Hp COMPAQ PROLIANT 6000, COMPAQ PROLIANT 3000, COMPAQ PROLIANT 6500 Server Consolidation with Compaq ProLiant Servers

White Paper

March 1999 ECG030/0499

Server Consolidation with

Prepared by Industry Standard Server Division

Compaq Computer Corporation

Contents

Introduction to Server Consolidation – p.3 The Three Types of Consolidation – p.4 Logical Consolidation – p.5 Physical Consolidation – p.7 Rational Consolidation – p.11 Summary – p.13

Compaq ProLiant Servers

The advantages of logical, physical

and rational consolidation

Abstract: This document addresses the benefits of server consolidation on industry standard ProLiant servers. Server consolidation is an industry trend that involves the optimization of physical resources, the consolidation of applications onto fewer, more powerful servers and centralizing the management of business critical applications.

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Notice

The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty.

This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested. The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available solution. This test is not a determination or product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure compliance with any federal state or local requirements.

Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Compaq, Contura, Deskpro, Fastart, Compaq Insight Manager, LTE, PageMarq, Systempro, Systempro/LT, ProLiant, TwinTray, ROMPaq, LicensePaq, QVision, SLT, ProLinea, SmartStart, NetFlex, DirectPlus, QuickFind, RemotePaq, BackPaq, TechPaq, SpeedPaq, QuickBack, PaqFax, Presario, SilentCool, CompaqCare (design), Aero, SmartStation, MiniStation, and PaqRap, registered United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Netelligent, Armada, Cruiser, Concerto, QuickChoice, ProSignia, Systempro/XL, Net1, LTE Elite, Vocalyst, PageMate, SoftPaq, FirstPaq, SolutionPaq, EasyPoint, EZ Help, MaxLight, MultiLock, QuickBlank, QuickLock, UltraView, Innovate logo, Wonder Tools logo in black/white and color, and Compaq PC Card Solution logo are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer Corporation.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows NT Server and Workstation, Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

NetWare and Novell are registered trademarks and intraNetWare, NDS, and Novell Directory Services are trademarks of Novell, Inc.

Server Consolidation with Compaq ProLiant Servers prepared by Industry Standard Server Division First Edition (March 1999)

Document Number ECG030/0499

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The act of balancing

Introduction to Server Consolidation

The IT Balancing Act

Many IT professionals find themselves carefully balancing many problems

many problems simultaneously forces IT organizations to be reactive, ultimately spiraling costs out of control

simultaneously, in an attempt to prevent systems and productivity from crashing down. Forced to respond to the disparate needs of the many departments they support, IT specialists often struggle to meet the requests of their organization. A common method of reacting to changing demands involves adding equipment. This procedure often solves immediate problems, but later reveals unforeseen consequences. Like a clumsy dance, this balancing act tends to trickle down to one common industry problem – out of control costs.

The Trend towards Standards

Server consolidation stems from the acceptance of industry standard systems and the need to reduce the total cost of ownership

Industry wide trends reveal that most major corporations are migrating from custom designed, proprietary platforms to more economical, standardized systems running fewer operating systems. Beyond the obvious cost savings are powerful benefits such as highly expandable systems and easy to use shrink-wrapped applications. These trends stem from IT organizations’ growing need to reduce the total cost of ownership of servers, storage and labor while maximizing processing power. Together, these trends have led to the demand for highly available consolidated systems that enhance the ability to respond to new business challenges.

Server Consolidation Defined – From Many to Few

Server consolidation involves optimizing resources to increase staff productivity and reduce labor requirements, reducing total costs. Placing systems at core locations enables IT organizations to effectively respond to emerging business challenges, simplifies data management, reduces space requirements and helps control the overall cost of ownership. As the world’s largest computer supplier of Industry Standard computing platforms, Compaq is able to provide the most reliable and cost-effective server consolidation solutions. Compaq servers lead the industry in reliability, are designed for optimal space utilization, and include tools that empower IT staffers with the ultimate in manageability.

The primary benefits of consolidation involve reducing costs and increasing reliable access to data and computing resources. Server consolidation can help contain the following costs:

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• Personnel productivity: centralized server management leverages precious IT resources, improves response times, and decreases server down-time

• Data control and security: server consolidation provides more consistent and reliable access to data

• Hardware costs: equipment standardization leads to economies of scale as maintaining smaller numbers of servers reduces overall hardware costs

• Software licensing fees: reducing the number of servers required to support clients means fewer application licensing fees

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Logical consolidation is

Server Consolidation – Three Types

The Gartner Group identifies three different styles of server consolidation: logical, physical and rational as tactical and workable consolidation solutions.

many to few consoles, physical consolidation is many to few locations and rational consolidation is many to few servers

Logical consolidation: adopting tools that provide a centralized mechanism for managing a set of applications. It provides operations consistency, improves application and infrastructure reliability, increases security and leverages precious IT talent as a business grows.

Physical consolidation: reducing the number of server and storage locations to reduce operational costs. Also includes reducing the number of servers and storage devices required to accomplish an organization’s computing needs. Additionally, physical consolidation includes standardizing on a storage environment, such as the Compaq StorageWorks Enterprise Network Storage Architecture, to simplify day-to-day storage management, improve economies of scale for storage purchases and easily accommodate changing business needs.

Rational consolidation: the consolidation of applications onto fewer, more powerful servers. Rational consolidation reduces hardware and software expenses as well as operational overhead.

Rational ConsolidationLogical Consolidation

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Proliant Server

Consolidation

Solutions

Physical Consolidation

Figure 1: ProLiant server consolidation solutions address the various levels of consolidation to different degrees.

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