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Application Hosting FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

The Department of Technology Services presents the following questions and responses to help the Service Catalog users/customers learn how to use the Service Catalog to evaluate, select and utilize DTS services and products.

Rates and Pricing

    QUESTION: What is included with the servers listed in the rate sheet?

    RESPONSE: Staff will procure, install on DTS raised floor, maintain and monitor the server, including hard disk formatting, partitioning, operating system installation and security patch management, antivirus protection, building file systems and creating user accounts. Included in the server prices are a 24/7 Service Desk, computer room grade environmentals including physical security, uninterruptible power and air conditioning, a premium hardware and O/S software maintenance contract, a single 100Mbit network connection, network firewalls and load balancing (as appropriate) and a once a day data backup and restore services. Hardware is refreshed as needed, but typically every four years. Full description of the services is available.

    QUESTION: Are there differences in pricing for test environments?

    RESPONSE: The DTS has one rate for each server, regardless of environment.

    QUESTION: What if I need a server with a different configuration?

    RESPONSE: The DTS will work with a customer to accommodate their requirements. Servers may be purchased using a non-standard configuration.

    QUESTION: What is is DTS standard for refreshing servers?

    RESPONSE: The DTS does not have a formal process for refreshing servers, but in general servers are refreshed every 4 years.

    QUESTION: Are recovery services available?

    RESPONSE: The current recovery service is for 72 hour business resumption at a contracted hot site. Once a disaster is declared, DTS will implement restoration procedures which will result in the build of a server with the client applications and data at a remote location. The server will be ready for client use within 72 hours. Clients can participate in semiannual testing of the recovery process.

    QUESTION: What are the costs of this service?

    RESPONSE: This service is provided on a quotation per application basis. Clients can request a quotation be developed by submitting a DTS service request.

    QUESTION: What if 72 hours is not an acceptable time frame?

    RESPONSE: Custom solutions can be developed to meet requirements that the standard operational recovery service does not cover.

Applications

    QUESTION: Who is responsible for server software installation?

    RESPONSE: The DTS is responsible for mainframe software installation. The customer is responsible for Unix and Windows server software installation.

    The DTS will install, configure and maintain the server hardware and operating system software. The DTS will also install, configure and maintain the standard tools needed to maintain and monitor the health and security of the server (e.g., anti-virus software, backup software, monitoring tools, etc.).

    It is the customer's responsibility to install, configure and support the application software needed for their application. It would be very difficult for the DTS to maintain a knowledge base for all of the options and settings for every customer application.

    QUESTION: What is the definition of server application software?

    RESPONSE: Application software is any application software that the DTS does not provide as a service offering. For example, we install and setup SQL Server because it is part of our service offering.

    QUESTION: How do I schedule a time for installations and upgrades?

    RESPONSE: Notify your Account Representative or your Customer Service Representative to schedule installations and upgrades.

Hardware Failure

    QUESTION: What failover services are available in the event of a server failure?

    RESPONSE: In the event of a server/hardware failure, DTS will work to resolve the issue with existing resources/parts if available. If DTS does not have the parts available, it will contact the hardware vendor to provide repairs. DTS does not have additional servers dedicated to replace a failed server. If a warm failover server is required, it will be charged at the standard server rates, as it will be maintained in the same manner as any production server. In addition, DTS Windows Server staff have experience with Windows clustering for hardware and application redundancy/failover.

    QUESTION: What is the DTS strategy for replacing or restoring a server in the event of a hardware or OS related failure?

    RESPONSE: The servers are backed up nightly. The DTS will restore from the last known good backup. If there is a hardware failure and the server needs to be replaced, the DTS will use an existing server if one is available.

    QUESTION: What will be the approximate time commitment to restore a server in the event of hardware or operating system failures?

    RESPONSE: Teh DTS goal is to restore within 4 hours. Time to restore is dependent on the amount of data that needs to be restored.

    QUESTION: Will cold spare servers be available that I can rely upon in lieu of a hot spares or clustered servers?

    RESPONSE: If there is a cold spare available, teh DTS will utilize it, but the DTS does not have a spare for every type of server.

    QUESTION: What is the time frame for procuring additional servers, disk arrays and disks?

    RESPONSE: Teh timeframe is usually 60-90 days from the receipt of the customer Service Request.

    QUESTION: I am interested in using clustering for high availability for the database and application servers. Do you have clients running Windows Cluster Services? Clustered SQL Servers?

    RESPONSE: The DTS is running Windows Clustering for file and print services. We also have a shared SQL Server cluster for use by the DTS and its customers.

Backup and Restore

    QUESTION: Why provide backup/restore services?

