Managing the SMB server room or a small data centre is a challenge for the IT administrator. The issues are quite distinct from those faced by the larger data center (which occupies a floor or multiple floors in a building) or the small branch office (with its computer and networking gear located in a wiring closet in the corner).
Profile of the SMB server room
The SMB computer room and small data center generally have between two and twenty racks of gear housed on site in a single room. The contents of this room often reflects the complexity of a large data center: an array of applications running on a number of heterogeneous servers; storage and backup devices, power control units, complex VPN, Internet and wireless access equipment, firewalls, routers and VLAN devices, VoIP facilities and more. The IT manager is faced with the same concerns as the larger data center manager:ensuring data integrity, maintaining security of access and 24/7 application availability. But they often have to provide these quality services with limited staffing resources.
In other ways however, the SMB is more similar to the tiny business customer, in that the growth of their IT facility will have been somewhat laissez faire and the equipment installed will probably reflect real constraints that have been placed over time on the capital and operating spend. There will be space limitations and an inevitable trend to cabling chaos as the server count has expanded.
Number of Data Centers by Size (Source: IDC 2006)
Despite recent tends towards consolidation and remote hosting, data centers today are still predominately of small or medium size, with a 20:1 ratio between small and very large sized sites (a small data center has 5-20 racks with up to 500 servers; medium has 20 to 100 racks with up to 1500 servers; and large has over 100 racks with over 2,000 servers). So it is important that the IT and network managers have appropriate tools to manage such sites.
Next generation infrastructure
The administrator can avoid many of the classical challenges in this sector simply by planning to use newer generations of server and network infrastructure and next generation management tools:
- Modern servers all have embedded service processors so you can access motherboard BIOS/operating system/power out of band, even if CPU is not operating. And you can locally and remotely manage these new servers and run the applications without the clutter of KVM cables
- Next generation network devices like Cisco's Integrated Service Routers integrate all the network connection and security functions (router, firewall, VPN, wireless access, VoIP functions and a limited number of switch ports) avoiding the clutter of interconnect and patch panels
- Modern power peripherals like UPS are all intelligent with network browser console or serial console access
- Modern operating systems and system vendors now integrate powerful management tools such as IBM Director/ MS MOM/ Novell-SUSE Zenworks
Next generation management solutions
Opengear offers a selection of next generation management solutions that integrate with this new infrastructure. These solutions enable network and system administrators to locally and remotely manage their entire IT infrastructure at a fraction of the cost and complexity of legacy solutions such as console servers and KVM appliances.
Small datacenters and SMB computer rooms often need management solutions that are even more bulletproof that those in the large datacenters. They rarely can afford systems with in-built redundancy and automatic failover; so remote control, prompt problem resolution and preventative strategies for disaster avoidance are critical. However these solutions also need to be simple and affordable. Opengear's IM4200 and IMG4000 management solutions meet these needs. They provide:
- A single integrated gateway to locally and remotely manage all the serial and network connected servers and appliances at the site
- Service processor and BMC management for IPMI, RSA, DRAC, iLO, ALOM and more
- Secure management with encrypted authenticated access for local and remote access
- Sophisticated monitoring, alerts and alarm management with embedded Nagios support
- High availability coverage with inbuilt redundancy and auto failover and a range of out-of-band access options
