Application Stacking Analysis

Application servers have proliferated in many data centers and represent an attractive server consolidation opportunity.  Application stacking is the practice of running more than one application on a single application server (J2EE). 

With the proper analysis, Java application servers (J2EE) such as Websphere, Weblogic, Jboss can be consolidated to serve more than one application and better utilize resources.

CiRBA’s out of the box application server rulesets allow you to not only analyze for server consolidation, but also migration onto more scalable platforms such as application servers running on a mainframe. CiRBA rules check for numerous and detailed settings in the named services and native interfaces, JVM versions and manufacturer as well as a myriad of resource settings.

Combined with workload patterns as well as other non-technical constraints such as service levels and change windows, CiRBA maps the opportunities to reduce the number of application servers within an environment.

Configuration of both source and target servers must be carefully considered in the area of:

• Numerous and detailed settings in the named service and native interfaces
• JVM version and manufacturer
• Resource settings such as heap and thread pool

Overall Map with Transfers - View a larger image

OS Stacking Analysis

OS level stacking occurs when two or more applications run on a single OS instance. This is a very efficient way to consolidate servers as it does not add additional OS instances.  It does however; require that the OS configuration be scrutinized closely to ensure that all the applications that might run on a single instance are compatible.

CiRBA OS stacking analysis deeply analyzes the configurations of both source and target servers and scores them based on similarity or affinity.  Examples of some of the audit elements:

• OS Type and version
• Patch levels
• Time zones
• Name resolution
• Kernel settings
• EEProm settings

Analysis must include workload patterns as well as non-technical constraints such as change windows, service levels and UPS requirements (powering non critical applications under power outage). Placing applications with differing requirements on the same server makes all of them subject to the same constraints.

Learn about other server consolidation strategies