emc vspex for virtualized microsoft exchange 2010 with ... · esxi and vcenter implementation ......

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

EMC VSPEX

Abstract

This Implementation Guide describes, at a high level, the steps required to deploy a Microsoft Exchange 2010 organization on an EMC® VSPEX™ Proven Infrastructure enabled by VMware vSphere, EMC VNX®, and EMC VNXe®.

April 2013

EMC VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2010 WITH VMWARE VSPHERE

EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2010 with VMware vSphere Implementation Guide

2

Copyright © 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to the technical documentation and advisories section on the EMC Online Support website.


Part Number H11436


3

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................... 11

Purpose of this guide .................................................................................... 12

Business value .............................................................................................. 12

Scope............................................................................................................ 13

Audience ....................................................................................................... 13

Terminology .................................................................................................. 14

Chapter 2 Before You Start ..................................................................... 15

Overview ....................................................................................................... 16 Pre-deployment tasks .......................................................................................... 16 Documentation workflow ..................................................................................... 17

Deployment prerequisites ............................................................................. 17

Plan and size Microsoft Exchange ................................................................. 20

Support resources ......................................................................................... 24 Design Guide ....................................................................................................... 24 Solution Overviews .............................................................................................. 24 Top Reasons ........................................................................................................ 24 VSPEX Proven Infrastructures ............................................................................... 24 Exchange best practices for EMC storage ............................................................. 24

Chapter 3 Solution Overview .................................................................. 25

Overview ....................................................................................................... 26 Solution architecture............................................................................................ 26

Key components ........................................................................................... 27 Microsoft Exchange 2010 ..................................................................................... 28 EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ......................................................................... 28 EMC VNX and VNXe .............................................................................................. 29 EMC Unisphere .................................................................................................... 31 VMware vSphere 5.1 ............................................................................................ 31 EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware ........................................................... 32

Contents


4

VNX VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration support ...................................... 32 EMC XtremSW Cache ............................................................................................ 32 EMC AppSync ....................................................................................................... 32 EMC Avamar ......................................................................................................... 32 EMC Data Domain ................................................................................................ 33 EMC PowerPath/VE .............................................................................................. 33

Chapter 4 Solution Implementation ........................................................ 35

Physical setup ............................................................................................... 36 Overview of physical setup .................................................................................. 36

Network implementation............................................................................... 36 Overview of network implementation ................................................................... 36

Storage implementation ............................................................................... 37 Overview of storage implementation .................................................................... 37 Set up initial VNX/VNXe configuration .................................................................. 39 Provision storage for NFS datastore ...................................................................... 40 Provision storage for iSCSI disks .......................................................................... 41 FAST Cache configuration ..................................................................................... 49 FAST VP configuration .......................................................................................... 50 XtremSW Cache configuration .............................................................................. 51 Example storage layouts ...................................................................................... 53

ESXi and vCenter implementation ................................................................. 56 Overview of ESXi and vCenter implementation ..................................................... 56

Multipathing implementation ....................................................................... 58 Overview of multipathing implementation ............................................................ 58 PowerPath/VE implementation ............................................................................ 58

Exchange Server virtualization implementation ............................................ 59 Overview of Exchange Server virtualization implementation ................................. 59 Create Exchange virtual machines ........................................................................ 60 Install Exchange guest OS .................................................................................... 61 Update the virtual machine .................................................................................. 61 Assign IP address ................................................................................................. 61 Create NLB cluster ................................................................................................ 61 Create virtual disks for Exchange servers ............................................................. 62

Application implementation.......................................................................... 65 Overview of application implementation .............................................................. 65 Prepare Active Directory ....................................................................................... 65 Install Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles ......... 66 Deploy Client Access server array ......................................................................... 67 Install Exchange 2010 Mailbox server role ........................................................... 68

Contents


5

Deploy database availability group (DAG) ............................................................ 69

Local protection implementation .................................................................. 70 Overview of local protection implementation ....................................................... 70 Install AppSync .................................................................................................... 70 Protect Exchange Server 2010 .............................................................................. 70 Restore Exchange Server 2010 ............................................................................. 72

Backup and recovery implementation ........................................................... 73 Overview of backup and recovery implementation ............................................... 73 Backup and recovery considerations .................................................................... 73 Backup strategies ................................................................................................ 74 Federated backups of Exchange 2010 DAG environments .................................... 77 Multistreaming..................................................................................................... 80

Chapter 5 Solution Verification .............................................................. 81

Baseline infrastructure verification ............................................................... 82 Overview of baseline infrastructure verification .................................................... 82 Verify ESXi functionality ....................................................................................... 82 Verify solution components redundancy .............................................................. 82 Verify Exchange Client Access server array configuration ...................................... 83 Verify the Exchange DAG configuration ................................................................. 83 Monitor the solution’s health ............................................................................... 84

Exchange Server performance verification .................................................... 85 Overview of Exchange Server performance verification ......................................... 85 Jetstress verification ............................................................................................ 85 LoadGen verification ............................................................................................ 87

Backup and recovery verification .................................................................. 91 Verifying backup and recovery plan ...................................................................... 91

Chapter 6 Reference Documentation ...................................................... 93

EMC documentation ...................................................................................... 94

Other documentation .................................................................................... 94

Links ............................................................................................................. 95 VMware links ....................................................................................................... 95 Microsoft TechNet ................................................................................................ 95

Appendix A Configuration Worksheet..................................................... 97

Configuration worksheet for Exchange .......................................................... 98

Contents


6


7

Figures

Figure 1. Solution architecture .......................................................................... 27 Figure 2. VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ............................................................... 29 Figure 3. Exchange 2010 storage elements on vSphere 5.1 and VNX platform .. 38 Figure 4. Exchange 2010 storage elements on vSphere 5.1 and VNXe platform. 39 Figure 5. NFS datastore provisioning by VSI USM .............................................. 41 Figure 6. Storage type in VNXe Disk Configuration Wizard ................................. 43 Figure 7. Microsoft Exchange provisioning wizard ............................................. 44 Figure 8. Select Exchange version ..................................................................... 44 Figure 9. Split database and log sizes ............................................................... 45 Figure 10. Exchange database and log LUNs created .......................................... 46 Figure 11. Storage pool selection in VSI USM ...................................................... 48 Figure 12. iSCSI LUN configuration in VSI USM .................................................... 49 Figure 13. Storage Pool Properties—FAST Cache enabled .................................... 50 Figure 14. Expand Storage Pool dialog box ......................................................... 51 Figure 15. Creating XtremSW Cache device ......................................................... 52 Figure 16. Adding XtremSW Cache device and source LUNS ................................ 53 Figure 17. Example storage layout for VNXe ........................................................ 54 Figure 18. Example storage layout for VNX .......................................................... 55 Figure 19. Network Load Balancing Manager ...................................................... 62 Figure 20. Creating a new virtual disk ................................................................. 63 Figure 21. RDM disk type selection ..................................................................... 64 Figure 22. Formatting disk .................................................................................. 64 Figure 23. Custom Exchange Server installation .................................................. 66 Figure 24. Exchange Client Access server and Hub Transport roles selection ....... 67 Figure 25. Mailbox Role selection ....................................................................... 68 Figure 26. Exchange 2010 DAG discovery in AppSync ......................................... 71 Figure 27. Exchange 2010 database subscription to service plans in AppSync ... 72 Figure 28. Avamar installation map ..................................................................... 74 Figure 29. Backup workflow for Exchange ........................................................... 75 Figure 30. Non-federated backup of all databases in the DAG ............................. 76 Figure 31. Federated backup of a DAG cluster example ....................................... 79 Figure 32. Commands to verify Client Access server array associations ............... 83 Figure 33. Command to verify DAG configuration ................................................ 83

Figures


8


9

Tables

Table 1. Terminology........................................................................................ 14 Table 2. Tasks for pre-deployment ................................................................... 16 Table 3. VSPEX for virtualized Exchange deployment process .......................... 17 Table 4. Deployment prerequisites checklist .................................................... 18 Table 5. Exchange-related storage pool name and purpose ............................. 20 Table 6. Sample customer qualification worksheet answer .............................. 20 Table 7. Example of required resources—medium Exchange organization ........ 21 Table 8. Sample storage recommendations—medium Exchange organization . 22 Table 9. Sample performance key metrics—Jetstress tool ................................ 22 Table 10. Sample performance key metrics—LoadGen tool ................................ 23 Table 11. Tasks for physical setup ..................................................................... 36 Table 12. Tasks for switch and network configuration ........................................ 36 Table 13. Tasks for storage configuration ........................................................... 37 Table 14. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data in VNXe ............. 42 Table 15. iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange database and log on VNXe .................. 46 Table 16. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data in VNX ............... 47 Table 17. iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange databases and logs on VNX ................. 48 Table 18. Steps for ESXi and vCenter installation and configuration ................... 56 Table 19. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration ............ 59 Table 20. Example of Exchange reference virtual machines ................................ 60 Table 21. Tasks to implement Exchange 2010 ................................................... 65 Table 22. Tasks for verifying the solution ........................................................... 82 Table 23. Tools to monitor the solution .............................................................. 84 Table 24. Example of verification questions for user profile ............................... 85 Table 25. Key metrics for Jetstress verification ................................................... 86 Table 26. Jetstress verification example results ................................................. 87 Table 27. Key metrics for LoadGen verification ................................................... 88 Table 28. LoadGen performance tests ................................................................ 90 Table 29. LoadGen performance example results ............................................... 90 Table 30. Common server information ............................................................... 98 Table 31. Exchange information ......................................................................... 98 Table 32. ESXi server information ...................................................................... 99 Table 33. Array information ................................................................................ 99 Table 34. Network infrastructure information ................................................... 100 Table 35. VLAN information ............................................................................. 100 Table 36. Service accounts .............................................................................. 100

Tables


10


11

Chapter 1 Introduction

This chapter presents the following topics:

Purpose ..................................................................................................... 12

Business value .......................................................................................... 12

Scope ........................................................................................................ 13

Audience ................................................................................................... 13

Terminology ............................................................................................... 14

Introduction


12

Purpose of this guide EMC® VSPEX™ Proven Infrastructures are optimized for virtualizing business-critical applications. VSPEX provides modular solutions built with technologies that enable faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk.

VSPEX provides partners with the ability to design and implement the virtual assets required to support Microsoft Exchange on an EMC VSPEX Private Cloud.

VSPEX provides a validated system capable of hosting a virtualized Exchange solution at a consistent performance level. This solution is layered on a VSPEX Private Cloud for VMware vSphere architecture and leverages the highly available EMC VNX® family, which provides the storage. EMC Avamar® and EMC Data Domain® enable partners to adopt a purpose-built backup appliance for Exchange Server. The compute and network components, while vendor-definable, are designed to be redundant and are sufficiently powerful to handle the processing and data needs of the virtual machine environment.

This Implementation Guide describes how to implement, with best practices, the resources necessary to deploy Microsoft Exchange on any VSPEX VMware Private Cloud platform.

Business value Email is an indispensable lifeline for communication within your business, and connects you with customers, prospects, partners, and suppliers. IT administrators who support Microsoft Exchange are challenged with maintaining the highest possible levels of performance and application efficiency. At the same time, most organizations struggle to keep pace with relentless data growth while working to overcome diminishing budgets. Administering, auditing, protecting, and managing an Exchange environment for a modern geographically diverse work force is a major challenge for most IT departments.

Many businesses try to address these challenges by adding physical servers and inefficient directly attached storage, which compounds the problem. Traditional backup cannot keep pace either. Businesses struggle to get backups done within available backup windows and to control backup data growth.

EMC has joined forces with the industry’s leading providers of IT infrastructure to create a complete virtualization solution that accelerates the deployment of private cloud and Microsoft Exchange.

VSPEX enables faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk. Validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select technology that uses their existing IT infrastructure while eliminating planning, sizing, and configuration burdens. VSPEX provides infrastructures for customers who want to simplify their system while at the same time gaining more choice in individual stack components.

Introduction


13

This solution has been sized and proven with EMC backup and recovery systems to:

• Reduce the customer’s backup storage requirements and costs

• Meet backup windows

• Enable fast disk-based recovery

Scope This guide describes the high-level steps required to deploy Exchange 2010 on a VSPEX Private Cloud with vSphere and VNX/VNXe®. The guide provides guidance on Exchange implementations. This guide assumes that a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure already exists in the customer environment.

This guide applies to VSPEX Proven Infrastructures, virtualized with vSphere on VNX/VNXe. This document provides an example of a deployment on a VNX5500 and a VNXe3150.

Audience This guide is intended for internal EMC personnel and qualified EMC VSPEX Partners. The guide assumes that VSPEX Partners who intend to deploy this VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange are:

• Qualified by Microsoft to sell and implement Exchange solutions

• Certified in Exchange, ideally with one or both of the following Microsoft certifications:

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) - Microsoft Exchange 2010 - Configuring (Exam: 662)

Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) - Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010 (Exam: 662 and 663)

• Qualified by EMC to sell, install, and configure the VNX family of storage systems

• Certified to sell VSPEX Proven Infrastructures

• Qualified to sell, install, and configure the network and server products required for VSPEX Proven Infrastructures

Readers must also have the necessary technical training and background to install and configure:

• VMware vSphere virtualization platforms

• Microsoft Windows Server 2000 R2 operating systems (OS)

Note During testing of the solution, Microsoft Exchange 2010 was not supported for installation on computers running the Windows Server 2012 OS. At the date of publication of this guide, Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 is available to support Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2012 OS.

