Integrated Warfare Systems Laboratory (U.S. Navy)

Success at a Glance

Ballistics testing and analysis involves the use of specialized applications, which are housed on a wide range of servers at IWSL, running on platforms that include Digital Equipment VAX, Solaris, UNIX, Microsoft Windows and Linux. Many of these servers stay in place for a long time because the applications they run remain useful. Access to this diverse environment had been provided through an X Windows terminal product, such that users chose the right system to access from a menu of systems listed on the terminal.

However, this X Windows solution was past its prime. The IT staff was fielding user concerns about its performance on graphics-intensive applications. The aging solution had a growing number of server outages, each requiring about an hour of recovery time with obvious impacts to productivity.

The two main requirements for a new solution were the ability to connect to the range of IT systems and the ability to comply with Navy security policies that called for statically defined IP addresses. In addition, the staff wanted a solution that was easy to install, administer and maintain.

The lab was interested in the Sun Ray solution because of its simplicity and because it expected the systems could meet all other requirements. The first step was demonstrating security compliance. Sun and IWSL developed a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Manager technique, which assigns no more than two static IP addresses to a client. By assigning static IP addresses, the process of auditing a user’s activity is greatly simplified. The base security officer approved the DHCP Manager technique and it has become an accepted method that other applications have used to meet this security requirement.

To enable access to the diverse range of IT systems, the lab’s technologist developed a custom portal-like application called a Host Chooser that launches from an icon on the Sun Ray desktop. It enables the user to select a system to access, supports multiple sessions and locks down selected functions for added security. The Chooser also provides back-end server access logs, which contain valuable information for determining unused servers that are candidates for retirement.

After demonstrating that the Sun Ray solution met requirements, the IWSL has implemented 270 Sun Ray virtual display clients of various models over the past 18 months. Four Sun Fire V490 servers with the Solaris 10 Operating System, Sun Ray Software and the custom Host Chooser application provide a layer that enables users to access the systems they need. The lab has found it can install a new client in 80 percent less time than the prior solution. And when updates or patches are needed, the team administers them to only four servers instead of hundreds of desktops.

Users are pleased with performance and are sharing this information with colleagues. The IWSL believes this solution is cost-effective, bringing down the cost to about $500 per client. At an approximate $500 savings per client, costs are now about half of what they had been. As for future plans, remote offices will soon use Sun Ray clients to centralize their administration, cut down on travel costs and quickly and easily add new users.