Success Story
Vienna CL Centralizes Knowledge Base With NetApp Storage, Microsoft Hyper-V and SharePoint 2010
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KEY HIGHLIGHTS Industry Public administration The challenge Implement flexible storage platform for Microsoft ® SharePoint ® 2010 intranet knowledge base. The solution Consolidate servers and data using NetApp® storage and Microsoft Hyper-V ™. Benefits • Seamless integration with Microsoft Hyper-V • Improved data security and application integration • Continuous scalability from pilot project to intranet migration • Deduplication saves storage space in virtualized environment • Cost-effective storage of large files with remote binary large object (BLOB) storage (RBS)
CUSTOMER PROFILE The nationwide Chambers for Wage-Earners and Salaried Employees, Chambers of Labor, or CLs, represent the interests of workers in Austria. Around 2.7 million members are currently legally entitled to support in matters regarding labor law and social security entitlements. The CLs work with different social partners such as the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), comment on bill and ordinance proposals, and are concerned with consumer protection. Training is a major concern of the chambers, which run numerous libraries, the largest of which is the Social Sciences Library of the Vienna Chamber of Labor (AK Wien; wien.arbeiterkammer.at). The Vienna Chamber of Labor is one of nine chambers in Austria and has around 800,000 members. THE CHALLENGE Centralized storage for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 knowledge base Rapid and smooth access to knowledge, data, and documents is one of the greatest challenges of the information society—and also a communication and organizational issue. Who is working on what? What is available where? The Vienna Chamber of Labor has now started a reference project to improve the exchange of information and knowledge within the organization and at the same time lower overhead costs.
For the planned knowledge pool, Project Managers Michael Janda and Georg Lahner from the Vienna Chamber of Labor chose Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as the primary collaboration platform. “A structured, centrally organized document filing system is quite clearly the prerequisite,” explains Michael Janda. “We also need functionalities that go beyond our previous content management system because we want to build a reference architecture in several stages, which could potentially be available for all of the Chambers of Labor.” The infrastructure for the SharePoint 2010 environment needed to satisfy the following technical and economic criteria: • Seamless integration with Microsoft Windows • High stability for application servers and storage • Flexibility and scalability to accommodate potential nationwide rollout • Rapid backup and recovery with granular detail • Relocation of documents from SharePoint databases (BLOB storage) • Lower cost • Long-term investment security
“Even though it may seem unusual for an enterprise-level SAN, plug-and-play is the right term to describe NetApp technology.” Michael Janda Project Manager, Vienna Chamber of Labor
THE SOLUTION NetApp “plug-and-play” storage and Microsoft Hyper-V Michael Janda and Georg Lahner brought NetApp Silver Partner HATAHET Productivity Solutions GmbH on board for the development. The Viennese systems integrator is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has been in charge of the Windows server infrastructure at the Vienna CL for some time. The HATAHET team therefore has extensive experience with Microsoft SharePoint solutions, as well as NetApp storage. HATAHET advised the Chamber of Labor to use a combination of server virtualization and centralized SAN storage. Because the Vienna CL has a large Windows environment, HATAHET recommended Microsoft Hyper-V technology. “Hyper-V is stable and user friendly and is an integral component of Windows Server 2008,” says Nahed Hatahet, CEO of HATAHET. “Because it is possible to cluster at the virtualization level, six of the physical servers that we thought we would need for the SharePoint 2010 project at the Vienna Chamber of Labor are no longer necessary. The Vienna Chamber of Labor also saves on software licenses.” This line of thinking continues with virtualized storage. The Vienna CL chose NetApp unified storage for the SharePoint reference
project. A NetApp FAS3140 cluster is seamlessly integrated into the Vienna CL’s Windows environment and provides NAS-CIFS file sharing, as well as database and application access using iSCSI LUNs. With the iSCSI protocol, the development of which was largely furthered by NetApp, legacy content such as Microsoft Exchange public folders can easily be migrated into SharePoint over a standard network. SharePoint 2010 and the RBS add-on feature pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 allow the organization to move large binary objects from the SharePoint databases to lower-cost disk to reduce primary storage costs. At the same time, the system remains scalable and provides the foundation for continuous enterprise content management. “Even though it may seem unusual for an enterprise-level SAN, plug-and-play is the right term to describe NetApp technology,” says Janda. “The only other things you need are two network cards and two cables.” Setup of the Hyper-V environment and connection to the storage were completed in less than one day—during operation—as part of the pilot project. Fujitsu Technology Solutions, a NetApp Global Alliance partner, facilitated just-in-time delivery of the NetApp system.
BUSINESS BENEFITS A project with a future SharePoint 2010 will significantly change the structures and processes for collaboration and workflow at the Vienna CL. A pilot project is currently under way. The test users come from different departments of the Social Sciences Library and, as part of the pilot project, are exploring how they can apply SharePoint efficiently in practice. The main objective is the development of SharePoint expertise within the CL in the form of competent recommendations, including reference architectures and best practices. “With NetApp and Hyper-V, we have created an infrastructure that offers high availability, seamless scalability, rapid data backup, and simplified management all in one package,” says Janda. “NetApp and Hyper-V are providing the basis for our successful operation of SharePoint 2010.” The combination of Microsoft Hyper-V and NetApp storage allows the Vienna CL to back up databases and virtual machines multiple times. NetApp SnapManager for Hyper-V and NetApp SnapManager for Microsoft SharePoint software automate backup and restores using point-in-time Snapshot copies—a function that becomes more and more valuable as the number of
users and documents increases. Although only 2GB now, the SharePoint portal will eventually contain 30GB to 40GB of data. The inherent scalability of NetApp storage is therefore a great benefit. Saving 200GB with NetApp deduplication NetApp storage solutions offer great potential for cost and labor savings, argues HATAHET Project Manager Christoph Wilfing, because they are designed to increase the efficiency of both staff and systems. For example, NetApp deduplication pays off, especially in virtualized environments and file shares. Because the Vienna Chamber of Labor uses templates for virtual servers, deduplication removes redundant operating system objects, resulting in around 25%—or 200GB—of storage space saved. The Chamber of Labor also plans to use deduplication when migrating documents from file shares to SharePoint 2010, thereby make sure that each document is actually placed on the storage system only once. With the integrated solution concept implemented by HATAHET, the Vienna CL is keeping all of its options open with NetApp storage, Microsoft Hyper-V, and SharePoint Server 2010. Michael Janda and Georg Lahner appreciate this flexibility as they prepare for a successful migration.
SOLUTION COMPONENTS NetApp products NetApp FAS3140 active-active system NetApp deduplication
Environment Server platform: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V
NetApp SnapDrive® for Windows® software
Applications: Microsoft SharePoint 2010
NetApp SnapManager for Microsoft Hyper-V software
Database: Microsoft SQL Server ® 2008
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NetApp SnapManager for Microsoft SharePoint software NetApp SnapRestore® software NetApp Snapshot™ software Protocols NAS-CIFS, IP SAN: iSCSI
NetApp partners HATAHET Productivity Solutions GmbH www.hatahet.eu Fujitsu Technology Solutions at.fujitsu.com
www.netapp.com
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Š Copyright 2010 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved. No portions of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent of NetApp, Inc. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, SnapDrive, SnapManager, SnapRestore, and Snapshot are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, SharePoint, SQL Server, and Windows are registered trademarks and Hyper-V is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. CSS-6364-1010