Data Center Move to Affect Some GU Web Sites
August 1, 2009
Some Georgetown Web sites will be unavailable this weekend as the university completes the migration of its 100-plus servers to a new, state-of-the-art data center in Laurel, Md.
Web site availability will depend on the the system used to publish the page. All KeySite, KeySite Enterprise, Explore and Access+ sites will be unavailable during the migration. The migration also will block access to creating GOCards and GUMail accounts until Monday, Aug. 3.
This is the last of four weekend migrations that, when complete, will provide Georgetown with a more secure and sustainable location for its servers.
The new data center will replace one currently maintained by University Information Services (UIS) in Poulton Hall. That data center has been in use since the university began using servers in 1983, but it lacks the expansion capability to maintain and support Georgetown’s growing technology needs. The university also maintains a backup and disaster recovery data center in Loudon County, Va.
“About 18 months ago, we hit capacity with power capabilities (in Poulton Hall). If we hadn’t moved the data center, we couldn’t bring even one more server online,” explains Beth Ann Bergsmark, director of academic and information technology services in UIS. “The only way to bring in additional power would have required a substantial renovation to the building, which would not have made sense financially.”
Georgetown’s board of directors ultimately approved the move to the Laurel data center as it became clear that Poulton could not handle any expansion of university servers.
“One of the most important reasons to move is so we can expand our server capabilities,” Bergsmark says. “When you look at the university’s strategic goals in academic and administrative computing and computational science that will be critical down the road.”
Bergsmark compares the data center migration to foundational work necessary for Georgetown to grow as an institution. UIS scheduled the migration when it would affect the least amount of people – most of the faculty and students are off campus and new students have not yet arrived at Georgetown.
“There’s no perfect time to ever take a system down, but in terms of timing, this is the best time we could hope for,” she says.
UIS has sent out a universitywide e-mail that outlines the migration schedule. The same information can be found on a data center migration Web site created by UIS.
The schedule for the final migration weekend is:
• July 31, 7 p.m. - Aug. 3, 8 a.m.: Access+ systems, Genesys, SIS+, other Mainframe applications, PeopleSoft Admissions and Financials and all hosted Structured Query Language (SQL) databases will be unavailable. Web sites hosted through KeySite and Explore will not be available, but the Georgetown home page and all other Web sites will remain accessible. Any activities that rely on information from the university mainframe, such as creation of NetIDs and GUMail accounts, will not occur until Monday night.
Applications that were moved previously will remain available throughout this weekend's migration. Those applications include GUMail, GUShare, GUCalendar, Phoenix/EFS, Banner, MyAccess and Blackboard.
“During each event, we have a priority application to bring back first,” Bergsmark says. “If there is an emergency situation during any migration, we will still have the Web and HOYAlert to get the notice out.”
UIS will also have a command center in place tracking hour-by-hour progress throughout each migration weekend.
“The good news is that a migration like this only needs to happen once every 20 years,” Bergsmark says. “So after this, we’re in the clear for awhile.”
Source: Blue & Gray (August 1, 2009)
Web site availability will depend on the the system used to publish the page. All KeySite, KeySite Enterprise, Explore and Access+ sites will be unavailable during the migration. The migration also will block access to creating GOCards and GUMail accounts until Monday, Aug. 3.
This is the last of four weekend migrations that, when complete, will provide Georgetown with a more secure and sustainable location for its servers.
The new data center will replace one currently maintained by University Information Services (UIS) in Poulton Hall. That data center has been in use since the university began using servers in 1983, but it lacks the expansion capability to maintain and support Georgetown’s growing technology needs. The university also maintains a backup and disaster recovery data center in Loudon County, Va.
“About 18 months ago, we hit capacity with power capabilities (in Poulton Hall). If we hadn’t moved the data center, we couldn’t bring even one more server online,” explains Beth Ann Bergsmark, director of academic and information technology services in UIS. “The only way to bring in additional power would have required a substantial renovation to the building, which would not have made sense financially.”
Georgetown’s board of directors ultimately approved the move to the Laurel data center as it became clear that Poulton could not handle any expansion of university servers.
“One of the most important reasons to move is so we can expand our server capabilities,” Bergsmark says. “When you look at the university’s strategic goals in academic and administrative computing and computational science that will be critical down the road.”
Bergsmark compares the data center migration to foundational work necessary for Georgetown to grow as an institution. UIS scheduled the migration when it would affect the least amount of people – most of the faculty and students are off campus and new students have not yet arrived at Georgetown.
“There’s no perfect time to ever take a system down, but in terms of timing, this is the best time we could hope for,” she says.
UIS has sent out a universitywide e-mail that outlines the migration schedule. The same information can be found on a data center migration Web site created by UIS.
The schedule for the final migration weekend is:
• July 31, 7 p.m. - Aug. 3, 8 a.m.: Access+ systems, Genesys, SIS+, other Mainframe applications, PeopleSoft Admissions and Financials and all hosted Structured Query Language (SQL) databases will be unavailable. Web sites hosted through KeySite and Explore will not be available, but the Georgetown home page and all other Web sites will remain accessible. Any activities that rely on information from the university mainframe, such as creation of NetIDs and GUMail accounts, will not occur until Monday night.
Applications that were moved previously will remain available throughout this weekend's migration. Those applications include GUMail, GUShare, GUCalendar, Phoenix/EFS, Banner, MyAccess and Blackboard.
“During each event, we have a priority application to bring back first,” Bergsmark says. “If there is an emergency situation during any migration, we will still have the Web and HOYAlert to get the notice out.”
UIS will also have a command center in place tracking hour-by-hour progress throughout each migration weekend.
“The good news is that a migration like this only needs to happen once every 20 years,” Bergsmark says. “So after this, we’re in the clear for awhile.”
Source: Blue & Gray (August 1, 2009)