Introduction


14

• Microsoft Exchange 2010

• EMC next-generation backup, which includes EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain

External references are provided where applicable and EMC recommends that readers are familiar with these documents. For details, refer to Support resources.

Terminology Table 1 lists the terminology used in the guide.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Definition

ACL Access control list

AD Active Directory

BDM Background Database Maintenance

CAS Client Access Server

CIFS Common Internet File System

DAG Database availability group

DNS Domain name system

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name

GLR Granular-level recovery

HUB Hub Transport server

IIS Internet Information Services

IOPS Input/output operations per second

NFS Network File System

NIC Network interface card

NLB Microsoft Network Load Balancing

NL-SAS Near-line serial-attached SCSI

PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express

PSOL Preferred server order list

Reference virtual machine Represents a unit of measure for a single virtual machine to quantify the compute resources in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

RTM Release to manufacturing

VMDK VMware Virtual Machine Disk

VMFS VMware Virtual Machine File System

VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service


15

Chapter 2 Before You Start


Overview ................................................................................................... 16

Documentation workflow ........................................................................... 17

Deployment prerequisites .......................................................................... 17

Plan and size Microsoft Exchange .............................................................. 20

Support resources ..................................................................................... 24

Before You Start


16

Overview Before you implement Exchange on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, EMC recommends you check and complete the pre-deployment tasks described in Table 2.

Pre-deployment tasks include procedures that do not directly relate to environment installation and configuration, but whose results are needed at the time of installation. Examples of pre-deployment tasks include the collection of hostnames, IP addresses, VLAN IDs, license keys, installation media, and so on. These tasks should be performed before a customer visit to decrease the time required on site.

Table 2 shows a list of pre-deployment tasks.

Table 2. Tasks for pre-deployment

Task Description Reference

Gather documents Gather the related documents listed in Support resources. These are used throughout the text of this document to provide details on setup procedures and deployment best practices for the various components of the solution.

Support resources

Gather tools Gather the required and optional tools for the deployment. Use Table 4 to confirm that all equipment, software, and appropriate licenses are available before the deployment process.

Deployment prerequisites checklist

Gather data Collect the customer-specific configuration data for networking, naming, and required accounts. Enter this information into the Customer Exchange configuration worksheet for reference during the deployment process.

Configuration worksheet for Exchange

Pre-deployment tasks

Before You Start


17

EMC recommends that you refer to the process flow in Table 3 to design and implement the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange solution.

Table 3. VSPEX for virtualized Exchange deployment process

Step Action

1 Use the VSPEX Exchange qualification worksheet to collect user requirements. The one-page qualification worksheet is in Appendix A of the Design Guide.

2 Use the EMC VSPEX Sizing Tool to determine the recommended VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Exchange 2010, based on the user requirements collected in Step 1.

Note In the event that the VSPEX Sizing Tool is not available, you can manually size Exchange 2010 using the sizing guidelines in Appendix B of the Design Guide.

3 Refer to the Design Guide to determine your final design for the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange.

Note Ensure that all application requirements are considered, not just Exchange.

4 Refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources to select and order the correct VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

5 Follow this Implementation Guide to deploy and test your VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange 2010.

Deployment prerequisites This guide applies to VSPEX Proven Infrastructures virtualized with VMware on VNX or VNXe. The example provided and carried through this guide is of a deployment on an EMC VNX5500 or VNXe3150. The same principles and guidance applies to any other VNX or VNXe model.

Table 4 itemizes the hardware,software, and licenses requirements to configure the solution.

For additional information, refer to the hardware and software tables in the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in the Support resources section.

Documentation workflow

Before You Start


18

Table 4. Deployment prerequisites checklist

Requirement Description Version Reference notes

Hardware

Physical servers: Sufficient physical server capacity to host the required number of virtual machines as recommended by the Design Guide and VSPEX Sizing Tool.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures

VMware vSphere 5.1 servers to host virtual infrastructure servers. Note: This requirement may be covered in the existing infrastructure.

Networking: Switch port capacity and capabilities as required by the virtual server infrastructure.

EMC VNX/VNXe: Multiprotocol storage array with the required disk layout.

Backup: EMC Avamar Gen 4 in a single node configuration.

Software

VNX OE for file Release 7.1.47-5

EMC Online Support

VNX OE for block Release 05.32.000.5.008

VNXe OE Release 2.3.1.19462

EMC Virtual storage integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management

5.4

EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage Viewer

5.4

EMC PowerPath®/VE 5.7

EMC AppSync 1.0

EMC XtremSW™ Cache 1.5.1

https://support.emc.com/�

Before You Start


19

Requirement Description Version Reference notes

VMware ESXi installation media

5.1

http://www.vmware.com

VMware vCenter Server installation media

5.1

Microsoft Windows Server installation media (for Exchange Server 2010)

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (or higher) Service Pack 1 with latest update

During the testing of the solution, Microsoft Exchange 2010 was not supported for installation on computers running the Windows Server 2012 operating system (OS). At the date of publication of this guide, an update is available to support Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2012 OS.

Microsoft Exchange Server installation media

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2

http://www.microsoft.com

Jetstress 2010 version 14.01.0225.017

For verification tests only

LoadGen 2010 version 14.01.0180.003

EMC Avamar 6.1 in server and client versions

For backup and recovery

Licenses

Microsoft Windows Server license keys Note: This requirement may be covered by an existing Software Assurance agreement and may be found on an existing customer Microsoft Key Management Server (KMS) (if applicable).

2008 R2 Standard (or higher)

http://www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Exchange Server license keys

2010 (Standard or Enterprise)

VMware vSphere license keys Note: This may covered in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

5.1 http://www.vmware.com

http://www.vmware.com/�

http://www.microsoft.com/�



Before You Start


20

Plan and size Microsoft Exchange To plan and size your Exchange organization layered on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, follow the recommendations and VSPEX Sizing Tool introduced in the Design Guide.

In this VSPEX solution, we1

Table 5 introduced general storage pools which are used to store

Exchange data. shows an example of the storage pools needed in an Exchange database availability group (DAG) deployment where each database has two copies. For detailed information, refer to the Design Guide.

Table 5. Exchange-related storage pool name and purpose

Pool name Purpose

VSPEX private cloud pool

The pool where all the virtual machines’ operation system volumes reside. For details, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure in Support resources.

Exchange database pool 1 The pool where all the Exchange database data of the first database copy reside.

Exchange database pool 2 The pool where all the Exchange database data of the second database copy reside.

Exchange log pool 1 The pool where all the Exchange log files of the first database copy reside.

Exchange log pool 2 The pool where all the Exchange log files of the second database copy reside.

The following example is described in the Design Guide. A customer wants to create a medium Exchange 2010 organization on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. Complete the evaluation, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Sample customer qualification worksheet answer

Question Example answer

Number of mailboxes 9,000

Maximum mailbox size (GB) 1.5 GB

Mailbox IOPS profile (messages sent/received per mailbox per day)

0.15 IOPS per user (150 messages sent/received per mailbox per day)

DAG copies (including Active one) 2

Deleted Items Retention (DIR) Window (days) 14

Backup/Truncation Failure Tolerance (days) 3

Snapshot (days retained) 0

Included number of years’ growth 1

1 In this guide, “we” refers to the EMC Solutions engineering team that validated the solution.

Before You Start


21


Annual growth rate (number of mailboxes, %) 11%

After you have received a completed qualification worksheet from the customer, and entered those answers into the VSPEX Sizing Tool, you will see results similar to those shown below:

• Required resources table listing the number of virtual machines and their characteristics.

• Storage recommendations table listing the additional storage layout required to run Exchange Server. This is in addition to VSPEX private cloud pool.

• Performance metrics table listing the key performance metrics to be achieved in the Jetstress and LoadGen tests. EMC recommends running Jetstress and LoadGen tests to verify the Exchange performance before putting Exchange in the production environment. For more information about these two testing tools, refer to the Exchange Server performance verification section of this guide.

Table 7, Table 8, Table 9, and Table 10 are examples based on the customer information provided in Table 6. In this example, you need to set up four Exchange Mailbox servers and four HUB/CAS combined servers to support the Exchange requirements. Then you can determine the equivalent number of reference virtual machines required for each Exchange server role by calculating the maximum of the individual resources (CPU, memory, capacity and IOPS).

Table 7. Example of required resources—medium Exchange organization

Exchange Server role vCPU Memory OS volume capacity

OS volume IOPS

No. of virtual machines

Total reference virtual machines

Mailbox server

Equivalent reference virtual machines

4 24 1 1 4 96

HUB/CAS server


4 4 1 1 4 16

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 112

For example, each Mailbox server requires four vCPUs, 48 GB of memory, 100 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

• Four reference virtual machines for CPU

• Twenty-four reference virtual machines for memory

• One reference virtual machine for capacity

Before You Start


22

• One reference virtual machine for IOPS

The values round up to 24 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (four in this example), which results in 96 reference virtual machines in total for the Mailbox server role:

24 reference virtual machines x 4 virtual machines = 96 total reference virtual machines

For more details about how to calculate the equivalent reference virtual machines, refer to the appropriate document in Support resources.

Table 8. Sample storage recommendations—medium Exchange organization

Recommended additional storage layout

Storage pool name RAID type Disk type Disk capacity

No. of disks

Exchange database pool 1 RAID 1/0 (24+24) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 2 TB 48

Exchange database pool 2 RAID 1/0 (24+24) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 2 TB 48

Exchange log pool 1 RAID 1/0 (4+4) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 2 TB 8

Exchange log pool 2 RAID 1/0 (4+4) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 2 TB 8

Table 9. Sample performance key metrics—Jetstress tool

Performance counters Target values

Achieved Exchange transactional IOPS

(I/O database reads/sec + I/O database writes/sec)

Number of mailboxes * Exchange 2010 user IOPS profile

I/O database reads/sec N/A (for analysis purpose)

I/O database writes/sec N/A (for analysis purpose)

Total IOPS (I/O database reads/sec + I/O database writes/sec + BDM reads/sec + I/O log replication reads/sec + I/O log writes/sec)

N/A (for analysis purpose)

I/O database reads average latency (ms) Less than 20 ms

I/O log reads average latency (ms) Less than 10 ms

Before You Start


23

Table 10. Sample performance key metrics—LoadGen tool

Performance counter Target

Mailbox server Processor\%Processor time Less than 80%

Exchange database\I/O database reads (attached) average latency

Less than 20 ms

Exchange database\I/O database writes (attached) average latency

Less than 20 ms

Less than read average

Exchange database\I/O database reads (recovery) average latency

Less than 200 ms

Exchange database\I/O database writes (recovery) average latency

Less than 200 ms

Exchange database\IO log read average latency

Less than 10 ms

Exchange database\IO log writes average latency

Less than 10 ms

ExchangeIS\RPC requests Less than 70

ExchangeIS\RPC averaged latency Less than 10 ms

CAS/HUB combined servers

Processor\%Processor time Less than 80%

Exchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Requests Less than 40

Exchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Averaged Latency

Less than 250 ms

ExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Aggregate Delivery Queue Length (All Queues)

Less than 3,000

ExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Remote Delivery Queue Length

Less than 250

ExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Mailbox Delivery Queue Length

Less than 250

Before You Start


24

Support resources EMC recommends that you read the following documents, available from the VSPEX space in the EMC Community Network or from EMC.com or the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure partner portal.

The related Design Guide is listed below.

• EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Exchange 2010

Related Solution Overviews are listed below.

• EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization for Midmarket Businesses

• EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization for Small and Medium Businesses

Related Top Reasons documents are listed below.

• Top Reasons Customers Virtualize with VSPEX

• Top Reasons Why Customers Virtualize Their Servers with EMC VSPEX

Related VSPEX Proven Infrastructure documents are listed below.

• EMC VSPEX Private Cloud VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 100 Virtual Machines

• EMC VSPEX Private Cloud VMware vSphere 5.1 for up to 500 Virtual Machines

Refer to the following Best Practice Guide for Exchange on EMC storage:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Storage Best Practices and Design Guidance for EMC storage

Design Guide

Solution Overviews

Top Reasons

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures

Exchange best practices for EMC storage

https://community.emc.com/community/partner/vspex?view=overview�

http://www.emc.com/resource-library/resource-library.esp�

http://www.emc.com/platform/virtualizing-information-infrastructure/vspex.htm�

http://www.emc.com/platform/virtualizing-information-infrastructure/vspex.htm�


25

Chapter 3 Solution Overview


Overview ................................................................................................... 26

Key components ........................................................................................ 27

Solution Overview


26

Overview This Implementation Guide supports all VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange solutions with VMware and VNX/VNXe. This guide uses, as working examples, 250 virtual machines enabled by EMC VNX and VMware vSphere 5.1, and 50 virtual machines enabled by EMC VNXe and VMware vSphere 5.1.

This chapter provides an overview of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange and the key technologies used in this solution. The solution was validated using a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. VNX/VNXe and VMware virtualized Windows Server platforms provide storage and server hardware consolidation.

The solution includes the servers, storage, network components, and Exchange components that are focused on small- and medium-sized business environments. The solution enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy a virtualized Exchange organization in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

The VNX and VNXe storage arrays are multiprotocol platforms that can support the different file and block protocols depending on the customer’s specific needs. The solution was validated using iSCSI storage for Exchange database and log files.

