EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with ... · IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE EMC VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2013 WITH MICROSOFT HYPER-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

EMC VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2013 WITH MICROSOFT HYPER-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Backup

EMC VSPEX

Abstract

This Implementation Guide describes, at a high level, the steps required to deploy a Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 organization on an EMC® VSPEX® Proven Infrastructure with Microsoft Hyper-V enabled by EMC VNXe® or EMC Next-Generation VNX®, and EMC backup and recovery.

November 2013

2 EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with Microsoft Hyper-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Backup Implementation Guide

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

Published November 2013

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

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EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with Microsoft Hyper-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Backup Implementation Guide

Part Number H12073

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Contents

3 EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with Microsoft Hyper-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Backup

Implementation Guide

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 the Exchange Server 2013 environment .................................... 17

Overview .............................................................................................................. 17

Storage pools ...................................................................................................... 17

Example: Small Exchange organization ................................................................ 17

Essential reading ...................................................................................................... 20

VSPEX Design Guide ............................................................................................ 20

VSPEX Solution Overviews ................................................................................... 20

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guides ..................................................................... 20

EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX guide ......................................................... 20

Chapter 3 Solution Overview 21

Overview .................................................................................................................. 22

Solution architecture ................................................................................................ 22

Key components ....................................................................................................... 23

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 23

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 .......................................................................... 24

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ......................................................................... 25

EMC Next-Generation VNX .................................................................................... 25

EMC VNXe ............................................................................................................ 29

EMC backup and recovery solutions ..................................................................... 30

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V ...................................................... 31

MPIO and MCS ..................................................................................................... 31

EMC PowerPath .................................................................................................... 31

Contents


Chapter 4 Solution Implementation 33

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

Physical setup .......................................................................................................... 34

Network implementation .......................................................................................... 34

Storage implementation ........................................................................................... 35

Overview .............................................................................................................. 35

Example architectures ......................................................................................... 36

Setting up the initial VNX or VNXe configuration .................................................. 38

Provisioning storage for Hyper-V datastores ......................................................... 38

Provisioning storage for Exchange datastores and logs ........................................ 38

Configuring FAST Cache on VNX ........................................................................... 47

Configuring FAST VP on VNX ................................................................................. 48

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V infrastructure implementation ........... 50

Overview .............................................................................................................. 50

Installing the Windows hosts ............................................................................... 51

Installing and configuring Failover Clustering ....................................................... 51

Configuring Windows host networking ................................................................. 51

Configuring multipathing ..................................................................................... 51

Configuring the initiator to connect to VNX or VNXe via iSCSI ............................... 52

Publishing VNXe datastores or VNX LUNs to Hyper-V ............................................ 52

Connecting Hyper-V datastores ............................................................................ 52

Using EMC Storage Integrator to manage CSV disks for Exchange ........................ 53

Exchange Server virtualization implementation ........................................................ 53

Overview .............................................................................................................. 53

Creating the Exchange virtual machines ............................................................... 54

Installing the Exchange guest OS ......................................................................... 55

Installing integration services .............................................................................. 55

Assigning IP addresses ........................................................................................ 55

Attaching pass-through disks to Exchange virtual machines ................................ 55

Using ESI to manage pass-through disks for Exchange ........................................ 57

Application implementation ..................................................................................... 57

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

Verifying pre-deployment with Jetstress ............................................................... 58

Preparing Active Directory .................................................................................... 58

Installing Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox server roles .......................................... 59

Installing the Exchange Server 2013 Client Access server roles ............................ 59

Deploying the database availability group ........................................................... 60

Backup and recovery implementation ....................................................................... 61

Contents



Chapter 5 Solution Verification 63

Baseline infrastructure verification ........................................................................... 64

Overview .............................................................................................................. 64

Verifying Hyper-V functionality ............................................................................. 64

Verifying solution component redundancy ........................................................... 64

Verifying the Exchange DAG configuration ............................................................ 65

Monitoring the solution’s health .......................................................................... 66

Exchange Server performance verification ................................................................ 66

Overview .............................................................................................................. 66

