Jeff Franz-LienJeff Franz-LienManager, Infrastructure Manager, Infrastructure ServicesServicesMLCCMLCC

VMWare Forum Winnipeg – March 2011

MLCC ERP Virtualization StoryMLCC ERP Virtualization Story

Anil SedhaAnil Sedha

Senior Server Analyst,Senior Server Analyst,

Infrastructure ServicesInfrastructure Services

MLCCMLCC

Chapter 1 - Wandering in the wilderness: Do we dare to Chapter 1 - Wandering in the wilderness: Do we dare to do this?do this?

Chapter 2 - The hard sell: How dare you do this?Chapter 2 - The hard sell: How dare you do this?

Chapter 3 - Getting it done: A new methodology.Chapter 3 - Getting it done: A new methodology.

Chapter 4 -The results: Post go-live.Chapter 4 -The results: Post go-live.

VMWare Winnipeg Forum – March 2011

MLCC ERP Virtualization StoryMLCC ERP Virtualization Story

Our OrganizationOur Organization

Regulate, sell and distribute beverage alcohol in the province of Manitoba.

934 employees, >$600M in sales, >$230M to Province. Retailer through our 50 stores. Wholesaler to 177 liquor vendors and 8 private wine stores. Sustainability, social responsibility, workplace quality, and

innovation are strongly held values. Repeat winner of provincial and national top employer

awards (5 consecutive yrs provincially).

Our ITOur IT VMWare ESX 3.5 and VSphere 4.1

(100% of servers virtualized)

80 servers, 400 workstations, 60 site WAN (HO, DR site, Stores, Inspection Offices).

EMC Clariion CX4 disk arrays, Dell blade servers, Cisco switches.

ERP Servers (UNIX) with own disk array ($60K/mo lease & support).

ERP – Oracle (JD Edwards).

Database: Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase, MYSQL.

ERP Upgrade ProjectERP Upgrade Project

Phase 1 – ERP platform migration & application Phase 1 – ERP platform migration & application upgrade – Aug 2009 to Mar 2010upgrade – Aug 2009 to Mar 2010

Phase 2 – ERP testing & go-live preparation Phase 2 – ERP testing & go-live preparation – Apr 2010 to Jan 3, 2011 – Apr 2010 to Jan 3, 2011

ERP Platform MigrationERP Platform Migration

Minicomputers to blades or Itanium ???? UNIX to Linux or Windows???? Virtualize or not ???? Rearchitect high availability, disaster recovery ???? Create ERP database Install ERP application upgrade Migrate ERP data Migrate interfaces

ERP Technical Team ReactionERP Technical Team Reaction(3 ERP Analysts, 1 DBA)(3 ERP Analysts, 1 DBA)

Skeptical“Virtual izat ion is for other servers, not ERP”

Non-Technical Team ReactionNon-Technical Team Reaction(Application, Business)(Application, Business)

Petr i f ied“You’re doing what ???”

Server Team ReactionServer Team Reaction(2 Server/Storage Analysts)(2 Server/Storage Analysts)

Ecstatic“Finally - convergence!!!”

CIO ReactionCIO Reaction

Supportive“Just don’t screw it up!”

Making it Happen – Making it Happen – PDQ Methodology (Agile)PDQ Methodology (Agile)

1. Daily Scrum meetings with mind mapping tools

2. Agility seeking i.e. maximum flexibility, least constraints in process, infrastructure, staffing, solutions, development

3. Top-Down Planning – Plan phases & milestones first, then progressive elaboration and rolling wave

4. Rapid, empowered decision-making with limited info

5. Time Boxing: Fixed time constraint for all tasks

6. Concurrent Engineering: Overlapping activities & early hands on

7. Dynamic Learning: Rapid, systematic info gathering

8. Kill Switch: Kill tasks or reduce scope where returns are diminishing

Mind Mapping Tool

Our Original Mind MapOur Original Mind Map

Steps Toward ERP VirtualizationSteps Toward ERP Virtualization

Research One week Oracle assessment Select Alternative: UNIX, OR Itanium, OR

VMWare/blade/Linux ?????? Build proof-of-concept environment One week GSI assessment Build final environment & hand over to testers Unit test, integration test, performance test, stress test Go-live practice runs

Hurdles - OracleHurdles - Oracle

Oracle database licensing– Problem: Oracle does not recognize soft partitioning– Solution: License one full blade– Problem: Oracle charges for temporary database licenses– Solution: Purchase temporary licenses

Oracle stance on supporting VMWare– Problem: Does not expressly support non-Oracle virtualization– Solution: Don’t worry, using VMWare won’t void your Oracle

support contract. Oracle just doesn’t support 3rd party infrastructure.

Hurdles – Internal PerceptionHurdles – Internal Perception

Internal mis-perceptions

• Myth: Linux is inferior to UNIX

• Fact: Linux is Oracle’s go-forward JD Edwards platform

• Myth: VMWare adds too much overhead for ERP

• Fact: VSphere in particular delivers stellar performance

• Myth: Minicomputers are superior to Intel blades

• Fact: For all MLCC’s mission-critical applications (ERP, network, point-of-sale, records management, data warehouse) blades/VMWare are better, faster, much cheaper, and far more flexible.

Hurdles – Cont’d.Hurdles – Cont’d.

Internal mis-perceptions

• Myth: No one else is doing ERP on VMWare

• Fact: We found many companies that have successfully virtualized ERP.

• Myth: If any major problems arise, VMWare must be the cause.

• Fact: During our 17 month project, virtualization was often suspected but cause was always elsewhere e.g. database or memory tuning.

Free TipsFree Tips

Relationship management (politics):• Enlist an executive champion that will help calm powerful

naysayers.

• Helpful due diligence -- networking (LinkedIn), consultant assessments, case studies, and reference calls.

• Be prepared to re-address virtualization phobia with each new problem.

Team building: • Use agile project management techniques.

• Get teams to research and try virtualization as early as possible.

Free Tips Cont’dFree Tips Cont’d

Technical:

• More assessment whether to use raw partitions for database or VMDK.

• Performance problems are hard so stress-test early.

Standards:

• Standardize on virtualization and communicate those standards.

• Make virtualization a mandatory requirement on application RFPs.

AccomplishmentsAccomplishments

Smoothest ERP go-live we’ve ever had. On time, on budget, high quality. Earned praise from Executive and Board.

Moving off minicomputers saved about $500K per year in maintenance and lease costs.

Achieved vastly greater flexibility e.g. rolling upgrades, mirroring to DR site, and server/resource provisioning.

Reduced server room power and cooling requirements – eliminated 5 racks of minicomputers at HO and DR.

Given the flexibility of our virtualized environment, the next ERP upgrade will be a piece of cake.

Our Next Virtualization ProjectsOur Next Virtualization Projects

Complete upgrade from ESX to Vsphere

Desktop virtualization – VMWare View & ThinApp

Automate DR steps – Site Recovery Mgr

Provision test environments – Lab Manager

QuestionsQuestions

The End