By placing an outdated, Windows-NT based production system on virtual servers, a chemical maker alleviates the immediate need for major expenditure
Chemical maker Baerlocher USA uses VMware server virtualization software to remedy problems with a outdated production system based on Windows NT 4.0 operating system.
To run its plastic-additives business, Baerlocher uses process-automation software dubbed Freelance from Swedish company ABB to help it crank out chemical additives — the stuff that makes plastic shiny, heat resilient, hard or soft — for seven production lines in its Cincinnati plant. The system operates 24/7/365, running on two Windows NT 4.0 servers, 10 workstations, eight controllers and hundreds of electronic components, says Oliver Fischer-Samano, IT director for the German company’s NAFTA region, comprising the United States, Canada and Mexico. Downtime isn’t an option, so only rudimentary backups are possible, given the always-on plant operation.
Here’s the rub: The whole production environment is well past its prime — and has been for years — but corporate management hasn’t approved the capital expenditure yet required to bring in a modern-age system. “Not only do we need to do a software upgrade, but also there’s a huge chunk of hardware that needs to be replaced, and the electronics, and a lot of engineering. We’re talking about seven-digit replacement costs, and nobody wants to bankroll that — I’ve tried for the past three years,” Fischer-Samano says.
Fischer-Samano, however, has come to realize that virtualization technology will obviate the need for all of this. Plus, it will let him embrace best practices he knows have been sorely missing but impossible to implement, given the current state of affairs. Baerlocher earns a 2007 Enterprise All-Star Award for exemplifying how virtualization can be used to solve IT’s thorniest challenges.
Trouble from the get-go
Baerlocher’s troubles started almost as soon as the company brought the production system online, says Fischer-Samano, who was hired seven years ago to oversee that implementation plus an SAP rollout. Difficulty in analyzing component failure was one perennial issue, and lack of support from ABB was another.
While he was able to finesse the system’s management over the years, things got much dicier when Microsoft retired Windows NT 4.0 in 2004. Hardware doesn’t last long in Baerlocher’s plant, because of the highly abrasive chemicals in use and the extreme temperatures characteristic of Midwestern summers and winters, he says. Finding servers that could run NT had become increasingly difficult over the years and now is nearly impossible. “Last year, we actually had to buy replacement driver parts on eBay,” he says.
By early this year, the IT situation was nothing short of horrific, Fischer-Samano says. He had to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation — and quick.
A lightbulb-flash moment came earlier this year, as Fischer-Samano listened to a VMware marketing spiel, he says. As the presenter talked about the hardware-independent nature of virtual machines, the notion took shape that he could apply this technology to his NT dilemma. (He was no stranger to virtualization, having embraced it already for its classic function — to consolidate secondary servers running nonmission-critical applications — using Microsoft Virtual Server. Until then, however, he hadn’t thought of the technology in relation to his obsolete operating system, he says.)
He theorized that by creating a snapshot of the existing production environment — including NT — he could turn it into one big, virtual system that he then could run on modern hardware. Plus, he thought, he’d get loads of other best-practices advantages, such as being able to do regular backups, ensure disaster recoverability and – through VMware’s automatic failover – achieve a high level of resiliency. “We’d get all the things you can only dream about if you’re running an old system like NT 4,” he says.
Virtualization to the rescue
Using VMware Infrastructure 3 software on three new, multiprocessor Dell servers — two for the production system and the third mostly for load balancing and failover — Fischer-Samano placed the servers in his controlled data center rather than in the harsh manufacturing facility. Plant personnel would access the remotely located production machines via virtual desktops running on IGEL Technology thin clients. DataCore Software’s SANmelody software would place point-in-time snapshots of the production environment on virtualized storage, he explains.
Of course, the move to virtualization hasn’t been without its headaches. For example, ABB requires that software licensing keys be downloaded via a parallel USB or serial plug. “Naturally, hardware downloads are a big problem for any virtualization software, because you don’t have any real hardware, so you must figure out how to map that through. It’s possible, but causes lots of other issues,” Fischer-Samano says. Fixing this problem required close cooperation with the vendors, he adds.
Another huge challenge has been the discrepancy between the NT versions supported by ABB and VMware. ABB’s Freelance system requires NT 4.0 Service Pack 5, while the VMware drivers use Service Pack 6a. Fischer-Samano says he has two options for fixing the problem, and has tested each enough to feel comfortable that the virtualized infrastructure will work well regardless.
He expects to have the NT versioning problem and any other remaining kinks worked out before the virtual system goes live next month. The cutover will happen coincident with inventory-related downtime planned by the plant’s production managers.
Implementing virtualization for its production servers will cost Baerlocher about $45,000 — a far cry from what the company would need to spend on a system upgrade, Fischer-Samano says. That would add up to more than $1.5 million in spending on a new production system and associated training costs. Plus, he figures the company will suffer no lost business — roughly $500,000 worth — as production lines sit idle during an upgrade.
“Theoretically, virtualization will allow us to run ABB Freelance for the next 10 years — as long as VMware continues supporting NT 4,” Fischer-Samano says. “But what’s that to IT? We’re not planning to keep it for that long, but instead maybe two to five years. At some point, I’ll be back pushing for a system upgrade.”
Until then, Baerlocher has an environment that allows for lots of give-and-take.
“The good thing is, now that we have virtual machines, we can just make copies and test in a virtual environment without risking production,” Fischer-Samano says. “That’s a dream when you’re working on these kinds of things — you can work with different drivers or do different service-pack installations, for example.”
And that, Fischer-Samano says, will help him keep Baerlocher’s U.S. operations pumping out its plastic additives.
