Technical specifications about the Bisnode Interact Database solution.
Production and development environment
The production environment for the operational database runs on two Sun 12K machines (Solaris 8 OS). Every host internally has redundant components (power supplies, CPUs, memory, network connections, heat fans, controller boards ...). If a component breaks down, it can be replaced without shutting down the machines. The components can easily be extended (CPUs, memory, storage ...). Both Sun 12K systems have a configuration of 16 CPUs and 16 Gigabyte of RAM. The enclosures allow a lot of flexibility for further expansion: more processing power, more memory. In case of extreme breakdown of a host (despite the redundant technology), there is still an extra host on which the applications can be rerouted.
Virtual machines
Every host can be subdivided into virtual machines. Different amounts of processing power and memory can be assigned to every virtual machine. In case of a European solution, if a geography needs a performance boost on a certain moment in time, while other geographies have lower activity, capacity can be dynamically (on-the-fly) rescheduled to cope with those needs. The technique of virtual machine is also interesting for future scalability. The content of a virtual machine can –if needed- afterwards be migrated to separate hardware. The virtual machines can run instances of Sybase ASE for the OLTP, instances for the WDM Database International batch environment, instances for the Data mart, etc …
Redundancy at server, network and storage levels.
The hosts are connected to two redundant switches via fibre optics. From the switches there is a connection to two SAN storage groups. Every SAN group is linked to both switches, which means that there is not only redundancy on the server level, but also on the network and storage level.
Backups are operated through a server less configuration, which means that all processing power from the CPUs is available for the applications, without interference from administrative processes.
Sun V880 development servers
In parallel with the production machines there are Sun V880 development servers. These development servers have 8 CPUs and 8 Gigabytes of memory. Storage is also performed through SAN via fibre optics. Additional development can be performed independently from the production environment.
The data mart is hosted on Sybase Adaptive Server IQ. Sybase Adaptive Server IQ is a specialized database platform for intensive querying, e.g. data marts. It provides advanced indexing techniques for fast response times on large amounts of data.
Business Objects
Business Objects, the reporting tool runs on Windows 2000 servers, with the repository and administration services on separate servers. Business Objects translates the user request through the semantic layer to a technical request, connects to the Sybase Adaptive Server IQ data mart for data processing and adds the cosmetic layer, plus extra BO-features.
Protection against unsecure networks
The environment as described is protected from unsecured networks (the internet) through two firewalls from a renowned security provider. A number of machines are put in a demilitarized zone (DMZ), of which: the SFTP Server and the web servers.