    RESPONSE: For the standard customer, the backup provides a copy of the data that can be restored should the data be corrupted due to an application failure, a deleted file, or for any other reason that the client needs to return the data to a known prior condition. For the recovery service subscriber, the backup provides a copy of the environment that can be restored at another site due to a catastrophic failure of the primary site.

    QUESTION: What are the standard backup/restore services?

    RESPONSE: The standard backup service is to make a copy of the data on disk to tape. The backup process starts at 12:05am five days a week (Tuesday thru Saturday) and runs to completion. Full backups are run on this daily schedule. The goal is to have all backups completed by 6am. Any applications that are running are shutdown or put into a state where the file systems are stable prior to the backup starting and returned to normal operations subsequent to the backup completing. The owner of the application is responsible for providing shutdown and startup scripts to be incorporated into the backup process. Cold database backups (the database is shutdown and no processing is taking place) are run once a week. Hot database backups (the database is place into hot backup mode where the database is available for processing, but writes are not committed) are run all other times. Tapes are sent to off-site storage on Friday. Tapes are retained offsite for two weeks, providing a window of six weeks where files can be recovered.

    The operating system is backed up weekly.

    Restores of file or file systems are processed as received. The restore will start within two hours during normal business hours when the media is onsite. When the media is offsite, the restore will occur once the media is retrieved. The length of time for a restore depends on the volume of data being recovered.

    For those clients subscribed to operational recovery services, the backup media is sent offsite daily.

    QUESTION: What are the costs for backup/restore services?

    RESPONSE: The standard back and restore services outlined above are included as a part of the disk storage fees. There is no additional charge.

    QUESTION: What if I need more frequent backups?

    RESPONSE: Arrangements can be made to provide more frequent backups than daily. The files, transaction logs, or whatever else needs more frequent backup points can be copied to additional disk storage at the interval(s) needed. It will then be backed up to tape on the normal daily process. Additional disk will have to be requested to accommodate this increased frequency.

    QUESTION: Can the backup times be changed?

    RESPONSE: There is some amount of flexibility on the start/stop times of the backup. The primary DTS concern is that they complete prior to the start of the business day.

    QUESTION: Can I have a copy of the backup tape?

    RESPONSE: A backup tape can be created with your data on it, but the normal backup tapes are not available for distribution to the clients. A special handling fee as well as a media charge will apply.

System Access

    QUESTION: How can I access the server?

    RESPONSE: Standard access to a UNIX account on a server is made thru a VPN tunnel. A VPN tunnel is available by subscribing to the Network Service. Please refer to Network Service for further information.

    QUESTION: How can I add a contact to be called for issues?

    RESPONSE: Notify your Account Representative or your Customer Service Representative to add contacts.

    QUESTION: How can I get access on weekends if I have a problem?

    RESPONSE: We can allow terminal serves access to the servers. If weekend access is required, notify your Account Representative or your Customer Service Representative.

    QUESTION: Do you support Telnet and FTP?

    RESPONSE: These services are configured off due to the plain text userid/password that they pass on the network. If they are required, then a service request with approval from the department ISO is required to enable them.

    QUESTION: What is supported for terminal and file transfer?

    RESPONSE: Secure shell and secure FTP are supported as a standard offering. The system administration staff uses PuTTY and Hummingbird Exceed desktop software to access the servers.

    Other products that perform the same functionality can be used, but the system administrators have no experience in installing, configuring or using them. In other words, you are on your own.

    QUESTION: How do I access a virtual server??

    RESPONSE: Customers have the same access to a virtual server as they would have to a dedicated server. The customer does not have access to the server that is hosting their virtual server interest; they have access to the virtual server instance.

System Performance

    QUESTION: Do you monitor the servers?

    RESPONSE: Yes. DTS has a 24 hour service desk that has access to system monitoring tools. Big Brother is used to monitor the availability of certain services such as the Oracle Listener, CPU utilization, temporary space usage and network connectivity. OpenNMS is used to monitor network services, including those running on the servers. Microsoft Operations Manager is used to monitor windows servers.

    QUESTION: What kind of performance guarantee do you make?

    RESPONSE: System availability target is 98.5%. The performance of a specific application is dependant on many factors, including most that are outside the scope of the system administrators. The systems are initially sized based on project recommendations and refreshed systems are sized based on historical information. Unplanned workload growth can effect the performance of any application. As requested by the client, DTS will upgrade or replace servers to meet these new workloads.

    QUESTION: How do you measure end user response time?

    RESPONSE: Typically end user response time is measured at the data center to avoid the impact of other workload on the local and wide area network links. This can be used as a baseline for tracking performance changes during the life of an application.