This solution requires the presence of Active Directory (AD) and Domain Name System (DNS). The implementation of these services is beyond the scope of this guide, but they are considered prerequisites for a successful deployment.

Figure 1 shows an example of the architecture that characterizes the infrastructure validated for the support of Exchange Server on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. We deployed all Exchange servers as virtual machines on a vSphere cluster. VMware vCenter Server requires a database service to store configuration and monitoring details. VNX or VNXe is used to provide the back-end storage functionality, but you can use any model that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

In this example, the Exchange Server virtual machine boot volumes are stored in virtual machine data file (VMDK) format on NFS datastores, and the Exchange Server database and log volumes are stored in RDM format on iSCSI native disks.

The optional backup and recovery components of the solution provide Exchange data protection.

Note This solution applies to all VSPEX offerings on VMware.

Solution architecture

Solution Overview


27

Figure 1. Solution architecture

For more details, refer to the appropriate document in Support resources.

Key components This section provides an overview of the technologies used in this solution:

• Microsoft Exchange 2010

• EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

• EMC VNX and EMC VNXe

• EMC Unisphere®

• VMware vSphere 5.1

• EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware

• VNX VMware vStorage API for Array Integration Support

• EMC XtremSW Cache

Solution Overview


28

• EMC AppSync

• EMC Avamar

• EMC Data Domain

• EMC PowerPath/VE

Microsoft Exchange 2010 is an enterprise email and communication system that allows businesses and customers to collaborate and share information. EMC enhances Exchange 2010 with the industry’s broadest choice of storage platforms, software, and services.

With Exchange 2010, Microsoft presents a new, unified approach to high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) by introducing features such as DAG and online mailbox moves. Mailbox servers can now be implemented in mailbox resiliency configurations with database-level replication and failover.

Major improvements with the application database structure and I/O reduction include support for a larger variety of disk and RAID configurations including high-performance Flash drives, FC/SAS drives, and slower-performing SATA/NL-SAS drives.

Exchange 2010 includes multiple server roles:

• Mailbox server: This server role hosts mailboxes and public folders.

• Client Access server: This server role hosts the client protocols, such as Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4), Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), Outlook Anywhere, Availability service, and Autodiscover service. It also hosts Web services.

• Hub Transport server: This server role routes mail within the Exchange organization.

• Edge Transport server: This server role typically sits at the perimeter of the topology and routes mail in to and out of the Exchange organization.

• Unified Messaging server: This server role connects a Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system to Exchange 2010.

The first three server roles are the essential components in every Exchange organization and are the focus of this guide.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, as shown in Figure 2, is a modular virtualized infrastructure validated by EMC and delivered by EMC’s VSPEX partners. VSPEX includes a virtualization layer, server, network, and storage, designed by EMC to deliver reliable and predictable performance.

VSPEX provides the flexibility to choose network, server, and virtualization technologies that fit a customer’s environment to create a complete virtualization solution. VSPEX delivers faster deployment for EMC partner customers, with greater simplicity and efficiency, more choice, and lower risk to a customer’s business.

Microsoft Exchange 2010

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

Solution Overview


29

Figure 2. VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

Application-based solutions such as Exchange can be deployed on VSPEX Proven Infrastructures. The VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange was validated using VNX/VNXe and a VMware virtualized Windows Server platform to provide storage and server hardware consolidation. The virtualized infrastructure is centrally managed, and enables you to efficiently deploy and manage a scalable number of virtual machines and associated shared storage.

The EMC VNX family, including VNXe, is optimized for virtual applications delivering industry-leading innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block, and object storage in a scalable, easy-to-use solution. This next-generation storage platform combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency, management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of today’s enterprises.

The VNX series is powered by Intel Xeon processors, for intelligent storage that automatically and efficiently scales in performance, while ensuring data integrity and security. The VNX is designed to meet the high-performance, high-scalability requirements of midsize and large enterprises.

VNX customer benefits

The following features are supported by VNX:

• Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized applications

• Capacity optimization features including compression, deduplication, thin provisioning, and application-centric copies

• High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability

• Automated tiering with FAST VP (Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools) and FAST™ Cache that can be optimized for the highest system performance and lowest storage cost simultaneously

EMC VNX and VNXe

Solution Overview


30

• Multiprotocol support for file, block, and object with object access through EMC Atmos™ Virtual Edition (Atmos VE)

• Simplified management with EMC Unisphere for a single management interface for all NAS, SAN, and replication needs

• Up to three times improvement in performance with the latest Intel Xeon multicore processor technology, optimized for Flash

VNXe customer benefits

The VNXe series is purpose-built for the IT manager in smaller environments. The following features are supported by VNXe:

• Next-generation unified storage, optimized for virtualized applications

• Capacity optimization features including compression, deduplication, thin provisioning, and application-centric copies

• High availability, designed to deliver five 9s availability

• Multiprotocol support for file and block

• Simplified management with EMC Unisphere for a single management interface for all NAS, SAN, and replication needs

VNX software suites available

The following VNX software suites are available:

• FAST Suite: Automatically optimizes for the highest system performance and the lowest storage cost simultaneously.

• Local Protection Suite: Practices safe data protection and repurposing.

• Remote Protection Suite: Protects data against localized failures, outages, and disasters.

• Application Protection Suite: Automates application copies and proves compliance.

• Security and Compliance Suite: Keeps data safe from changes, deletions, and malicious activity.

VNX software packs available

The following software packs are available with VNX:

• Total Efficiency Pack: Includes all five software suites.

• Total Protection Pack: Includes local, remote, and application protection suites.

VNXe software suites available

The following VNXe software suites are available:

• Local Protection Suite: Increases productivity with snapshots of production data.

• Remote Protection Suite: Protects data against localized failures, outages, and disasters.

Solution Overview


31

• Application Protection Suite: Automates application copies and proves compliance.

• Security and Compliance Suite: Keeps data safe from changes, deletions, and malicious activity.

VNXe software packs available

The following software packs are available with VNXe:

• VNXe3300 Total Protection Pack: Includes local, remote, and application protection suites

• VNXe3150 Total Value Pack: Includes remote and application protection suites, and security and compliance suite

EMC Unisphere is the next-generation unified storage management platform that provides intuitive user interfaces for the newest range of unified platforms including the VNX and VNXe series. Unisphere’s approach to storage management fosters simplicity, flexibility, self-help, and automation—all key requirements for the journey to the cloud. Unisphere can be customized to the needs of a mid-size company, a department within a large enterprise, or a smaller remote or branch office environment. With Unisphere’s pluggable architecture, it is easily extensible and continues its seamless support for additional EMC offerings, including integration with data protection and security.

Unisphere for VNXe provides provisioning wizards that have built-in best practices to provision and manage application data, such as Exchange, VMware, Hyper-V, and shared folder storage. The Exchange wizard automatically incorporates many of the best practices for Exchange Server, along with recommendations specific to the VNXe platform, into the storage design, without additional user intervention. It provides a resource to store Exchange databases and log files based on simple parameters, such as the number of users and the average user mailbox size.

VMware vSphere 5.1 transforms a computer’s physical resources, by virtualizing the CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network controller. This transformation creates fully functional virtual machines that run isolated and encapsulated operating systems and applications just like physical computers.

The high-availability features of vSphere 5.1, such as vMotion and Storage vMotion, enable seamless migration of virtual machines and stored files from one vSphere server to another with minimal or no performance impact. Coupled with vSphere DRS and Storage DRS, virtual machines have access to the appropriate resources at any point in time through load balancing of compute and storage resources.

VMware Native Multipathing

VMware Native Multipathing (NMP) is the default module in vSphere used for multipathing. It provides a default path selection algorithm based on the array type. The NMP associates a set of physical paths with a specific storage device, or LUN. The specific details of handling path failover for a given storage array are delegated to a Storage Array Type Plug-In (SATP). The specific details for determining which physical

EMC Unisphere

VMware vSphere 5.1

Solution Overview


32

path is used to issue an I/O request to a storage device are handled by a Path Selection Plug-In (PSP). SATPs and PSPs are sub plug-ins within the NMP module.

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) for VMware vSphere is a plug-in to the vSphere client that provides a single management interface that is used for managing EMC storage within the vSphere environment. Features can be added and removed from VSI independently, which provides flexibility for customizing VSI user environments. Features are managed using the VSI Feature Manager. VSI provides a unified user experience, which allows new features to be introduced rapidly in response to changing customer requirements.

Hardware acceleration with VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) is a storage enhancement in vSphere 5.1 that enables vSphere to offload specific storage operations to compatible storage hardware such as the VNX series platforms. With storage hardware assistance, vSphere performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.

If your customer has special performance requirements on Exchange Server, consider using EMC XtremSW Cache as a solution. EMC XtremSW Cache (formerly known as EMC VFCache) is intelligent caching software that leverages server-based Flash technology to reduce latency and accelerate throughput for dramatic application performance improvement. XtremSW Cache accelerates reads and protects data by using a write-through cache to the networked storage to deliver persistent high availability, integrity, and disaster recovery. XtremSW Cache, coupled with array-based EMC FAST software, creates the most efficient and intelligent I/O path from the application to the data store. The result is a networked infrastructure that is dynamically optimized for performance, intelligence, and protection for both physical and virtual environments.

If your customer would like to implement local protection for their Exchange Server 2010 environment, EMC recommends using AppSync. EMC AppSync offers a simple, self-service SLA-driven approach for protecting virtualized Microsoft applications in VNX deployments. After defining service plans, application owners can protect production data and recover data quickly with item-level granularity. AppSync also provides an application protection monitoring service that generates alerts when the SLAs are not met.

VNX Snapshot capabilities now support 256 writable snaps per LUN for up to 32,000 per system (depending on VNX system size), as well as snapshots of snapshots, making it ideal for testing, development, and disk backups. When used with AppSync, these snapshots are application-consistent and can be used to quickly and efficiently provision copies of production data for application development and testing.

If you decide to implement a backup solution, EMC recommends EMC Avamar. Avamar deduplication backup software and system performs variable-length deduplication at the client, so that backup data is reduced before it moves across networks (LAN or WAN). Avamar identifies duplicate data segments and sends only

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware

VNX VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration support

EMC XtremSW Cache

EMC AppSync

EMC Avamar

Solution Overview


33

unique segments across the network to the backup appliance. This means shorter backup windows, less backup storage consumed, and maximum use of available bandwidth.

Avamar provides:

• Flexible deployment options. Avamar offers flexibility in solution deployments, depending on the specific use case and recovery requirements. Avamar is a turnkey backup and recovery solution that integrates with EMC-certified hardware for streamlined deployment.

• Scalability, high availability, and reliability. Avamar uses a scalable grid architecture, which enables linear performance and storage scaling by simply adding storage nodes.

• Manageability and support. You can securely access Avamar systems through existing network links and integrate them with management frameworks to use SNMP for remote access.

If you use Avamar to implement a backup and recovery solution, you can choose to direct backups to an EMC Data Domain system instead of to the Avamar server. Data Domain deduplication storage system deduplicates data inline so that the data lands on disk already deduplicated, thus requiring less disk space than the original dataset. With Data Domain, you can retain backup and archive data on site longer to quickly and reliably restore data from disk.

The Data Domain software suite includes the following options:

• EMC Data Domain Replication

• Virtual Tape Library (VTL)

• Data Domain Boost

• Retention Lock

• Encryption

• Extended Retention

EMC recommends installing PowerPath/VE on VMware ESXi hosts for advanced multipathing functionality such as intelligent path testing and performance optimization.

EMC PowerPath/VE provides intelligent, high-performance path management with path failover and load balancing optimized for EMC and selected third-party storage systems. PowerPath/VE supports multiple paths between a vSphere host and an external storage device. Having multiple paths enables the vSphere host to access a storage device, even if a specific path is unavailable. Multiple paths can also share the I/O traffic to a storage device. PowerPath/VE is particularly beneficial in highly available environments because it can prevent operational interruptions and downtime. The PowerPath/VE path failover capability avoids host failure by maintaining uninterrupted application support on the host in the event of a path failure (if another path is available).

EMC Data Domain

EMC PowerPath/VE

Solution Overview


34

PowerPath/VE works with VMware ESXi as a Multipath Plug-in (MPP) that provides path management to hosts. It is installed as a kernel module on the vSphere host. It plugs in to the vSphere I/O stack framework to bring the advanced multipathing capabilities of PowerPath/VE including dynamic load balancing and automatic failover to the vSphere hosts.


35

Chapter 4 Solution Implementation


Physical setup ........................................................................................... 36

Network implementation ............................................................................ 36

Storage implementation ............................................................................ 37

ESXi and vCenter implementation .............................................................. 56

Multipathing implementation ..................................................................... 58

Exchange Server virtualization implementation .......................................... 59

Application implementation ....................................................................... 65

Local protection implementation ................................................................ 70

Backup and recovery implementation......................................................... 73

Solution Implementation


36

Physical setup

This section includes information about the preparation of the solution physical components. After you complete the steps listed in Table 11, the new hardware components will be racked, cabled, powered, and ready for network connection.

Note If you already have a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure environment, you can skip this section.

Table 11. Tasks for physical setup


Prepare network switches

Install switches in the rack and connect them to power.

