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IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

EMC VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2013 WITH VMWARE VSPHERE

EMC VSPEX

Abstract

This Implementation Guide describes, at a high level, the steps required to deploy a Microsoft Exchange 2013 organization on an EMC® VSPEX™ Proven Infrastructure enabled by VMware vSphere on EMC VNX® and EMC VNXe®.

June 2013

2 EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with VMware vSphere Implementation Guide

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

Published June 2013.

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 listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com.

EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with VMware vSphere Implementation Guide

Part Number 11795

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Contents


Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction 9

Purpose of this guide ................................................................................................ 10

Business value ......................................................................................................... 10

Scope ....................................................................................................................... 11

Audience .................................................................................................................. 11

Terminology.............................................................................................................. 12

Chapter 2 Before You Start 13

Overview .................................................................................................................. 14

Pre-deployment tasks ............................................................................................... 14

Deployment workflow ............................................................................................... 15

Deployment prerequisites ........................................................................................ 15

Planning and sizing Microsoft Exchange ................................................................... 18

Overview .............................................................................................................. 18

Storage pools ...................................................................................................... 18

Example: medium Exchange organization ............................................................ 18

Essential reading ...................................................................................................... 21

VSPEX Design Guide ............................................................................................ 21

VSPEX Solution Overviews ................................................................................... 21

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures ............................................................................... 21

Chapter 3 Solution Overview 23

Overview .................................................................................................................. 24

Solution architecture ................................................................................................ 24

Key components ....................................................................................................... 25

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 25

Microsoft Exchange 2013 .................................................................................... 26

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ......................................................................... 27

EMC VNX and VNXe .............................................................................................. 27

EMC Unisphere .................................................................................................... 29

VMware vSphere 5.1 ............................................................................................ 30

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware ........................................................... 30

VNX VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration .................................................. 30

EMC XtremSW Cache ............................................................................................ 30

EMC PowerPath/VE .............................................................................................. 31

Contents


Chapter 4 Solution Implementation 32

Overview .................................................................................................................. 33

Physical setup .......................................................................................................... 33

Network implementation .......................................................................................... 33

Storage implementation ........................................................................................... 34

Overview .............................................................................................................. 34

Example architectures ......................................................................................... 35

Setting up initial VNX/VNXe configuration............................................................ 36

Provisioning storage for NFS datastore................................................................. 37

Provisioning storage for iSCSI disks ..................................................................... 38

FAST Cache configuration .................................................................................... 48

FAST VP configuration .......................................................................................... 49

XtremSW Cache configuration .............................................................................. 50

Example storage layouts ...................................................................................... 53

ESXi and vCenter implementation ............................................................................. 55

Multipathing implementation ................................................................................... 57

Overview .............................................................................................................. 57

PowerPath/VE implementation ............................................................................ 57

Exchange Server virtualization implementation ........................................................ 58

Overview .............................................................................................................. 58

Creating Exchange virtual machines..................................................................... 58

Installing Exchange guest OS ............................................................................... 59

Updating the virtual machine ............................................................................... 59

Assigning IP addresses ........................................................................................ 60

Creating NLB cluster ............................................................................................ 60

Creating virtual disks for Exchange servers .......................................................... 60

Application implementation ..................................................................................... 63

Overview .............................................................................................................. 63

Preparing Active Directory .................................................................................... 63

Installing Exchange 2013 Mailbox server roles .................................................... 64

Installing Exchange 2013 Client Access server roles ............................................ 65

Deploying database availability group ................................................................. 65

Chapter 5 Solution Verification 67

Baseline infrastructure verification ........................................................................... 68

Overview .............................................................................................................. 68

Verifying ESXi functionality .................................................................................. 68

Verifying solution components redundancy ......................................................... 68

Verifying the Exchange DAG configuration............................................................ 69

Contents


Monitor the solution’s health ............................................................................... 69

Exchange Server performance verification ................................................................ 70

Overview .............................................................................................................. 70

Jetstress verification ............................................................................................ 71

Chapter 6 Reference Documentation 75

EMC documentation ................................................................................................. 76

Other documentation ............................................................................................... 76

Links ........................................................................................................................ 76

VMware ............................................................................................................... 76

Microsoft TechNet ................................................................................................ 77

Appendix A Configuration Worksheet 79

Configuration worksheet for Exchange 2013 ............................................................. 80

Contents


Figures Solution architecture ........................................................................... 25 Figure 1.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ................................................................ 27 Figure 2.

Exchange 2013 storage elements on a vSphere 5.1 and VNX platform . 35 Figure 3.

Exchange 2013 storage elements on a vSphere 5.1 and VNXe platform36 Figure 4.

NFS datastore provisioning with VSI USM ............................................ 38 Figure 5.

Selecting storage pools ....................................................................... 40 Figure 6.

Creating a new pool ............................................................................. 40 Figure 7.

Specifying a pool name ....................................................................... 41 Figure 8.

Selecting the storage type ................................................................... 41 Figure 9.

Specifying the number of storage disks ............................................... 42 Figure 10.

Configuring storage ............................................................................. 42 Figure 11.

Selecting the storage pool ................................................................... 43 Figure 12.

