"End of the World" will not be
Electricity is consumed by both the residential sector and numerous industrial enterprises. The use of billing technology of payment and payment allows you to reduce customer service time, as well as quickly receive information about payments received. Legal entities can automate payments for electricity. What does all this software work on? What server capacities are required for monthly processing of readings of millions of electricity meters? After all, it is calculated on them how much you have to pay for the electricity spent in the last month, what numbers will be in the electricity bill received by you and millions of other consumers. This will be discussed below.
More than 80 years ago, an independent self-supporting organization, Energosbyt, appeared in the Soviet Union, part of the well-known trust, the Moscow Association of State Power Plants. At that time, the power system of Moscow was designed for only 150,000 subscribers.
In 1959, in the process of restructuring the electrical service system in the USSR, the operation of meters and other monitoring equipment was massively introduced. Thus, the need to maintain such equipment and computing equipment appeared, for which a special workshop was created at Energosbyt.
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As an independent energy sales company, Mosenergosbyt PJSC began its activities in 2005 after separation from Mosenergo. Being the legal successor of Mosenergo, it supplies electric energy to individuals and legal entities in Moscow and the region.
Mosenergosbyt supplies consumers from the wholesale and retail markets. The annual volume of electricity sold exceeds 82 billion kWh (8% of the electricity generated in the Russian Federation).
The business of energy companies places particularly high demands on IT. This applies to commercial calculations, and enterprise management, and technological processes. In 2010, Mosenergosbyt implemented a comprehensive project to create a fault-tolerant scalable data processing center that provides the most critical business applications. Creating a new unified data center for centralized service of all business applications required due to the increase in data volume.
The data center of Mosenergosbyt, as the data center is supposed to, meets the technical requirements for the operation of server equipment and other IT infrastructure. In addition, it has growth opportunities.
Now the company's customer base includes more than 7.2 million subscribers: 279 thousand legal entities (including outside the Moscow region) and over 7 million residential consumers. Customer service in more than 47 thousand square meters. kilometers carry more than 100 client offices. Billing alone with such a number of customers turns into a very large-scale task. It is logical that without a reliable data center in this case is not enough.
DPC "Mosenergosbyt" is located in Moscow on the street. Vavilov st. 9 - in the same building as her office. Now it has 29 racks. The data center was built to centralize the network and computing infrastructure, deploying a dedicated storage area network (SAN).
Its creation allowed Mosenergosbyt to abandon server rooms at remote offices of the company, and also simplified the implementation of billing systems. In addition, the company received all the advantages of modern data centers in the form of industrial air conditioning, fault-tolerant power supplies, and fire safety. The risks of downtime and losses during various emergency situations have decreased.
In air conditioning and uninterrupted power supply systems, not only current, but also future needs were taken into account. And of course, the redundancy of the components of engineering systems will ensure the efficiency of the data center if something suddenly fails. In case of an accident in the power grid, five UPSs and two diesel generators can handle the power supply.
The word "billing" is familiar to many. This is a set of processes and decisions responsible for collecting information about the use of services, their pricing, billing customers, processing payments.
Mosenergosbyt, as an energy sales company, is responsible for settlements with electricity consumers in Moscow and the region. For this, a large amount of data is collected and processed, such as meter readings. During accounting periods, consumers receive a calculation to pay for the services of the energy supplying organization according to the tariffs. The company uses an automated method of charging and accounting for payments.
"Billing" in relation to this field of activity, means a unified system of personal accounts, which allows you to automatically take into account the payment of services for utility services. Such accounting is possible thanks to the software package “Housing and Public Utilities Accounting Software” installed with counterparties, where housing and communal services are most often paid (by mail, in Sberbank, in some other banks). This data is collected in the data center for further processing. All data uploading goes directly over the network. In the future, resource-supplying organizations will be able to automatically request information on payment for their services.
To improve the quality of customer service (both individuals and legal entities), a new billing system was introduced on the Oracle Utilities Customer Care & Billing platform. The use of new technology for calculating and accepting payments from individuals reduced the time for servicing, made it possible to promptly receive information about received payments and automate payments for electricity. The new information system has increased the transparency of operations and has helped expand the range of services.
Over the past few years, Mosenergosbyt has deployed a whole range of new solutions: Oracle Database, Real Application Clusters (RAC), Partitioning, WebLogic Server, Business Intelligence, Oracle Service Bus products, Weblogic Suite and GoldenGate.
