Danish Technical University
Consolidated standard UNIX applications like
Mathematica and Mathlab from HP workstations/servers/x-terminals to Sun
Enterprise servers and Sun Ray appliances
Industry/Market
Products/Services
- Sun™ Enterprise™ 6500 server
- Sun Enterprise 4500 servers
- Sun Enterprise 250 servers
- Sun Enterprise 220R servers
- Sun Ray™ 1 and Sun Ray 150 appliances provide access to mathematical applications,
Web browsers, office productivity tools, and other applications.
Key Results
- Greatly simplified administration and very low maintenance costs
- Improved performance
- A solution based on open standards that provides interoperability with other systems at the university
- Students benefit from access to reliable, scalable, high-performanceservers
Danish Technical University (DTU) is the leading center of engineering
education and research in Denmark, and is one of Northern Europe's
largest technical universities. DTU offers studies in many engineering
disciplines, including chemistry, electronics, mathematics, mechanics,
computer science and informatics.
Historically, DTU is known for H.C.rsted's studies of electromagnetism and
Niels Bohr's pioneering work in nuclear
physics. DTU continues this tradition of
technical excellence, educating new generations of engineers and researchers.
Today, approximately 6,000 students are
enrolled in bachelor's and master's
degree programs, with an additional 625
students working towards their Ph.D's.
The university employs a teaching and
research staff of approximately 1,250
and has another 650 employees on its
technical and administrative staff.
DTU is committed to providing a first-rate
technical education for its students.
Leaders at DTU believe that the basic pu
pose of a research university is to obtain
and pass on knowledge. They recognize
that technology is an essential component of a superior engineering education,
and part of their mission statement outlines their commitment to help ensure
that staff and students have access to
state-of-the art equipment.
Aging Computer Lab Needs Upgrade
The aging computer lab in the DTU mathematics department was far from
state-of-the-art, containing a mix of seven year old HP workstations,
servers, and X-terminals with only 66 seats for students. Approximately
half of these units were located in auditoriums and used as part of
class instruction. The remaining systems were used by students for
class exercises and lab work. Students used standard UNIX™-based applications
like Mathematica and MathLab for mathematical analysis, statistics,
and other related course work. The mixed X-terminal solution had
served DTU's math lab well, but the equipment was old and slow. In
addition, technical staff at DTU needed up-to-date software development
tools, particularly for Java™ technology. It was time to replace the
aging equipment with a new solution.
DTU wanted to continue to provide access
to the same applications, while expand
ing the number of available seats. High
performance for running demanding
mathematical applications was important, as was high availability that would
allow students to complete their assignments on time.
Administrators had low cost and simplified administration as primary requirements of the new solution. They aimed to
replace their complicated mix of multiple
servers, workstation, and X-terminals with
a simpler configuration that required less
attention from system administrators.
Support for open standards was an additional prerequisite for DTU. Their new
solution had to integrate easily into their existing network and
interoperate with other
servers and workstations
currently in use.
A Search for Best Technology, Open Standards, and Low Cost
Henrik Madsen, Professor
of Statistics at DTU,
played a key role in
researching and selecting
the new infrastructure for the mathematics
department's computer lab. He describes their
decision making process, "First, we simply
called in several computer companies and
looked at what they could offer and which
technology they had."
They quickly ruled out a fat-client PC or work-
station solution because of the anticipated
overwhelming support costs. According to
Madsen, "We have only two or three people to
service all of our users. We could not go to a
workstation or PC because that would clearly
increase our administration cost dramatically.
We couldn't afford such a solution."
"We could not go to a workstation or PC
because that would clearly increase our administration cost
dramatically. We couldn't afford such a solution."
Henrik Madsen
Professor of Statistics
Danish Technical
University |
Sun Seen as the Leader in Technology
As a prestigious center of engineering education and research, it is imperative to DTU that
they provide students with access to leading
technology. And DTU viewed Sun as a leader
in technology, a company with a vision for the
future. DTU was already familiar with Sun's
high-performance servers. They appreciated
the servers' high levels of reliability, as well as
performance and scalability. In addition, they
liked the support for Java technology and
other software development tools available on
the Sun platform. And they were particularly
impressed with Sun's new desktop platform -
the Sun Ray™ appliance - with its innovative
architecture, Hot Desk technology, and use of
smart cards.
Sun's ongoing commitment to open standards was also significant to
DTU's choice of vendors. Madsen explains, "One of the main reasons
for buying from Sun is that we feel that they are among the companies
which really represent open standards." He continues, "We want to
buy the best computer equipment and the best software solutions. We
want to be able to mix it. And we are able to do that with Sun today."
Sun Ray Appliances Chosen As Next Generation Desktop Solution
After reviewing the current technology and
available products, DTU determined that Sun
Ray appliances were the best choice for their
next generation desktop solution. In this innovative design by Sun, all processing occurs on
one of the three central servers, with the Sun
Ray appliances used only for input and output.
Sun Ray appliances require zero administration - all configuration is performed on a
centralized server, simplifying administration
and eliminating the need to configure each
desktop. Administrators gain increased security and greater control over the user environment, because storage and applications
remain centralized. Users can easily and
securely share desktops - nothing is stored
locally on the individual appliances - so
there is no danger of changing someone else's
environment or corrupting another's files.
Users also benefit from the inherent performance and reliability of powerful Sun servers,
and they enjoy a more comfortable work environment with the Sun Ray appliances' fanless,
noise-free enclosure and sharp, 24-bit color
images. Madsen says, "The Sun Ray solution
provides an optimal environment for work
and study activities since it is compact, makes
no noise, and emits very little heat. Many
students have expressed that they absolutely
prefer working in the Sun Ray appliance labs
compared to the Linux/PC labs."