Configuring host access ...................................................................... 44 Figure 13.

Adding Virtual Disk .............................................................................. 44 Figure 14.

Virtual disks for Exchange database and log ........................................ 45 Figure 15.

iSCSI LUN configuration in VSI USM ..................................................... 47 Figure 16.

Storage Pool Properties—FAST Cache enabled ..................................... 48 Figure 17.

Expand Storage Pool dialog box .......................................................... 49 Figure 18.

Creating XtremSW Cache device .......................................................... 51 Figure 19.

Adding XtremSW Cache device and source LUNS ................................. 52 Figure 20.

Example storage layout for VNXe ......................................................... 53 Figure 21.

Example storage layout for VNX ........................................................... 54 Figure 22.

Network Load Balancing Manager........................................................ 60 Figure 23.

Creating a new virtual disk................................................................... 61 Figure 24.

RDM disk type selection ...................................................................... 62 Figure 25.

Formatting disk ................................................................................... 62 Figure 26.

Mailbox role selection ......................................................................... 64 Figure 27.

Exchange Client Access server role selection ....................................... 65 Figure 28.

Command to verify DAG configuration ................................................. 69 Figure 29.

Tables Table 1. Terminology......................................................................................... 12

Table 2. Pre-deployment tasks .......................................................................... 14

Table 3. VSPEX for virtualized Exchange deployment process ........................... 15

Table 4. Deployment prerequisites checklist ..................................................... 16

Table 5. Exchange-related storages .................................................................. 18

Contents


Table 6. Sample customer qualification worksheet answers ............................. 18

Table 7. Example of required resources—medium Exchange organization ......... 19

Table 8. Sample storage recommendations—medium Exchange organization .. 20

Table 9. Sample performance key metrics—Jetstress tool ................................. 20

Table 10. Exchange 2013 server roles ................................................................. 26

Table 11. VNX software suites ............................................................................. 28

Table 12. VNX software packs ............................................................................. 29

Table 13. VNXe software suites ........................................................................... 29

Table 14. VNXe software packs ........................................................................... 29

Table 15. Tasks for physical setup ...................................................................... 33

Table 16. Tasks for switch and network configuration ......................................... 33

Table 17. Tasks for storage configuration ............................................................ 34

Table 18. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on VNXe ............. 38

Table 19. Example iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange data on VNXe ......................... 39

Table 20. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on VNX ............... 45

Table 21. Example iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange data on VNX ........................... 46

Table 22. Steps for ESXi and vCenter installation and configuration .................... 55

Table 23. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration ............. 58

Table 24. Example of Exchange reference virtual machines ................................. 59

Table 25. Tasks to implement Exchange 2013 .................................................... 63

Table 26. Tasks for verifying the solution ............................................................ 68

Table 27. Tools to monitor the solution ............................................................... 69

Table 28. Example qualification worksheet with user profile ............................... 70

Table 29. Key metrics for Jetstress verification .................................................... 71

Table 30. Jetstress verification example results .................................................. 73

Table 31. Common server information ................................................................ 80

Table 32. Exchange information .......................................................................... 81

Table 33. ESXi server information ....................................................................... 81

Table 34. Array information ................................................................................. 81

Table 35. Network infrastructure information ...................................................... 82

Table 36. VLAN information ................................................................................ 82

Table 37. Service accounts ................................................................................. 82

Contents


Chapter 1: Introduction


Chapter 1 Introduction

This chapter presents the following topics:

Purpose of this guide ............................................................................................... 10

Business value ......................................................................................................... 10

Scope ....................................................................................................................... 11

Audience .................................................................................................................. 11

Terminology ............................................................................................................. 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. 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 private cloud with VMware solution.

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 or stagnant budgets. Administering, auditing, protecting, and managing an Exchange environment for a modern geographically diverse work force is a major challenge for most IT departments.

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 customers to accelerate their IT transformation with faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk versus the challenges, complexity, and difficulties of building an IT infrastructure themselves. VSPEX validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select technology that uses their existing or newly acquired IT infrastructure while eliminating planning, sizing, and configuration burdens that are typically associated with deploying a new IT infrastructure. VSPEX provides infrastructures for customers who want to simplify their system while at the same time gaining more choice in individual stack components.



Scope

This guide describes the high-level steps required to deploy Microsoft Exchange 2013 on a VSPEX Private Cloud with vSphere and VNX/VNXe®. This guide assumes that a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure already exists in the customer environment.

This guide applies to VSPEX Proven Infrastructures, virtualized with VMware vSphere on VNX/VNXe. This document provides an example of deployment on a VNX5700 and a VNXe3150. The same the principles and guidelines that apply to all VNX or VNXe models that VSPEX Proven Infrastructures offer.

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 2013, ideally with one or both of the following Microsoft certifications:

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) - Messaging - Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (Exam: 341)

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) - Messaging - Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (Exam: 342)

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 2012 operating systems (OS)

Microsoft Exchange 2013

External references are provided where applicable and EMC recommends that readers are familiar with these documents. For details, refer to Essential reading and Chapter 6.



