DEFINITIVE GUIDETO EXCHANGE SERVER2010 MIGRATION

CHAPTER

FIVE

EXCHANGE 2010KEEPING UPAPPEARANCES

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FOUR PILLARS

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ISSUES, TWEAKS

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EXCHANGE 2010

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BEST PRACTICES

CHAPTER 5: EXCHANGE 2010: KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

Exchange 2010KEEPING UPAPPEARANCESAn improperly configured Exchange 2010 infrastructurewill cause performance issues from the get-go. Followingdesign and management best practices will help keep yourenvironment trouble-free.BY ANDY GROGAN

WHEN DEVELOPING Exchange Server2007 and Exchange 2010, Microsoftfocused on performance.But nomat-ter howmuch forethought the manu-facturer places on performance,varying configurations that occurafter installing the server willundoubtedly affect how well it runs.This chapter takes a look at how

to configure your Exchange 2010architecture, specifically the mail-box server role, from the outset toavoid performance issues down theroad. We'll also look at some com-mon performance problemsExchange 2010 admins encounter,

how to troubleshoot them and, ofcourse, ways to avoid them in thefirst place through fastidious man-agement practices.

FOUR PILLARSOF EXCHANGE 2010 DESIGNOutlook users can experience gen-eral performance problems for avariety of reasons, some of whichindicate basic design issues in keyareas of Exchange 2010. Properarchitectural design after installa-tion can alleviate many issues.There are four pillars of Exchange

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Server 2010 design to which youshould pay close attention (seeFigure 1). A small misstep in oneof these four segments can greatlyaffect the overall performance ofExchange 2010 under load.Memory and storage (pillars 2

and 3) are keys to Exchange Server.If you have improperly sized mailbox

server memory (or any other serverrole, for that matter) or if you’ve im-properly allocated storage, you’ll runinto some problems very quickly.Let’s take a look at two different

server configurations as an example.Company A consists of 5,000 usersspread across two Exchange 2010servers. Each instance of Exchange

FIGURE 1:Four pillars ofExchange Serverdesign

runs the mailbox server, clientaccess server and hub transportserver roles. The average mailboxuser sends and receives about 10075 KB messages a day. The compa-ny does not use database availabili-ty groups. In this example, CompanyA is running Exchange on twoservers, as shown on the left-handside of Table 1.It is highly likely that this configu-

ration will experience Outlook per-formance issues for the followingreasons:

� The memory configuration isbelow the recommended mini-mum for the database cache. Foran organization that sends and

receives 100 messages per userper day, you should allow 6MBper mailbox on top of the 8 GBrequired for all server roles.

� The RAID configuration for thedatabase drive is not optimal forthe amount of mailboxes andmessage traffic.

� This system wasn’t designed toscale, so any daily expansion with-in the system compounds per-formance issues. This point isparamount. It’s not uncommon toinstall Exchange and have it workwithout issue for three monthsonly to have things go wrong inthat fourth month, for instance.

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TABLE 1: Improperly Configured Exchange 2010Versus a Correct Configuration

CPU

RAM

Storagetransaction logs

Storage database

Improper Exchange2010 Configuration

1 physical processor × 2 cores

16 GB (based on a base systemconfiguration of 8 GB and 3 MBdatabase cache per user for2,500 mailboxes for 100 mes-sages/day)

RAID 1 to 2.5 SATA 7.2 RPMdisks

RAID 5 (no hot spare) to 2.5SATA 7.2 RPM disks

Correct Exchange2010 Configuration

2 physical processors × 4 cores

23 GB (based on a base systemconfiguration of 8 GB and 6 MBdatabase cache per user for2,500 mailboxes and 100 mes-sages sent and received/day).To add scalability, opt for 32 GB.

RAID 1 to 2.5 SAS 10K RPMdisks

RAID 1 to 2.5 SAS 10K RPMdisks

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When this happens, review sizingconfigurations that were set dur-ing the initial installation.

A well-designed Exchange 2010configuration for the same companymight look similar to that on theright-hand side of Table 1 on page 4.Before building your Exchange

2010 infrastructure, I recommendthat you review a number of re-sources to help you scale and trou-bleshoot your environment. Table 2above outlines some valuable toolsfromMicrosoft and from third-partyvendors as well as reference materi-als on sizing each of the fiveExchange 2010 server roles.

PERFORMANCE ISSUES,TWEAKS AND MITIGATIONConfiguration problems can not onlyaffect the performance of yourExchange infrastructure but alsotrickle down to the user. And whilethe list of possible Exchange 2010performance problems is too long to

list in its entirety, slow responsetimes in Microsoft Outlook andOutlookWeb App are the two mostcommon user complaints.Outlook and OWA issues generally

stem from an underlying hardwareconfiguration or sizing problem suchas choosing the wrong disk subsys-tem RAID level or improperly sizingthe amount of RAM/CPU cores tothe designated user. However, itmay take some work to pinpoint theexact source. In a number of circum-stances, user load may have grownbeyond the expectations of the orig-inal design, which places significantdemand on hardware resources.When a performance issue arises,

Outlook users will generally receivean error message stating, “Micro-soft Outlook is requesting data fromthe server.” A slow, unresponsive orfrozen Outlook interface typicallyaccompanies the message. Often,administrators don’t know there’s aproblem until OWA users report it.And the more users you havereporting this problem, the more