Licenses and Oracle technical support services were purchased for servicing DBMS within the framework of the project “Unified billing of legal entities for sales companies of the Inter RAO Group ”. Licenses were also purchased for Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite, Oracle Utilities Customer Analytics, and Oracle Utilities Credit and Collection Analytics, technical support services. These are resource-intensive applications that require reliable and productive IT platforms.
Since the construction of the Mosenergosbyt data center, about 120 physical servers and data storage systems of various classes have been functioning in it: high-performance systems Fujitsu M9000, Sun, Hitachi USPV, Fujitsu Eternus, powerful SPARC platforms. These are mainly large computer complexes. As a result of the unification and modernization of this park of legacy equipment in the data center, Lenovo, IBM and Cisco systems are currently being used, as well as Oracle Exadata and Exalogic. The IBM Power 770 server handles analytical loads.
Most x86 servers are virtualized, and the company switched from the Citrix XenServer virtualization environment, serving about 340 virtual machines, to the VMware VSphere 6 virtualization system.
Alexander Bondar, Head of the Infrastructure Department of Mosenergosbyt PJSC: “Now the Mosenergosbyt data center is implementing a program of transition to new virtualization host systems. Their role will be performed by Lenovo SR650 rack-mount 2U servers, which are designed to replace the existing blade solutions of IBM BladeCenter H, IBM Flex System Chassis and Dell PowerEdge M1000e. They no longer require the high density of computing resources provided by modular chassis, and it was decided to replace them with classic rack servers, which in their modern version support up to 56 cores and 3TB RAM to a 2-processor system and are more versatile. ”
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 dual-processor 2U rack-mount servers use medium and large corporations, as well as operators providing cloud service to customers. This is one of the most sought after models in its class - scalable and versatile.
Mosenergosbyt plans to gradually move from blade platforms to regular rack servers with cheaper components. As old modular systems are decommissioned, they will be replaced with new rack servers.
For massive databases, the data center uses the Lenovo System x3950X6 and Lenovo SR950 enterprise-class systems, which are clustered into Oracle RAC via Infiniband 40 Gbit / s interconnect. Oracle DBMS instances under common management are simultaneously running on several cluster systems. The Real Application Clusters (RAC) option allows you to build fault-tolerant and highly scalable database servers.
“Capacity can be increased on demand.” There are no peak load problems, ”notes Alexander,“ a cluster of 8-processor servers on 18-core Xeon E7v4 processors copes with its tasks of supporting a significant part of the billing systems. Maintaining such a configuration on Power processors would be an order of magnitude more expensive. ”
To support external services, the company uses Citrix Netscaler balancers. They also serve to deliver and publish applications of terminal environments and perform a number of other tasks. With SAN switches from Lenovo (OEM products based on Brocade switches), servers and storage systems are networked in 16 Gbps storage.
The main billing systems of Mosenergosbyt operate on x86 servers and flash arrays. Meter meter loading systems, payment systems and billing systems also work on other platforms. Gradually, they are planned to be transferred to standard server platforms. This will allow to unify the used equipment and technical support services, since there is a single contract for the purchase and maintenance of equipment from one manufacturer.
The transition of critical systems to a new hardware platform requires a careful approach: new x86 servers in Mosenergosbyt have been gradually deployed over the past three years.
A large number of standard rack servers with a relatively small amount of RAM is more advantageous from the point of view of virtualization and helps to comply with the SLA. The project uses the principle of complete duplication of IT systems, but a backup site is not yet envisaged.
In order to “roll in” the new systems, Mosenergosbyt first starts the servers into trial operation for two to three months. In case of malfunctions, the vendor is engaged in their correction, and only then these servers are used as working systems, “productive”.
IT modernization will also affect storage. Particular attention is paid to solid-state drives. This summer, new flash systems will be delivered. In particular, these are Lenovo DS6200 systems, where flash drives (SSD) of the same form factor are installed instead of disks. They will be used for the development and “running in” of the new software of Mosenergosbyt prior to its commissioning. For such tasks, ultra-high performance is not required, but the system should still have sufficient speed. The former IBM flash systems were also used by the company in virtualization tasks.
Mosenergosbyt uses the inherited IBM Storwize array for backup. IBM's storage systems from IBM complemented the data storage system in the 2U package for demanding loads - Lenovo Storwize V3700 V2. It is designed for 24 (2.5 ") or 12 (3.5") drives and allows you to organize storage, providing processing of large amounts of data. This model also supports data migration features.
The billing systems of Mosenergosbyt serve not only Moscow and the region, but also the regions of Russia. Given that the company continues to grow and expand, new organizations are joining it, billing will require more serious capacity.