Terminology

Table 1 lists the terminology used in this guide.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Definition

AD Active Directory

BDM Background Database Maintenance

CAS Client Access Server

DAG Database availability group

DNS Domain name system

FAST™ VP Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name

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

NMP VMware Native Multipathing Plug-in

PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express

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

rpm Revolutions per minute

RTM Release to manufacturing

SAS Serial-attached SCSI

VMDK VMware Virtual Machine Disk

VMFS VMware Virtual Machine File System

VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service

XtremSW™ EMC software for server-side caching on PCIe Flash cards

XtremSW Cache EMC server Flash-caching software as part of XtremSW software suite

Chapter 2: Before You Start


Chapter 2 Before You Start


Overview .................................................................................................................. 14

Pre-deployment tasks .............................................................................................. 14

Deployment workflow .............................................................................................. 15

Deployment prerequisites ........................................................................................ 15

Planning and sizing Microsoft Exchange .................................................................. 18

Essential reading ..................................................................................................... 21



Overview

This chapter provides an overview of important information you need to be aware of, documents you need to be familiar with, and tasks you need to perform before you start implementing your VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 solution.

The Design Guide for this solution - VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 - describes how to size and design your solution and how to select the right VSPEX Proven Infrastructure on which to layer Exchange 2013. The deployment examples in this Implementation Guide are based on the recommendations and examples in the Design Guide.

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

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. Pre-deployment tasks

Task Description Reference

Gather documents Gather the related documents listed in Essential reading. These are referred to throughout this guide. They provide details on setup procedures, sizing, and deployment best practices for the various components of the solution.

Essential reading

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

Deployment prerequisites checklist

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

Configuration worksheet for Exchange 2013



Deployment workflow

To design and implement your VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 solution, refer to the process flow in Table 3.

Table 3. VSPEX for virtualized Exchange deployment process

Step Action

1 Use the VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 qualification worksheet to collect user requirements. The 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 virtualized Exchange 2013, based on the user requirements collected in Step 1. Refer to the Design Guide for guidance.

For more information about the Sizing Tool, refer to the EMC VSPEX Sizing Tool portal.

Note: If the Sizing Tool is not available, you can manually size Exchange 2013 using the 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 the requirements for Exchange.

4 Refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Essential reading 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 2013.

Note: If you already have a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure environment, you can skip the implementation steps already completed.

Deployment prerequisites

This guide applies to VSPEX Proven Infrastructures virtualized with VMware on VNX or VNXe. The principles and guidance from the example provided applies to all VNX or VNXe models that VSPEX Proven Infrastructures support. Table 4 itemizes the hardware, software, and licenses required to configure the solution.

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

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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.

Essential reading

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.

Software

VNX OE for file Release 7.1.65-8

EMC Online Support

VNX OE for block Release 05.32.000.5.201

VNXe OE Release 2.4.0.20932

EMC Unisphere® for VNX 1.2.25.1.0156

EMC Unisphere for VNXe 1.9.0.11964

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 XtremSW™ Cache 1.5.1

VMware ESXi installation media

5.1 http://www.vmware.com

https://support.emc.com/

http://www.vmware.com/



Requirement Description Version Reference/notes

VMware vCenter Server installation media

5.1

Microsoft Windows Server installation media (for Exchange Server 2013)

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter edition

Microsoft Exchange Server installation media

Exchange Server 2013 Standard or Enterprise edition http://www.microsoft.com

Jetstress 2013 version 15.00.0658.004 For verification tests only

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).

2012 (Standard or Datacenter)

http://www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Exchange Server license keys

2013 (Standard or Enterprise)

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

5.1

http://www.vmware.com

http://www.microsoft.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/




Planning and sizing Microsoft Exchange

To plan and size your Exchange 2013 deployment on the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, follow the recommendations and guidelines in the Design Guide. Use the VSPEX Sizing Tool and the VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 qualification worksheet, as described in that guide.

In this VSPEX solution, we1 introduced general storage pools which are used to store Exchange data. Table 5 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 storages

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 Essential reading.

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 2013 organization on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. Complete the evaluation, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Sample customer qualification worksheet answers

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)

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

DAG copies (including Active one) 2

Deleted Items Retention (DIR) Window (days) 14

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

Overview

Storage pools

Example: medium Exchange organization




Backup/Truncation Failure Tolerance (days) 3

Included number of years’ growth 1

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 tests. EMC recommends running Jetstress tests to verify the Exchange performance before putting Exchange in the production environment. For more information, refer to the Exchange Server performance verification section of this guide.

Table 7, Table 8, and Table 9, are examples based on the customer information provided in Table 6. In this example, you need to set up eight Exchange Mailbox servers and four Client Access 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

Resource requirements

12 68 GB 300 GB Less than 25

8 272 Equivalent reference virtual machines

12 34 3 1

Client Access server




8 10 1 1

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 312



For example, each Mailbox server requires twelve vCPUs, 68 GB of memory, 300 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

Twelve reference virtual machines for CPU

Thirty four reference virtual machines for memory

Three reference virtual machine for capacity

One reference virtual machine for IOPS

The values round up to 34 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (eight in this example), which results in 272 reference virtual machines in total for the Mailbox server role:

34 reference virtual machines x 8 virtual machines = 272 total

reference virtual machines

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

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 (16+16) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 3 TB 32


Exchange log pool 1 RAID 1/0 (2+2) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 3 TB 4


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 2013 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



Essential reading

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.

