[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Using an Ubuntu (or KTL) server for Evergreen

[Sharp, Chris]

Hi Don,

> At my library, I've been pushing for many months to get an Evergreen
> installation up and running, so that we can give it a test drive. At
> one point we were told that a dedicated server would become available
> this month, but a new use has been found for it. Now the proposal from
> our IT department is to "use an Ubuntu (or TKL) virtual server" which
> apparently cannot be put in place until the Summer or Fall of this
> year. As a cataloger, I interpret the phrase "use an Ubuntu (or TKL)
> virtual server" as "wawa wawa wa wa wa wawa".
> 
> So here are my questions. Does the use of a virtual server make sense?
> Are there problems we need to know about before moving this direction?

Others can speak to the details better than I, but there are no problems running Evergreen on a virtual server as long as it is configured correctly.  Since you're just testing at this point, I would think setting it up on a virtual machine would be ideal.  Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution and would work fine as an OS platform (I would recommend Ubuntu server 10.04 LTS).  I'm not sure what "TKL" means in this context.

> How much time would it take for an IT professional to create this
> installation? 

For someone familiar with Linux, it would probably just take part of a day to install the OS and build the Evergreen server.  There are also pre-configured virtual images of Evergreen at: http://evergreen-ils.org/downloads.php (under "Other versions of Evergreen software") which should just work once installed.

> How much IT time would be involved in maintaining the
> system? 
> What alternate methods are available that might minimize IT
> involvement so we can start testing in a more timely manner with our
> own settings, parameters and live data? Please don't get the wrong
> impression. Our IT group is terrific. They are just under tremendous
> pressure and a lot of their time has to be spent putting out fires.

A test system or a production system?  In either case it would depend largely on the Linux/SQL database/system administration skills of your IT team.  If you end of running Evergreen in a production environment, you would almost certainly need a full-time system administrator to address everyday problems with Linux/IT support in the wings for more serious issues.

> Will this give a realistic test of Evergreen's capabilities?

This is a tricky question to answer.  Evergreen is a scalable solution that will work in a virtual machine on a laptop or in the 40-server-large PINES production cluster.  You're really only limited by your hardware (and if you're willing to virtualize servers, that even reduces the hardware requirements).

> Even though this might start out as a test, if it is successful, I am
> hoping to move the technical services components directly into full
> production. So if it is possible, it would be good to start out with a
> testing environment that can become a permanent environment. But that
> is not a deal breaker. Depending on the cost, at some point we might
> be interested in a cloud solution. The bib records we have on our
> server now is probably in the 700,000 range. Any insights you might
> have would be very much appreciated. If the answers are too technical
> for me, I do have access to some interpreters. Besides, I did once
> stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

I think the biggest factor on what sorts of hardware (real or virtual) you would need is transaction load.  If you run Evergreen over a couple of servers (for redundancy's sake if nothing else) and the system load is too high and response is slow, that would tell you that you need more.  You might chat with your IT folks about how to perform actual load testing.  You wouldn't want to take a system that worked fine in test with just a few users and put it into production where  lines of patrons at the desk plus others searching the catalog from outside locations might bring the whole thing down.  (This actually happened in PINES the day Evergreen debuted, so this is not just conjecture ;-)).

The other thing I'll say is that you would want someone with technical skill to "own" this project.  It sounds like you have the interest in getting it going, so what you'll need to find is someone who can work closely with you on implementing and supporting it.  I mentioned a full-time sys admin, but even a part-time person (or you might even see if some of your seminary students would want to help?) would work okay with a sane hardware setup IMHO.

Feel free to come back with more questions.

> Don
> 
> Don Butterworth
> Faculty Associate / Librarian III
> B.L. Fisher Library
> Asbury Theological Seminary
> (859) 858-2227
> don.butterworth at asburyseminary.edu

-- 
Chris Sharp
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, Georgia 30345
(404) 235-7147
csharp at georgialibraries.org
http://pines.georgialibraries.org/