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Amendment 0007 - Questions and Answers 30, 186, 194, 208, 236, 244
RFP HC1028-11-R-0104
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2 Requirements |
| SECTION NO. |
| UX-Itanium Tier Definitions |
| SECTION NAME |
| UX-Itanium Tier Definitions |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Table requirements |
| QUESTION |
| Attachment 1 (Page 20) of the Technical Requirements document (UX-Itanium Tier Definitions) states a requirement for "Hot pluggable CPU/memory" for all three tiers. Hot pluggable CPU/memory is not a standard feature of entry and mid-tier business critical servers to help reduce the cost of these systems, but is a feature found on high-end servers. We request that this requirement be removed for the HP-Itanium Tier 1 and Tier 2 systems. |
| ANSWER |
| Yes, J-2, para 1.2.1.2 and 2.0 allows offers to propose options to deliver or exceed 99.99%. The vendor solution may propose an option to provide a Hot Swappable solution in order to support customer workload that requires high availability as well as options for clustered hardware solutions. Hot Swappable CPUs and Memory options will be identified at time of order, unless the vendor identifies this as a standard solution. |
| DOCUMENT |
| J-2 Requirements |
| SECTION NO. |
| X86 W/L/L Tier Definitions |
| SECTION NAME |
| X86 W/L/L Tier Definitions |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Table requirements |
| QUESTION |
| Attachment 1 (Page 22) of the Technical Requirements document (X-86 W/L/L Tier Definitions) states a requirement for "Hot pluggable CPU/memory" for all five (5) system tiers. Hot pluggable CPU/memory is not a standard feature of industry standard x86 architecture, but is a feature generally found on more expensive business critical servers. We request that this requirement be removed for all five x-86 system tiers. |
| ANSWER |
| Requirement of “Hot pluggable CPU/Memory” is necessary to ensure hardware solution provides availability and maintainability for any hosting requirement faced by CSD. The vendor should propose an option to provide a Hot Swappable solution in order to support customer workload that requires high availability. However Hot Swappable CPUs and Memory does not have to be a requirement for every system. |
| SECTION TEXT |
| X-86 (Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Solaris, VMware) |
| QUESTION |
| Are all of the OS’s listed required on all the servers and/or VM’s? This is an expensive solution. |
| ANSWER |
| Vendor will provide VMWare, as well as, the operating system software --Windows Server, RedHat Linux, SUSE Linux, Solaris. This also includes any other operating environment or chipsets that DISA may require in the future. The Government will identify what software we want - but it will not be a separate orderable SLIN. J-2, Requirements Document, paras 1.2.3.2 and 1.2.3.3 has been added. J-5, PWS, paras 6.1.4.2 and 6.1.4.3 has been added. |
| SECTION TEXT |
| For all software provided in the offeror solution, including operating system software , VMWare, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, |
offeror is responsible to ensure they have documentation that confirms software entitlements and annual/current support/maintenance levels. In the event of an audit, the offeror will be required to defend any audit discrepancy found against all software products that the offeror has acquired in support of this contract.
