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Blackboard Learn™ High Availability Blueprint with Dell and Microsoft

MAKING CONTINUOUS SYSTEM AVAILABILITY AFFORDABLE

TM

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With online learning taking a more central role in education, continuous system

availability has become a critical requirement. Many institutions are implementing

their Blackboard Learn™ environments with cluster configurations to reduce the

risk of service outages.

This paper discusses how Blackboard Learn service levels can be increased using

Windows 2008 R2 cluster services for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 running on

Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell EqualLogic and Dell PowerVault storage.

Utilizing the capabilities of the Dell Public Solutions Center, Blackboard, Dell, and

Microsoft partnered to create a solution architecture blueprint that delivers high

availability for Blackboard Learn. This paper describes the solution architecture

and provides configuration guidelines as well as recommended best practices.

Benefits of the Solution ArchitectureThe solution architecture is designed to help customers achieve:

Reduced risk of downtime through a reliable technology infrastructure, jointly developed and tested by Dell, Blackboard and Microsoft. The reliable infrastructure translates into continuous learning as everyone on campus has access to the data they need.

Increased uptime through high availability features in Dell server and storage systems, replicated components in the application tier, a storage configuration with RAID 5 or 10 protection, and a failover cluster service for the database server.

Investment protection through the scalable Dell server and storage com-ponents as well as the ability to use Microsoft Windows and Microsoft SQL server technologies and to leverage existing staff expertise.

Lower TCO due to outstanding price/performance of the virtualized envi-ronment and simplified management of virtualized resources, including VM cloning techniques that enable rapid provisioning.

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CONTENTSExecutive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Benefits of the Solution Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Dell and Microsoft Highly Available Architecture for Blackboard Learn™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Virtualization with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Building Availability into the Virtualized Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

How Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Recommended Dell Server Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Storage Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Blackboard Learn File Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Recommended Storage Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Additional Best Practices and Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Application Tier Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Storage Tier Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Network Configuration Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Appendix A—Hardware and Software Component Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

TABLESTable 1: Standard and Advanced Sizing configuration examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Table 2: Storage configuration examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Table 3: Web Links for Additional Information.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Table 4: Recommended Server and Storage Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Table 5: Key Software Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

FIGURES Figure 1: Logical diagram of the solution architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Figure 2: VMs can be deployed across multiple physical servers for maximum availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Figure 3: Database server cluster failover process.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Figure 4: Logical storage architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

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IntroductionThe Blackboard Learn architecture has built-in availability for the application tier when implemented using horizontally

scaled application instances. Adding clustering to the database server is the recommended method for improving service

level availability even further. Clustering enables failover between redundant physical servers or between redundant

virtual machines (VMs) on the same physical server. Many customers today are deploying their application tier instances

in a virtualized manner and a similar approach can also be taken with the database tier when deploying a database cluster.

The two primary benefits for deploying the database in a clustered configuration are:

Service level availability When a hardware or software failure occurs on one database server node, the SQL Server database can failover

to the other node with minimal impact to end users. Often end users don’t even notice the slight delay or tempo-rary slow down in performance during the failover process, which takes a matter of seconds.

Simplified management A single point of administration for the cluster and its resources makes the cluster easier to manage than manag-

ing two servers or VMs individually.

The solution architecture blueprint is based on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2,

Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell EqualLogic storage, and Blackboard Learn. The hardware and software components in

the architecture have been tested together and are validated to achieve optimal performance for supporting the two

workloads, Standard and Advanced Sizing configurations for Blackboard Learn.

DELL AND MICROSOFT HIGHLY AVAILABLE ARCHITECTURE FOR BLACKBOARD LEARN™The virtualized highly available architecture from Dell,

Microsoft, and Blackboard offers increased availability

at an affordable price. Delivering the solution on a pure

Microsoft platform enables institutions to deploy the

Blackboard Learn platform in a consistent and scalable

manner with other enterprise solutions that may already

be running on a Microsoft platform.

The solution is built on a robust server and storage archi-

tecture based on virtualized Dell PowerEdge servers with

Intel Xeon Processor E7 family CPUs and Dell EqualLogic

iSCSI and Dell PowerVault CIFS storage systems. The

architecture utilizes server virtualization with Microsoft

Hyper-V to deliver maximum throughput on multicore

Dell PowerEdge servers.