Using Jetstress to verify performance ................................................................... 67

Backup and recovery verification .............................................................................. 69

Chapter 6 Reference Documentation 71

EMC documentation ................................................................................................. 72

Other documentation ............................................................................................... 72

Links ........................................................................................................................ 72

Microsoft TechNet ................................................................................................ 72

Appendix A Configuration Worksheet 75

Configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013 .................................................. 76

Contents


Figures Figure 1. Solution architecture ........................................................................... 23

Figure 2. VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ................................................................ 25

Figure 3. Next-Generation VNX with multicore optimization ................................ 27

Figure 4. Active/active processors increase performance, resiliency, and efficiency ............................................................................................. 28

Figure 5. Unisphere Management Suite ............................................................. 29

Figure 6. Exchange Server 2013 storage elements on a Hyper-V and VNX platform .............................................................................................. 36

Figure 7. Exchange Server 2013 storage elements on a Hyper-V and VNXe platform .............................................................................................. 37

Figure 8. Example of storage layout for EMC VNX ................................................ 40

Figure 9. Selecting storage pools ....................................................................... 41

Figure 10. Creating a new pool ............................................................................. 42

Figure 11. Specifying a pool name ....................................................................... 42

Figure 12. Selecting the storage type ................................................................... 43

Figure 13. Specifying the number of storage disks ............................................... 43

Figure 14. Configuring storage for Microsoft Exchange ......................................... 44

Figure 15. Selecting the storage pool ................................................................... 44

Figure 16. Configuring host access....................................................................... 45

Figure 17. Adding virtual disks ............................................................................. 45

Figure 18. Virtual disks for Exchange database and log ........................................ 46

Figure 19. Storage layout example for VNXe ......................................................... 46

Figure 20. Using ESI to manage the storage system ............................................. 47

Figure 21. Storage pool properties—FAST Cache enabled ..................................... 48

Figure 22. Expand Storage Pool dialog box .......................................................... 49

Figure 23. CSV disk in Failover Cluster Manager ................................................... 52

Figure 24. CSV disk in EMC Storage Integrator ...................................................... 53

Figure 25. Rescanning disks ................................................................................ 55

Figure 26. Adding disks ....................................................................................... 56

Figure 27. Configuring pass-through disks in Failover Cluster Manager ................ 57

Figure 28. Pass-through disks in EMC Storage Integrator ..................................... 57

Figure 29. Selecting Mailbox role ......................................................................... 59

Figure 30. Selecting Client Access role ................................................................. 59

Figure 31. Verifying the DAG configuration ........................................................... 65

Figure 32. Verifying that the DAG detects the failure ............................................ 65

Contents



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

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

Table 3. Solution deployment process workflow ............................................... 15

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

Table 5. Exchange-related storage pools ........................................................... 17

Table 6. Customer evaluation example using the qualification worksheet ......... 17

Table 7. Example of required resources—Small Exchange organization ............. 18

Table 8. Example of storage recommendations—Small Exchange organization . 19

Table 9. Example of performance key metrics—Jetstress tool ............................ 19

Table 10. Exchange Server 2013 server roles ...................................................... 24

Table 11. VNXe software suites ........................................................................... 30

Table 12. VNXe software packs ........................................................................... 30

Table 13. Tasks for physical setup ...................................................................... 34

Table 14. Tasks for switch and network configuration ......................................... 34

Table 15. Tasks for VNX or VNXe storage array configuration ............................... 35

Table 16. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on VNX ............... 38

Table 17. Example iSCSI LUNs layout for Exchange data on VNX ......................... 39

Table 18. Example additional storage pools for Exchange data on VNXe ............. 41

Table 19. Example iSCSI LUNs layout for Exchange data on VNXe ....................... 41

Table 20. Tasks for server installation ................................................................. 50

Table 21. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration ............. 53

Table 22. Example of Exchange reference virtual machines ................................. 54

Table 23. Tasks to implement Exchange Server 2013 .......................................... 58

Table 24. Tasks for verifying the VSPEX installation ............................................ 64