Sun Ray appliances also deliver Sun's innovative Hot Desk technology, which enables users
to instantly access their own personal desktop
and work-in-progress from anywhere in the
workgroup. Smart cards, similar in size to a
credit card, can be used to provide secure
access to the system and enable easy mobility.
Users can withdraw their smart card to stop
mid-sentence in an application, and then continue where they left off by simply re-inserting
the smart card into any unit in the same
workgroup.
Sun Ray Appliances in Danish Technical University
320 Sun Ray 1 and Sun Ray 150 appliances are
in use at DTU in computer labs, classrooms,
and auditoriums. Two Sun Enterprise™ 250
servers and three Sun Enterprise 220R servers,
each configured with two 400 MHz processors
and 2 GB of memory, provide service for the
desktop appliances. The Sun Ray servers are
configured so if one server fails, the Sun Ray
users on that server will be transferred to
another server automatically. Switched 100
Mbit Ethernet is delivered to each desktop
appliance while the servers utilize Gigabit
Ethernet connections, providing a high quality
of service.
A Sun Enterprise 6500 server, configured with
24 400 MHz processors and 24 GB of memory,
and two Sun Enterprise 4500 servers, configured with 12 400 Mhz CPUs and 12 GB memory, are connected to the local area network
and operate as compute servers for the Sun
Ray appliances. The Sun Enterprise 6500
server also acts as a primary file server, with
two Sun StorEdge™ D1000 disk arrays configured with sixteen 18 GB disks.
Auditoriums in the physics and mathematics
departments are equipped with the all-in-one
Sun Ray 150 model which has the Sun Ray
appliance built into a 15" flat panel monitor
with a projector port. The appliances are
connected to video projector, allowing entire
classes to follow along as instructors use advanced applications
and software-based demonstrations to reinforce complex topics.
Smart cards allow users to take
their session with them between
classes, laboratories, and auditoriums allowing secure access and
increased mobility for students
and faculty.
Users at DTU rely on the Sun Ray
appliances for a wide variety of
applications. Students and other
users employ the appliances to
access the World Wide Web, running Netscape browsers as well as
chat sessions and Internet radio
and television applications. For
their course work, Forte™ C++ and
mathematical applications like
Mathematica and Matlab are
used. Office productivity tools - StarOffice™
software, data warehousing tools - SAS and
SPlus, and assorted graphics applications are
also accessed with the Sun Ray appliances.
"I am sure that the future belongs to a
system like Sun Ray appliances."
Henrik Madsen
Professor of Statistics
Danish Technical
University
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Network Configuration Details
The private interconnect is implemented
using one 12-port 3Com Gigaswitch switch
and eleven 24-port stackable 10/100 Mbps
switches (3Com SuperStack II Model 3300).
The Sun Enterprise 250 and 220R servers connect to the 12-port switch using a Gigabit link.
This switch then connects with the 3Com
3300s over a 1 Gigabit link. The Sun Ray appliances access the servers through the 3Com
3300 switches and a 100 Mbit line. Where
there are more than 24 Sun Ray appliances in
one location, two 3Com 3300 switches are
used. The first switch is connected to a second
switch at the rear of the switch, called the
matrix port, which provides 1 Gbps of inter-
switch communication bandwidth and 100
Mbps bandwidth to the desktop.
The Sun Enterprise servers are all connected
to the local area network backbone. All other
existing servers at DTU are also connected to
the backbone, providing Sun Ray appliance
users with full access to these servers as well.High-speed Internet access is also available
through the local area network, connecting Sun
Ray appliance users to the World Wide Web.
Sun Ray Appliances Provide an Excellent Computer Lab Environment
Sun Ray appliances have successfully fulfilled the
needs of DTU. According to Professor Madsen,
the new Sun Ray appliances have delivered on
their promise and he gives high marks to their
very low maintenance costs and easy system
administration, high performance, and uptime.
DTU had sought an open solution, and they are
pleased with the Sun Ray system, citing its flexibility and ability to interoperate well with other
systems on the campus.
Administrators and teachers aren't the only ones happy with the new
arrangements. Users now have better performance for their demanding
applications, which run on the high-performance Sun Enterprise servers.
Professor Madsen credits the Sun Ray architecture, which leverages
the shared resources and the inherent reliability, availability, and
scalability of Sun servers to deliver enterprise computing performance
to the desktop. In addition to better performance, this architecture
allows DTU to more effectively upgrade and scale the performance as
needed, by adding more memory or faster CPUs on the centralized servers
and having all users automatically benefit at each desktop appliance.
Users gain access to powerful, scalable, and reliable servers while
the university benefits with economics unmatched by general-purpose
desktop platforms.
When asked what advice he could offer his colleagues at other universities, Professor Madsen
responds with a strong recommendation for Sun
Ray appliances, "I think they should take a look
at a system where the administration is very low,
where researchers can spend their time on the
research and not on computer maintenance, and
where the investment can be protected." He
continues, "I'm sure that the future belongs to a
system like Sun Ray appliances."
Sun Ray appliances bring leading technology to
the desktop at DTU. This highly innovative
approach to desktop computing addresses DTU's
pressing need for simplified administration and
low-cost maintenance without compromising
performance. Sun's Hot Desk technology simplifies desktop management by centralizing it at a
single location where it can be more easily and
economically managed. Because the appliances
never require upgrades and they efficiently share
expensive resources, the Sun Ray architecture
keeps the total cost of ownership low.
DTU has a long history of technical excellence
as the leading center of engineering education
and research in Denmark. For over fifteen years,
Sun has also maintained a history of innovation
in computing and networking and technology.
Together, DTU and Sun's creative solutions are
preparing the next generation of engineering
and research leaders.
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Sun Microsystems,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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the Sun Logo, Sun
Enterprise, Ultra,
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Silver are trademarks
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