Case Study
KWM Karl Weisshaar Ing.
GmbH brings high availability
to production
Objective
Maximum availability of all data and
production machines with minimum
expenditure on IT administration
Metal processing company uses HPE 3PAR
StoreServ Storage system with transparent failover
Approach
Installing two HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Storage systems with automatic
transparent failover and HPE Proactive
Care Services
IT Matters
• Very low administration expenditure
as the solution is simple to manage
• Automatic transparent failover means
that the storage solution no longer
needs to be restarted after a failure
• The HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage
systems are easy to expand in the
event of performance bottlenecks
Business Matters
• High availability of all applications and
data, including for production
• Even higher availability due to
HPE Proactive Care Services
KWM Weisshaar needs
an IT infrastructure with
high availability. Which is
why the company recently
installed two Hewlett
Packard Enterprise 3PAR
StoreServ Storage systems
with automatic transparent
failover. This ensures that
data is stored consistently
on both systems, which are
situated 400 metres apart
on the company’s site.
Challenge
High availability for all business
applications and production machines
With over two thousand tonnes of steel,
2,000 tonnes of stainless steel and 600
tonnes of aluminium - KWM Weisshaar
processes huge volumes of sheet metal
every year. These figures make the mediumsized company one of the big players in
Germany’s sheet metal working industry.
It employs around 500 people and covers
the entire process chain for the sector with
its five key business areas: engineering,
sheet metal working, joining and welding
and assembly and logistics. This focus is
one of the reasons behind the growth of the
company, which was founded in 1979.
KWM Weisshaar has been continually
expanding its business over the years,
bringing in new, automated, economical
technologies. This includes the installation
of a new 3D laser system and a press brake.
Case study
KWM Karl Weisshaar
Ing. GmbH
Industry
Metal processing
Page 2
“The test was a real highlight: While production was still running, I switched
from one storage system to the other and not one of our employees
noticed. Operations continued as if nothing had happened. That was when
we knew that we could seamlessly maintain business continuity even in an
emergency situation without a great deal of effort from us in the
IT department.”
– Peter Wendel, information technology, KWM Karl Weisshaar Ing. GmbH
“More and more machines and systems
related to production and logistics are now
IT-based. Without IT, it just wouldn’t work,”
explains Peter Wendel, who works in the IT
department at KWM Weisshaar.
The degree of automation is incredibly high. For
example, the ERP system is connected directly
to the laser and die-cutting systems so that
orders can be sent directly to the machines.
There is also a direct connection to the
warehouse so that all of the materials required
for an order can be picked automatically.
“What this means for us in the IT
department is that we have to ensure that
the machines and systems are available up
to 99.9 per cent of the time,” says Wendel.
“If they are not, production can no longer
work on any more jobs - or logistics stops
receiving finished components from the
factory. Which is why having a fail-proof
storage system in the data centre has
become increasingly important for us over
recent years.” Many of the processing
machines run around the clock, even at
weekends. And without human operators.
Until a few months ago, KWM Weisshaar
relied on two HPE StorageWorks EVA4400
systems installed in two data centres
situated 400 metres apart at the company’s
site in Mosbach.
The systems on them included an ERP
system, Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008
and a Microsoft SQL database for the
automated high rack warehouse. All of the
servers are, where possible, virtualised
with VMware.
The two HPE StorageWorks EVA4400
allowed the system to be redundant, i.e. one
system was a productive system, the other a
supporting system. “The disadvantage was
that if it went down, we would have to shut
down and restart the systems, meaning that
availability was not as high as we wanted,”
remembers Wendel.
But he had already spotted a solution: the
HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system with
transparent failover. If one data centre goes
down, the second data centre at the site can
completely assume all of its functions in a
very short amount of time.
Solution
HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system
with transparent failover
As the service period for the HPE
StorageWorks EVA4400 systems was
coming to an end, it was clear to Wendel that
KWM Weisshaar should move to the HPE
3PAR StoreServ Storage system.
