A new storage solution for IMAS - Group Van Genechten Packaging

The Challenge

IMAS is the central services subsidiary of Group Van Genechten, a major pan-European offset printing converter in paper, board and micro-flute packaging as well as a supplier of packaging solutions and machines. After deciding to migrate to an Oracle environment - to reduce costs and support their future needs -, IMAS needed to implement a powerful storage and back-up system that would be able to ensure the continuity and quality of the service that their mainframe was providing to them, and that would prove as reliable as the mainframe. Moreover, to keep pace with the ever rising storage requirements of digital printing, they needed to invest in a very powerful storage system.

The Implementation

The NAS solution went live in July 2002 and worked exactly as expected. The NAS implementation was carried out very quickly and in a structured way following the Fujitsu Services’ project methodology, without disruption to the service.

The Solution

To provide IMAS with the best possible file storage solution, the relative merits of a number of alternative solutions were debated, the option chosen by IMAS was a NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution based on leading-edge hardware from Network Appliance. This solution was selected because of the advanced features of the SNAP/Restore® Filer that would enable IMAS to take a snapshot of the disks content, enabling them to reduce downtime to its minimum during database maintenance. Another requirement was that the capacity of the NAS system had to reach almost 1 Terabyte. Finally, the requested solution had to be very scalable with capacity being added gradually in line with IMAS' needs. IMAS also wished to install a very fast back-up system and an archiving solution that would enable on-line availability of large quantities of data on disks instead of tape libraries.

The project was divided into 3 main stages:

Stage 1: The first stage consisted of transferring the Oracle database onto the NAS and in creating a separate network to ensure the highest level of access performance to the Filer. To ensure data security, Fujitsu Services also installed the "NetVault" fast back-up solution from Bakbone during this stage. Fujitsu Services provided IMAS with Bakbone's "NetVault" back-up solution because it could be integrated seamlessly with Network Appliance hardware by making use of their Filer functionality (NDMP protocol). "NetVault" was also the ideal solution because it was scalable, very powerful and could meet the needs of data back-up/restore to disk.

Stage 2: The second stage was to implement Oracle RAC on 3 Linux servers to enhance scalability and availability.

Stage 3: The objective of the third phase was to implement "NearStore", the archiving solution from Network Appliance with a capacity of 7 terabytes raw. "NearStore" was selected because it offered cost-effective and fast-access storage for IMAS online backup and archiving. "NearStore" complemented and improved IMAS' existing tape backup processes by inserting economical and simple-to-use disk-based storage between application storage and tape libraries, in a two-stage backup configuration. Network Appliance and Bakbone are privileged partners of Fujitsu Services Belgium because of their unique technology, flexibility, can-do attitude and very fast turnaround times.

The Benefits

As a result of Fujitsu's design and implementation of the Oracle RAC and NAS solutions, IMAS is now benefiting from:

• Enhanced scalability and availability of enterprise applications
• Increased data availability
• Minimum service disruption for maintenance
• A future-growth path
• Increased Return on Investment thanks to optimisation of storage capacity
• Cost reduction through centralised storage and management

The Expertise

IMAS chose to work with Fujitsu because of a longstanding working relationship with Fujitsu Services in Belgium and their good experience with the quality of their existing services. Fujitsu's proven expertise in large-scale, mission-critical IT system “Consulting, Design, Building and Operation” was also part of the decision. Thanks to its end-to-end IT skills, Fujitsu Services was considered as the ideal partner for taking up the challenge of ensuring continutity of the mission-critical production plant databases during the new storage system implementation.