Northern Arizona U Adopts Software-Defined Storage
Northern Arizona University (NAU) in
Flagstaff, AZ has implemented a software-defined storage (SDS) solution in an
effort to improve performance of its thin clients, thick clients and virtual
machines.
The university's academic computing virtualization was straining the capacity
of its existing storage array. High input/output latency was causing slow user
response times, the disks were running out of storage capacity, and usage spikes
caused high input/output operations per second (IOPS) that put further strain on
the existing storage array.
NAU's centralized Information Technology Services (ITS) department began
searching for a new system to replace the storage array. The team's list of
requirements included support for thin provisioning and the ability to integrate
with XenDesktop and XenServer. After evaluating its options, the team selected NexentaStor software-defined storage from Nexenta.
The university's NexentaStor system runs on a PowerEdge R720 Rack Server. The
system has 16 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity, 128 gigabytes (GB) of memory,
46 hard disk drives and 2 solid state drives.
Since implementing the system, the university has reported faster performance
of its thin clients, thick clients and virtual machines. "We now have better
than a 93 percent cache read rate, we very rarely see latency above 10
milliseconds — a speed that's practically unprecedented here, and this type of
performance is consistent even as usage spikes significantly throughout the
academic calendar," said Tobias Kreidl, academic team lead in NAU's ITS
department, in a prepared statement. "Our team used to sweat out the traffic
spikes around class registration, but that issue is now behind us."
Northern Arizona University serves more than 20,000 students at its main
campus in Flagstaff, plus another 7,000 students at its 36 satellite campuses
around the state.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].