Figure 1 shows a logical representation of the virtualized

architecture. Solution components are deployed across an

application tier, a database tier, and a storage tier. It should

be noted that while this paper provides specific Dell server

and storage recommendations for two Blackboard Learn

configurations, Dell offers numerous server and storage

options. A Dell representative can design a customized

configuration to meet any unique customer requirements.

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VIRTUALIZATION WITH MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2008 R2 HYPER-V

The virtualization infrastructure is implemented

using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-

V, which provides a dynamic, reliable, and scal-

able virtualization platform. It also offers a single

set of integrated management tools to manage

both physical and virtual resources, enabling the

creation of agile and dynamic data centers.

Some of the key features of Hyper-V R2 that

make it a good fit for the Blackboard Learn solu-

tion include:

Virtual Machine Live Migration so that VMs can be migrated from one server to another without disruption.

Support for Cluster Share Volumes (CSV) that enable clustered VMs to easily share a single disk volume.

Dynamic reallocation of memory between different VMs in response to changing workloads.

Integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (SCVMM 2008 R2) for simplified management of both virtual and physical server resources.

Building Availability into the Virtualized Environment For maximum availability, it is recommended to

have at least two physical servers in the archi-

tecture so that the loss of one physical server

will not bring down all instances of the database

nor all application tier instances. Figure 2 shows

an example of how database and application tier

instances can be spread across two Dell Power-

Edge R810 servers to avoid having a single point

of failure.

Dell PowerVault NX3100

Dell EqualLogicPS6000 Family Storage Systems

R2




VM # nMicrosoft SQL Server 2008 R

VM # 1Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R

Dell PowerEdgeR810 Servers

Microsoft Hyper-V

Virtualization

VM # nBlackboard Learn

VM # 1Blackboard Learn

Dell PowerEdgeR810 Servers

Storage Tier

Database Tier

Application Tier

VIRTUALIZED DELL AND MICROSOFT ARCHITECTURE FOR BLACKBOARD LEARN

Dell PowerEdge R810 Server BDell PowerEdge R810 Server A

Virtual Machine # B-2: App Server

8-32 GB memory2-4 Virtual CPU threads

Web/App serverBlackboard Learn

Virtual Machine # B-n: App Server

8-32 GB memory2-4 Virtual CPU threads


Virtual Machine # B-n: Database Server

64-256 GB memory

SQL Server 2008 R2Windows Server 2008 R2

One virtual CPU thread for every two in App tier

Virtual Machine # A-2: App Server

8-32 GB memory2-4 virtual CPU threads


Virtual Machine # A-n: Database Server

64-256 GB memory

SQL Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 R2

One virtual CPU thread for every two in App tier

Virtual Machine # A-1: App Server

8-32 GB memory2 -4 virtual CPU threads


SERVER VIRTUALIZATION FLEXIBILITY

Figure 1: Logical diagram of the solution architecture.

Figure 2: VMs can be deployed across multiple physical servers for maximum availability.

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HOW MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2008 FAILOVER CLUSTERING WORKSSQL Server failover clustering provides high-availability

support for an entire SQL Server instance and is built on

top of an established Windows Server failover cluster.

A Windows Server failover cluster aims to provide high

availability for services or applications that run within the

failover cluster. It contains a group of independent cluster

nodes (physical servers or virtual machines) that work

together to increase the availability of applications and ser-

vices. Failover clustering can protect against hardware and

software failures by failing over resources from one cluster

node to another as required.

Failover is the process of taking a clustered service or

application offline on one node and bringing it back online

on another node. This process is typically transparent to

the users, who should experience a minimal disruption of

service when a failover occurs.

From a logical standpoint, a SQL Server failover cluster

appears on the network as a single SQL Server instance on

a single computer. The cluster nodes even use a common

LUN for accessing shared storage as described in the

storage architecture section below. At any point in time,

only one of the cluster nodes is active and owns the cluster

resource group including the shared storage resources. All

client requests are served by the active SQL Server instance

and the other SQL Server instance is in passive mode until

a failover is initiated.

Failover can be initiated automatically in the event of a failure

(e.g. hardware, operating system, application, or service

failure), or manually such as for a planned upgrade. During

a failover, the ownership of the cluster resource group is

transferred to another node in the cluster. In the case of the

Blackboard Learn database server, only two cluster nodes

are required, so ownership is simply transferred to the other

identically configured database server node.

