Specializations › Servers and data storage systems › Solutions for small business

Requirements for IT services and server equipment of small enterprises and branches directly depend on the type of the business or requirements of the central office. As a rule, there is a necessity to support the work of the local users or resources of a remote branch.

Small enterprises are enterprises or branches with the number of employees from 10 to 100 persons.

Depending on the number of employees in the company and the requirements to information support of the business, various techniques are used that make it possible to implement a required functionality.

Given below are two versions of building of data storage and processing systems using equipment manufactured by Hewlett-Packard and software licensed by Microsoft.

Requirements to IT services and methods of their fulfillment:

 

Tasks of IT services

Number of employees up to 50

Number of employees from 50 to 100

Solution tools

 

Continuous round-the-clock mode of operation with high level of availability

 

desirable

mandatory

Technology of clustering  Failover Clustering and load distribution Network Load Balancing (NLB) from Microsoft

 

System resistance to hardware malfunction and failure

 

desirable

mandatory

 

Step-by-step initial build-up of calculation capacities

 

desirable

desirable

 

Openness and centralization of architecture and resources

 

desirable

desirable

Highly integrated Blade system and high-performance servers of DL series from Hewlett-Packard

 

Productivity scaling

 

desirable

mandatory

 

System modularity

 

not mandatory

desirable

 

Element interchangeability and unification

 

desirable

mandatory

 

Minimum power consumption and overall dimensions

 

desirable

desirable

 

Minimized cost

 

mandatory

desirable

 

Simplicity of operation

 

desirable

mandatory

 

Workability when the number of users is increased within the parameters supported by hardware and software environment

 

not mandatory

desirable

Virtualization technology based on Hyper-V from Microsoft of software from VMware

 

Maximum effective utilization of physical resources

 

desirable

mandatory

 

High speed of service restoration after failure

 

desirable

mandatory

 

Reliable data storage

 

mandatory

mandatory

High-capacity storage system of MSA2000 series from Hewlett-Packard

 

High data availability

 

desirable

mandatory

 

Capacity and speed of the disk subsystem operation meets the requirements of the applications

 

desirable

mandatory

Automated backup

not mandatory

desirable

 

Streamers Ultrium 960 Tape Drive or SB1760c Tape Blade from Hewlett-Packard

 

High-speed commutation of the servers and storage system

desirable

mandatory

 

Technology of fast data storage and exchange networks SAN or inexpensive solution with direct DAS connection

 

Flexibility and scalability of architecture

not mandatory

desirable

 

Technology of fast data storage and exchange networks SAN

 

 

Convenient management of the whole infrastructure

 

desirable

mandatory

Server software from Microsoft and specialized applications from

Hewlett-Packard

 

Flexible configuring of computational power and data storage resources

 

desirable

mandatory

 

We propose to base the solution with the basic indicator of the maximum number of users up to 50 persons on unified rack servers with backup DL380, storage system MSA2024sa, connected to all servers by means of external SAS interfaces, and streamer Ultrium 960 Tape Drive from Hewlett-Packard. This approach makes it possible to ensure low final cost of the system, sufficiently fast restoration of service availability and simple migration of virtual machines. The entire solution is housed in rack 10-12U and it even can be, together with a simple system of uninterrupted power supply and network commutation system, housed in a half-size rack 20-22U.

The structure diagram of the solutions looks as follows:

 

 

Functional purpose of the equipment:

 

 

Equipment

 

Functional purpose

 

Physical server #1

 

SQL cluster, resistant to hardware failures

 

Physical server #2

 

 

Physical server #3

 

 

Virtual machine server of basic IT services and management

 

 

Physical server #4

 

 

Server of virtual machines of applications

 

 

Ethernet switches

 

 

Backup “copper” switches that ensure the connection of the backup pool with the network core

 

 

MSA2024sa

 

 

High-performance storage system of MSA2000 series with direct connection to the servers via SAS external interface

 

 

Ultrium 960 Tape Drive

 

 

Streamer that archives and backups data

 

 

A drawback of such version is the impossibility of further scaling by increasing the number of computational nodes, which is paid back by the low cost.

We propose to base the solution with the basic indicator of the maximum number of users up to 100 persons on the c3000 budget blade basket, completed with six poser supply units backupped as to 5+1 scheme, unified servers BL460, blade streamer SB1760c Tape Blade from Hewlett-Packard, as well as backup FC switches Brocarde for organizing the SAN network and twinned “copper” switches from Cisco. This approach makes it possible to ensure a moderate final cost of the system, prompt restoration of availability of the services and easy migration of virtual machines. The entire solution is housed in rack 8-10U and can be, together with a simple system of uninterrupted power supply and network commutation system, housed in a half-size rack 20-22U.

The structure diagram of the solutions looks as follows:

 

 

Functional purpose of the equipment:

 

 

Equipment

 

Functional purpose

 

Physical server #1

 

Cluster, on which virtual servers are running that provide basic IT services, as well as storage and commutation system management services

 

 

Physical server #2

 

 

Physical server #3

 

SQL cluster, resistant to hardware failures

 

Physical server #4

 

 

Physical server #5

 

Cluster of applications and terminal access from remote work places and thin clients

 

Physical server #6

 

 

Brocade 4/12 SAN Switch

 

Backup optical switches on the basis of which the SAN network of data storage and processing is organized

 

Brocade 4/12 SAN Switch

 

 

Cisco 3020 Switch

 

Backup “copper” switches that ensure the connection of the backup pool with the network core

 

Cisco 3020 Switch

 

 

С3000

 

 

Blade basket of initial level, into which blade servers, switches, power supply units and additional commutation and control equipment are integrated

 

 

MSA2024fc

 

 

High-performance storage system of MSA2000 series that ensure reliable data storage. Resource is accessible over SAN network

 

 

SB1760c Tape Blade

 

 

Blade streamer that archives and backups data

 

 

Compared with the previous version, this system is more flexible and scalable, but it requires lager investments and higher qualification of servicing personnel.

 

You can contact our specialists online and get the consultation