COMPAREX - Netherlands / SCA Packaging - Uses IBM xSeries 345 cluster system servers

Netherlands / SCA Packaging - Uses IBM xSeries 345 cluster system servers

Each of Swedish company SCA Packaging’s two Dutch sites has implemented its own cluster environment based on two IBM xSeries 345 servers. The objective of these two implementations is to maximize the availability of CBS, the company’s own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package. Moreover, In addition, a total over 3 Terabytes of storage capacity has been installed at the two locations.

SCA, with headquarters in Sweden, is a company that develops, produces and sells products in the area of packaging, personal hygiene, paper and a number of other wood-based products. The company has five divisions, one of which is SCA Packaging. This division is one of the largest manufacturers of packaging material in Europe. With 20,000 employees and 260 factories, the company is active throughout the entire world. The company has several sites in the Netherlands.

Own ERP environment
"In the past, every SCA Packaging site more or less decided on its own course in terms of ICT policy," relates Harry Bleeker, IS manager at SCA Packaging in Zaandam. "For example, in the Benelux we used to work primarily with Compaq, while the sites in France elected to use Dell products. In itself, this need not pose a problem, but it does mean that the available ICT budget was not optimally utilized. So at a certain point the parent company in Gothenborg decided to standardize all the system environments."

The hardware selected for the basic platform was IBM xSeries 345 Servers. Windows Server Enterprise 2003 was chosen as the operating system; SQL Server is now the standard database environment. For the Dutch sites of SCA Packaging this involved a conversion phase. The old Compaq ProLiants no longer serve as the hardware platform for the company’s in-house ERP package CBS, which stands for 'Corrugated Business System', and Oracle was also phased out as the database management system.

High availability level
The CBS system is extremely important for SCA Packaging. This is an ERP system developed especially for the corrugated cardboard sector; it was built by a German software house. "If the functions of our ERP system are not available to the end users, our business processes come to a complete standstill," Bleeker explains. "All the important business functions - from sales to production to transport and logistics - are either supported or provided by CBS, which is why the highest availability level possible for this system is absolutely essential to us. I would say the closer the availability of CBS approaches 100 per cent, the better it is for us."

SCA Packaging also needed expert assistance with the conversion to and the configuration of the new system environment. The company asked COMPAREX to handle the conversion project. Bleeker is quite satisfied with the approach COMPAREX adopted. "The way the project was conducted was nothing short of perfect. Moreover, since the introduction in March of this year, we have not had a single disruption. The new ERP environment has proven to be extremely reliable."
The extremely high availability level was achieved in part by implementing the CBS package in a clustered environment. Two IBM xSeries 345 servers were chosen for this. In principle, these systems - based on Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors - are intended for Windows or Linux operating systems. The servers are also equipped with features that enable them to be included in clusters based on Gigabit Ethernet.

SCA Packaging currently has Windows 2000 installed on both systems, including technology developed by Microsoft to realize clustered system environments. In case of a malfunction in one of the servers, this approach makes it possible to immediately and automatically switch to the other server in the cluster, so that - in spite of the malfunction - the end users can continue to work in the normal manner.
At the same time, SCA Packaging has modernized the approach regarding data failure. An IBM FAStT600 - a product group that IBM has rechristened TotalStorage DS300 and DS400 in the meantime - has been installed at both sites. In Tilburg, this involves a storage system with a storage capacity of 1.7 terabytes. In Zaandam, the storage capacity is 1.4 terabytes. At the same time, COMPAREX handled the conversion from the old Oracle environment to SQL Server 2000.

Preferred supplier
In the meantime, the project has been completed and delivered. However, that does not mean that developments within SCA Packaging have come to a halt. The Swedish parent company has decided to switch to Windows 2003 Server. This means that soon, the two Dutch sites will soon begin implementing this new Microsoft operating system with the assistance of 'preferred supplier' COMPAREX.

Another project in the preparation stages at SCA Packaging involves the ProLiant servers that the company previously used as the platform for the ERP system. "We did not replace these systems," Bleeker explains. "We are maintaining these servers. The plan is now to include the systems in a cluster and place them at another site where they can be used to create backups to disk."

Summary
COMPAREX implemented two cluster environments based on IBM xSeries 345 servers, and a new central storage environment using the IBM FAStT600 storage server. SCA uses CBS package (Corrugated Business System), an ERP system developed specifically for the corrugated cardboard sector. By implementing the cluster environment mentioned above, COMPAREX has achieved a very high level of availability, enabling SCA to optimally deploy the CBS system.

Hardware Platform	IBM xSeries 345 servers, FastT600 Storage server
Operating System	Windows Server Enterprise 2002
Database	SQL 2000 Server
Number of users	85
Implementation time	2 weeks
Implementation partner	COMPAREX