Refer to the following VSPEX Design Guide:

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Exchange 2013

Refer to the following VSPEX Solution Overview documents:

EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization for Midmarket Businesses

EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization for Small and Medium Businesses

Refer to the following VSPEX Proven Infrastructure documents:

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

VSPEX Design Guide

VSPEX Solution Overviews

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures

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

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

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

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

Chapter 3: Solution Overview


Chapter 3 Solution Overview


Overview .................................................................................................................. 24

Solution architecture ............................................................................................... 24

Key components ...................................................................................................... 25



Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange 2013 and the key technologies used in this solution. The solution has been proven and designed to be layered on a VSPEX Private Cloud, which uses storage, compute, and network resources. The solution enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy a virtualized Exchange organization in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. VNX/VNXe and VMware vSphere virtualized Windows Server platforms provide storage and server hardware consolidation.

This Implementation Guide supports all VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange solutions with VMware and VNX/VNXe. This guide uses, as working examples, 500 virtual machines enabled by EMC VNX and VMware vSphere 5.1, and 50 virtual machines enabled by EMC VNXe and VMware vSphere 5.1.

The VNX and VNXe storage arrays are multiprotocol platforms that can support 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.

Solution architecture

Figure 1 shows an example of the architecture that characterizes the infrastructure validated for the support of Exchange 2013 layered on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. All Exchange servers are deployed as virtual machines on a vSphere cluster, and any VNX or VNXe model that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure can be used to provide the back-end storage functionality.

In this example, we set up eight Exchange Mailbox servers and four Exchange Client Access servers to meet a medium Exchange organization’s requirements, as described in Table 6. 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.

Note: This solution applies to all VSPEX offerings on VMware.



Solution architecture Figure 1.

For more details, refer to the appropriate document in Essential reading.

Key components

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


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

Introduction



EMC PowerPath/VE

Microsoft Exchange 2013 is an enterprise email and communication system that allows businesses and customers to collaborate and share information. EMC enhances Exchange 2013 with the industry’s broadest choice of storage platforms, software, and services.

Exchange 2013 builds on the Exchange Server 2010 architecture and has been redesigned for simplicity of scale, hardware utilization, and failure isolation. Exchange 2013 uses Database Availability Groups (DAGs) and mailbox database copies, along with other features such as single item recovery, retention policies, and lagged database copies, to provide high availability, site resilience, and Exchange native data protection. The high availability platform, the Exchange Information Store, and the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE), have all been enhanced to provide greater availability, easier management, and to reduce costs.

Improvements with the application database structure and input/output (I/O) reduction include support for a larger variety of disk and RAID configurations, including high-performance Flash, Fibre Channel (FC), and serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives; and slower-performing SATA and near-line serial-attached SCSI (NL-SAS) drives.

In Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010, different server roles were defined and allowed scale out through server separation, including Mailbox server, Client Access server, Hub Transport server, Edge Transport server and Unified Messaging server. In Exchange 2013, the number of server roles has been reduced to two: the Client Access server role and the Mailbox server role, as shown in Table 10.

Table 10. Exchange 2013 server roles

Role Function

Mailbox server Client Access protocols

Transport service

Mailbox databases

Unified Messaging (Except SIP redirection)

Handles all activities for active mailboxes on the server

Client Access server Authentication

Redirection (limited)

Proxy services for HTTP, POP, IMAP and SMTP

Thin and stateless server

Does not do any data rendering

Nothing is queued or stored here (except diagnostic logging)

At the time of publication, an Exchange 2013 version of the Edge Transport server is not available. If customers need an Edge Transport server, they can install an Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server in the perimeter network.




VSPEX Proven Infrastructures, as shown in Figure 2, are modular virtualized infrastructures validated by EMC and delivered by EMC’s VSPEX partners. VSPEX includes a virtualization layer, server and network layers, and EMC unified 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.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Figure 2.

Application-based solutions such as Exchange can be deployed on VSPEX Proven Infrastructures. We validated the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange 2013 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 family is powered by Intel Xeon processors, for intelligent storage that automatically and efficiently scales in performance, while ensuring data integrity and security.

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

EMC VNX and VNXe



The VNX series is designed to meet the high-performance, high-scalability requirements of midsize and large enterprises. The VNXe series is purpose-built for the IT manager in smaller environments.

VNX features

VNX supports the following features:

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

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 network-attached storage (NAS), storage-area network (SAN), and replication needs

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

VNXe features

VNXe supports the following features:

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

Table 11 lists the software suites that are available with VNX.

Table 11. VNX software suites

Suite Features

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



Suite Features

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

Table 12 lists the software packs that are available with VNX.

Table 12. VNX software packs

Pack Features

Total Efficiency Pack Includes all five software suites

Total Protection Pack Includes local, remote, and application protection suites

VNXe software suites

Table 13 lists the software suites that are available with VNXe.

Table 13. VNXe software suites

Suite Features

Local Protection Suite Increases productivity with snapshots of production data

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

VNXe software packs available

Table 14 lists the software packs that are available with VNXe.

