Guangxi University

With the rise of digital transformation, the digitalization of education is also becoming popular. As a long-running and large-scale comprehensive university in Guangxi, Guangxi University, cooperated with H3C (under UNIS) to build a modern digital campus. With the help of H3C CAS (cloud automation system), Guangxi University expands from server virtualization to desktop virtualization to realize the full cloud from the data center to the desktop, bringing richer and more convenient teaching services to students.

The system varies on demand to erase online course registration pain

College students' pain on online course registration has been lasting for several generations. At the beginning of the semester, the online course registration system always collapses due to instantaneous ultra-high concurrency, and cannot be accessed. It bothers every college student.

It has been changing since 2013. In order to solve the online course registration issue, the traditional solution was to expand the infrastructure. The technical team of H3C Group found that the key problem of the online course registration system issue of Guangxi University was the performance limitation of Web server. Simply expanding the IT hardware wasted resources without obvious effect. Through the virtualization technology, the physical limitation was removed to transform the computing, storage, network and other hardware resources into flexible dynamic resource pools. It was the key and new idea for the digital transformation of education.

H3C Group launched the DRX (Dynamic Resource eXtension) solution based on H3C CAS virtualization platform to open a new way of digital transformation for Guangxi University. The DRX solution monitors the number of connections at the Web end by deploying the Web end of the online course registration system on VMs and enabling the DRX function on the H3C CAS platform. When a service encounters a burst of traffic, the CAS platform detects that the VM capacity on which services are running is insufficient, generates new VMs, and works with LB (load balancing) devices to provide external services to achieve traffic load balancing. When peak access passes, the CAS platform can dynamically shrink and remove excess VMs, so that computing resources can be changed as needed.

In the first course selection after the service went online, the online course registration system run normally in the whole process. Nearly 10,000 students successfully selected their courses in two hours, making the "pain of online course registration" in Guangxi University officially passed.

The scenario continuously expands to meet the requirements in all-round way

The online course registration system is only an epitome of the digital transformation of Guangxi University. Based on the H3C CAS server virtualization platform and long-term cooperation with H3C Group, in 2020, Guangxi University began to explore practical applications from server virtualization technology to desktop virtualization technology, allowing flexible and on-demand IT resources to be used in all aspects of the campus and serve diversified teaching scenarios.

Based on H3C CAS virtualization platform, H3C Learningspace is an integrated cloud classroom desktop solution for educational scenarios. It takes into account the flexibility of the VDI cloud, centralizes resources (including systems, applications and data), allocates virtual desktops to students on demand, and meets the high-load requirements such as new curriculum reform, 3D modeling, and video processing.

In view of the increasing demands for computational power, H3C Learningspace cloud desktop and CAS virtualization technology help Guangxi University built a powerful and flexible GPU resource pool to provide powerful computing support for Adobe series, ENVI, 3Dmax and other professional software, get rid of software modeling and rendering, and effectively support the teaching of digital skills such as high-end design, simulation, and video rendering.

In addition, with the popularization of digital examinations, the technical team of the university took on great service pressures. They had to deploy examination room environment even overnight before examinations. Students were at risk of equipment faults affecting normal performance. H3C Learningspace solution turns the complex software environment required for examinations into a standardized image, enabling rapid deployment and safe operation of the examination software environment. In the National Computer Rank Examination 2020, Guangxi University provided a zero-error examination environment for up to 22 classrooms, 84 times and 6276 examinees, demonstrating the efficiency and stability of the "Cloud" examination room. The stable support of H3C CAS virtualization in the background contributed to H3C Learningspace to provide excellent teaching experience on the cloud.

Since the first product was released in 2011, the H3C CAS virtualization solution has been upgrading and evolving over the past ten years, thus building a solid digital technology cornerstone for many universities, including Guangxi University. As the education information 2.0 era has come, the H3C CAS virtualization solution will further expand the application scenario, and lay a solid foundation for the integration of key technologies (such as "cloud desktop", "hybrid cloud", and "hyper-convergence") with education, to support the digital transformation of the education industry.