The Windows Server failover cluster service monitors and

manages the SQL Server 2008 instances and assigns their

network names and IP addresses. A virtual name and IP

address is assigned to the entire cluster resource group,

providing a unique identifier that clients (application

servers) can use to connect to the SQL Server instance

regardless of which node is currently the active instance. As

illustrated in Figure 3, when the resource group fails over,

the virtual name and IP address are redirected to the new

active node. This process is transparent to clients so that

there is no need to change the name or IP address that they

are using to connect to the SQL Server database.

One important new feature of Windows Server 2008 to

improve availability is the removal of the previous depen-

dency on a single shared disk to establish a quorum. In

cluster configurations, the term quorum is used to define

the list of components that must be online for that cluster

to continue running. In Windows Server 2003, a node

could continue participating in the cluster only as long as

it remained in communication with a shared disk known

ClusterSharedStorage

Active Database Server Node Fails

Connections AreRe-established toNew Active Node

BlackboardUsers

Blackboard Application Instances

DatabaseServer Instance # 1

Passive Active

Failover Resultsin Role

Reversal for DB Server

NodesDatabase

Server Instance # 2

ClusterSharedStorage

BlackboardUsers

Blackboard Application Instances


PassiveActive


Figure 3: Database server cluster failover process.

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as the quorum disk. This quorum disk was the same for all

nodes, thus making it a single point of failure. This single

point of failure was removed in Windows Server 2008 by

adding support for four quorum modes that give increased

flexibility for how quorums are established.

The Blackboard Learn database server employs a cluster

of two or more virtual or physical nodes. Each node runs

an instance of the SQL Server database as shown in Figure

2 in the above section. In the event of a failover, users may

notice a brief delay of a few seconds, but can continue their

Blackboard Learn session from wherever they were before

the failover. There is no need for users to login again or to

restart their Blackboard Learn session. If a user is in the

middle of a task during a failover, it will appear completely

seamless with the unlikely loss of connectivity to the appli-

cation or loss of data.

RECOMMENDED DELL SERVER CONFIGURATIONSThe entire solution architecture runs on Dell PowerEdge

R810 servers, which offer outstanding density for virtualized

workloads because of their large memory footprint and

support for up to four, ten-core CPUs from the Intel® Xeon®

processor E7 family. The Intel Xeon processor E7 family sup-

ports hyper-threading technology, which means that each of

the ten CPU cores on a single processor provide two threads.

Thus a single CPU with 10 cores provides 20 CPU threads.

The Dell PowerEdge servers can be configured to support

either a Standard Sizing configuration or an Advanced

Sizing configuration. The Standard Sizing configuration is

recommended for institutions that have minimal deploy-

ment of distance learning or connected classroom initia-

tives (less than 5%). It is designed to balance availability

and performance using cost-effective platforms.

The Advanced Sizing configuration is designed for institu-

tions of varying sizes that are deploying distance learning

programs or connected classroom initiatives to a portion of

their communities. The configuration is designed to deliver

both high-availability and high-performance.

The performance capacity of both the Standard and

Advanced Sizing configurations can be scaled by adding

more VMs with Blackboard Learn application instances to

the application tier and simultaneously increasing the CPU

and memory that is allocated to the database instances.

The same standardized VM is deployed for the application

tier in both configurations. The standardized application

tier VM runs a single Blackboard Learn application instance

and a Web/application server instance, and is configured

with 2-4 CPUs and 8-32 GB of memory. These standardized

VMs are then used as building blocks for adding scalable

performance and availability to the application tier.

Description Standard Sizing Configuration Advanced Sizing Configuration

Requirements for a Single Application Tier VM instance

• 2-4 CPU threads or 1-2 processor cores • 8-32 GB memory

• 2-4 CPU threads or 1-2 processor cores • 8-32 GB memory

Number of VMs in the Application Tier 2-6 6-12

Requirements for each identical Database Tier VM instance

• 1 CPU thread for every 2 CPU threads in the application tier

• 32 GB memory plus 3 GB for every VM in the application tier

• 1 CPU thread for every 2 CPU threads in the application tier

• 32 GB memory plus 3 GB for every VM in the application tier

Number of VMs in the Database Tier 2 2

Total hardware requirements Two Dell PowerEdge R810 servers • Two 10-core Intel Xeon E7 Processors

for a total of 40 CPU threads per server• 64 to 256 GB memory per server

Three Dell PowerEdge R810 servers• Two 10-core Intel Xeon E7 Processors

for a total of 40 CPU threads per server• 64 to 256 GB memory per server

Supported number of concurrent user sessions 20,000 40,000

Table 1: Standard and Advanced Sizing configuration examples.

