What is the Division of Information Technology's (DIT) Virtual Server Hosting (VSH)?

The Division of Information Technology (DIT) offers the University community a fee-based Virtual Server Hosting (VSH). Server virtualization is a technology that will benefit any department needing the flexibility that owning their own server would provide without the overhead of maintaining it. Running a physical server requires having appropriate support infrastructure, taking physical security precautions, and performing regular hardware upgrades and maintenance.

DIT's virtual server hosting service offers departments virtual servers on a highly available VMware multi-node cluster running at a fraction of the cost of purchasing, housing, and maintaining a physical server. For a price comparison of the cost and support of a physical versus a virtual machine, please click here.

What are the service benefits?

Here are just a few reasons why choosing DIT's VSH is of value to your College/Department:

• Enterprise solutions at a low cost:
  VSH is built on enterprise-caliber servers, networking, and storage on VMware vSphere, following vendor best practices.
• Save money on staffing:
  Using VSH allows units to refocus staff time on the mission of the organization rather than working on hardware acquisition, maintenance, and support.
• Scalability and flexibility over physical servers:
  Since there is no direct link between virtual machines and underlying hardware, DIT can proactively move a VM during hardware maintenance and employ upgrades without causing any downtime. You incur no additional expense when we upgrade our backend hardware.
• Hardware high availability:
  One of the benefits of clustered backend hardware is that if a physical host fails, the VM's residing on it will be automatically rebooted on another physical host which significantly reduces the downtime of your application.
• Supports campus green initiative:
  Virtual servers use less power and cooling which supports University sustainability goals and improves resource utilization in the data center.
• Server deployment significantly faster:
  Virtual machines can be deployed in minutes to hours instead of days to weeks because there is no need to purchase, install, or configure hardware.

Not all applications are well-suited for virtualization

• Some computation and/or transaction-intensive applications may not be the best candidates for virtualization.
• Some applications that require extremely large amounts of storage may not be the best candidates for virtualization.
• Large database servers or data warehouse applications may not be appropriate for virtualization.
• Some computation and/or transaction-intensive applications may not be the best candidates for virtualization.
• Vendor products that are not supported to run on VMware are not appropriate for virtualization.
  • Most applications are supported in a virtual environment, but it is still best to confirm with the application vendor.
• Some applications may require resources beyond the limits of the offered virtual server sizes.
  • DIT can assist in reviewing a particular application or service and determine if it is suitable for virtualization.

Service Description

VSH provides departments with virtual machines for hosting files and applications at a fraction of the cost of purchasing and maintaining physical infrastructure. This tiered service (Non-Managed and Managed) provides departments the option of choosing the virtual machine and support that is right for them. The Non-Managed Virtual Machine option is for departments that only need a virtual machine and have system administrators on staff to manage the operating system and application.

The Managed option is for departments that need the virtual machine for their application and system administration support. The Managed option comes in two tiers 9x5 (supported during University Business hours) and 24x7 (System Support 24x7/365). With each option, departments will be able to request more disk space, memory, and number of CPUs at an additional cost.

Service Pricing

As described above, DIT offers Managed and Non-Managed virtual hosts at the following prices:

VM Server Hosting Rates

Feature	Non-Managed $50/Month	Managed 9x5 $175/Month	Managed 24x7 $300/Month
vCPU (Included)	1/vCPU
Base RAM (Included)	4GB
Base Storage (Included)	15GB
Additional Storage (5GB Increments) (Monthly)	$0.15/5GB
Additional vCPU (Monthly)	$10/vCPU/Month
Additional RAM (Monthly)	$5/GB/Month
Guest OS Management	$60/hour During university business hours	Included
Recreate VM	$200 per	Included
VM Modifications (i.e., name, storage, networking, etc.)	$50 per	Included
File-Level Backup	End-User	Included
Image-Level Restore (upon availability)	$200 per	Included
Application Installation	$60/hour
Supported Operating Systems (Operating System cost and maintenance included)	Windows 2019, Windows 2016, Windows 2012 R2
One-Time Setup Fee	$120
Application Support (Web, MS SQL, etc.)	$60/hour minimum. Send a request to vmwaresupport@umd.edu for more details.

• Please click here for a detailed explanation of what is included in a managed server.
• The price includes the cost of your IP address from NCT.

