Case study: centralized management of server virtualization in the oilfield industry

Server virtualization technology allows a physical server to simulate multiple servers and run multiple operating systems at the same time by working together with hardware and software, all of its applications can run in mutually independent spaces without affecting each other, thus significantly improving the computer's work efficiency. After several years of development, many enterprises began to see the benefits of running multiple virtual server application systems on a single physical server: improved resource utilization and accelerated server deployment, the number of devices to be managed is reduced, and management costs are also reduced. The usage space, power consumption, and daily maintenance costs of the data center are all reduced.
 
Currently, server virtualization technology has been widely used, including all Fortune 100 enterprises. Because of the complexity of oilfield informatization construction and the history of scattered construction in the past, the security and efficiency brought by virtualization technology have not yet been very successful in the petroleum industry, it is still in the stage of exploration and practice.
 
In the process of oilfield informatization construction, due to the scattered investment, construction, and equipment purchase by each second-level unit, servers and storage equipment are usually configured according to extreme conditions when each second-level unit purchases equipment, as a result, the efficiency of servers and storage devices is not high, and resources are wasted heavily. The phenomenon of "malong" is common. According to statistics, the average usage of oilfield servers only reaches 10% ~ 20%. The current situation of decentralized investment and management not only makes it difficult to share infrastructure resources, but also makes it difficult to effectively use system performance and greatly consumes energy. At the same time, the hardware infrastructure of each level-2 unit needs to be maintained by technical personnel, resulting in high labor and material costs. However, the technical level of each unit varies, making infrastructure management more difficult, it is difficult to make full use of the role of infrastructure in information construction.
 
The scattered deployment and management of oilfield information infrastructure also provides a hotbed for the scattered construction and repeated investment of oilfield information systems to some extent, so that some information systems are physically dispersed. From the perspective of technology and management, backup Management of oilfield exploration and development data is difficult to ensure the operation of applications. It is difficult to achieve effective management such as information resource and application service status monitoring and resource dynamic allocation, not only does the information application have security risks, but it is not conducive to the overall consideration and unified construction of the oilfield professional information system.
 
According to IBM statistics, after virtualization implementation, the integration of infrastructure can reduce the cost of software and hardware by 40%, and the average server utilization is from 5% ~ 15% to 60% ~ 80%. The operating costs of data center space, cabinets, network cables, power consumption, air-conditioning, and manpower will also be reduced by 70% ~ 80%.
 
1. Feasibility Analysis of centralized management of oilfield Server Virtualization
 
Virtualization technology is the key technology of green IT and the development direction of efficient storage and server management. is the basic network conditions and information system operation requirements of the oilfield suitable for the virtualization environment?
 
1.1 information system virtualization support feasibility analysis
 
Taking Dagang Oilfield as an example, information applications mainly include portals and integrated management systems (such as contracts, documents, and project management) professional information systems (such as real-time log data transmission, professional logging database systems, professional logging database systems, analysis and testing database systems, and oil and water well data collection systems ). For most information systems, the user concurrency is not large, the data volume transmitted over a single connection is large, and the interaction time between the client and the server is short. If the server is centrally deployed in the oilfield information center data center, powered by virtual machines, There is no network bottleneck or inconvenience in the operation and maintenance of various information systems in the network conditions of the Gigabit trunk and MB desktop in Dagang Oilfield, in addition, the oilfield information center data center provides standard data center environmental conditions and technical strength-intensive system O & M support, and virtualization technology framework deployment is more conducive to efficient and rational application, this ensures that the system is not shut down.
 
1.2 Basic conditions for virtualization implementation
 
The Dagang Oilfield data center has two advanced standard data centers, east and west. The new data center has the service capability to accommodate 350 new servers; the temperature and humidity conditions of the data center are strictly controlled, and the power supply mechanism is sound. The data center in the east and west regions is connected with 72-core optical fiber cables, and the network is smooth. The data center is centrally planned for the east and west regions, integrated logical management creates conditions.
 
Data Centers in the east and west regions are the two core nodes of the oilfield enterprise network. They and the nodes of the underground operation company constitute the core of the Oilfield Enterprise Network loop. Almost all Oilfield Enterprise Network Internet access units use gigabit optical fiber access loops, key Enterprise Network Access units have established redundant links for different access points. there is basically no bottleneck between all enterprise network users and data links of storage servers through Gigabit Optical fiber cables.
 
Firewalls and intrusion monitoring equipment are deployed at the data center egress. through precise and effective security policies, data and information systems are stolen and damaged outside the data center, in addition, Server Load balancer equipment is deployed to facilitate Load Balancing for key systems (such as DNS resolution) and ensure 24-hour service for these systems.
 
1.3 successful centralized management experience
 
Before the reorganization of Dagang Oilfield Company, the portal systems of all units of the Group Company were uniformly deployed in the Information Center. The portal operated smoothly and the applications of various units were also very good. A1 (Oilfield Exploration Database Management) nearly 100 application systems and nearly 50 comprehensive management systems related to exploration and development such as A2 (oilfield development database management) system, and QHSE are currently centrally deployed in data centers in the west and Eastern regions of the information center, the vast majority of systems provide uninterrupted services 24 hours a day. In the past few years, there have been almost no system downtime or other problems caused by the network conditions and equipment room conditions involved in centralized deployment. The implementation of the oilfield virtualization project not only provides stable network and Equipment Room conditions, but also creates more convenient conditions for flexible management and resource control.
 