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Table 1 provides the sizing guidelines for the Standard and

Advanced Sizing configurations. The ranges shown for CPU

threads, memory requirements, and number of VMs in the

application tier indicate the minimum and desired amounts.

The stated user loads supported by each configuration are

based on deployments with four CPU threads and 32 GB of

memory per application tier VM. A total of four such VMs

in the Standard Sizing configuration will support 20,000

concurrent user sessions for a peak hour. A total of eight

such VMs in the Advanced Sizing configuration will support

40,000 concurrent user sessions for a peak hour. A concur-

rent session is a user who has logged into the application

within the last hour.

For sizing the database tier, the rule of thumb is that each

database server instance needs half as many CPU threads

as there are total CPU threads in the application tier and it

needs an additional 3 GB of memory (beyond the base 32

GB) for every VM deployed in the application tier. Thus if

there are four application tier VMs and each application tier

VM is configured with four CPU threads (16 threads total),

the database tier would need 8 CPU threads and at least 44

GB of memory.

STORAGE ARCHITECTUREStorage architecture is a critical design consideration for

Hyper-V cloud solutions. One of the key principles in the

storage architecture of this solution is the use of Cluster

Share Volumes. Volumes that are configured as Cluster

Shared Volumes can be accessed by all nodes of a failover

cluster. This is what enables all Blackboard Learn database

server nodes or VMs to open and manage files on the same

storage volume.

Another key design feature of this storage architecture is

the use of a network attached storage (NAS) gateway. In

this example configuration, the Dell PowerVault NX3100

acts as a front-end to the Dell EqualLogic storage arrays,

enabling them to be accessed via an NFS mount from VMs in

the application tier. The NFS mount enables the Blackboard

Learncontent file system as well as system infrastructure

files such as operating system and VM configuration files to

be accessed via the CIFS protocol.

The Dell EqualLogic storage arrays are also set up as direct

attached storage for the Blackboard Learn database server

VMs. This enables the database server VMs to gain access

to the shared cluster storage via an iSCSI connection.

Cluster Share Volumeswith iSCSI connections

via Hyper-V

NFS exports

Pool of VM serversCommon LUNs for accessing

Cluster Share Volumes

Hyper-V R2

iSCSI connections to Dell EqualLogic

Storage

Dell PowerVaultNX3100

App tier VM containingBlackboard Application Instance



DB tier VM containing Blackboard DB Server Instance

DB tier VM containing Blackboard DB Server Instance

Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage pool

Disk Volume #4Blackboard Content File System

Disk Volume #2Blackboard Database

Disk Volume #nBlackboard Content File System

Disk Volume #3System Infrastructure (Windows OS Images)

Disk Volume #1System Infrastructure (Hyper-V VM Images)

LOGICAL STORAGE ARCHITECTURE

Figure 4 Illustrates the logical design of the storage architecture. The following section explains the Blackboard Learn file systems that are highlighted in the figure.

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Blackboard Learn File SystemsThe Blackboard Learn storage environment consists of three

primary file systems as follows:

Blackboard Learn content file system—This file system con-tains course data that is accessed by teachers and students when using the Blackboard Learn application. The stored artifacts can be large files such as videos or graphics so cost effective storage capacity is important. File access is occasional, making I/O throughput less critical than capac-ity. It is recommended to use high capacity SATA drives for this file system and the storage area must be configured for network access via the CIFS protocol.

Blackboard Learn database—The Blackboard Learn data-base generally requires only about 20% of the capacity of the Blackboard Learn content file system. However, it can have a high volume of I/O activity and thus requires a high performance storage solution, especially when there are more users as in the Advanced Sizing configuration. The storage system used to maintain the database files must have a direct connection to the physical server that houses the Blackboard Learn database.

System infrastructure files—The Blackboard Learn virtual-ized server architecture requires a shared storage area where the Microsoft Windows operating system files and Hyper-V virtual machine images can be maintained. These files do not take up much space, but must have reasonable I/O performance for access by virtual machines in the application tier using the CIFS protocol. It is recommended to place this file system on the same physical storage environment with the Blackboard Learn database.

