A Platform for the NextGen EMR
We have been working for some time on defining requirements and implementing a robust platform for the NextGen EPM/EMR/HIE product. This is one large onion to peel. In some respects technical requirements have been extremely clear; in others they have been cloudy with very subjective specifications.
The result, which is subject to change, is a hybrid approach of both physical and virtual servers. Our back-end database functions for both HIE and EPM/EMR will reside on a single dedicated physical cluster. Our ancillary functions and application servers will be 100% virtualized. Finally, our front-end boxes for application delivery (Citrix XenApp) will be deployed as a physical farm.
We have brought up a dedicated domain for the hosted EMR function and all hardware resides within a pair of redundant Cisco UCS chassis for maximum fault tolerance and resiliency. Boot from SAN options provide physical server flexibility rivaling that available on VMWare.
Data storage is being provided by two NetApp SAN units with both Fibre and IP connectivity. On-line storage will be provided by a NetApp 3140 attached via Fibre for database operations and via IP for CIFS functionality (ICS and other key folders). Snapshots will occur regularly and ultimately be shipped to a NetApp 2040 for backup purposes using the various NetApp SnapManager products.
Wish us luck. We will certainly make some adjustments along the way.
2 comments:
Have you made any additional progress with NextGen platform on UCS? We are evaluating going with a hosted Nextgen vs on premise with Cisco UCS.
Jarrett,
Yes we have. As a general statement our staff has been very comfortable with the platform in the learning curve was minor after having them run through a 'jump start' of a couple of days with our reseller.
All of our HIE / ancillary servers are currently running on UCS and VMWare. We will be moving our physical database cluster over to the UCS mid-month. We have had no notable issues with the platform or interoperability with our NetApp storage.
We brought up an entirely new domain for this platform and that Active Directory infrastructure is also running on UCS.
Let me know how we might help you. Thanks!
-KAR
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