Interview
“With orcharhino we have standardized processes and a central tool for the Linux team.”
– Otmar Meier, Group Manager IT Operations, Max Bögl
conversation partner:
Otmar Meier has worked in IT at Max Bögl for more than 20 years. As an administrator he was responsible for Unix derivatives, Linux, backup and storage, but also Exchange and SAP. He has been working as a group leader for 13 years and is in charge of IT training.
Marco Kastner has been working as administrator at Max Bögl for 7 years. He primarily supports Linux and AIX, but is also active in monitoring and backup.
“Which systems do you use?”
Otmar Meier: “In the Unix/Linux environment, we mainly use SUSE Linux and IBM AIX, and occasionally CentOS and Ubuntu.”
Marco Kastner: “We recently replaced IBM Power systems with AIX by x86 with SUSE Linux.”
“Can you briefly tell us how many servers you currently have in use and what software you use on them?”
Otmar Meier: “The majority of the approx. 400 VMs with Linux run SUSE Linux with SAP ERP, Siemens Teamcenter, Oracle middleware and databases, as well as free software. Microsoft ADS, Exchange and industry software are run on the approx. 500 VMs with Windows.”
“Why were you looking for an automation solution?”
Otmar Meier: “We were looking for a comprehensive solution for Linux that addressed the issues of automated deployment, configuration management, repository management, upgrade and patch management. We didn’t want the solution to be a home-grown product, but a product with releases, maintenance and service.”
Marco Kastner: “The changeover at SUSE from SMT to RMT was imminent. Initial experiences with Puppet were mixed, Ansible looked a lot like that. A central point for administration tasks was desired.”
“How and why did you find out about orcharhino?”
Otmar Meier: “During my visit to the Chemnitz Linux Days, I came across the ATIX stand. We had previously made the strategic decision to consolidate our operations on x86. Specifically, the task was to replace around 80 AIX LPARs with VMs running SUSE Linux.”
“How have your data center processes changed since you started using orcharhino?”
Marco Kastner: “The provision of VMs with SUSE Linux for various requirements (SAP Application Server, Oracle DB Server) could be mapped via host groups. The automated deployment accelerated the migration project. Ansible is used during the initial deployment but also afterwards to make adjustments.”
Otmar Meier: “With orcharhino, we have standardized processes and a central tool for the Linux team.”
“What are you currently planning or what feature would you like to see on orcharhino?”
Otmar Meier: “One of the next steps is patch management with orcharhino.”
Marco Kastner: “The deployment of Ubuntu is currently being tested.”