Service is billed monthly, with the initial billing period starting on the first day of the first full month in which service begins. Either party may terminate a support agreement with or without cause; however, a minimum of 30 days advance notice is required.

DIT provides a separately charged backup service, which includes off-site storage of tapes. Although not required, this service is strongly recommended. System problems or file corruption without a good backup can result in a complete loss of data. Additional information including cost is available at the Data Backup entry on the Service Catalog. Customers who purchase the backup service will receive a single, itemized invoice each month that breaks down all charges. The total amount of the bill will vary depending on the amount of data backed up that month.

Customer Requirements

• Verify with the vendor that they support their application(s) when they are hosted on a virtual environment
• Provide a valid FRS number for monthly charges
• If using Active Directory for authentication and authorization, designate administrators. Additional paperwork may be required. 
• Verify with the vendor that they support their application(s) when they are hosted on a virtual environment
• Ensuring 10GB is kept available for patches and service packs on OS partition
• Do not disable the installed Antivirus (Windows only)
• Virtual machine access will be granted through RDP or SSH
• If you are interested in learning more about VSH or additional service offerings or if you have any questions please send an email to vmwaresupport@umd.edu

Request a Server

• Contact DIT at vmwaresupport@umd.edu to do a pre-consultation to fully ascertain your needs
• After the pre-consultation is complete, fill out the Server Request form for order processing

Managed Virtual Machine Details

• Operating system support: 9x5 (University business hours only) or 24x7 support options.
• Operating system patching: For Windows servers, 9x5 machines will be patched during a business hours maintenance window. 24x7 machines will be patched during our scheduled weekend outage once a month.
• Monitoring: Windows operating systems will be monitored through Systems Center Operations Manager.  Some applications can be monitored as well. There are limitations on systems and applications that can be monitored.
• Backups: DIT will retain 14 days of image/file level backups for managed VMs at no additional cost. For longer retention periods of files, Tivoli Storage Manager is offered through DIT. Please check the Data Backup entry on the Service Catalog for TSM pricing.
• VM Changes: No administration fee for having changes made to your VM (i.e. adding memory, storage, firewall changes, restores). *Please see the pricing list for resource costs.
• Antivirus: Monitored antivirus (If joined to domain) or stand-alone unmonitored (If not joined to domain)
• Priority Response: Customers with support contracts will be scheduled ahead of hourly work tickets.
• Migration: Ready to move to the latest OS or a new version of your application? DIT will help you by providing a second VM at no cost for the migration and removing the old one once you have successfully migrated over. Limitations do apply.
• Consultation: DIT will provide assistance with best practices where possible.

Physical vs. Virtual Cost

Physical vs. Virtual Cost (Based on average numbers seen historically)

	Physical Machine	Virtual Machine (without DIT Support)	Virtual Machine (with DIT Support)
Cost	$7,000 (due at purchase) *For comparison, $117/month manufacturer warranty only (at additional cost)	$50/month (base)	$175/month with 9x5 hardware/software support $300/month with 24/7 hardware/software support
IP Address	$17/month	Included	Included
Additional Storage	Purchased with hardware whether used or not	$0.15/5GB/month for enterprise class Nimble SAN storage (pay as you grow)	$0.15/5GB/month for enterprise class Nimble SAN storage (pay as you grow)
Additional Memory	Purchased with hardware whether used or not	$5/GB/month (pay as you grow)	$5/GB/month (pay as you grow)
Hardware Lifecycle Replacement (5-Year)	Purchase a new server	Hardware is replaced by DivIT at no additional cost	Hardware is replaced by DivIT at no additional cost
Hardware Warranty	$2,100 (5-year 4x24 response)	Not Required	Not Required
Hardware/Operating System Support	$70,000 (average cost of a Server Administrator in College Park, MD)1 DIT Support 9x5: $1,500-2,500 24x7: $3,000-5,000	9x5 only at an hourly rate and based on availability	9x5: $1,200 (included in VM cost) 24x7: $2,400 (included in VM cost)
Hardware Redundancy	$7,000 (average cost of two identical servers)	Included at no cost	Included at no cost
Time to Deploy	Weeks to months	Minutes to hours	Minutes to hours
Time to Add Hardware Like Memory or Storage	Days to weeks (Downtime required)	Minutes to hours (Downtime may not be required)	Minutes to hours (Downtime may not be required)

NOTE: 1 This figure is based on the averages found from reputable job search and salary collection websites.