Server Maintenance

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Project Summary: For applications and services to perform reliably and consistently the CTL must spend time performing maintenance on its server infrastructure.

Contents

Project Description

The server infrastructure in the CTL is an integral part of what the Center does on a daily basis. If the servers are not functioning correctly then the work of not only the CTL employees is interrupted, but also that of the faculty using the center and workshops being taught.

Server administration in the CTL comes with a few implied tasks:

  • hardware maintenance: This means that we check the hardware periodically for problems, clean the hardware, and perform upgrades and repairs if any are necessary. All of which must be done with the hardware turned off. (Estimated weekly admin hours for 15 servers: 5)
  • system maintenance: Setting up and maintaining the operating system on the hardware. This includes basic programs that make up the OS and patches periodically. This often requires full shutdowns and sporadic restarts of the servers. An example would be windows update patches or a patch for the linux kernel. (Estimated weekly admin hours for 15 servers: 5)
  • application maintenance: Setting up, testing, patching, and configuring various applications installed on the server. Examples would be: apache, secure shell, samba, cmapserver, keeptool, elluminate, webct, php, and MANY others. This is the most time consuming part of server administration usually and is done periodically for the entire life of the server. Mistakes and bad practices here can often mean that entire services are not available for use which can disrupt faculty, staff, and workshops. (Estimated weekly admin hours: 10-20)

So one admin could spend nearly 30 hours a week just doing general administration on 15 servers. This doesn't account for crash recovery and server infrastructure improvements, just the core maintenance itself.

Current Status

Current Server List (with operating system)

Linux/Unix

  • apps (Gentoo Linux)
  • hydra (CentOS)
  • tavern (server decommissioned)
  • elluminate (red hat enterprise)
  • drake (Mac OSX Server)
  • frostbite (Sparc Solaris)
  • turbulence (VMWare ESX Server)
  • alchemist (Fedora Core 2)
  • dabik (Ubuntu)
  • prana (Fedora Core)
  • apple xraid storage array
  • poseidon (VMWare ESX Server)

Windows

  • breeze (Windows server 2003)
  • apprentice/blacksmith (Windows server 2003)
  • dragon (Windows 2000 server)

Relation to CTL Department Plan Initiatives

Project Staff

  • Martin Lehner administers the UNIX/LINUX machines.
  • Paul Hickey currently administers the Windows machines.

Project Resources

  • System administration hours for Martin Lehner (approximately 15-20 a week currently).
  • System administration hours for Paul Hickey.

Project Outcomes and Future Directions

  • IBM Server in March 2007 to run large-scale virtual servers. Also allowing the CTL to run a fully mirrored test environment for WebCT.
  • Apple XRaid storage array - Storage backend for new CTL virtual server initiative.
  • Migration to Apple xserve for filesharing and print services.
Retrieved from "http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Server_Maintenance"
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