Table 25. Tools to monitor the solution ............................................................... 66

Table 26. Example of verification questions for user profile ................................ 67

Table 27. Key metrics for Jetstress verification .................................................... 68

Table 28. Jetstress verification example results .................................................. 69

Table 29. Common server information ................................................................ 76

Table 30. Exchange information .......................................................................... 76

Table 31. Hyper-V server information .................................................................. 76

Table 32. Array information ................................................................................. 77

Table 33. Network infrastructure information ...................................................... 77

Table 34. VLAN information ................................................................................ 77

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 in a virtualized environment 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 Microsoft Windows Server 2013 with Hyper-V architecture and uses the highly available EMC Next-Generation VNX® series or EMC VNXe® series, which provides the storage.

All VSPEX solutions are sized and tested with EMC backup and recovery products. EMC Avamar® and EMC Data Domain® enable complete infrastructure, application, and email backup and recovery, including granular email recovery capabilities. 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 Server 2013 on any VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Hyper-V.

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 Exchange are challenged with maintaining the highest possible performance and application efficiency levels. At the same time, most organizations struggle to keep pace with relentless data growth while working to overcome diminishing budgets. Administering, auditing, protecting, and managing an Exchange environment for a modern geographically diverse work force is a major challenge for most IT departments.

EMC has joined forces with the industry's leading providers of IT infrastructure to create a complete virtualization solution that accelerates private cloud deployment with 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—which is




characteristic of truly converged infrastructures—while at the same time gaining more choice in individual stack components.

Scope

This guide describes the high-level steps required to deploy Exchange Server 2013 on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure with Microsoft Hyper-V and VNX or VNXe, and it provides best practices for Exchange implementations. The guide assumes that a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure already exists in the customer environment.

This guide applies to VSPEX Proven Infrastructures virtualized with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V on either a Next-Generation VNX or VNXe storage array. This guide provides an example of a deployment on an EMC VNX5600 and an EMC VNXe3150. The same principles and guidelines apply to any other Next-Generation VNX or VNXe model that VSPEX supports.

EMC backup and recovery solutions for Exchange data protection are described in a separate document, the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide.

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 for virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 solution are:

Qualified by Microsoft to sell and implement Exchange solutions

Certified in Exchange Server 2013 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

If you plan to deploy the solution, you must also have the necessary technical training and background to install and configure:

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V as a virtualization platform

Microsoft Windows Server 20012 operating systems (OS)

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

EMC backup and recovery solutions, including Avamar and Data Domain



This guide provides external references where applicable. EMC recommends that partners implementing this solution are familiar with these documents. For details, refer to Essential reading and Chapter 6: Reference Documentation.

Terminology

Table 1 lists the terminology used in this guide.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Definition

BDM Background Database Maintenance

CAS Client Access server

CIFS Common Internet File System

CSV Cluster-shared volume

DAG Database availability group

eMLC Enterprise multi-level cell

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name

NLB Microsoft Network Load Balancing

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

VHD Hyper-V virtual hard disk format

VHDX Hyper-V virtual hard disk format—a new, enhanced format available in Microsoft Windows Server 2012

VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service

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 the Exchange Server 2013 environment .................................. 17

Essential reading ................................................................................................... 20



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 Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 solution.

The Design Guide for this solution—EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Exchange Server 2013 Enabled by EMC Next-Generation VNX and EMC Backup —describes how to size and design your solution and how to select the right VSPEX Proven Infrastructure on which to layer Exchange Server 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 that 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. Perform these tasks before a customer visit to reduce the time required on site.

Table 2 lists the pre-deployment tasks for this solution.

Table 2. Pre-deployment tasks

Task Description References

Gathering documents

Gather the related documents listed in Essential reading.

This guide often refers to these documents. They provide details on setup procedures, sizing, and deployment best practices for the various solution components.

Essential reading

Gathering tools

Gather the required and optional tools for the deployment.

Use Table 4 to confirm that all required equipment, software, and licenses are available for the deployment.

Deployment prerequisites

Gathering data

Collect the customer-specific configuration data for networking, arrays, accounts, and so on.