Your vendor’s installation guide

Prepare servers Install the servers in the rack and connect them to power.

Your vendor’s installation guide

Prepare VNX/VNXe Install the VNX/VNXe in the rack and connect it to power.

EMC VNX/VNXe System Installation Guides

For details of the physical setup, refer to the appropriate document in Support resources.

Network implementation

This section provides the requirements for the network infrastructure needed to support this architecture. Table 12 provides a summary of the tasks for switch and network configuration and references for further information.

Note If you already have a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure environment, you can skip this section.

Table 12. Tasks for switch and network configuration


Configure infrastructure network

Configure storage array and VMware host infrastructure networking as specified in the solution Reference Architecture.

Refer to the appropriate document in Support resources.

Complete network cabling

Connect:

• Switch interconnect ports

• VNX/VNXe ports

• ESXi server ports

Configure VLAN Configure private and public VLANs as required.

Vendor’s switch configuration guide

For details of network implementation, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Overview of physical setup

Overview of network implementation



37

Storage implementation

This section describes how to configure the VNX/VNXe storage array. In this solution, the VNX/VNXe provides Network File System (NFS) for file variant or LUNs for block variant to VMware hosts. This guide takes iSCSI as a block storage example for the Exchange 2010 database and log volumes. If you already have a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure environment on other block protocols, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources for more information about storage implementation.

Note Microsoft has support policies on the types of storage (file or block protocols) that can be used by the Exchange 2010 virtual machines for Exchange data. For detailed information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic: Understanding Exchange 2010 Virtualization.

Table 13 provides a summary of the tasks for storage configuration, and references for further information.

Table 13. Tasks for storage configuration


Set up initial VNX/VNXe configuration

Configure the IP address information and other key parameters on the VNX/VNXe. • VNX/VNXe System

Installation Guides

• EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Generic iSCSI Storage

• EMC Host Connectivity Guide for VMware ESX Server

Provision storage for NFS datastores

Create NFS file systems that will be presented to the ESXi servers as NFS datastores that host the virtual servers.

Provision storage for iSCSI

Configure iSCSI on VNX/VNXe and present iSCSI disks to VMware ESXi servers to house Exchange data.

Overview of storage implementation

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj126252(v=exchg.141).aspx�




38

Figure 3 illustrates an example of the high-level architecture with Exchange Server components and storage elements validated in an EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Exchange 2010 on a VMware vSphere virtualization platform and VNX storage array.

Figure 3. Exchange 2010 storage elements on vSphere 5.1 and VNX platform



39

Figure 4 illustrates an example of the high-level architecture with Exchange 2010 components and storage elements validated in an EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Exchange 2010 on a VMware vSphere virtualization platform and VNXe storage array.

Figure 4. Exchange 2010 storage elements on vSphere 5.1 and VNXe platform

Ensure that network interfaces, IP address information, and other key parameters such as DNS and NTP are configured on the VNX/VNXe before storage provisioning.

For more information, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Set up initial VNX/VNXe configuration



40

In this solution, VMware NFS datastores are used to store the virtual disks of the virtual machine operating system. Before you provision the storage for the NFS datastore, follow the recommendations and VSPEX Sizing Tool proposals introduced in the Design Guide.

For detailed information on configuring NFS file systems and provisioning storage for the virtual machine operating system on VNX or VNXe, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Use EMC VSI Unified Storage Management (USM)

To provision storage for NFS datastore, you can also use VSI USM. VSI USM is a feature of VSI for VMware vSphere designed to simplify storage administration on EMC storage platforms including VNX/VNXe. The feature enables VMware administrators to provision new NFS or VMFS datastores, and RDM volumes, directly from the vSphere Client.

After installing VSI USM, you can add the VNX/VNXe storage array into USM for management and then perform the NFS provisioning. There are two options when provisioning NFS datastores: create a new NFS export, or use an existing NFS export. In some environments, VMware administrators may not have the necessary privileges to create NAS file systems and NFS exports, or may not need to do so if such tasks are completed by a storage administrator. In such cases they can use the provision storage feature to attach ESX/ESXi hosts to existing NFS exports.

Complete the following steps to provision NAS storage on a new NFS export:

1. In vSphere client, right-click an object (the object can be a host, cluster, folder, or data center), and select EMC Unified Storage Provision Storage.

2. Select Network File System and follow the Provision Storage wizard to create a new NFS export. Figure 5 shows an example.

Provision storage for NFS datastore



41

Figure 5. NFS datastore provisioning by VSI USM

For detailed steps on how to use VSI USM for NFS provisioning, refer to the EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management—Product Guide.

In this solution, all the Exchange Server database and log volumes are stored in VMware native iSCSI disks. Before you provision the storage for the iSCSI disks, follow the recommendations and VSPEX Sizing Tool proposals introduced in the Design Guide.

Provision iSCSI storage on VNXe

Table 14 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange data in VNXe, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool. In this example, Exchange 2010 is deployed in a DAG and each database has two copies. EMC recommends you provision each DAG copy in a separate storage pool. For more information about the storage layout recommendations and design, refer to the Design Guide.

For more information about best practices for Exchange, refer to Microsoft Exchange 2010: Storage Best Practices and Design Guidance for EMC Storage.

Provision storage for iSCSI disks



42

Table 14. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data in VNXe

Storage pool name RAID type Disk type Disk capacity No. of disks

Exchange data pool 1 RAID 5 (4+1) 15,000 rpm SAS disks

600 GB 10

Exchange data pool 2 RAID 5 (4+1) 15,000 rpm SAS disks

600 GB 10

Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to configure iSCSI servers on the VNXe array to be used to store Exchange data:

1. In Unisphere, select Settings iSCSI Server Settings Add iSCSI Server. The wizard appears.

2. Enter the following and click Next:

a. Server Name: Name for the iSCSI server.

b. IP Address: IP address of the iSCSI server.

c. Subnet mask: Subnet mask of the iSCSI server.

3. Click Finish and then click Close when the message appears that the iSCSI server was created successfully.

For more information refer to EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Generic iSCSI Storage.

Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to create storage pools on the VNXe array to be used to store Exchange data:

1. In Unisphere, select System Storage Pools.

2. To open the Disk Configuration wizard, click Configure Disks. Select the storage pool configuration mode:

a. Select Manually create a new pool.

b. In the Select application list box, select Pool created for Microsoft Exchange - 2010, and then click Next.

3. Type a name and description for the storage pool and click Next.

4. Select the SAS disk type in a Balanced Perf/Capacity Storage Profile (using RAID 5 4+1) for the storage pool (as shown in Figure 6) and click Next.



43

Figure 6. Storage type in VNXe Disk Configuration Wizard

5. Select the amount of disks (10 in this solution) to use for the storage pool, and click Next.

6. In the Summary window, verify the information is correct, and then click Finish.

7. In the Results window, verify the disk configuration has been completed, and then click Close.

To provision iSCSI disks on VNXe for Exchange database and log volumes, EMC recommends you use the built-in Exchange provisioning wizard. The EMC VNXe product family provides application-aware wizards, including Exchange, for storage provisioning. The Exchange wizard automatically incorporates many of the best practices for Exchange, along with recommendations specific to the VNXe platform, into the storage design without additional user intervention.



44

Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to create iSCSI disks on the VNXe array and connect them to the ESXi hosts to be used to store Exchange data:

1. In Unisphere, select Storage Microsoft Exchange, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Microsoft Exchange provisioning wizard

2. Click Create. The Microsoft Exchange wizard opens.

3. Type a name and description for this instance and click Next.

4. Select the Exchange version details, as shown in Figure 8, and click Next.

Note Your choice of the DAG membership setting affects the provisioning best practices that will be applied and, in turn, the size and quantity of databases created. Use this option carefully to avoid inappropriate sizing in the Exchange environment. The example used here includes DAG provisioning.

Figure 8. Select Exchange version



45

5. Type the quantity and size of mailboxes, and then click Next. In this example, we provision storage for 1,000 Exchange mailboxes and the size is 1.5 GB for each mailbox.

6. Click Preview Allocation to view the logical disk objects that will be allocated to the Exchange deployment.

Note To distribute workloads on multiple Mailbox servers, it is a best practice to evenly split the database sizes and log sizes among the databases, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Split database and log sizes

7. In the Configure Storage Pool window, select the storage pool created previously for the DAG copy. Click Next.

8. Follow the wizard to specify the host access for this deployment and the protection options for the storage pool. Verify the details in the Summary window and click Finish.

Figure 10 shows the Exchange database and log LUNs created for one DAG copy after you follow the wizard to provision storage for Exchange. You can repeat the same steps to create LUNs for the other DAG copies.



46

Figure 10. Exchange database and log LUNs created

Table 15 shows detailed information on the iSCSI LUNs created for Exchange databases and transaction logs.

Table 15. iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange database and log on VNXe

Server role LUN name LUN size No. of LUNs Storage pool name

Exchange Mailbox server 1 Database LUNs 1.187 TB 2 Exchange data pool 1

Log LUNs 75.074 GB 2 Exchange data pool 1

Exchange Mailbox server 2 Database LUNs 1.187 TB 2 Exchange data pool 2

Log LUNs 75.074 GB 2 Exchange data pool 2



47

Provision iSCSI storage on VNX

Table 16 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange data in VNX, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool. For more information about the storage layout recommendations and design, refer to the Design Guide and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: Storage Best Practices and Design Guidelines for EMC Storage.

Table 16. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data in VNX

Storage pool name RAID type Disk type Disk capacity No. of disks

Exchange database pool 1 RAID 1/0 (24+24) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks

2 TB 48

Exchange database pool 2 RAID 1/0 (24+24) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks

2 TB 48

Exchange log pool 1 RAID 1/0 (4+4) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks

2 TB 8

Exchange log pool 2 RAID 1/0 (4+4) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks

2 TB 8

Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to configure iSCSI network settings and storage pools:

1. In Unisphere, select the VNX array that is to be used in this solution.

2. Select Settings Network Settings for Block.

3. Configure the IP address for network ports used for iSCSI.

4. Select Storage Storage Configuration Storage Pools.

5. Click the Pools tab and create the additional storage pools in the VNX for Exchange database and transaction logs. Refer to Table 16 for detailed information.

To configure iSCSI LUNs and unmask LUNs to VMware hosts, you can either do it from Unisphere or use EMC Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI).

Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to configure iSCSI LUNs and unmask LUNs on the VNX array:

1. Right click a storage pool and click Create LUN to provision the LUNs in each of these pools. Table 17 shows an example of iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange databases and transaction logs.

2. In Unisphere, select Host Storage Groups.

3. Complete the following steps to create storage groups to unmask LUNs to the ESXi hosts:

a. Click Create and input a name for the storage group.

b. Click Yes to finish the creation.

c. In the prompt dialog, click Yes to select LUNs or connect hosts.

d. Click the LUNs tab. In the Available LUNs panel, select all the LUNs created in the previous steps and click Add.



48

e. Click the Hosts tab. In the Available Hosts panel, select the ESXi servers to be used and add them into the The Hosts to be Connected panel.

f. Click OK to finish.

Table 17. iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange databases and logs on VNX

Server role LUN name LUN size No. of LUNs Storage pool name

Exchange Mailbox server 1

Database LUNs 1,650 GB 8 Exchange database pool 1

Log LUNs 100 GB 8 Exchange log pool 1










You can also use VSI USM to configure iSCSI LUNs and unmask LUNs to VMware hosts. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. In vSphere client, right-click an object (the object can be a host, cluster, folder, or data center), and select EMC Unified Storage Provision Storage.

2. Select Disk/LUN and follow the Provision Storage wizard to connect the VNX storage array and select the storage pools, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Storage pool selection in VSI USM

3. Follow the remaining steps in the wizard to create iSCSI LUNs and configure RDM, as shown in Figure 12.



49

Figure 12. iSCSI LUN configuration in VSI USM

For detailed steps, refer to the EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management—Product Guide.

Due to the changes in Exchange 2010 storage architecture, resulting in lower I/O to storage devices and the trend to deploy larger mailboxes, many Exchange designs are capable of utilizing high-capacity, low revolutions per minute (rpm) drives (for example, 7.2k rpm NL-SAS). However, there are Exchange configurations with considerably higher I/O demands and smaller mailbox requirements that would benefit from adding Flash drives and enabling the FAST Cache or FAST VP feature.

Enabling FAST Cache is a transparent operation to Exchange and no reconfiguration or downtime is necessary. To make the best use of either of the FAST technologies, EMC recommends that you enable FAST Cache on the Exchange database storage pool. Do not enable FAST Cache on the Exchange log storage pool. For more details, refer to the Design Guide.

To create and configure FAST Cache, use the following steps:

1. Refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources for detailed steps about how to create FAST Cache.

2. In Unisphere, after the FAST Cache is created, click the Storage tab and select Storage Pool. Select Exchange Database Pool 1, and click Properties.

FAST Cache configuration



50

3. Click the Advanced tab in Storage Pool Properties and click Enabled to enable FAST Cache, as shown in Figure 13.

4. Click OK to complete the configuration.

Note The FAST Cache feature on the VNX series array does not cause an instant performance improvement. The system must collect data about access patterns and promote frequently used information into the cache. This process can take a few hours during which the performance of the array steadily improves.