Case study
KWM Karl Weisshaar
Ing. GmbH
Industry
Metal processing
Page 3
“The transparent failover option is only
available with the HPE 3PAR StoreServ
Storage system. I had also read that the
transparent failover concept had worked
very well at Datev across a distance of
20 kilometres. So I said to myself: If a
big company like that is happy with the
solution, then it’s the obvious choice for a
medium- sized one like us,” says Wendel.
“We were also very satisfied with the service
we had received from Hewlett Packard
Enterprise with the old storage system.”
Following a visit to the HPE lab in Böblingen
to find out more about the technical aspects
of the HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system,
the company worked with experts from HPE
to design the system.
As the old storage systems held around
12TB of data, the company decided on two
HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems
with a total of 27TB of gross storage space.
Depending on the security level, this equates
to a net total of 18TB, and the volume can
be expanded as needed by installing
additional drives. “This means that we have
a sufficient buffer for the next few years,”
says Wendel, confidently.
KWM Weisshaar also equipped the two
HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems
with various software functionalities.
For Wendel, the most important of these
is the HPE 3PAR Replication Software Suite,
as the transparent failover feature was the
key factor when it came to choosing the
storage solution.
It uses the HPE 3PAR Peer Persistence
function to replicate all data regularly,
synchronously or asynchronously, across the
two sites, ensuring that the metal processing
company is well prepared for a disaster
recovery situation - the data is always stored
consistently across the two EDP rooms.
“With the HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage
system, we can now mix the data between
the two EDP rooms and no longer have to
define a primary and secondary location,”
says Wendel. “The only reason we still do it
because we always have done.”
Benefit
Consistent data storage and availability
in the event of a disaster
KWM Weisshaar has luckily not had to deal
with a disaster recovery event since the
HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200 Storage systems
were installed. But the IT department
knows that the automated transparent
failover works. “That was a real highlight
for us. While production was still running,
I tested the system by switching from one
HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system to
the other and not one of our employees
noticed. Operations continued as if nothing
had happened. That was when we knew
that we could seamlessly maintain business
continuity even in an emergency situation
without a great deal of effort from us in the
IT department.”
Case study
KWM Karl Weisshaar
Ing. GmbH
Industry
Metal processing
Customer at a glance
Hardware
• HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7200
Storage system
Software
• HPE 3PAR Operating System Software
• HPE 3PAR Replication Software Suite
• HPE 3PAR Reporting Software Suite
• HPE 3PAR Application Software Suite
for VMware
HPE services
• 24x7 HPE Proactive Care Services
“Managing the HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system is
convenient and simple, so it takes very little effort for us to
manage the entire storage environment. The HPE 3PAR
StoreServ Storage system runs very smoothly for us. Once
it was set up in the VMware environment, it essentially
became a black box that we never have to think about.”
– Peter Wendel, information technology, KWM Karl Weisshaar Ing. GmbH
Another feature of the HPE 3PAR
StoreServ Storage system that Wendel
finds particularly important is how easy
it is to manage, as the IT department at
KWM Weisshaar has just five people to
monitor the entire IT infrastructure, from the
machine controllers to the telephone system.
“Managing the HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage
system is convenient and simple, just as
it was with the HPE StorageWorks EVA,
meaning that it takes very little effort for us
to manage the entire storage environment.
The HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage system
runs very smoothly for us. Once it was set
up in the VMware environment, it essentially
became a black box that we never have to
think about,” emphasises Wendel.
“The experts from HPE can recognise
possible problems at a very early stage.
The few times this has happened, we got a
call from HPE before the alert came through
the system.”
In order to save internal resources, KWM
Weisshaar decided to purchase HPE
Proactive Care Services for the storage
environment. “This increases the availability
and stability of our IT environment
even further.”
Learn more at
As its next step, KWM Weisshaar intends to
install and run the HPE 3PAR Application
Software Suite for VMware. This will allow
the administrators to create array-based
online VM snapshots, and will make
restoring data even easier. And the HPE
3PAR Reporting Software Suite is set to
follow in the next few months: “This would
allow us to detect any possible bottlenecks
with things such as database applications in
the HPE 3PAR.”
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