TABLE 2: Tools to Help Properly Size Exchange 2010 Server Roles

� Microsoft Exchange 2010Mailbox Server Role CalculatorA tool to correctly size storage and memory

� HP Sizer for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007Server sizing and configuration tool for Exchange 2007 on HP servers

� Dell’s Exchange 2010 AdvisorServer sizing tool for Exchange 2010 on Dell servers

likely an underlying infrastructureconfiguration is to blame.To troubleshoot this problem,

have the user hold down the CTRLkey and navigate to the Outlook iconin theWindows notification area.Select Connection Status from thecontext menu to open a connectivitydiagnostics window.If, for example, a user complains

that Outlook froze when he openedthe Global Address List and thenfailed to display the address list, theoutput in this diagnostics windowcan offer a clue as to why. In thisparticular instance, the Req/Failsection of Directory Type requestsshows one failure, which suggeststhat Exchange Server is having diffi-culty communicating with one of itsdomain controllers. If you suspectthere’s a problem with your domaincontrollers or global catalog, youcan use Microsoft’s Dcdiag tool topinpoint Active Directory issues.You can also use the connectivity

status box to troubleshoot other net-work-based problems such as laten-

cy. So, for example, if Outlook isfreezing and users receive a numberof failures in the Req/Fail columnand high values in the Avg Resp col-umn, this suggests a wider network-ing issue, specifically with Exchangeservers and domain controllers.In this situation and to avoid suf-

fering from network latency in thefuture, ensure that Exchange servershave fast, reliable links to domaincontrollers and to the client network.Don’t use Auto-Negotiation at theserver or switch-port level on net-work interface cards; as a minimum,each adapter should be hard-set at100MB full duplex or faster. Onlarge networks, it is good practice toseparate server traffic from clienttraffic using virtual LANs (VLANs).

EXCHANGE 2010 MANAGE-MENT BEST PRACTICESWhen managing Exchange servers,you should love and care for themas if they were your own children.

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Looking for Help?BEFORE BUILDING YOUR Exchange 2010 environment, review these resourcesto help properly scale your infrastructure or troubleshoot problems.�Understanding Processor Configurations and Exchange Performance�UnderstandingMemory Configurations and Exchange Performance�Understanding Server Role Ratios and Exchange Performance�Understanding theMailbox Database Cache

(Continued on page 8)

TABLE 3: Exchange Server 2010Management and Upkeep

Process

Inspect physicalhardware

Check backups

Review allevent logs

Review diskspace

Review transac-tion log growth

Review transportqueues

Run Exchange BestPractices Analyzer

Review server mail-box distribution

Review DAGreplication status

Run PerfMon

Maintain aconfiguration log

Log all changes viaa change-controlprocess

Penetration testing

Frequency

Daily

Daily

Twicea day

Daily

Daily

Twicea day

Twice amonth

Daily

Twicea day

Monthly

Daily

Asrequired

Twicea year

Requirement

Mandatory

Mandatory

Once ismandatory;twice is optional

Mandatory

Mandatory

Mandatory

Mandatory

Mandatory

Mandatory

Optional

Mandatory

Mandatory

Varies accordingto industry

Description

Review the physical state of the kitthat comprises your Exchange servers

Check the status of backups

Review the contents of the system,application and security logs on eachExchange server

Check available space on transaction logs,databases and system LUNs

Ensure that the number of transaction logsbeing produced is in line with daily metric

Check the volume of mail within the trans-port queues and review any anomalies

Review configuration information andrecommendations

Ensure that mailbox servers aren’t over-loaded with over-capacity mailboxes

Check the number of logs in the copy andpeplay queues (DAG configurations only)

Run performance monitoring using Ex-change Management Console for two hoursa month to view usage trends

Log all current configuration settings to adigital log, (i.e.,configuration management)

Log, evaluate, plan, test and implementall changes to Exchange

Have a third party test the overallviability and security of your Exchangeinfrastructure

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CHAPTER 5: EXCHANGE 2010: KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

Exchange is a robust product, butit needs nurturing to perform at itsbest. To get the highest perform-ance out of your Exchange 2010infrastructure, it helps to have aclear set of processes and tasks thatyou follow on a daily, weekly andmonthly basis. Table 3 (see page 7)depicts an Exchange managementcard that you can keep on hand toensure you and other Exchangeadmins are following the propersteps. You can customize this tableto suit your organization’s needs.

ONE FINAL NOTEThere are several areas to concen-trate on when trying to obtain andmaintain optimal performance fromExchange 2010 servers. While thischapter focuses specifically on themailbox server role in terms of over-all performance, the same principlesapply for all other server roles. Takesome advice fromMicrosoft andExchange experts: Keep an eye onwhat your environment is doing ona daily basis to ensure high perform-ance now and in the future. �

Andy Grogan, an Exchange MVP based in theU.K., has worked in the IT industry for the last14 years—primarily with Microsoft, HP and IBMtechnologies. His main passion is ExchangeServer, but he also specializes in Active Directory,SQL Server and storage solutions. Andy is cur-rently working for a large council in West Londonas the Networks and Operations Manager sup-porting 6,000 customers on more than 240 sites.Visit Andy’s website at www.telnetport25.com/.

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RESOURCES FROM OUR SPONSOR

• Exchange 2010: Performance Enhancement

• Hosting vs. In-House Implementation of Exchange 2010: It’s Decision Time

• Presentation Transcript: Exchange 2010 Roadmap Series - Transition and Migration

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