PS If you want to learn more about the capabilities of Lenovo equipment for organizations working in various fields, including energy, please contact Marat Rakayev at mrakaev@lenovo.com . Our experts and a wide product portfolio for data centers will help to solve almost any problem.
A bit of history
More than 80 years ago, an independent self-supporting organization, Energosbyt, appeared in the Soviet Union, part of the well-known trust, the Moscow Association of State Power Plants. At that time, the power system of Moscow was designed for only 150,000 subscribers.
In 1959, in the process of restructuring the electrical service system in the USSR, the operation of meters and other monitoring equipment was massively introduced. Thus, the need to maintain such equipment and computing equipment appeared, for which a special workshop was created at Energosbyt.
')
As an independent energy sales company, Mosenergosbyt PJSC began its activities in 2005 after separation from Mosenergo. Being the legal successor of Mosenergo, it supplies electric energy to individuals and legal entities in Moscow and the region.
Mosenergosbyt supplies consumers from the wholesale and retail markets. The annual volume of electricity sold exceeds 82 billion kWh (8% of the electricity generated in the Russian Federation).
Data center
The business of energy companies places particularly high demands on IT. This applies to commercial calculations, and enterprise management, and technological processes. In 2010, Mosenergosbyt implemented a comprehensive project to create a fault-tolerant scalable data processing center that provides the most critical business applications. Creating a new unified data center for centralized service of all business applications required due to the increase in data volume.
The data center of Mosenergosbyt, as the data center is supposed to, meets the technical requirements for the operation of server equipment and other IT infrastructure. In addition, it has growth opportunities.
Now the company's customer base includes more than 7.2 million subscribers: 279 thousand legal entities (including outside the Moscow region) and over 7 million residential consumers. Customer service in more than 47 thousand square meters. kilometers carry more than 100 client offices. Billing alone with such a number of customers turns into a very large-scale task. It is logical that without a reliable data center in this case is not enough.
DPC "Mosenergosbyt" is located in Moscow on the street. Vavilov st. 9 - in the same building as her office. Now it has 29 racks. The data center was built to centralize the network and computing infrastructure, deploying a dedicated storage area network (SAN).
Its creation allowed Mosenergosbyt to abandon server rooms at remote offices of the company, and also simplified the implementation of billing systems. In addition, the company received all the advantages of modern data centers in the form of industrial air conditioning, fault-tolerant power supplies, and fire safety. The risks of downtime and losses during various emergency situations have decreased.
In air conditioning and uninterrupted power supply systems, not only current, but also future needs were taken into account. And of course, the redundancy of the components of engineering systems will ensure the efficiency of the data center if something suddenly fails. In case of an accident in the power grid, five UPSs and two diesel generators can handle the power supply.
Money love the bill
The word "billing" is familiar to many. This is a set of processes and decisions responsible for collecting information about the use of services, their pricing, billing customers, processing payments.
Mosenergosbyt, as an energy sales company, is responsible for settlements with electricity consumers in Moscow and the region. For this, a large amount of data is collected and processed, such as meter readings. During accounting periods, consumers receive a calculation to pay for the services of the energy supplying organization according to the tariffs. The company uses an automated method of charging and accounting for payments.
"Billing" in relation to this field of activity, means a unified system of personal accounts, which allows you to automatically take into account the payment of services for utility services. Such accounting is possible thanks to the software package “Housing and Public Utilities Accounting Software” installed with counterparties, where housing and communal services are most often paid (by mail, in Sberbank, in some other banks). This data is collected in the data center for further processing. All data uploading goes directly over the network. In the future, resource-supplying organizations will be able to automatically request information on payment for their services.
To improve the quality of customer service (both individuals and legal entities), a new billing system was introduced on the Oracle Utilities Customer Care & Billing platform. The use of new technology for calculating and accepting payments from individuals reduced the time for servicing, made it possible to promptly receive information about received payments and automate payments for electricity. The new information system has increased the transparency of operations and has helped expand the range of services.
Over the past few years, Mosenergosbyt has deployed a whole range of new solutions: Oracle Database, Real Application Clusters (RAC), Partitioning, WebLogic Server, Business Intelligence, Oracle Service Bus products, Weblogic Suite and GoldenGate.
Licenses and Oracle technical support services were purchased for servicing DBMS within the framework of the project “Unified billing of legal entities for sales companies of the Inter RAO Group ”. Licenses were also purchased for Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite, Oracle Utilities Customer Analytics, and Oracle Utilities Credit and Collection Analytics, technical support services. These are resource-intensive applications that require reliable and productive IT platforms.