Figure 13. Storage Pool Properties—FAST Cache enabled

If FAST VP is the enabled technology on the VNX system, you can use this by adding additional Flash disks as an extreme performance tier into the Exchange database pool. For more information about FAST VP design considerations for Exchange, refer to the Design Guide.

To add Flash disks to an existing Exchange database pool, using the following steps:

1. In Unisphere, click the Storage tab, then select Storage Pool.

2. Select an Exchange database pool and click Properties.

3. Select Disks Type and click Expand to show the Expand Storage Pool dialog box.

4. In the Extreme Performance section, select the number of Flash disks and RAID configuration to add into the Exchange database storage pool for tiering. EMC recommends using RAID 5 for the extreme performance tier in the Exchange database storage pool.

The bottom section of the screen shows the Flash drives that will be used for the extreme performance tier. You can choose the drives manually by selecting the Manual option, as shown in Figure 14.

FAST VP configuration



51

Figure 14. Expand Storage Pool dialog box

In a VMware environment, the XtremSW Cache card resides on the ESXi server, while XtremSW Cache software is installed on each of the virtual machines that are accelerated by XtremSW Cache. The XtremSW Cache VSI plug-in, which resides on the vCenter client, is used to manage XtremSW Cache. XtremSW Cache can accelerate performance for either RDM or VMFS LUNs in a VMware environment. For more information about XtremSW Cache design considerations for Exchange, refer to the Design Guide.

XtremSW Cache configuration



52

The XtremSW Cache installation is distributed over various components of the vSphere system. The XtremSW Cache components in a VMware environment are listed below:

• XtremSW Cache driver for PCIe card

• XtremSW Cache and Agent software in the virtual machines hosted by ESXi servers

• XtremSW Cache VSI plug-in in the VMware vSphere client

Perform the following steps to configure XtremSW Cache in a VMware environment:

1. Install the XtremSW Cache PCIe Flash device.

2. Install and configure the XtremSW Cache software in the virtual machine.

3. Use the vfcmt command to enable or disable the XtremSW Cache cache device.

4. Use the vfcmt command to add or remove the source device.

Use VSI to create and configure XtremSW Cache

XtremSW Cache is integrated with the VSI plug-in to simplify XtremSW Cache management and monitoring. To create and configure XtremSW Cache through the VMware VSI plug-in, perform the following steps:

1. Create an XtremSW Cache device by carving the space from the XtremSW Cache data store, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15. Creating XtremSW Cache device



53

2. Add XtremSW Cache to a virtual machine, and add source LUNs from the virtual machine, as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16. Adding XtremSW Cache device and source LUNS

3. Monitor XtremSW Cache usage and statistics through the VSI plug-in GUI.

For more information, refer to EMC VFCache Installation Guide for VMware and EMC VFCache VMware VSI Plug-in Administration Guide.

Figure 17 shows an example storage layout for VNXe. The number of disks used in the VSPEX private cloud pool may vary according to your customer’s requirements. For detailed information, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Example storage layouts



54

Figure 17. Example storage layout for VNXe

Figure 18 shows an example storage layout for VNX with FAST Cache enabled on the Exchange database pool. The number of disks used in the VSPEX private cloud pool may vary according to your customer’s requirements. For detailed information, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.



55

Figure 18. Example storage layout for VNX



56

ESXi and vCenter implementation

This section provides the requirements for the installation and configuration of the ESXi hosts, vCenter, and infrastructure servers required to support the architecture. Table 18 describes the tasks that must be completed.

Table 18. Steps for ESXi and vCenter installation and configuration


Install ESXi Install the ESXi 5.1 hypervisor on the physical servers that are being deployed for the solution.

vSphere Installation and Setup

Configure ESXi networking

Configure ESXi networking including NIC trunking, vmkernel ports (including those for NFS and iSCSI), virtual machine port groups, and Jumbo Frames.

vSphere Networking

Configure multipathing

Configure VMware NMP or install PowerPath/VE multipathing software on ESXi hosts.

Multipathing implementation

Configure ESXi iSCSI adapters

Configure ESXi iSCSI adapters to connect iSCSI disks to ESXi hosts.

vSphere Storage

Connect VMware datastores

Connect the VMware datastore to the ESXi hosts deployed for the solution.

vSphere Storage

Create a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server

Create a virtual machine to host SQL Server that will be used for the vCenter Server database. Verify that the virtual server meets the hardware and software requirements.

Microsoft TechNet

Install Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine

Install Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition on the virtual machine that is created to host SQL Server.

Microsoft TechNet

Install SQL Server Install SQL Server on the virtual machine designated for that purpose.

Microsoft TechNet

Configure database for VMware vCenter

Create the database required for the vCenter server on the appropriate datastore.

Preparing vCenter Server Databases

Configure database for VMware Update Manager

Create the database required for Update Manager on the appropriate datastore.

Preparing the Update Manager Database

Create the vCenter Server virtual machine

Create a virtual machine to be used for the VMware vCenter Server.

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Install vCenter guest OS

Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition on the vCenter host virtual machine.

N/A

Overview of ESXi and vCenter implementation

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc/GUID-7C9A1E23-7FCD-4295-9CB1-C932F2423C63.html�

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-35B40B0B-0C13-43B2-BC85-18C9C91BE2D4.html�

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-8AE88758-20C1-4873-99C7-181EF9ACFA70.html�


http://technet.microsoft.com/�



http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc/GUID-55F7FFDB-01B8-4C18-AA89-DC28BD9B1E9F.html�


http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc%2FGUID-10219120-3050-410D-9E6C-2E8BA1DA2FBB.html�


http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-55238059-912E-411F-A0E9-A7A536972A91.html�




57


Update the virtual machine

Install VMware Tools, enable hardware acceleration, and enable remote console access.


Create vCenter ODBC connections

Create the 64-bit vCenter and 32-bit vCenter Update Manager ODBC connections.

• vSphere Installation and Setup

• Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager

Install vCenter Server Install vCenter Server software. vSphere Installation and Setup

Install vCenter Update Manager

Install vCenter Update Manager software. Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager

Create a virtual data center

Create a virtual data center. vCenter Server and Host Management

Apply vSphere license keys

Type the vSphere license keys in the vCenter licensing menu.

vSphere Installation and Setup

Add ESXi hosts Connect vCenter to ESXi hosts. vCenter Server and Host Management

Configure vSphere clustering

Create a vSphere cluster and move the ESXi hosts into it.

vSphere Resource Management

Perform array ESXi host discovery

Perform ESXi host discovery within the Unisphere console on VNX/VNXe.

• Using EMC VNX Storage with VMware vSphere–TechBook

• Using an EMC VNXe System with VMware

Enable VMware High Availability (HA), DRS, and vMotion functionality

Once you enable DRS, EMC recommends you use VMware vSphere DRS Affinity and Anti-Affinity rules for specific groups of virtual machines, for example, groups of Mailbox servers, which should never reside on the same host if they are hosting the copies of the same databases in a DAG.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware Availability and Recovery Options

Install the vCenter Update Manager plug-in

Install the vCenter Update Manager plug-in on the administration console.

Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager

Deploy the VNX VAAI for NFS plug-in

Using VMware Update Manager, deploy the VNX VAAI for NFS plug-in to all ESXi hosts.

• EMC VNX VAAI NFS plug-in - installation HOWTO video available at www.youtube.com

• vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) plug-in






http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc/GUID-F7191592-048B-40C7-A610-CFEE6A790AB0.html�






http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-3B5AF2B1-C534-4426-B97A-D14019A8010F.html�





http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/GUID-98BD5A8A-260A-494F-BAAE-74781F5C4B87.html�

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/exchange-2010-on-vmware-availability-and-recovery-options.pdf�





http://www.youtube.com/�






58


Install the EMC VNX UEM CLI

Install the EMC VNX UEM command line interface (CLI) on the administration console.

EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management—Product Guide

Install the EMC VSI plug-in

Install the EMC VSI plug-in on the administration console.

• EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage Viewer—Product Guide

• EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management—Product Guide

For details of ESXi and vCenter installation and configuration for your VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Multipathing implementation

To manage storage multipathing, ESX/ESXi by default provides the VMware Native Multipathing Plugin (NMP) as the VMkernel multipathing plug-in. EMC recommends installing PowerPath/VE on VMware ESXi hosts for advanced functionality such as intelligent path testing and performance optimization.

PowerPath/VE can be installed by using remote vCLI, VMware Update Manager, or VMware Auto Deploy.

Complete the following steps to install PowerPath/VE by using remote vCLI:

1. Download the PowerPath/VE software distribution from EMC Online Support.

2. Make the offline package available for use on the local vSphere host.

3. Use the scp (secure copy) command to copy the PowerPath/VE ZIP offline package to the vSphere host. Alternatively, copy the PowerPath/VE ZIP offline package to the local vCenter data store using vSphere client.

4. On the remote host running vCLI, type the following command to install the PowerPath/VE package:

# esxcli -s <vSphere server IP address or hostname> software vib install -d <absolute path to PowerPath package>

5. Bring the vSphere host into Maintenance mode.

6. Reboot the vSphere host onto which you are installing.

7. Bring vSphere host out of Maintenance mode.

For more information, refer to the EMC PowerPath/VE for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide.

Overview of multipathing implementation

PowerPath/VE implementation





59

Exchange Server virtualization implementation

This section provides the requirements for the installation and configuration of the Exchange host virtual machine. Table 19 describes the tasks that must be completed.

Table 19. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration


Create the Exchange virtual machines

Create virtual machines to be used for the Exchange 2010 organization.


Install Exchange guest OS

Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition on the Exchange virtual machines.



Install VMware Tools, enable hardware acceleration, and enable remote console access.

Assign IP address

• Assign the IP addresses for all networks in the virtual machine.

• Make all the Exchange servers join the domain.

Create NLB cluster

Create the software NLB cluster to balance the load among Exchange Client Access servers (CAS). Hardware NLB is also supported. Contact your vendor for the detailed configurations.

Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide

Provision storage for Exchange data

Provision storage for Exchange data from VNX/VNXe, and create virtual disks for Exchange virtual machine operation system, database, and transaction logs.

N/A

Overview of Exchange Server virtualization implementation



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754833(v=ws.10).aspx�




60

The Exchange 2010 organization consists of multiple components that may appear in a single deployment. Roles include the Client Access server, the Hub Transport server, the Mailbox server, the Edge Transport server, and the Unified Messaging server. The first three server roles are the essential components in every Exchange organization and are the focus of this implementation guide.

EMC recommends that you use the VSPEX Sizing Tool and follow the recommendations in the Design Guide to determine the number of server roles required for your Exchange organization, and the resources (processor, memory, and so on) required for each server role.

Table 20 shows an example of equivalent reference virtual machine requirements for different Exchange server roles used in this solution. In this example, you need to setup four Exchange Mailbox servers and four HUB/CAS combined servers to support the requirements from the qualification worksheet in Table 6. Then you determine the equivalent number of reference virtual machines required for each Exchange server role by calculating the maximum of the individual resources (CPU, memory, capacity, and IOPS).

Table 20. Example of Exchange reference virtual machines

Exchange server role vCPU Memory OS volume capacity

OS volume IOPS

No. of virtual machines

Total reference virtual machines

Mailbox server


4 24 1 1 4 96

HUB/CAS server


4 4 1 1 4 16

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 112

Create Exchange virtual machines



61

For example, each Mailbox server requires four vCPUs, 48 GB of memory, 100 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

• Four reference virtual machines for CPU

• Twenty-four reference virtual machines for memory

• One reference virtual machine for capacity

• One reference virtual machine for IOPS

The values round up to 24 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (four in this example), which results in 96 reference virtual machines in total for the Mailbox server role:

24 reference virtual machines x 4 virtual machines = 96 total reference virtual machines

For more details about how to determine Equivalent Reference Virtual Machines, refer to the appropriate document in Support resources.

Install Windows 2008 R2 on the Exchange virtual machine and apply the latest service pack.


EMC recommends that you install VMware Tools, enable hardware acceleration, and enable remote console access on the guest OS.

Assign an IP address for each network adapter in all the Exchange virtual machines, according to what you have planned for the IP reservation for each server. You must join every server to an existing domain.

For more information, refer to Configuration worksheet for Exchange.

Load Balancing, together with the Client Access server arrays, provides key benefits for Exchange Client Access servers, including:

• It reduces the impact of a single Client Access server failure within one of the Active Directory sites.

• It helps distribute the load evenly across the Client Access servers.

If you have more than one Exchange Client Access server in your organization, you can add these Client Access servers to the NLB cluster and assign a virtual IP address for the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) that was for the Client Access server array.

Install Exchange guest OS


Assign IP address

Create NLB cluster



62

For more information about how to setup a Client Access server array, refer to the Deploy Client Access server array section in this guide.

Note In this implementation guide, the network load balancer is the native Windows software network load balancer. While hardware load balancers are not described in this document, they are supported once they are implemented using the vendors’ and Exchange 2010's best practices.

For more information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide.

After you configure the NLB clusters, as shown in Figure 19, the DNS record must be configured with an address record (A record) for the Client Access server array FQDN.

Note Address or A records (also known as host records) are the central records of DNS. These records link a domain to an IP address.

Figure 19. Network Load Balancing Manager

You can calculate the number of virtual disks by using the VSPEX Sizing Tool and following the recommendations in the Design Guide. In this example, all Exchange Server virtual machine boot volumes are stored in VMDK format on NFS, and all Exchange Server database and log volumes are stored in RDM format on iSCSI.