Table 14. VNXe software packs

Pack Features

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

EMC Unisphere



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.

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 Distributed Resource Scheduler (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. 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 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 family 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

VMware vSphere 5.1

EMC Virtual Storage Integrator for VMware

VNX VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration

EMC XtremSW Cache



dynamically optimized for performance, intelligence, and protection for both physical and virtual environments.

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).

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.

EMC PowerPath/VE

Chapter 4: Solution Implementation


Chapter 4 Solution Implementation


Overview .................................................................................................................. 33

Physical setup.......................................................................................................... 33

Network implementation .......................................................................................... 33

Storage implementation .......................................................................................... 34

ESXi and vCenter implementation ............................................................................ 55

Multipathing implementation .................................................................................. 57

Exchange Server virtualization implementation ....................................................... 58

Application implementation ..................................................................................... 63



Overview

This chapter describes how to implement the solution. If you already have a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure environment, you can skip the sections for the implementation steps already completed.

Physical setup

This section includes information about the preparation of the solution physical components. After you complete the steps listed in Table 15, the new hardware components will be racked, cabled, powered, and ready for network connection.

Table 15. 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.

VNXe Installation Guide

VNX Unified Installation Guide

For details of the physical setup, refer to the appropriate document in Essential reading.

Network implementation

This section provides the requirements for the network infrastructure needed to support this architecture. Table 16 provides a summary of the tasks for switch and network configuration and references for further information.

Table 16. Tasks for switch and network configuration


Configure infrastructure network

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

Refer to the appropriate VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Essential reading.

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 Essential reading.

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 2013 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 Essential reading 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 2013 virtual machines for Exchange data. For detailed information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Exchange 2013 Virtualization.

Table 17 provides a summary of the tasks for storage configuration, and references for further information.

Table 17. Tasks for storage configuration


Set up initial VNX/VNXe configuration

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

VNXe Installation Guide


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

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj619301(v=exchg.150).aspx



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 virtualized Exchange 2013 on a VMware vSphere virtualization platform and VNX storage array.

Exchange 2013 storage elements on a vSphere 5.1 and VNX platform Figure 3.

Example architectures



Figure 4 illustrates an example of the high-level architecture with Exchange 2013 components and storage elements validated in an EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange 2013 on a VMware vSphere virtualization platform and VNXe storage array.

Exchange 2013 storage elements on a vSphere 5.1 and VNXe platform Figure 4.

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 Essential reading.

Setting up initial VNX/VNXe configuration



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 Essential reading.

Using EMC VSI Unified Storage Management

To provision storage for NFS datastores, you can also use VSI Unified Storage Management (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.

Provisioning storage for NFS datastore



NFS datastore provisioning with VSI USM Figure 5.

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.

Provisioning iSCSI storage on VNXe

Table 18 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange data in VNXe, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool.

Table 18. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on 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

Provisioning storage for iSCSI disks



Table 19 shows an example of iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange databases and transaction logs.

Table 19. Example iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange data on VNXe

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

Exchange Mailbox server 1 Database LUNs 1,520 GB 2

Exchange data pool 1 Log LUNs 90 GB 2

Exchange Mailbox server 2 Database LUNs 1,520 GB 2

Exchange data pool 2 Log LUNs 90 GB 2

To provision storage for Exchange 2013 databases and logs on VNXe, use EMC Unisphere to:

1. Configure an iSCSI server.

2. Create a storage pool.

3. Create iSCSI virtual disk storage.

Configuring an iSCSI server 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.

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

1. Log in to Unisphere as an administrator.

2. Select System Storage Pools, as shown in Figure 6.



Selecting storage pools Figure 6.

3. Open the Disk Configuration wizard by clicking Configure Disks.

4. Select the storage pool configuration mode by selecting Manually create a new pool by Disk Type, as shown in Figure 7, and then click Next.

Creating a new pool Figure 7.

5. The Specify Pool Name dialog box opens. Type a name and an optional description for the storage pool, as shown in Figure 8, and then click Next.



Specifying a pool name Figure 8.

6. The Select Storage Type window appears. Select a disk type for the storage pool, as shown in Figure 9. In this example, select SAS disks using RAID 5 (4+1). Click Next.

Selecting the storage type Figure 9.

7. Select the number of disks to use for the storage pool according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation, as shown in Figure 10, and then click Next.



Specifying the number of storage disks Figure 10.

8. The Summary window opens. Verify that the information is correct, then click Finish.

Note: For an Exchange 2013 DAG deployment, provision each DAG copy in a separate storage pool. The example presented above is sufficient for one DAG copy. Repeat this procedure for each additional DAG copy.

Creating iSCSI virtual disk storage Complete the following steps in EMC Unisphere to create iSCSI disks on the VNXe array to be used to store Exchange data. You can provision storage for Exchange 2007 or 2010 using the VNXe Exchange wizard; for Exchange 2013, you need to use the generic iSCSI storage wizard:

1. Log in to Unisphere as an administrator.

2. Select Storage Generic iSCSI Storage , as shown in Figure 11, and then click Create.

Configuring storage Figure 11.