Enter this information into the configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013 for reference during deployment.

Configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013




Deployment workflow

To design and implement your VSPEX for virtualized Exchange Server 2013 solution, refer to the process flow in Table 31.

Table 3. Solution deployment process workflow

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 your Exchange Server solution, 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 the application using the guidelines in Appendix B of the Design Guide.

3 Refer to the Design Guide to determine the final design for your VSPEX solution.

Note: Ensure that you consider all application requirements, not only the requirements for Exchange.

4 Refer to the relevant 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 solution.

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 Hyper-V on VNX or VNXe. The principles and guidance from the examples provided apply to all Next-Generation VNX or VNXe models that VSPEX Proven Infrastructures support.

Table 4 itemizes the hardware, software, and licenses required to configure this solution. For additional information, refer to the hardware and software tables in the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure document in Essential reading.

1 If your solution includes backup and recovery components, for backup and recovery sizing and implementation guidelines, refer to the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide.

https://express.salire.com/signin.aspx?t=emc&atid=224a9bcc-caa3-48f4-8ff8-33051513c410



Table 4. Deployment prerequisites checklist

Requirement Description Version References/Notes

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

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

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

Note: The storage should be sufficient to support the total reference virtual machines required and the additional storage layout for applications.

Software EMC VNXe Operating Environment (OE) 2.4.0.20932

EMC VNX OE for Block 05.33.000.5.034

EMC VNX OE for File 8.1.1.33

EMC Unisphere® for VNX 1.3.0.1.0718

EMC Unisphere for VNXe 1.9.0.11964

EMC Storage Integrator EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Technical Notes

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter edition

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Standard or Enterprise edition

Jetstress 2013 version 15.00.0658.004

For verification tests only

EMC PowerPath® 5.7

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 key 2013 (Standard or Enterprise)

http://www.microsoft.com/




Planning and sizing the Exchange Server 2013 environment

To plan and size your Exchange Server 2013 environment on a 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, we2 introduced general storage pools that 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 storage pools

Storage pool name Purpose

VSPEX private cloud pool The infrastructure pool where all the virtual machines’ OS volumes reside.

For details, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure in Essential reading.

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

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

The Design Guide introduces this example. A customer wants to create a small Exchange Server 2013 organization on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. Complete a customer evaluation, using the VSPEX for virtualized Exchange 2013 qualification worksheet as shown in Table 6, to determine the requirements needed to create the Exchange environment. For more detailed information about this example, refer to the Design Guide.

Table 6. Customer evaluation example using the qualification worksheet

Question Example answer

Number of mailboxes 900

Maximum mailbox size (GB) 1.5 GB

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

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

DAG copies (including active copy) 2

Deleted Items Retention (DIR) window (days) 14

Backup/Truncation Failure Tolerance (days) 3

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

Overview

Storage pools

Example: Small Exchange organization




Included number of years’ growth 1

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

Using the completed evaluation from the customer, enter those answers into the VSPEX Sizing Tool to obtain the following results:

Required resources table that lists the required number of virtual machines and their characteristics.

Storage recommendations table that lists the additional storage hardware required to run Exchange Server in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pools.

Performance metrics table that lists the key performance metrics that should be achieved in the Jetstress tests. EMC recommends that you run Jetstress tests to verify the Exchange performance before deploying Exchange in the production environment. For more information, refer to Exchange Server performance verification.

Table 7 through Table 9 provide example results based on the customer information provided in Table 6. Use the VSPEX Sizing Tool and follow the recommendations in the Design Guide to determine the number of server roles required for your Exchange organization, and the resources required for each server role.

Table 7 provides an example of equivalent reference virtual machine requirements for each Exchange Server role. In this example, you need to set up two Exchange Mailbox servers and two Client Access servers to support the requirements specified in the qualification worksheet in Table 6 for a small Exchange organization. To determine the total number of reference virtual machines required for each Exchange server role, you select the largest of the individual resource requirements (CPU, memory, capacity, or IOPS) and multiply by the recommended number of virtual machines.