Add a VMDK virtual disk

To add a VMDK virtual disk for a? virtual machine boot disk, use the following steps:

1. In vSphere vCenter, right-click the Exchange Server virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

2. Click Add, select Add Hardware, then select Hard Disk.

3. Select Create a new virtual disk and specify Disk Size and Location. Do not change the remaining default settings, as shown in Figure 20.

Create virtual disks for Exchange servers





63

Figure 20. Creating a new virtual disk

4. Start the virtual machine and install the operating system.

Add an RDM disk

To add an RDM disk for an Exchange database or log volume, use the following steps:

1. In vSphere vCenter, right-click an Exchange Server virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

2. Click Add, select Add Hardware, select Raw Disk Mappings, and click Next.



64

Figure 21. RDM disk type selection

3. Select an iSCSI native disk and click Next.

4. Follow the wizard to specify a datastore to store the LUN mapping files and a compatibility mode for this RDM disk.

5. In the virtual machine, these disks appear as normal block SCSI devices. Format the disk with 64 KB allocation unit size, as shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22. Formatting disk



65

Application implementation

This section includes information about how to implement Exchange 2010 in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

Before you implement Exchange 2010, read the Design Guide to plan your Exchange organization based on your business needs.

After you complete the tasks in Table 21, the new Exchange organization is ready to be verified and tested by the LoadGen tool.

Table 21. Tasks to implement Exchange 2010


Pre-deployment verification by Jetstress

Run Jetstress to verify the disk subsystem performance before you implement the Exchange application.

Jetstress verification

Prepare Active Directory Prepare Active Directory for the Exchange organization.

Planning Active Directory

Install Microsoft Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles

1. Install Microsoft Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.

Understanding a New Installation of Exchange 2010

Understanding RPC Client Access

Overview of the Hub Transport Server Role

Deploy a Client Access server array

Deploy a Client Access server array if there is more than one Client Access server for load balancing.

Understanding RPC Client Access

Install Exchange 2010 Mailbox server roles

1. Install Exchange 2010 Mailbox server role.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.

Understanding a New Installation of Exchange 2010

Deploy database availability group (DAG)

Deploy DAG and create multiple copies for each mailbox database to provide high availability for Exchange mailbox databases.

Managing Database Availability Groups

Add a Mailbox Database Copy

Before installing Exchange 2010, complete the following steps to prepare your Active Directory environment for the Exchange organization.

1. Extend Active Directory schema for Exchange 2010 by running the following command:

Setup /PrepareSchema

Overview of application implementation

Prepare Active Directory

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123715(v=exchg.141).aspx�


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998619(v=exchg.141).aspx�



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332317(v=exchg.141).aspx�










http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298065(v=exchg.141).aspx�







66

2. Create necessary Active Directory containers and set up necessary permissions for the Exchange organization by running the following command. You can also specify the organization name here.

Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName: <organization name>

3. Prepare other Active Directory domains by running the following command:

Setup /PrepareDomain

For more information about Active Directory preparation, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library article Planning Active Directory.

Before you install Exchange server roles, confirm the Exchange 2010 Prerequisite Steps are done.

Complete the following steps to install Exchange 2010 Client Access server role and Hub Transport server role. In this example, Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles are installed on the same server. Use the Exchange Server installation media to install Exchange server roles.

1. On the Exchange 2010 setup wizard Installation Type page, choose Custom Exchange Server Installation.

Figure 23. Custom Exchange Server installation

Install Exchange 2010 Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles






67

2. On the Server Role Selection page, select the Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles.

Figure 24. Exchange Client Access server and Hub Transport roles selection

3. Follow the wizard to complete the installation of the Client Access server and Hub Transport server roles. After the installation completes, apply the latest service pack and the latest update rollup.

4. Repeat the same steps if there are other Exchange Client Access server and Hub Transport server virtual machines.

If there is more than one Client Access server in your Active Directory site, you can create an Exchange Client Access server array for load balancing.

Before you deploy the Exchange Client Access server array, set up a hardware load balancer or Windows Network Load Balancing servers.

Complete the following steps to deploy an ? the ?Exchange Client Access server array:

1. Create an internal DNS A Record for the name of the Exchange Client Access server array, and point the IP address to the IP address of your network load balancing server.

Deploy Client Access server array



68

2. Set up network load balancing for the set of Client Access servers. Both Windows load balancing and hardware load balancers are supported.

For detailed configuration and implementation of the hardware load balancer, contact your vendor; for more information about Windows load balancing, refer to the Create NLB cluster section.

3. Run the following command to create the new Client Access server array:

New-ClientAccessArray -fqdn <FQDN_of_array> -site <SiteName>

From this point on, any new mailbox database you create in your environment in this Active Directory site will automatically be associated with this array.

To install Mailbox server roles on the virtual machine, use the Exchange 2010 installation media and follow these steps:

1. In the Exchange 2010 setup wizard, under Installation Type, select Custom Exchange Server Installation.

2. Under Server Role Selection, select Mailbox Role, as shown in Figure 25. Click Next.

Figure 25. Mailbox Role selection

Install Exchange 2010 Mailbox server role



69

3. Use the wizard to complete the installation of the Mailbox server role. When the installation is complete, apply the latest service pack and the latest update rollup.

4. Repeat the same steps if there are other Exchange Mailbox server virtual machines to deploy.

A DAG is the base component of the high availability framework built into Exchange 2010. A DAG is a group of up to 16 Mailbox servers that hosts a set of databases and provides automatic database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. Complete the following steps to deploy DAG in your Exchange 2010 environment:

1. Run the following command to create a DAG:

New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Name <DAG_Name> -WitnessServer <Witness_ServerName> -WitnessDirectory <Folder_Name> -DatabaseAvailabilityGroupIPAddresses <DAG_IP>

2. Run the following command to create a DAG network:

New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupNetwork -DatabaseAvailabilityGroup <DAG_Name> -Name <Network_Name> -Description "Network_Description" -Subnets <SubnetId> -ReplicationEnabled:<$True | $False>

For more details about how to manage Exchange DAG, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Managing Database Availability Groups.

3. Run the following command to add the Mailbox servers to the DAG:

Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity <DAG_Name> -MailboxServer <Server_Name>

4. Create Exchange databases by running the following command:

New-MailboxDatabase -Name <Database_Name> -EdbFilePath <Database_File_Path> -LogFolderPath <Log_File_Path>

5. Add mailbox database copies for each mailbox database by running the following command:

Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity <Database_Name> -MailboxServer <Server_Name> -ActivationPreference <Preference_Number>

For more details, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Add a Mailbox Database Copy.

After these steps have been completed, the Exchange organization should be up and running. You can refer to the Solution Verification section to verify the functionality and monitor the system health.

Deploy database availability group (DAG)






70

Local protection implementation

In this solution, we used EMC AppSync to initiate application-consistent snapshots on a VNX storage array. AppSync supports Exchange 2010 in standalone or DAG configurations. When you add an Exchange Mailbox server as a host, AppSync identifies whether it is an Exchange standalone or an Exchange DAG member server. If the server is a member of DAG, AppSync will select one of the passive database copies for protection, by default.

This section provides steps on how to install AppSync and how to use it to protect your Exchange 2010 environment. Before you implement AppSync, refer to the Design Guide for more information about VNX snapshots and AppSync design considerations.

To install AppSync, you need to install AppSync Server components and the host plug-in on the hosts to be protected.

The AppSync server software resides on a supported Windows system. It controls the service plans and stores data about each copy it creates. The repository is stored in a database on the AppSync server, which can be a physical or virtual machine. Install the AppSync server by running the installation executable on the AppSync server host. After this, you can start the AppSync console which is web-based and shares the same look and feel as the EMC Unisphere interface.

AppSync installs lightweight plug-in software on the production and mount hosts. AppSync pushes the plug-in software from the AppSync server to the host when you add the host as a resource. In an environment that prevents the AppSync server from accessing a host, you can install the plug-in manually by running the plug-in executable installation file on the hosts.

For detailed steps about AppSync installation, refer to the EMC AppSync Installation and Administration Guide.

To use AppSync to protect your Exchange 2010 environment, you need to add the Exchange servers and your VNX storage into AppSync, and subscribe Exchange databases to default or custom service plans. An AppSync service plan is composed of multiple phases, including:

• Create copy

• Mount copy

• Validate copy

• Unmount copy

• Run optional user-provided scripts

AppSync includes several application-specific plans that work without modification. The default service plans, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze offer tiered protection levels and are designed based on the EMC replication technology used. For example, the Bronze service plan is automatically configured for Microsoft Exchange protection

Overview of local protection implementation

Install AppSync

Protect Exchange Server 2010



71

with EMC VNX Snapshots. You can also modify the service plan settings to match your requirements, or create a new plan.

In this solution, we created the following two custom plans:

• Full Backups: This plan creates a full application-consistent copy of the databases in the DAG and schedules it to run once per day. A Full backup includes the database files, transaction logs, and checkpoint files. When the backup completes successfully, the logs are truncated.

• Copy jobs: This plan creates hourly snapshots for point-in-time recovery with the RPO policy of one hour. A Copy backup creates a copy of the databases in the service plan using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which includes the database files, transaction logs, and checkpoint files, just as it does using the Full backup option. However, it does not truncate the logs.

Complete the following steps for AppSync to protect your Exchange 2010:

1. In the AppSync user interface, go to Settings Resources Storage Systems and click Add to add the storage system where the Exchange mailbox database resides.

2. Go to Settings Resources Hosts and click Add to add Exchange standalone Mailbox servers or DAG member servers as hosts.

3. Go to Service Plans to modify existing service plans or create new ones as you require.

4. Go to Applications Microsoft Exchange and click a server name from the list of Exchange standalone and DAG servers. You are prompted to enter credentials to configure and run the AppSync Exchange Interface service. The Exchange databases are discovered. Figure 26 shows the Exchange DAG discovery in AppSync.

Figure 26. Exchange 2010 DAG discovery in AppSync

5. From the list of Exchange databases, you can perform either of the following actions, as shown in Figure 27:

Protect immediately with Subscribe to Plan and Run, which subscribes the database to a service plan and runs the protection immediately for the selected database only. In the case of databases in a DAG, one of the passive databases is protected by default.

Select Subscribe to Plan, which subscribes the database to a service plan, but does not run the plan. Protection occurs according to the service plan's schedule.



72

Figure 27. Exchange 2010 database subscription to service plans in AppSync

AppSync restores VNX copies of Exchange at the LUN level. You can restore:

• One or more databases which include the logs

• One or more database files (EBD)

• One or more active or passive databases or database files, if the server is a member of a DAG

• Only the logs for one or more databases

You can perform a restore of an Exchange copy from a copy, a database, or Exchange server. Complete the following steps to perform the restore:

1. In the AppSync user interface, select Restore Databases and logs from the action button next to the name of the server, database, or copy.

2. Select the copy to restore and click Next. If the selected copy has affected entities, the Restore Warnings page appears.

3. Read the warning messages for the affected databases. Select the checkbox to indicate your agreement to restore other entities along with the selected copy. Manually unmount the databases that will be overwritten.

4. In the Select Options page, select the appropriate restore options, and click Next.

5. Review the Summary page and click Finish to restore the copy.

6. In the Results page, click View Details to see the progress of the different phases that are part of restoring a copy. The last phase completed is displayed at the bottom of the list.

AppSync can restore individual Exchange mailboxes and mailbox items when EMC ItemPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server is installed. For more information, refer to the EMC AppSync User Guide.

Restore Exchange Server 2010



73

Backup and recovery implementation

Avamar solves the challenges associated with traditional backup, enabling fast, reliable backup and recovery for remote offices, data center LANs, and Exchange environments. Avamar is backup and recovery software that uses patented global data deduplication technology to identify redundant sub-file data segments at the source, reducing daily backup data by up to 500 times before it is transferred across the network and stored to disk. This enables companies to perform daily full backups even across congested networks and limited WAN links.

This guide is not intended to replace the core documentation for planning, implementation, or installation steps. It should be referenced as a best practice for those activities.

The EMC Avamar plug-in supports backup and recovery of Exchange, ranging from entire databases to various object levels such as mailboxes or individual email items. Additional flexibility includes the ability to use activation priority in preferred server order lists, so that even if the preferred copy is not available for backup, Avamar will back up the next available copy. Back up the other components in the Exchange environment with the Avamar Client for Windows. This enables recovery for the Exchange databases and related Exchange servers.

In the event that VMware is being protected by Avamar virtual machine image protection, you can restore the virtual machines without needing an Avamar client installed on the hosts. If they are Exchange Mailbox server roles, you can restore the databases from Exchange VSS backups.

The Avamar Exchange VSS plug-in relies on the base Avamar Windows Client and enables database backups. For disaster-level recovery, a virtual machine image recovery enables OS-level recovery. The database recovery is applied after those resources are restored.

Note The implementation of VMware image-level protection is beyond the scope of this guide, but is a viable option to restore base operating systems.

The Avamar Configuration Checker provides assurance that prerequisites are met. When you run it, it provides a report that ensures all the required components are installed for Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) and Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) access, as well as the Exchange configuration for Exchange Mailbox server roles.

