Department of Computer Science On the Forefront of Virtualization Technology

Princeton has been at the forefront of computing since Alan Turing, Alonzo Church and John von Neumann were among its residents. The Department of Computer Science at Princeton University, which has experienced significant growth over the last few years, is now home to 30 diverse faculty members focused on theory, systems, graphics/media, programming languages, computational science, security, AI, and computational biology. Princeton System/Network Administrator Joseph Crouthamel was faced with the daunting task of deciding how to grow their server environment while maintaining the reliable replication and storage management the department demanded.

Keeping up with the storage demands in the educational sector is always a challenge. Factor into that equation that Princeton, one of the leading research universities and outstanding undergraduate colleges in the world, is a high-profile leader in technology. Their solution could not afford to fail. Crouthamel was faced with designing a solution that was affordable, easy-to-manage with a small IT staff, and had the ability to scale to meet future data storage demands.

In 2009, the Princeton Department of Computer Science recognized the need to move their data into a virtual server space. In the process of converting their servers to virtual machines, they realized they had to re-think the way they currently stored data and build a new solution to take advantage of a virtualized environment.

The first challenge they encountered was finding a better way to replicate their VMware server storage environment. With six VMware servers with SAN attached disk used to store all of the virtual VMDK files and virtual host system files, they needed a way to replicate the data on the SAN disk for backup and redundancy. Their initial solution was not reliable and did not scale.

The team at iQstor designed a solution that offered Princeton a way to leverage their existing storage while providing reliable backup and replication. VMware certified, iQstor’s iQ2880T Fibre Channel Storage System consolidated storage resources and simplified IT operations. Installed and operational in less than 30 minutes, the iQ2880T was the affordable backup solution for Princeton’s virtual environment.

Partnering with iQstor, Princeton’s Department of Computer Science was able to maximize the capabilities of their newly virtualized SAN. With unlimited capacity licenses and no additional fees, Crouthamel can add storage as the department’s needs dictate without taxing his IT budget or staff. The fully redundant and hot swappable components in the iQ2880T ensure that their backup system is reliable. The department members are now free to focus on making the advancements in technology that Princeton is known for.