Tampere city servers in Finland are controlled with a Black Box system

400 servers, 15,000 users, more than 100 terabytes of hard drives and a 24/7 service level. That's some of the key figures of the Tampere city IT Center.

The whole system is doubled in two server rooms, 2,500 square feet each. Both rooms have their own data communication and UPS rooms. Both rooms are cooled by two cooling machines and a third one is in reserve. The fire security is taken care by an Argon extinguishing system and possible power failures by a 1.5 megawat agregat.

The building itself is built so sturdy that the server room in the basement would remain untouched even if the whole building collapsed down on it. The IT Center is a business company owned by the Tampere city and offers IT services for the different city units and a.o. the health care centers of the area. The services include both network- and operation services together with technical support and solution services. The health care centers and city hospitals require a 24/7 service level. The IT Center employs approximately 160 people.

- Our network reaches all around the city and surrounding areas, geographically we operate in a large area, says Markku Vaarankorpi, Operation Manager of the center. - In our old server room we had an old analog Black Box consol system. When we last summer moved in new premises it was sensible to renew and have a new digital system. Now both server rooms have two console points and besides that there are three console points in the operating room at the second storey. Our intention is that people need to go to the server rooms as seldom as possible.

- There are some 300 servers connected to the Black Box system, both with graphic and alpha numeric user interface, points Mr. Vaarankorpi out. - Our operating systems are Widows, Linux, AIX, TRU64, Solaris and Open VMS. All of them work very well in the same Black Box system. From seven consoles we can control all the servers. Each console has access to all of the servers - that was one of our requirements - and each of our operators will according to their own password get the servers they are responsible for in the console menu.

We selected the best one

- We have had the old Black Box system since the turn of the millennium and it has operated without problems. The large number of cables would how ever have been uncomfortable in the new premises. The old system's operating distance was also shorter than the new one. Black Box took in return the old system and with the new system we can move a 1600x1200 pixel display upp to 1,000 feet away. In practice such a long distance is how ever not needed.

- Half a day training was enough to start using the new system. The training included both using and configurating the system. The menu based operation is logical and we have two guys who take care of the continuous operation and maintenance of the system. There is how ever a lot to do as the system increases with some 50 new servers every year.

- The system has functioned really well, praises Mr. Vaarankorpi. - Black Box can support us 24 hours 7 days a week but we have not needed that. We have got an answer to all of our questions without a delay and the service is very expert. We have needed a few additional components and received them quickly, the next day in many cases. Black Box system is technically the best we could find and we are happy with our choice.