The Backup User Configuration Tool is also provided when the Exchange VSS plug-in is installed. This tool creates the Avamar Backup User. The Avamar Backup User must have the relevant rights assigned to be able to back up and restore databases and mailbox or mail items. The Avamar services run as this user to enable those activities. It is possible to configure a user manually. For more information about manually configuring a user, refer to Avamar Exchange VSS documentation.

Note Using Data Domain as the backup target for Avamar is also an option. The Avamar client and plug-ins are installed in the same way as when using Avamar as the backup target. If Data Domain is used, the only difference is a

Overview of backup and recovery implementation

Backup and recovery considerations



74

checkbox in the dataset definition. This is included in the implementation steps in the Avamar Exchange VSS documentation.

Figure 28 shows a map of the Avamar installation.

Figure 28. Avamar installation map

The Exchange data is stored in the Exchange Information Store, which contains the following data:

• Exchange database (EDB) files, including mailbox databases and public folder databases.

• Transaction log (LOG) files that store database operations such as creating or modifying a message. Once the operations are committed, they are written to the EDB file.

• Checkpoint (CHK) files that store information about successful operations when they are saved to the database on the hard disk.

When you select an Information Store or any database for backup, Avamar backs up the database file and accompanying LOG and CHK files. The backup strategy for a Microsoft Exchange environment should include the following backups.

Backup strategies



75

Exchange 2010 environment

Back up the following components with the Windows Exchange VSS plug-in:

• Databases

• Stand-alone (non-DAG) databases

• Active or passive databases in a DAG environment

On-demand backup in a stand-alone environment

When you perform an on-demand backup in a stand-alone (non-clustering) environment, you can back up the entire Exchange Server or an Exchange 2010 database.

Figure 29 illustrates the backup workflow for a stand-alone Exchange 2010 environment.

Figure 29. Backup workflow for Exchange

On-demand backup in a high-availability environment

With the Windows Exchange VSS plug-in you can back up both the active node and the passive node in a high-availability Exchange configuration.

Exchange 2010 on-demand backup in a high-availability environment

In Exchange 2010, a physical server (node) can contain both active and passive databases, but not active and passive copies of the same database. To back up all passive databases on a node, select all databases on the physical node, and then select the option to only back up the replicas (passive copies). To back up all active databases on a node, select all databases on the physical machine, and then select the option to only back up the active databases. Figure 30 illustrates a non-federated backup of all of the databases in an Exchange 2010 DAG.



76

Figure 30. Non-federated backup of all databases in the DAG

In this example, there are three Exchange servers, with active and passive copies of four mailbox databases. In a non-federated backup, each Exchange server is a separate Avamar client, so to back up all passive mailbox databases, you must perform a passive node backup for each physical server in the cluster. You could set up and schedule a backup dataset that includes the backups of all of these servers, MBX1, MBX2, and MBX3.

However, when you run passive node backups against all servers in the cluster, you may end up with multiple passive node backups of the same database. While this does not cause any errors for Avamar, it consumes extra server and storage resources to back up and store duplicate copies of the same database. Backing up copies of the same database could impact deduplication results for that database by 60 percent or



77

more. This is a direct result of how those databases are created. Microsoft uses log replay. Replaying the logs into the database copies results in unique data.

Note Backing up the passive node is recommended because it has less impact on Exchange server performance and mail users. In some environments, such as a stand-alone Exchange server, you may not have a choice and must back up an active database because the system does not have passive databases or replicas. As a last resort for an environment that has multiple DAG copies, you would allow the backup job to address an alternate database copy. This is explained in the next section.

In an Exchange 2010 DAG environment, passive and active databases can be replicated across multiple nodes for high availability. Backups are created from the passive databases, which can reduce the impact on production servers and resources. To back up all databases in the DAG environment using conventional backup requires that all passive databases are backed up on each Exchange server, even if the same database has multiple passive copies replicated across several nodes.

However, with the Avamar federated backup for Exchange 2010 DAGs, you can back up Exchange databases under the DAG name rather than each server. With a federated backup, you can specify the order that Avamar polls each server in the DAG for passive copies of each Exchange database. Avamar federated backups of Exchange 2010 DAGs use several key features:

• Avamar Cluster Client Configuration

• Avamar Cluster Client Resource

• Preferred Server Order List (PSOL)

This feature is not a requirement of the implementation, but without it, there is no automated ability to back up, only an alternate copy of a database.

Avamar Cluster Client Configuration

The Avamar Cluster Client Configuration tool identifies which servers in the DAG to include in the Avamar Cluster Client. Run the Avamar Cluster Configuration tool after installing the Avamar Windows Client and Windows Exchange VSS plug-in.

Avamar Cluster Client Resource

The Avamar Cluster Client Configuration tool creates a separate Avamar client for the DAG cluster. This configuration provides a separate client resource in Avamar Backup and Restore, which you can select instead of selecting each individual Exchange server in the DAG. The Avamar Cluster Client must have its own unique IP and DNS name to use. The DNS name is not the DAG name. The implementation steps must identify a unique name and IP strictly for the Avamar Cluster Resource.

Preferred Server Order List

When you perform a backup through the DAG resource, Avamar selects an Exchange server to back up the passive copies of the databases. Since multiple Exchange

Federated backups of Exchange 2010 DAG environments



78

servers can host replicas or passive copies of the same database, you can specify a PSOL to tell Avamar which Exchange servers to use to back up the Exchange databases. When the backup order starts, Avamar backs up the passive or replica copies of each database, running the backups from the Exchange servers in the order specified in the PSOL.

Figure 31 illustrates an example of a federated backup of a DAG cluster with three Exchange servers: MBX1, MBX2, and MBX3. The cluster contains four Exchange databases: DB1, DB2, DB3, and DB4. Each database can have only one active copy, but can have multiple passive or replica copies. In this example, there are two passive copies of DB1, one copy on two different Exchange servers, MBX2 and MBX3. The other databases DB2, DB3, and DB4 have only one passive copy each in the cluster. Only one copy of each database needs to be backed up. The PSOL specifies that Avamar backs up the databases from the Exchange servers in this order: MBX2, MBX3, and MBX1.



79

Figure 31. Federated backup of a DAG cluster example



80

Multistreaming enables parallel processing of backup jobs using multiple processors. You can use as many as six streams. Each stream requires a separate processor core. By taking advantage of multiprocessors, you can improve backup performance when storing backups on either the Avamar server or a Data Domain system. You can configure multi-streaming to group backups by volume or by database. If volumes have varying database sizes, for example 500 GB on G:\, 100 GB on H:\, and 100 GB on Z:\, it will take more time for streams to release the volumes with bigger sizes.

For balanced multistream backup performance, choose by volume if all volumes are similar in overall size, or by database if all databases are similar in size. If databases are balanced across volumes so that each database is about the same size, and each volume contains about the same number of databases, then there will be little difference between grouping backups by database or volume.

Multistreaming places additional demands on computer hardware and resources beyond the base requirements for the Windows Exchange VSS plug-in. Therefore, multistreaming should be used with technical caution.

Note A clustered or DAG environment is not required for multistreaming, but it is highly recommended. When using multistreaming, Avamar consumes much more CPU resources than when backing up as a single stream. If the backup is being performed on an active Exchange server node, this could have an impact on email server performance and for end users, if there is no window where the application is not servicing a workload.

Multistreaming


81

Chapter 5 Solution Verification


Baseline infrastructure verification ............................................................. 82

Exchange Server performance verification .................................................. 85

Backup and recovery verification ................................................................ 91

Solution Verification


82

Baseline infrastructure verification

After you configure the solution, review this section to verify its configuration and functionality, and ensure that the configuration supports the core availability requirements.

Table 22 describes the tasks that must be completed.

Table 22. Tasks for verifying the solution


Verify ESXi functionality Verify the basic ESXi functionality of the solution with a post-installation checklist.

Using EMC VNX Storage with VMware vSphere

Verify redundancy of the solution components

Verify the redundancy of the solution components:

• Storage

• ESXi host

• Network switch

Vendor documentation

Verify the Exchange Client Access server array configuration

Verify the Client Access server array configuration in the solution.

Verify the Exchange DAG configuration

Verify the DAG configuration in the solution.

Monitor the solution’s health Use tools to monitor the solution’s health.

• Microsoft Exchange Analyzers

• Manage Diagnostic Logging Levels

• Exchange Performance and Scalability Counters and Thresholds

• VNXe3100/3150: How to Monitor System Health

EMC recommends that you verify the ESXi configurations before deployment to production on each ESXi server.

For more detailed information, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

To ensure that the various components of the solution maintain availability requirements, it is important that you test specific scenarios related to maintenance or hardware failure. EMC recommends that you verify redundancy of the solution components including storage, ESXi hosts, and network switches.

For detailed steps, refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Support resources.

Overview of baseline infrastructure verification

Verify ESXi functionality

Verify solution components redundancy

https://support.emc.com/docu33753_TechBook:_Using_EMC_VNX_Storage_with_VMware_vSphere.pdf?language=en_US�

https://support.emc.com/docu33753_TechBook:_Using_EMC_VNX_Storage_with_VMware_vSphere.pdf?language=en_US�

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb288481.aspx�








83

To ensure that the Exchange Client Access server array is running smoothly in the solution, use these steps to verify and monitor the Client Access server array configuration:

1. Use the following command to verify the Exchange databases are associated with the Client Access server array, as shown in Figure 32:

Get-MailboxDatabase | Sort-Object -Property Name | ft Name, RpcClientAccessServer

Figure 32. Commands to verify Client Access server array associations

2. Start the Outlook client to ensure that you can open and access a mailbox. This indicates that the Client Access server array address is working.

3. Shut down one Client Access server to verify that the Outlook client can still access the mailbox. This indicates the load balancer is working.

To ensure the Exchange DAG is working smoothly in the solution, use these steps to verify the DAG configuration:

1. Use the following command to verify on which Mailbox servers the databases are activated:

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus –server <Server_Name>

Normally, the active databases are hosted on different Mailbox servers, as shown in Figure 33. If the Status is Mounted, it means the database is active on this Mailbox server; if the Status is Healthy, it means this is a passive database on this Mailbox server.

Figure 33. Command to verify DAG configuration

2. Shut down one Mailbox server to simulate a failure.

Verify Exchange Client Access server array configuration

Verify the Exchange DAG configuration



84

3. Monitor the database copy status to verify that DAG detects the failure and automatically fails over the affected databases to another Mailbox server that hosts a passive copy of these databases.

4. Verify that users can access the mailbox after the database is activated on another Mailbox server.

The solution’s health is a simplified measurement that reflects the reliability, stability, and performance of the entire solution.

Table 23 lists several tools you can use to monitor and troubleshoot the solution.

Table 23. Tools to monitor the solution

Tool Description

esxtop

The esxtop tool provides a real-time view (updated every five seconds, by default) of ESXi Hypervisor performance metrics, such as CPU and memory. It is important that you understand the performance for hypervisor in order to measure or troubleshoot the Exchange performance-related issues.

Microsoft Exchange Analyzers

You can use several Microsoft Exchange Analyzer tools to verify basic connectivity, identify potential problems, and troubleshoot issues in an Exchange organization.

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Microsoft Exchange Analyzers.

Event Viewer Event Viewer is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. It lets you browse and manage event logs. It is a useful tool for troubleshooting problems. You can filter for specific events across multiple logs, and reuse useful event filters as custom views.

Exchange Diagnostic Logging

The Exchange diagnostic logging level determines which events are written to the Application event log in Event Viewer. The default logging level is 0 (Lowest). You can increase the logging level when you troubleshoot a specific issue. EMC recommends that you return the logging level to the default setting after you complete the troubleshooting activities.

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Manage Diagnostic Logging Levels

Microsoft Windows performance counters

By using Windows performance counters, you can analyze bottlenecks in areas such as CPU utilization, memory, disk I/O, and network I/O.

For more information on performance counters and thresholds in the Exchange database, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Performance and Scalability Counters and Thresholds.

VNXe Unisphere management interface

You can use the VNXe Unisphere management interface dashboard to monitor and determine VNXe system health, including: capacity utilization statistics, CPU usage statistics, storage resource health, health of hardware component, system alerts, and log files.

For detailed instructions, refer to VNXe3100/3150: How to Monitor System Health.

VNX Unisphere Analyzer VNX Unisphere Analyzer software is preloaded on all VNX storage systems with the FLARE/block bundles (or later). It is easy to monitor, collect, and analyze all aspects of storage related data from this software.

Monitor the solution’s health






85

EMC recommends that you use the test tools to validate the performance of the entire Exchange environment. For details about performance verification and test methodology, refer to the Design Guide.

Exchange Server performance verification

This section provides an example of an Exchange environment in this solution. The purpose is to measure the performance of the Exchange Server roles to ensure the solution meets your business requirements.

Before you verify your own solution, to understand the test methodology, EMC recommends you refer to the Design Guide.

In this solution, we verified that the Exchange organization could support the user profile shown in Table 24.

Table 24. Example of verification questions for user profile


Number of mailboxes 9,000

Maximum mailbox size (GB) 1.5 GB

Mailbox IOPS profile (messages sent/received per mailbox per day)

0.15 IOPS per user (150 messages sent/received per mailbox per day)

DAG copies (including Active one) 2

Deleted Items Retention (DIR) Window (days) 14

Backup/Truncation Failure Tolerance (days) 3

Snapshot (Days retained) 0

Included number of years’ growth 1

Annual growth rate (number of mailboxes, %) 11%

Overview of Jetstress tool

The Exchange 2010 storage design should be verified for expected transactional IOPS before it is placed in a production environment. To ensure that the environment functions appropriately, EMC recommends that the Microsoft Jetstress tool is used to verify the Exchange storage design.

