinactionandfindouthowDellAdvancedInfrastructureManagerenablesyoutodynamicallyprovisionorreconfigureyourITinfrastructurequickly,watchthevideo.

AvailabilityandtermsofDellServicesvarybyregion.Formoreinformation,visit:dell.com/servicedescriptions

©June2011.Thiscasestudyisforinformationalpurposesonly.dell makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study.Ad#G11001981

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