PROJECT NAME
VMware Infrastructure Implementation

 

Providence Center’s core network services were hosted on aging, discontinued hardware with failing discs in an all-physical environment. Due to budget constraints, Providence Center was unable to purchase new hardware or licensing.

 

Using the free version of VMware ESXi and the open source Linux based Openfiler, NMR engineers were able to virtualize 95% of the PCI network onto a three-host/one-SAN VMware configuration utilizing existing hardware. Engineers condensed all hardware known to be good into four existing PowerEdge 2950s to create the cluster and decommission the aging hardware. NMR completed this project with minimal expense and without causing client downtime during business hours.

 

This configuration provides PCI with a low level redundancy - if any one host crashes, all VMs can be booted on the other two with only a few minutes of downtime - and creates an easy upgrade path to a new, fully licensed cluster with new hardware, as the software SAN can be mapped to the new hardware and VMs can be migrated quickly.