3. The Generic iSCSI Storage wizard opens. Type a name and description for this iSCSI storage, and click Next.



4. The Configure Storage dialog box appears. Select the storage pool created previously for the DAG copy, as shown in Figure 12, and type the size of the first Exchange database LUN. Then click Next.

Selecting the storage pool Figure 12.

5. The Configure Protection dialog box appears. Select the protection options for the storage pool, according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation and then click Next. In this solution, do not enable snapshots.

6. The Configure Host Access dialog box appears. Specify the host access for this deployment, as shown in Figure 13. In this solution, assign access rights to both nodes in the cluster, and then click Next.



Configuring host access Figure 13.

7. The Summary window opens. Verify the details, and then click Finish.

8. The Results dialog box appears. Review the results and ensure the job completes successfully. Select Add Virtual Disk, as shown in Figure 14, and then click Close. The Virtual Disk wizard appears to allow you to continue to create additional Exchange database and log LUNs.

Adding Virtual Disk Figure 14.

9. Repeat the above steps until all Exchange database and log LUNs from the same DAG copy are added as virtual disks. Figure 15 shows the iSCSI storage created for one DAG copy.



Virtual disks for Exchange database and log Figure 15.

Note: The steps presented above are sufficient for one DAG copy. Repeat this procedure for each additional DAG copy.

10. The Summary window opens. Verify the details, and then click Finish.

Provisioning iSCSI storage on VNX

Table 20 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange data on VNX, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool.

Table 20. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on VNX

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





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 on the VNX for Exchange database and transaction logs. Refer to Table 20 for detailed information.

To configure iSCSI LUNs and unmask LUNs to VMware hosts, you can either use Unisphere or 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 the pools. Table 21 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 type 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.

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. Click OK to finish.

Table 21. Example iSCSI LUN layout for Exchange data on VNX

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

Exchange Mailbox server 1

Database LUNs 1,900 GB 4 Exchange database pool 1

Log LUNs 110 GB 4 Exchange log pool 1
























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

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.

3. Follow the remaining steps in the wizard to create iSCSI LUNs and configure RDM, as shown in Figure 16.

iSCSI LUN configuration in VSI USM Figure 16.

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



The following sections describe FAST Cache and FAST VP implementation steps on the VNX storage array. Due to the changes in Exchange 2013 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 pools. Do not enable FAST Cache on the Exchange log storage pools. 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 Essential reading 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 an Exchange database pool, and click Properties.

3. Click the Advanced tab in Storage Pool Properties and click Enabled to enable FAST Cache, as shown in Figure 17.

Storage Pool Properties—FAST Cache enabled Figure 17.

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.

FAST Cache configuration



If FAST VP is the enabled technology on the VNX system, you can use this by adding additional Flash disks (or SAS disks) as an extreme performance tier (or a 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, use 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 18.

Expand Storage Pool dialog box Figure 18.

FAST VP configuration



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.

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

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 machines.

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.

XtremSW Cache configuration



Using 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 19.

Creating XtremSW Cache device Figure 19.

2. Add XtremSW Cache to a virtual machine, and add source LUNs from the virtual machine, as shown in Figure 20.



Adding XtremSW Cache device and source LUNS Figure 20.

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

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



Figure 21 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 Essential reading.

Example storage layout for VNXe Figure 21.

Example storage layouts



Figure 22 shows an example storage layout for VNX. 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 Essential reading.

Example storage layout for VNX Figure 22.



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 solution architecture. Table 22 describes the tasks that must be completed.

Table 22. 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.

Create a virtual machine for Microsoft SQL Server for vCenter server database

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.

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

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

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/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/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





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.


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.


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

After 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.

N/A

Install the vCenter Update Manager plug-in

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


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






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.youtube.com/







Install the EMC VNX UEM CLI

Install the EMC VNX Unisphere command line interface (UEM 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 Essential reading.

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.

You can install PowerPath/VE 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 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 the vSphere host out of Maintenance mode.

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

Overview

PowerPath/VE implementation




Exchange Server virtualization implementation

This section provides the requirements for the installation and configuration of the Exchange host virtual machine. Table 23 describes the tasks that must be completed.

Table 23. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration


Create the Exchange virtual machines

Create the virtual machines to be used for the Exchange 2013 organization.


Install Exchange guest OS

Install Windows Server 2012 on the Exchange virtual machines.

Update the virtual machines

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

Assign IP addresses

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

Join all the Exchange servers to 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

EMC recommends that you use the VSPEX Sizing Tool and follow the recommendations in the Design Guide to determine the number of Exchange 2013 Mailbox server and Client Access server roles required for your Exchange organization, and the resources (processor, memory, and so on) required for each server role.

Table 24 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 eight Exchange Mailbox servers and four Client Access 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).

Overview

Creating Exchange virtual machines




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





Table 24. 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




12 34 3 1

Client Access server




8 10 1 1

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 312

For example, each Mailbox server requires 12 vCPUs, 68 GB of memory, 300 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

Twelve reference virtual machines for CPU

Thirty-four reference virtual machines for memory

Three reference virtual machine for capacity

One reference virtual machine for IOPS

The values round up to 34 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (eight in this example), which results in 272 reference virtual machines in total for the Mailbox server role:

34 reference virtual machines x 8 virtual machines = 272 total

reference virtual machines

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

Install Windows Server 2012 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.

