Maximizing Virtual InfrastructureMaximizing Virtual Infrastructure

Gannett Co. Inc., one of the world's largest media companies, is looking to server consolidation to meet its need for computing power for its ever-growing news empire. The company, which owns 94 U.S. newspapers, including USA Today, is using virtualization software from VMware Inc. to quickly and cheaply upgrade older servers while setting up test environments to ensure a smooth transition.

The company has been running VMware's ESX Server on two four-way Intel-based IBM x440 servers since August. IT staff is using ESX Server to divide the two x440s into a total of 10 virtual servers running intranet, systems-management, and financial apps migrated from older Intel-based servers.

That's just the beginning, says Gannett IT architect Eric Kuzmack. The company plans to continue to wring efficiency out of its IT operations by running as many as 25 virtual servers on each x440 over the next several months.

Companies in several industries, including agribusiness J.R. Simplot Co. and insurer American International Group Inc. have for years been using VMware virtualization software to consolidate Intel-based server farms that grew out of the late 1990's business growth. Gannett is taking advantage of VMware's newest technology to improve the management of these virtual servers.

VMware last week began shipping VirtualCenter, an expanded management tool that handles provisioning, monitoring, and security-access controls for virtual servers across multiple physical servers. VirtualCenter, first announced in June as VMware Control Center, also feeds the data it collects to more comprehensive management suites such as IBM's Tivoli and Computer Associates' Unicenter. VMware is working on integration with Hewlett-Packard's OpenView.

In addition to VirtualCenter, VMware also is making its VMotion technology available as part of ESX Server. VMotion software lets systems administrators move virtual servers from one physical server to another using a drag-and-drop Windows screen interface. These servers can be moved without interruption to any apps running on them.

Gannett has been testing a beta version of VirtualCenter with VMotion software. "Using VirtualCenter, I can delegate permissions for accessing virtual servers to groups of users in our [Microsoft] Active Directory," Kuzmack says. Without VirtualCenter, he would have to create a directory on each physical server running ESX Server and would be unable to integrate them with Gannett's larger, enterprise-level management applications.

"This integration will also let us better monitor server utilization," Kuzmack says. Using VMotion, Gannett systems administrators will be able to quickly move virtual servers without downtime from highly utilized servers to those with plenty of resources.

Gannett plans to use ESX Server with VirtualCenter and VMotion to create a test environment for a new identity-management app that will delegate access to its databases and E-mail servers. It purchased two Intel-based IBM x345 servers and is using ESX Server to recreate its entire domain infrastructure, including database, E-mail, and identity-management servers.

Without VMware, Gannett would have had to purchase a separate server for each application, Kuzmack says. "While today we're focused on basic things like server consolidation, if virtualization matures we'll see where else in the company it can be used to save money and improve business processes."

VirtualCenter Management Server prices start at $5,000, while VMotion is an option priced at $700 per CPU. ESX Server prices start at $3,750 for a two-way server. ESX Server is designed to run on any 32-bit Intel-based servers.