Листовка для Cisco Cisco Nexus 5010 Switch
2 © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
— Robert Taylor
Vice President of
Information Technology,
Hendrick Automotive Group
As Hendrick’s computing infrastructure grew more sophisticated, the team moved it
to a colocation facility 20 miles away to help ensure better environmental controls and
support disaster recovery efforts. To eliminate the need to maintain servers at far-flung
sites, the team also pulled servers from the dealerships into the colocation facility. But
with growth and expansion, Hendrick experienced server sprawl, expanding from 13 to
well over 150 physical servers in the across the organization. With the company’s data
center expanding and operating and management costs on the rise, the IT team’s staff
members tried to plan visits carefully, minimizing trips to the data center, but still, they
spent too much time maintaining the servers.
to a colocation facility 20 miles away to help ensure better environmental controls and
support disaster recovery efforts. To eliminate the need to maintain servers at far-flung
sites, the team also pulled servers from the dealerships into the colocation facility. But
with growth and expansion, Hendrick experienced server sprawl, expanding from 13 to
well over 150 physical servers in the across the organization. With the company’s data
center expanding and operating and management costs on the rise, the IT team’s staff
members tried to plan visits carefully, minimizing trips to the data center, but still, they
spent too much time maintaining the servers.
The team made its first step towards its current solution when it embraced virtualization,
leveraging VMware to condense the 70 servers to just five physical hosts in their primary
Charlotte data center. But as a result of those changes, Hendrick found itself with 15
network interfaces into those servers and facing bandwidth issues. Backup windows
grew longer and system performance suffered, causing delays in response at dealerships
and corporate offices.
leveraging VMware to condense the 70 servers to just five physical hosts in their primary
Charlotte data center. But as a result of those changes, Hendrick found itself with 15
network interfaces into those servers and facing bandwidth issues. Backup windows
grew longer and system performance suffered, causing delays in response at dealerships
and corporate offices.
The Hendrick team decided to rethink the entire data center infrastructure and create a
more integrated solution: one that supported the need for virtualization, switching capacity,
and disaster recovery. Its goals were to improve business continuity while reducing
infrastructure costs, cut application deployment time, improve application performance, and
better allocate IT staff resources.
more integrated solution: one that supported the need for virtualization, switching capacity,
and disaster recovery. Its goals were to improve business continuity while reducing
infrastructure costs, cut application deployment time, improve application performance, and
better allocate IT staff resources.
Based on previous experience using Cisco as a trusted vendor for routers and switches,
the company saw an opportunity to unify its IT infrastructure leveraging Cisco® Unified Data
Center solutions. “Initially, we thought the choices were only to patch together a home-
grown solution from multiple companies, or purchase complete solutions from one vendor
and having to accept that not every component would be best-of-breed,” says Taylor. “But
when we looked closely at Cisco UCS, we saw that Cisco offered an integrated, unmatched
solution. Equally appealing, if any challenges arose, we’d only have to work with one vendor
to get the solution working perfectly. It was an easy choice.”
the company saw an opportunity to unify its IT infrastructure leveraging Cisco® Unified Data
Center solutions. “Initially, we thought the choices were only to patch together a home-
grown solution from multiple companies, or purchase complete solutions from one vendor
and having to accept that not every component would be best-of-breed,” says Taylor. “But
when we looked closely at Cisco UCS, we saw that Cisco offered an integrated, unmatched
solution. Equally appealing, if any challenges arose, we’d only have to work with one vendor
to get the solution working perfectly. It was an easy choice.”
At the outset of the project, Hendrick worked hand-in-hand with its implementation
partner, Internetwork Engineering (IE), to assess the needs of the organization through
consultations with key stakeholders. From there, IE helped to design a tailored solution
to overcome multiple business challenges as well as deploy the integrated solution in a
highly available architecture at both the primary and disaster recovery sites. “Hendrick
was running its IT operations on aging, nonredundant data center infrastructure with
limited disaster recovery capabilities,” said Doug Barnes, director, IE Data Center Solutions
and the project’s lead consultant. “The Cisco/NetApp FlexPod solution has addressed
our goals and will also provide Hendrick with the operational flexibility to meet business
demands well into the future.”
partner, Internetwork Engineering (IE), to assess the needs of the organization through
consultations with key stakeholders. From there, IE helped to design a tailored solution
to overcome multiple business challenges as well as deploy the integrated solution in a
highly available architecture at both the primary and disaster recovery sites. “Hendrick
was running its IT operations on aging, nonredundant data center infrastructure with
limited disaster recovery capabilities,” said Doug Barnes, director, IE Data Center Solutions
and the project’s lead consultant. “The Cisco/NetApp FlexPod solution has addressed
our goals and will also provide Hendrick with the operational flexibility to meet business
demands well into the future.”
Network Solution
At its primary data center, the company’s production environment now runs on 168
virtual machines, all on only four Cisco UCS B230 servers. “Our entire data center sits in
one and a half racks,” says Taylor. But that’s only half the story. To help ensure business
continuity, Hendrick has two virtually identical Cisco UCS-based data centers, each
running approximately 170 virtual machines on two Cisco 5108 chassis with four B230
blade servers. To maximize the value of that investment, Hendrick treats the secondary
data center as a “hot and cold site,” switching processing from Charlotte to Raleigh and
vice versa when needed.
virtual machines, all on only four Cisco UCS B230 servers. “Our entire data center sits in
one and a half racks,” says Taylor. But that’s only half the story. To help ensure business
continuity, Hendrick has two virtually identical Cisco UCS-based data centers, each
running approximately 170 virtual machines on two Cisco 5108 chassis with four B230
blade servers. To maximize the value of that investment, Hendrick treats the secondary
data center as a “hot and cold site,” switching processing from Charlotte to Raleigh and
vice versa when needed.