Installing Exchange guest OS

Updating the virtual machine



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. Join every server to an existing domain.

For more information, refer to Essential reading.

Load Balancing, together with the Exchange 2013 Client Access servers, provides key benefits for Exchange 2013, 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) of this NLB cluster.

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 provided they are implemented using the vendors’ and Exchange 2013's best practices.

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

After you configure the NLB clusters, as shown in Figure 23, the DNS record must be configured with an address record (A record) for the NLB cluster 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.

Network Load Balancing Manager Figure 23.

You can calculate the number of virtual disks by using the VSPEX Sizing Tool and following the recommendations in the Design Guide. You can either use VMDK or RDM for Exchange database and log files; however, if you plan to implement VNX Snapshot to protect Exchange data, use RDM. 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.

Assigning IP addresses

Creating NLB cluster

Creating virtual disks for Exchange servers




Adding 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 24.

Creating a new virtual disk Figure 24.

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

Adding 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, as shown in Figure 25.



RDM disk type selection Figure 25.

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 iSCSI devices. Format the disk with 64 KB allocation unit size, as shown in Figure 26.

Formatting disk Figure 26.



Application implementation

This section includes information about how to implement Exchange 2013 in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, as shown in Table 25.

Before you implement Exchange 2013, read the Design Guide to plan your Exchange organization based on your business needs.

Table 25. Tasks to implement Exchange 2013


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.

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

Install Exchange 2013 Mailbox server role

1. Install Exchange 2013 Mailbox server role.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.

Deploy a New Installation of Exchange 2013

Mailbox Server

Install Exchange 2013 Client Access server role

1. Install Microsoft Exchange 2013 Client Access server role.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.


Client Access Server

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

Managing Mailbox Database Copies

Before installing Exchange 2013, complete the following steps to prepare your Active Directory environment for the Exchange organization:

1. Extend the Active Directory schema for Exchange 2013 by running the following command:

Setup /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

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

Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName: <organization name>

/IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

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

Setup /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Overview

Preparing Active Directory

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125224(v=exchg.150).aspx



http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998619(v=exchg.150).aspx







http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298114(v=exchg.150).aspx









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

Before installing Exchange server roles, confirm the steps of Exchange 2013 Prerequisites are completed. To install Mailbox server roles on the virtual machine, use the Exchange 2013 installation media and follow these steps:

1. On the Exchange Server 2013 setup wizard Installation Server Role Selection page, select Mailbox role, as shown in Figure 27.

Mailbox role selection Figure 27.

2. 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.

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

Installing Exchange 2013 Mailbox server roles






Complete the following steps to use the Exchange Server installation media to install Exchange 2013 Client Access server roles:

1. On the Server Role Selection page, select the Client Access server role, as shown in Figure 28.

Exchange Client Access server role selection Figure 28.

2. Follow the wizard to complete the installation of the Client Access server role. After the installation completes, apply the latest service pack and the latest update rollup.

3. Repeat the same steps if there are other Exchange Client Access server virtual machines.

A database availability group (DAG) is the base component of the high availability framework built into Exchange 2013. It 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 the Exchange 2013 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. If you create a DAG on a Mailbox server running Windows Server 2012, pre-stage the cluster name object (CNO) before adding members to the DAG. For detailed steps, see the Pre-Stage the Cluster Name Object for a Database Availability Group article on Microsoft TechNet website.

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

Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer -Identity <DAG_Name> -

MailboxServer <Server_Name>

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

New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupNetwork -

DatabaseAvailabilityGroup <DAG_Name> -Name <Network_Name> -

Installing Exchange 2013 Client Access server roles

Deploying database availability group

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff367878(v=exchg.150).aspx




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.

5. Create Exchange databases by running the following command:

New-MailboxDatabase -Name <Database_Name> -EdbFilePath

<Database_File_Path> -LogFolderPath <Log_File_Path> -

MailboxServer <Mailbox_Server_Name>

6. 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 Managing Mailbox Database Copies.

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




Chapter 5: Solution Verification


Chapter 5 Solution Verification


Baseline infrastructure verification .......................................................................... 68

Exchange Server performance verification ............................................................... 70



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 26 describes the tasks that you should complete when verifying the VSPEX installation.

Table 26. 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

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure documents in Essential reading

Verify redundancy of the solution components

Verify the redundancy of the solution components:

Storage

ESXi host

Network switch

Vendor documentation

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.

Server Health and Performance

EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution

VNX Monitoring and Reporting 1.0 User Guide

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 Essential reading and the vendor documentation in Table 26.

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 Essential reading.

Overview

Verifying ESXi functionality

Verifying solution components redundancy





To ensure the Exchange DAG is working smoothly, 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 29. 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.

Command to verify DAG configuration Figure 29.

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

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.

For more information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library topic Monitoring Database Availability Groups.

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

Table 27 lists several tools you can use to monitor and troubleshoot the solution.

Table 27. 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.

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.

Verifying the Exchange DAG configuration

Monitor the solution’s health





Tool Description

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.

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.

VNX/VNXe Unisphere management interface

You can use the VNX/VNXe Unisphere management interface dashboard to monitor and determine VNX/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 EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution.