Description Standard Sizing Configuration Advanced Sizing Configuration

Blackboard Learn database and system infrastructure files

Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV iSCSI SAN Storage• Approximately 3,400 IOPS• Approximately 3.7 TB usable space

with RAID 10

Dell EqualLogic PS6000XVS virtualized iSCSI storage array• Approximately 7,000 IOPS• Approximately 2.5 TB usable space

with RAID 6

Blackboard Learn content file system

Dell EqualLogic PS6000E iSCSI Array • Approximately 1,000 IOPS• Approximately 12.6 TB usable space

with RAID 10

Dell EqualLogic PS6500E iSCSI Array • Approximately 2,600 IOPS• Approximately 18.0 TB usable space

with RAID 5

Network Attached Storage gateway

Dell PowerVault NX3100 Network Attached Storage


Recommended Storage ConfigurationsThere are two primary aspects for sizing the

storage arrays. The arrays must support a high

enough throughput of IOPS (I/O operations per

second) so that the database server or Black-

board Learn application instances will not be idle

waiting for storage. Secondly, the storage arrays

must have enough capacity to store the expected

data files.

Table 2 shows the recommended Dell storage

solutions to match the performance and capacity

needs for Blackboard Learn Standard Sizing and

Advanced Sizing configurations. The Blackboard

Learn database and the system infrastructure files

share the same physical storage array and thus

are listed together in the first row of the table.

However, these file systems will each have their

own volume on the shared storage array.

As mentioned above, a Dell NAS device is used as

a gateway to the Dell EqualLogic storage arrays.

The final row of Table 2 shows the recommended

Dell PowerVault NX3100 network attached

storage system. It communicates with the Dell

EqualLogic storage arrays via the iSCSI protocol

and then presents the appropriate disk volumes to

the application tier via an NFS mount.

Table 2: Storage configuration examples.

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ADDITIONAL BEST PRACTICES AND CONFIGURATION GUIDELINESThe guidelines in this section represent best practices not only for high availability, but also for configuring the environment to

achieve the stated performance for the Standard and Advanced Sizing workloads. The guidelines are listed below by category.

Application Tier Configuration Guidelines Allocate four to 32 GB of memory for the Java Heap

in each VM in the application tier. Most configurations run with eight to 16 GB of heap.

The Blackboard Learn content system files are recom-mended to be stored on a filer on the network rather than in local storage on a server to make it easy to move Blackboard Learn application tier VM instances between servers without having to remount the file systems.

Storage Tier Configuration Guidelines The consolidated storage environment should have

dual connections between all servers and storage devices for high availability

While storage capacity requirements for the Blackboard Learn content file system are significant, access speed is less important. Therefore 7200 or 10K RPM SATA drives are generally sufficient for the Blackboard Learn content file system.

The database files require high performance access. This can either be achieved by using 15,000 RPM SAS drives for the file system containing the database files or by combining solid-state drives (SSDs) with SAS drives such as in the award winning Dell EqualLogic PS6000XVS virtualized iSCSI storage array.

RAID 10 configuration is recommended for the disk drives that store database files.

RAID 5 or RAID 10 can be used for the disk drives that store the Blackboard Learn content file system. In cases where the selected storage solution offers more than adequate I/O throughput, use RAID 5. Otherwise, use RAID 10.

For best database performance, use separate drives (on the same storage device) to store database data files vs. log files and tempdb files. This allows these files to be read/written in parallel (reducing I/O wait time)

Network Configuration Guidelines Servers that will be housing application tier VMs

should have at least two NIC ports dedicated to iSCSI traffic. This provides redundancy for iSCSI com-munication between the Hyper-V R2 hosts and the EqualLogic PS storage array.

Servers that will be housing database server instances should have four NIC ports dedicated to iSCSI traffic.

The unified network storage system should have four NIC ports dedicated to iSCSI traffic and two NIC ports dedicated to NFS file server traffic.

Jumbo frames should be enabled on the network switch.