Unification of "iron"
Since the construction of the Mosenergosbyt data center, about 120 physical servers and data storage systems of various classes have been functioning in it: high-performance systems Fujitsu M9000, Sun, Hitachi USPV, Fujitsu Eternus, powerful SPARC platforms. These are mainly large computer complexes. As a result of the unification and modernization of this park of legacy equipment in the data center, Lenovo, IBM and Cisco systems are currently being used, as well as Oracle Exadata and Exalogic. The IBM Power 770 server handles analytical loads.
Most x86 servers are virtualized, and the company switched from the Citrix XenServer virtualization environment, serving about 340 virtual machines, to the VMware VSphere 6 virtualization system.
Alexander Bondar, Head of the Infrastructure Department of Mosenergosbyt PJSC: “Now the Mosenergosbyt data center is implementing a program of transition to new virtualization host systems. Their role will be performed by Lenovo SR650 rack-mount 2U servers, which are designed to replace the existing blade solutions of IBM BladeCenter H, IBM Flex System Chassis and Dell PowerEdge M1000e. They no longer require the high density of computing resources provided by modular chassis, and it was decided to replace them with classic rack servers, which in their modern version support up to 56 cores and 3TB RAM to a 2-processor system and are more versatile. ”
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 dual-processor 2U rack-mount servers use medium and large corporations, as well as operators providing cloud service to customers. This is one of the most sought after models in its class - scalable and versatile.
Mosenergosbyt plans to gradually move from blade platforms to regular rack servers with cheaper components. As old modular systems are decommissioned, they will be replaced with new rack servers.
For massive databases, the data center uses the Lenovo System x3950X6 and Lenovo SR950 enterprise-class systems, which are clustered into Oracle RAC via Infiniband 40 Gbit / s interconnect. Oracle DBMS instances under common management are simultaneously running on several cluster systems. The Real Application Clusters (RAC) option allows you to build fault-tolerant and highly scalable database servers.
“Capacity can be increased on demand.” There are no peak load problems, ”notes Alexander,“ a cluster of 8-processor servers on 18-core Xeon E7v4 processors copes with its tasks of supporting a significant part of the billing systems. Maintaining such a configuration on Power processors would be an order of magnitude more expensive. ”
To support external services, the company uses Citrix Netscaler balancers. They also serve to deliver and publish applications of terminal environments and perform a number of other tasks. With SAN switches from Lenovo (OEM products based on Brocade switches), servers and storage systems are networked in 16 Gbps storage.
The main billing systems of Mosenergosbyt operate on x86 servers and flash arrays. Meter meter loading systems, payment systems and billing systems also work on other platforms. Gradually, they are planned to be transferred to standard server platforms. This will allow to unify the used equipment and technical support services, since there is a single contract for the purchase and maintenance of equipment from one manufacturer.
The transition of critical systems to a new hardware platform requires a careful approach: new x86 servers in Mosenergosbyt have been gradually deployed over the past three years.
A large number of standard rack servers with a relatively small amount of RAM is more advantageous from the point of view of virtualization and helps to comply with the SLA. The project uses the principle of complete duplication of IT systems, but a backup site is not yet envisaged.
In order to “roll in” the new systems, Mosenergosbyt first starts the servers into trial operation for two to three months. In case of malfunctions, the vendor is engaged in their correction, and only then these servers are used as working systems, “productive”.
Modernization of DSS
IT modernization will also affect storage. Particular attention is paid to solid-state drives. This summer, new flash systems will be delivered. In particular, these are Lenovo DS6200 systems, where flash drives (SSD) of the same form factor are installed instead of disks. They will be used for the development and “running in” of the new software of Mosenergosbyt prior to its commissioning. For such tasks, ultra-high performance is not required, but the system should still have sufficient speed. The former IBM flash systems were also used by the company in virtualization tasks.
Mosenergosbyt uses the inherited IBM Storwize array for backup. IBM's storage systems from IBM complemented the data storage system in the 2U package for demanding loads - Lenovo Storwize V3700 V2. It is designed for 24 (2.5 ") or 12 (3.5") drives and allows you to organize storage, providing processing of large amounts of data. This model also supports data migration features.
The billing systems of Mosenergosbyt serve not only Moscow and the region, but also the regions of Russia. Given that the company continues to grow and expand, new organizations are joining it, billing will require more serious capacity.
PS If you want to learn more about the capabilities of Lenovo equipment for organizations working in various fields, including energy, please contact Marat Rakayev at mrakaev@lenovo.com . Our experts and a wide product portfolio for data centers will help to solve almost any problem.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/354276/
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