| QUESTION |
| Does DISA intend that the offeror specify how much VMware software is included in each SLIN on the x86 pricing model as part of the bid? Given that DISA is operating/configuring all VMware environments, can DISA confirm that the offeror will have real-time access to the appropriate VMware components to track software usage? |
| ANSWER |
| VMWare is required for the X-86 Chipset on Tier 1 and Tier 2 provided the hardware will be used in the ESX environment. The vendor will not have real-time access to the VMWare components. |
| QUESTION |
| Will the government accept IP based in-bound communications from the offerors monitoring facility to the OOB? Will the government provide any necessary VPN and/or SSL secure communications capabilities? |
| ANSWER |
| See Question 97, Amendment 0004 and 197. |
| SECTION NAME |
| Virtual Environments |
| SECTION TEXT |
| Provide solution that recognizes Virtual VMware environment as standard infrastructure for the x86 environment. The Government support staff will manage the ESX environment (hosts), placements, relocating environments (vmotion), and the VIC. The Virtual Environment software for all platforms will be included in the processor utility service. |
| QUESTION |
| The bid documents make repeated reference to "VMware" and to "ESX" (one product of the VMware family of offerings). The current enterprise version of VMware is known generally as vSphere. VMware recently announced the upcoming availability of their data center virtualization product family, vSphere Version 5.0 which includes ESXi. They have announced that it will be available in the late August/early September timeframe. Would the government please indicate whether the “N” version of VMware will be considered to be the recently announced version vSphere 5.0 or the soon to be replaced “ESX”? |
| ANSWER |
| The offeror’s proposal should provide support for vSphere 5.0 and higher. |
| DOCUMENT |
| RFP HC1028-11-R-0104; Attachment J1 |
| PAGE |
| RFP Page 49; Attachment J1 Page 2 |
| SECTION NO. |
| RFP Section L 6.1.5; J1 section 2.0 |
SECTION NAME
| SECTION TEXT |
| RFP section 6.1.5 states: “The virtualization tiers for the X-86 environment (Tier one and Tier Two) are meant to cover the virtual environment running VMWare software. Included in the tiers should be all costs to operate a VMWare environment (at the least to include, but not limited to Vsphere software licensing, 4 VIC licenses (primary and backup for NIPR and SIPR), and virtual OE licensing for Microsoft operating systems, Redhat Linux operating systems, SUSE Linux operating systems, and switching infrastructure components).” |
Para 2.0 of the SOO states “The service provider will acquire, install, deinstall, transport, configure, and provide the necessary hardware (including cabinets/racks/cabling/cable management/PDUs), hardware maintenance, operating system software, VMWare, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, and services to support the processor infrastructure associated with this contract. The Government will maintain day-to-day operational control of the processing environment and complete oversight responsibility. This operational control includes the installation of all software updates after the initial delivery. However, all operating system software, VMWare, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, including software maintenance and licensing shall be included under this contract.”
| QUESTION |
| Section L 6.1.5 states offerors are to include all cost to operate a VMWare environment, including OE Licensing. Section L of the RFP, as written, has no requirement for software to be included in Tiers 3, 4, and 5. Para 2.0 of the SOO states: “However, all operating system software, VMWare, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, including software maintenance and licensing shall be included under this contract.” |
Is it the government’s intent to have all operating system software, as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution to operate, including software maintenance and licensing to be included within Tier 3, Tier 4, and Tier 5 utility service? If, so, will the government amend the solicitation?
| ANSWER |
| All Tier pricing for all chipsets should include operating system software (with exception of System z), VMWare (for X-86 only), as well as, any other software required for the offeror solution operate, including software maintenance and licensing. This also includes any other operating system software that DISA may require in the future. |
| DOCUMENT |
| HC1028-11-R-0104; Amendment 002; revised 22 July 2011 |
| SECTION NAME |
| Evaluation Factors; specifically Subfactor 1: Technical Solution; 1.2 Capacity Service; 1.2.1 |
The Government will assess the technical solution proposed to provide for an “On Demand” environment for scale-up and scale-down of capacity and component changes while minimizing the impacts those changes will impose. This includes such items as reducing or eliminating disruption to processing schedules necessary to implement the solution, the impact on current software licensing, the impact to existing peripherals, and the impacts on facilities with a heterogeneous hardware environment.
| QUESTION |
| Does VMWare software purchased subsequent to the original award of HC1013-07-D-2xxx contracts convey to DISA in similar fashion to the IBM Z-Series operating system software, or do(es) the incumbent(s) retain title? If the incumbent(s) retain title, how does DISA propose to conduct a fair and open competition considering the $10 mil - $15 mil pricing advantage to the incumbent(s) – especially considering none of the offerors who originally bid VMWare on HC1013-07-D-2xxx contract won the pricing aspect of the competition, only the incumbent(s) who did not bit VMWare originally? |
| ANSWER |
| All incumbents on the current contract, negotiated their licensing agreements with subcontractors in which the Government would not have insight into those agreements. In the current contract, the Government acquired a "virtualization service" which offers VMWare as the virtualization operating system. The new requirement is for multiple tiers for x86 virtualization, which is not on the existing contract (in addition the Government is requiring the new contract to be VSphere 5.0 and |
Higher); therefore even the incumbents must seek new agreements with the subcontractors. Any operating system (to include virtualization software) that was a requirement on the old contract, will be a requirement on the new contract; therefore no software will "convey" from old contract to new.
Defense Information Systems Agency