SUMMARYThis solution architecture blueprint is a result of the combined efforts of Blackboard, Dell, and Microsoft to design a cost

effective virtualized infrastructure that offers high service levels and predictable scalability. Customers can leverage this

solution to:

Reduce risk by deploying a reliable technology infrastructure in which the components have been tested together

Increase uptime through high availability features and a highly available architecture

Protect investments through scalable Dell systems and the ability to leverage a Microsoft infrastructure

Reduce TCO with an affordable approach to high availability and outstanding price/performance

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URL Description

http://www.blackboard.com Blackboard Inc. home page

http://library.blackboard.com/d/?bfb0e63e-4ef7-44de-b86b-86e8c74f6f08

Blackboard Learn Hardware Sizing Guide for Dell Deployments (Release 9.1, June 2010)

http://www.dell.com/hied Dell solutions for higher education

http://www.dell.com/poweredge Dell PowerEdge servers

http://www.dell.com/equallogic Dell EqualLogic PS6000 Series iSCSI SAN array

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/ Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-overview.aspx Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Hardware Component Description

Dell PowerEdge R810 server

The large memory footprint of the Dell PowerEdge R810 server along with advanced reliability and availability features make it a great fit for virtualized environments. These servers, which support up to four, ten-core CPUs from the Intel® Xeon® processor E7 family, are used in both the application tier and the database tier.

Dell EqualLogic PS6000E iSCSI Array

The Dell EqualLogic PS6000E is a virtualized iSCSI SAN that combines intelligence and automation with fault tolerance to provide simplified administration, rapid deployment, enterprise performance and reliability, and seamless scalability. With SATA disk drives the PS6000E delivers good cost-per-Gigabyte with up to 32TB s of storage, making it a good fit for the Blackboard Learn content file system.

Dell EqualLogic PS6500E iSCSI Array

The Dell EqualLogic PS6500E is a high-density, virtualized iSCSI SAN that combines intelligence and automation with fault tolerance to provide simplified administration, rapid deployment, enterprise performance and reliability, and seamless scalability. With the lowest cost-per-GB in the EqualLogic line, the EqualLogic PS6500E provides up to 48TB of SATA storage in a dense 4U chassis, making it a good fit for storing the Blackboard Learn content file system for Advanced Sizing configurations.

Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV iSCSI SAN Storage

The Dell EqualLogic PS5000XV array is a virtualized iSCSI SAN solution that combines intelligence and automation with fault tolerance to provide simplified administration, rapid deployment, enterprise performance and reliability, and seamless scalability. With 15,000 RPM SAS disk drives and automated load balancing, the PS6000XV array is an ideal SAN platform for the database server in the standard configuration.

Dell EqualLogic PS6000XVS iSCSI Storage Array

The PS6000XVS virtualized iSCSI storage array is ideal for optimizing responsiveness of I/O intensive applications such as the Blackboard Learn database server. It provides intelligent data tiering within the array by combining low-latency solid-state drives (SSDs) with performance-sensitive 15,000 rpm SAS hard disks to deliver more IOPS.


The Dell PowerVault NX3100 is a unified network storage solution that simultaneously stores both file and application data. It can be used as an integrated storage solution or a NAS gateway and is deployed in this solution architecture as a NAS gateway connecting to the Dell EqualLogic storage systems to enable access by application tier VMs.

Table 3: Web Links for Additional Information.

Table 4: Recommended Server and Storage Components.

For More InformationTo find out more about Blackboard, Dell, and Microsoft offerings for highly available online learning solutions, contact a

Blackboard representative or visit the Web sites listed in Table 3 below.

APPENDIX A—HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE COMPONENT DESCRIPTIONSTables 4 and 5 describe the recommended hardware and software components within the solution architecture.

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registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Blackboard products and services may be covered U.S. Patent 7,816,878.

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Software Component Description Version

Blackboard Learn software

All Blackboard Learn license holders install the same Blackboard Learn software. The available capabilities are controlled by the institution license. In addition to Blackboard Learn course delivery capabilities, the following capabilities are available to be licensed: community engagement, content management, and outcomes assessment.

Release 9.1

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 is a scalable operating system with high performance, availability and security for mission-critical applications, as well as built-in, enhanced Web capabilities and virtualization technology. New features and tools for virtualization include an updated version of Hyper-V with Live Migration and Dynamic Memory, Remote Fx in Remote Desktop Services, improved power management, and added features with Windows 7 integration such as BranchCache and Direct Access.

2008 R2 with SP1

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper V

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V provides a dynamic, reliable, and scalable virtualization platform combined with a single set of integrated management tools to manage both physical and virtual resources, enabling the creation of agile and dynamic data centers.

2008 R2

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is a reliable, scalable platform for supporting data consistency and developer efficiency. It furnishes support for virtualization through Hyper-V with Live Migration in Windows Server 2008 R2.

2008 R2 Standard Edition

Table 5: Key Software Components.

Technology

Bb sql serverdell