VNX Monitoring and Reporting

VNX Monitoring and Reporting is a software solution that extends Unisphere element manager capabilities by providing unified performance and capacity trending information for VNX storage systems. This solution automatically collects block and file storage statistics along with configuration data and stores them in a database that can be viewed through dashboards and reports.

For more information, refer to VNX Monitoring and Reporting 1.0 User Guide.

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 28.

Table 28. Example qualification worksheet with user profile


Number of mailboxes 9,000

Maximum mailbox size (GB) 1.5 GB

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

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

Overview




DAG copies (including Active one) 2

Deleted Items Retention (DIR) Window (days) 14

Backup/Truncation Failure Tolerance (days) 3

Included number of years’ growth 1

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

Overview of Jetstress tool

Verify the Exchange 2013 storage design for the expected transactional IOPS before placing it in a production environment. To ensure that the environment functions appropriately, EMC recommends that you use the Microsoft Jetstress tool 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.

You can configure Jetstress 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.

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 29 lists the key metrics of Jetstress verification.

Table 29. 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

Jetstress verification



Building the test environment

To build the Jetstress test environment:

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

Note: You do not need to install Exchange Server 2013 on your virtual machines in order to run Jetstress workload simulation.

2. Install Jetstress on the virtual machines.

3. Populate Jetstress databases according to your requirements.

4. Run Jetstress tests and analyze the report.

Test results

In this solution, we used Jetstress 2013 version 15.00.0658.004 to simulate an I/O profile of 0.101 IOPS per user. For detailed information about the Exchange 2013 mailbox IOPS profile definition, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Sizing Exchange 2013 Deployments.

We validated the Exchange building blocks 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 four Mailbox servers (2,500 active users per Mailbox server) to validate the performance under the worst (failover) situation.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/06/ask-the-perf-guy-sizing-exchange-2013-deployments.aspx




Table 30 shows the average I/O and the average latency on the Mailbox server. The performance of the Exchange organization exceeds the design target.

Table 30. Jetstress verification example results

Performance counters Target values Results (single Mailbox server)

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


In this solution: 2,500 * 0.101 = 252.5 on each Mailbox server

363

I/O database reads/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 252

I/O database writes/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 111


N/A (for analysis purpose) 482

I/O database reads average latency (ms)

Less than 20 ms 18.2 ms

I/O log reads average latency (ms)

Less than 10 ms 2.4 ms

Chapter 6: Reference Documentation


Chapter 6 Reference Documentation


EMC documentation ................................................................................................. 76

Other documentation ............................................................................................... 76

Links ........................................................................................................................ 76



EMC documentation

The following documents, available from 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 Installation Guide

EMC VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet

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 an EMC VNXe System with VMware

EMC FAST VP for Unified Storage Systems

VNX for File and Unified Worksheet

VNX Monitoring and Reporting 1.0 User Guide


EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution

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 VSI for VMware vSphere: Storage Viewer — Product Guide

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

Other documentation

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

Links

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

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


Preparing the Update Manager Database

Preparing vCenter Server Databases

VMware


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

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx



http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.update_manager.doc%2FGUID-F7191592-048B-40C7-A610-CFEE6A790AB0.html

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-55F7FFDB-01B8-4C18-AA89-DC28BD9B1E9F.html




vSphere Networking

vCenter Server and Host Management

vSphere Storage


Refer to the following topics on the Microsoft TechNet website:

Client Access Server


Exchange 2013 Prerequisites

Exchange 2013 Virtualization

Load Balancing

Mailbox Server

Managing Database Availability Groups

Managing Mailbox Database Copies

Monitoring Database Availability Groups

Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide

Pre-Stage the Cluster Name Object for a Database Availability Group

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

Server Health and Performance

Sizing Exchange 2013 Deployments

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/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc%2FGUID-3B5AF2B1-C534-4426-B97A-D14019A8010F.html

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


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/















Appendix A: Configuration Worksheet


Appendix A Configuration Worksheet

This appendix presents the following topic:

Configuration worksheet for Exchange 2013 ............................................................ 80



Configuration worksheet for Exchange 2013

Before configuring Exchange 2013 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 31. 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

Mailbox server 05

Mailbox server 06

Mailbox server 07

Mailbox server 08

Client Access server 01






Table 32. Exchange information

FQDN Purpose Primary IP

Exchange DAG

Table 33. 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 34. 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

VSPEX private cloud pool name

VSPEX private cloud NFS datastore name

Exchange database pool 1 name

Exchange database pool 2 name

Exchange log pool 1 name

Exchange log pool 2 name



Table 35. Network infrastructure information

Name Purpose IP Subnet mask Default gateway

Ethernet Switch 1

Ethernet Switch 2

…

Table 36. VLAN information

Name Network purpose VLAN ID Allowed subnets

Virtual Machine Management

NFS networking

iSCSI networking

vMotion

Table 37. Service accounts

Account Purpose Password (optional, secure appropriately)

Windows Server administrator

Array administrator

ESXi administrator

vCenter administrator

Exchange administrator

h11795 emc vspex for virtualized microsoft exchange … · implementation guide emc vspex for...

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