The Jetstress tool simulates Exchange I/O at the database level by interacting with the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) database technology (also known as Jet) on which Exchange is built.

Jetstress can be configured to test the maximum I/O throughput available to the disk subsystem within the required performance constraints of Exchange. Jetstress can accept a simulated profile of specific user counts and IOPS per user to verify that the disk subsystem is capable of maintaining an acceptable performance level by the metrics defined in that profile.

Overview of Exchange Server performance verification

Jetstress verification



86

Key metrics

Before you run the Jetstress tool, you need to know which Jetstress testing key metrics to capture and what thresholds must be met for each metric when running the tests. Table 25 lists the key metrics of Jetstress verification.

Table 25. Key metrics for Jetstress verification

Performance counters Target values

Achieved Exchange transactional IOPS (I/O database reads/sec + I/O database writes/sec)


I/O database reads/sec N/A (for analysis purpose)

I/O database writes/sec N/A (for analysis purpose)


N/A (for analysis purpose)

I/O database reads average latency (ms) Less than 20 ms

I/O log reads average latency (ms) Less than 10 ms

Build test environment

Complete the following steps to build the Jetstress test environment:

1. Install the guest OS on the virtual machines in your test environment for Exchange Mailbox servers on your ESXi hosts and provision storage to these virtual machines.

Note You do not need to install Exchange Server 2010 on your virtual machines.

2. Install Jetstress on the virtual machines.

3. Populate Jetstress databases according to your requirements.

4. Run Jetstress tests and analyze report.

For more detailed information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Microsoft Exchange Server Jetstress 2010.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff706601(v=exchg.141).aspx�

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff706601(v=exchg.141).aspx�



87

Test results

In this solution, Jetstress 2010 version 14.01.0225.017 was used to simulate an I/O profile of 0.15 IOPS per user. The Exchange building blocks were validated using a two-hour performance test. 10,000 active users (to meet the customer requirement of 9,000 mailboxes with one year’s 11% growth rate in mailbox number) were simulated on two Mailbox servers (5,000 active users per Mailbox server) to validate the performance under the worst (failover) situation.

Table 26 shows the average I/O and the average latency on the Mailbox server. The performance of the Exchange organization exceeds the design target.

Table 26. Jetstress verification example results

Performance counters Target values Results

Achieved Exchange transactional IOPS (I/O database reads/sec + I/O database writes/sec)


In this solution: 5,000 * 0.15 = 750

1,003

I/O database reads/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 621

I/O database writes/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 382


N/A (for analysis purpose) 1,586

I/O database reads average latency (ms)

Less than 20 ms 15 ms

I/O log reads average latency (ms)

Less than 10 ms 1 ms

Overview of LoadGen tool

After you complete the storage verification with Jetstress and determine that the storage is sized correctly and performs as expected, your next step in the verification process is to use the Microsoft Exchange Server Load Generator (LoadGen) tool to simulate a MAPI workload against the entire Exchange infrastructure. LoadGen testing is necessary to determine how each Exchange component performs under close-to-production user load.

LoadGen requires full deployment of the Exchange environment for verification testing. You should perform all LoadGen verification testing in an isolated lab environment where there is no connectivity to production data.

LoadGen performs the following tasks for verification:

• Generates users and workloads against the entire Exchange environment, including network and storage components

• Simulates the entire email flow and locates any bottlenecks in the solution

LoadGen verification



88

• Assists in determining the CPU and other resources that are required to sustain the load for which the Exchange environment is designed

Key metrics

Before you run the LoadGen tool, you need to know which LoadGen testing key metrics to capture and what thresholds must be met for each metric when running the tests. Table 27 lists the key LoadGen verification metrics.

Table 27. Key metrics for LoadGen verification

Performance counter Target

Mailbox server Processor\%Processor time Less than 80%


Less than 20 ms


Less than 20 ms



Less than 200 ms


Less than 200 ms


Less than 10 ms


Less than 10 ms

ExchangeIS\RPC requests Less than 70

ExchangeIS\RPC averaged latency Less than 10 ms

CAS/HUB combined servers

Processor\%Processor time Less than 80%

Exchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Requests Less than 40


Less than 250 ms


Less than 3,000


Less than 250


Less than 250



89

Build test environment

Complete the following steps to build the LoadGen test environment:

1. Deploy Exchange Server 2010 in your test environment, including Exchange Mailbox servers and HUB/CAS combined servers.

2. Create virtual machines for LoadGen clients and install the guest OS. EMC recommends you install LoadGen tools on separate virtual machines other than the Exchange servers.

3. Install LoadGen.

4. Populate LoadGen databases according to your requirements.

Note This can be time-consuming depending on the number of mailboxes, and the size of the mailbox to support.

5. Run LoadGen tests, collect Windows performance counter data, and analyze the report.

Test results

In this solution, 10,000 users were simulated to meet the customer requirement of 9,000 mailboxes with one year’s 11 percent growth rate in mailbox number. LoadGen 2010 version 14.01.0180.003 was used to simulate Outlook 2007 cached mode mailboxes with the following characteristics:

• The action profile was 150 messages per mailbox per day (0.15 IOPS)

• Each mailbox was 1.5 GB in size

We determined the validity of each test run by comparing the results of selected performance counters to Microsoft-specified criteria. Performance counter data was collected at 15-second intervals for the duration of each test run. We discarded the results of the first and last hours. Results were averaged over the remainder of the test.

For additional information about monitoring Exchange 2010 performance and other key performance counters, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Performance and Scalability Counters and Thresholds.





90

Table 28 shows the LoadGen tests used to measure the performance of the Exchange infrastructure of this solution.

Table 28. LoadGen performance tests

Test Description

1 Normal operation - 10 hours, 100 percent concurrency test under normal operating conditions with 150 messages MAPI profile. The objective was to verify the entire Exchange environment’s performance under normal operating condition.

2 Mailbox server failure - 10 hours, 100 percent concurrency test during the failure of two Mailbox servers and two CAS/HUB combined servers. All databases are activated on the remaining two Mailbox servers, and all client RPC requests and email routing are processed by the remaining two CAS/HUB combined servers. The objective was to verify the entire Exchange environment's performance during server failure and failover.

Table 29 shows that the performance achieved by the Exchange virtual machines meets the target metrics in all test scenarios. DAG replication stops in a failover situation, which is why some performance counters look better in a failover situation.

Table 29. LoadGen performance example results

Performance counter Target Normal situation Failover situation

Mailbox server

Processor\%Processor time

Less than 80% 47% 63%


Less than 20 ms 10.77 ms 8.47 ms


Less than 20 ms


4.12 ms 0


Less than 200 ms 1.57 ms 2 ms


Less than 200 ms 1.94 ms 0


Less than 10 ms 2 ms 2.14 ms



ExchangeIS\RPC requests Less than 70 1 0

ExchangeIS\RPC averaged latency

Less than 10 ms 1 ms 1 ms



91

Performance counter Target Normal situation Failover situation

CAS/HUB servers combo

Processor\%Processor time

Less than 80% 28% 46%

Exchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Requests

Less than 40 1.6 2




Less than 3,000 0.61 5.3


Less than 250 0.55 4.78


Less than 250 0 0

Backup and recovery verification

Verification of the Exchange backup and recovery implementation requires a number of recovery options. The highest level is to recover an entire database. Recover it into an RDB (recovery database) for Exchange 2010. There are other lower level elements you should confirm if the environment is configured with granular-level recovery (GLR). When recovering mailboxes or lower level objects, there are backup and recovery steps to consider.

Recovery steps

The specific steps for recovery of these objects are mapped out in detail in the core Avamar Exchange VSS documentation:

• EMC Avamar 6.1 for Exchange VSS User Guide

• EMC Avamar 6.1 Operational Best Practices

• EMC Avamar 6.1 Administration Guide

Verifying backup and recovery plan



92


93

Chapter 6 Reference Documentation


EMC documentation .................................................................................. 94

Other documentation ................................................................................. 94

Links ......................................................................................................... 95

Reference Documentation


94

EMC documentation The following documents, available on the EMC Online Support or EMC.com websites, provide additional and relevant information. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC representative:

• VNXe3150 System Installation Guide

• VNXe3150: How to Monitor System Health

• EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with NFS Shared Folders

• EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Generic iSCSI Storage

• EMC VNXe Series Using VNXe System with Microsoft Exchange

• EMC VNXe Series Using an EMC VNXe System with VMware

• EMC FAST VP for Unified Storage Systems

• VNX Operating Environment for File Release Notes Version

• VNX Installation Assistant for File/Unified Worksheet

• EMC Host Connectivity Guide for VMware ESX Server

• TechBook: Using EMC VNX Storage with VMware vSphere

• EMC PowerPath/VE for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide

• EMC VFCache Installation Guide for VMware

• EMC VFCache VMware VSI Plug-in Administration Guide

• EMC AppSync Installation and Administration Guide

• EMC AppSync User Guide

• EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage Viewer — Product Guide

• EMC VSI for VMware vSphere: Unified Storage Management— Product Guide

• EMC Avamar 6.1 for Exchange VSS User Guide

• EMC Avamar 6.1 Administration Guide

• EMC Avamar 6.1 for VMware User Guide

Other documentation For documentation on Microsoft Exchange, refer to the Microsoft website.


http://www.emc.com/resource-library/resource-library.htm�




95

Links

Refer to the VMware website for the following VMware vSphere and vCenter documentation:

• vSphere Installation and Setup

• vSphere Networking

• vSphere Storage

• Preparing vCenter Server Databases

• Preparing the Update Manager Database

• vSphere Virtual Machine Administration


• vCenter Server and Host Management

• vSphere Resource Management

Refer to the following topics on the Microsoft TechNet website:

• Add a Mailbox Database Copy

• Deploy a Highly Available Virtual Machine

• Exchange 2010 Prerequisites

• Install the Hyper-V Role and Configure a Virtual Machine

• Jetstress Field Guide

• Manage Diagnostic Logging Levels

• Managing Database Availability Groups

• Managing Mailbox Database Copies

• Microsoft Exchange Analyzers

• Microsoft Exchange Load Generator

• Microsoft Exchange Server Jetstress 2010

• Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide

• Performance and Scalability Counters and Thresholds

• Understanding a New Installation of Exchange 2010

• Understanding Exchange 2010 Virtualization

• Understanding RPC Client Access

Note The links provided were working correctly at the time of publication.

VMware links

Microsoft TechNet



http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-35B40B0B-0C13-43B2-BC85-18C9C91BE2D4.html�







http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/GUID-98BD5A8A-260A-494F-BAAE-74781F5C4B87.html�

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/�


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj863389.aspx�


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846766.aspx#BKMK_Step2�

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Jetstress-Field-Guide-1602d64c�





http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb508893(EXCHG.80).aspx�

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff706601.aspx�








96


97

Appendix A Configuration Worksheet

This appendix presents the following topic:

Configuration worksheet for Exchange ........................................................ 98

Configuration Worksheet


98

Configuration worksheet for Exchange Before configuring Exchange for this solution, you need to gather some customer-specific configuration information such as IP addresses, hostnames, and so on.

The following tables provide a worksheet that you can use to record the information. You can also print and use the worksheet as a customer “leave behind” document for future reference.

To confirm the customer information, cross-reference with the relevant array configuration worksheet: EMC VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet or VNX File and Unified Worksheets.

Table 30. Common server information

Server Name Purpose Primary IP

Domain Controller 01

Domain Controller 02

DNS Primary

DNS Secondary

DHCP

NTP

vCenter Server

Mailbox server 01

Mailbox server 02

Mailbox server 03

Mailbox server 04

HUB/CAS server 01

HUB/CAS server 02

HUB/CAS server 03

HUB/CAS server 04

Table 31. Exchange information

FQDN Purpose Primary IP

Exchange DAG

Exchange Client Access server array



99

Table 32. ESXi server information

Server Name Purpose Primary IP Private Network (storage) addresses

ESXi Host 1

ESXi Host 2

ESXi Host 3

ESXi Host 4

…

Table 33. Array information

Array name

Root password

Admin password

CS0 Primary hostname

CS1 Secondary hostname (if applicable)

CS0 Primary IP address

CS1 Secondary IP address (if applicable)

NFS IP address

SPA IP address

SPB IP address

iSCSI IP addresses for SPA

iSCSI IP addresses for SPB

Virtual machine infrastructure pool name

Virtual machine infrastructure NFS datastore name

Exchange database pool 1 name

Exchange database pool 2 name

Exchange log pool 1 name

Exchange log pool 2 name



100

Table 34. Network infrastructure information

Name Purpose IP Subnet Mask Default Gateway

Ethernet Switch 1

Ethernet Switch 2

…

Table 35. VLAN information

Name Network Purpose VLAN ID Allowed Subnets

Virtual Machine Management

NFS networking

iSCSI networking

vMotion

Table 36. Service accounts

Account Purpose Password (optional, secure appropriately)

Windows Server administrator

Array administrator

ESXi administrator

vCenter administrator

Exchange administrator

emc vspex for virtualized microsoft exchange 2010 with ... · esxi and vcenter implementation ......

Documents