The oilfield information center has 10 professional technicians responsible for storage and server management. They not only have professional theoretical knowledge, but also have rich experience in daily storage and server management, at the same time, after years of practical training, in dealing with emergencies, its psychological quality is high, skilled. In short, the current situation of Dagang Oilfield already has full technical strength and physical conditions for unified management of storage and server virtualization within the oilfield.
 
2. conception of the implementation scheme
 
2.1 construction principles
 
Following the principles of unified planning, unified investment, and unified construction, a centralized management platform for virtual servers in Dagang Oilfield is built through centralized and scale construction. This platform is designed for oilfield-specific purposes and centrally shares server resources, on-demand allocation and dynamic management. Through centralized construction, management and use, the goal of reducing total IT investment and total system operation and maintenance expenditure is realized.
 
2.2 Key Points of centralized server virtualization solution
 
Server virtualization technology is a set of solutions. Its core is to use computer parallel technology to unify the resource logic of multiple physical servers, supporting technologies that require a large amount of CPU processing capabilities, such as seismic processing and reservoir modeling, and computing tasks that are hard to implement by a single physical server.
 
Deepen the application of virtualization, parallel computing and other technologies. Under the current large-scale virtualization platform framework, the overall needs of the oilfield are comprehensively considered, and the Dagang Oilfield is an organic whole. Based on the information construction needs, purchase, replace, and upgrade servers and storage resources in a planned and unified manner, and establish a centralized virtualized server support environment.
 
Build a virtualization centralized platform composed of fiber disk arrays, redundant fiber switches, and high-performance Server clusters. Coordinate Management and Policy Formulation and optimization through a unified control platform, it enables dynamic sharing and allocation of CPU, memory, I/O, and other resources at any time and on demand within the oilfield.
 
By effectively combining the cluster technology and virtualization features of servers, the continuous (7d) availability of key information application systems can be achieved, such as real-time logging collection, digital oilfield, upstream production, professional database, and on-site monitoring. Taking the on-site log transfer as an example, in the past, the system was deployed on the underlying database, receiving service, WEB application service, or independently installed on the physical server. Once a physical server encounters a problem, this will inevitably affect data transmission and monitoring and analysis by technicians and leaders on the drilling process. If you deploy clusters and Disaster Tolerance in the traditional way, you will not only need to invest double hardware and cluster software, it also makes the complexity of the system architecture significantly increase the management difficulty. Using the virtual server technology, failover between servers and fast application taking over are easy to implement. Through simple management, real-time log transfer can be easily implemented without downtime for such applications.
 
By using server virtualization technology, resources are shared by pools to achieve real dynamic sharing and smooth operation, greatly improving infrastructure utilization. Dynamic Management through the virtualization platform, this makes it easier to deploy information systems and brings the construction and use of information infrastructure in Dagang Oilfield to a virtuous circle, avoid the hardware model, performance, and difficulty of unified planning caused by irregular hardware purchases every year.
 
2.3 Difficulties in implementing Server Virtualization
 
The virtualization implementation difficulties of Dagang Oilfield exist in two aspects: one is the technical framework and scale planning of virtualization construction; the other is the implementation process and O & M management after implementation.
 
Virtualization management is recognized as the key. Faced with the management of virtual servers, many enterprise IT administrators have found that a considerable portion of their accumulated theoretical and practical experience in the traditional system and hardware fields have been lost. After the implementation of the virtualization project, the storage, server, and information system constitute an integral whole and effectively manage this system, it involves knowledge about storage server hardware, storage and system management, and database. The work in each link is highly relevant. It requires O & M personnel to have a variety of knowledge, comprehensive application capabilities, and emergency response experience. In a virtual server environment, system administrators must also consider all applications and processes running on physical servers, such tasks, such as system restart or patch distribution, should be arranged at non-production time as far as possible, because such operations may affect all virtual servers running on the physical server system. It can be said that in addition to the professional knowledge required by IT management personnel, virtual server management requires a wealth of system management experience.
 
3. Conclusion
 
Virtualization refers to the transformation of physical resources into logically manageable resources to break the barriers between physical structures and apply virtualization technology, it can help the oilfield solve three key problems-safety, performance and cost.
 
From the security perspective, the successful implementation of Virtualization has integrated all the systems and data of the entire Oilfield Company, eliminating the risk of data theft or data loss at the device level; virtualization technology provides a more powerful backup system, so the enterprise's disaster tolerance backup and recovery capabilities are also significantly enhanced.
 
The implementation of server virtualization is beneficial to the improvement of oilfield information system performance. Application virtualization technology can centrally deploy key application systems on fiber-optic storage with excellent performance, and all server resources can be fully utilized, at the same time, in the process of information system construction, the new system can be launched within several minutes or hours to provide services quickly. In short, the implementation of server virtualization will greatly promote the construction of oilfield informatization. Of course, it also puts forward higher requirements for fine management of servers, systems, and databases.