ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. - Anniston Army Depot Directorate of Information Management's server farm is looking especially green, even in the triple-digit summer heat. Two years ago, DOIM began purchasing blade servers, rather than costly super servers, for our normal server lifecycle replacement.
Blade technology provided the flexibility to mix and match systems and storage for accelerated IT effectiveness. This, added to virtual technology, has allowed DOIM to address the growing challenges of our datacenter in regards to server consolidation mandates, space, cooling and power.
Blade servers and server virtualization
The use of blade servers and server virtualization is helping DOIM achieve green initiatives by reducing the total power consumption of servers located in the datacenter. Normally, one physical server would use two or three power supplies at about 800 watts each.
Our current blade systems enable the use of 16 servers using only using six power supplies, which provide an average of 800 watts of power each. This is a savings of over 20,000 watts over 16 traditional servers.
Server virtualization is providing even more energy savings by allowing the depot to consolidate several running servers into one physical server. Currently, DOIM is using only nine physical servers to host 33 virtual servers. Normally these servers would use over 50,000 watts of power. Now, only a small fraction of that energy is used by placing these on virtualized blade servers.
"This green IT initiative has a significant saving potential for reduction of power consumption here at Anniston," said Denise Burford, chief of the Operation Service Center Division.
Burford emphasized the fact that, besides the direct savings, there is a number of indirect savings as well, such as a reduced server footprint, improved server room climate and system administration efficiency.
"DOIM is very excited about our Green IT computing initiatives. We are continuously researching areas to increase efficiency and provide more sustainable computing operations that are less costly. Of our 136 current servers, we have virtualized 33 servers and counting. Virtualization also dramatically reduces our turn-around time when implementing a new system.
We no longer have to wait for hardware purchases that can take up to six months and we see an improved utilization of our existing assets," she said.
Thin clients and virtual terminal server
These green IT initiatives are also branching out of the server farm. The use of thin clients is providing a lower total power consumption across the depot.
Because thin clients are much smaller and have no moving parts, they need much less power. A typical Optiplex desktop has a 255-watt power supply, while a thin client only has a 50-watt power supply. There are currently around 250 thin clients deployed. When the systems are using full power, the currently deployed thin clients are saving over 50,000 watts of power.
DOIM began using thin client technology to rapidly roll out systems in the Directorate of Production.
Systems such as eMidas and AKO terminals were great for leveraging this type of technology. It has a small footprint, no moving parts and allows for controlled user access.
Virtual technology
As virtual technology grows, so does DOIM's ability to provide innovative solutions.
"Once a system is virtualized, there is no difference to the person using the system," said Bradley McGriff, IT specialist and systems administrator. "With virtualization we can apply granular control over each server's resources. This allows us to run each server at its optimal level, thus allowing us to fully utilize the resources from the physical hardware."
This new technology also allows DOIM's system administrators to maintain their own farms a little better. "An administrator can remotely manage a server from anywhere - from simple maintenance to changing entire components on a system," said McGriff. "This means more capability to work remotely and saves time and money spent traveling to the depot after hours - a better quality of life."
And, Director of Information Management Alberta Freeman said more green changes are coming.
"DOIM continues to seek out new potentials for green IT thinking. We are currently working on an initiative called Wake on Lan that will enable users to turn off their PCs at the end of the day and during other periods of inactivity. DOIM technicians will be able to remotely "wake up" the PC to apply software or security patches and to perform vulnerability scans.
When all actions have been completed, the PC will then be shut back down automatically. We believe that this will not only provide great energy savings, but it will also enhance security," she said.
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