Table 7. Example of required resources—Small 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

4 36 GB 200 GB Less than 25

2 36

Equivalent reference virtual machines

4 18 2 1

Client Access server



2 12

Equivalent reference virtual machines

4 6 1 1

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 48




For example, each Mailbox server requires four vCPUs, 36 GB of memory, 200 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

Four reference virtual machines of CPU

Eighteen reference virtual machines of memory

Two reference virtual machine of capacity

One reference virtual machine of IOPS

The values round up to 18 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (two in this example), which results in 36 total reference virtual machines for the Mailbox server role:

18 reference virtual machines x 2 virtual machines = 36 total

reference virtual machines

For more details about how to determine the equivalent reference virtual machines, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Table 8 shows an example of EMC’s storage recommendations for a small Exchange organization.

Table 8. Example of storage recommendations—Small Exchange organization

Recommended additional storage layout

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

Exchange storage pool 1 RAID 5 (4+1) 15,000 rpm SAS disks 600 GB 10

Exchange storage pool 2 RAID 5 (4+1) 15,000 rpm SAS disks 600 GB 10

Table 9 lists the key performance metrics that should be achieved in the Jetstress tests for a small Exchange organization.

Table 9. Example of 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 Server 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 writes 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 for Virtualized Microsoft 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 Guides:

EMC VSPEX Private Cloud Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 100 Virtual Machines

EMC VSPEX Private Cloud Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines

Refer to the following EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX guide:

EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide

VSPEX Design Guide

VSPEX Solution Overviews

VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guides

EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX guide

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 ............................................................................................................... 22

Solution architecture ............................................................................................. 22

Key components .................................................................................................... 23



Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the VSPEX for virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with Microsoft Hyper-V solution and the key technologies used. The solution has been proven and designed to be layered on a VSPEX Private Cloud, which provides storage, compute, network, and backup resources.

The solution enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy and protect a virtualized Exchange organization in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. VNX or VNXe and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualized Windows Server platforms provide storage and server hardware consolidation.

This Implementation Guide supports all VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange solutions with Hyper-V and VNX or VNXe. This guide uses, as working examples, 600 virtual machines enabled by EMC VNX and Hyper-V, and 50 virtual machines enabled by VNXe and Hyper-V.

The solution includes the servers, EMC storage, network components, and Exchange components that are required for small- and medium-sized business environments.

VNX and VNXe storage arrays are multiprotocol platforms that can support the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI), Network File System (NFS), and Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocols depending on the customer’s specific needs. EMC validated the solution using iSCSI for Exchange database and log files.

This solution requires the presence of Microsoft Active Directory (AD) and domain name system (DNS). The implementation of these services is beyond the scope of this guide, but is considered a prerequisite for a successful deployment.

EMC backup and recovery solutions provide essential Exchange data protection and are described in a separate document, the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide.

Solution architecture

Figure 1 shows an example of the architecture that characterizes the validated infrastructure for the support of Exchange Server 2013 layered on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. You can use any VNX or VNXe model that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure to provide the back-end storage functionality.

In this example, we deployed two Exchange Mailbox servers and two Exchange Client Access servers as virtual machines on a Windows Server 2012 with a Hyper-V cluster to meet a small Exchange organization’s requirements as shown in Table 6 on page 17.

Note: This solution applies to all VSPEX offerings on Hyper-V.




Figure 1. Solution architecture

Key components

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


EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

EMC Next-Generation VNX

EMC VNXe

EMC backup and recovery solutions

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V

Introduction



Multipath I/O (MPIO) and Multiple Connections per Session (MCS)

EMC Storage Integrator

EMC PowerPath

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

Exchange Server 2013 builds upon the Exchange Server 2010 architecture and has been redesigned for simplicity of scale, hardware utilization, and failure isolation. Exchange Server 2013 uses 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 and 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 drives, Fibre Channel (FC) drives, and serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives, and slower-performing SATA and near-line serial-attached SCSI (NL-SAS) drives.

Exchange Server 2013 reduces the number of server roles to two—the Client Access server role and the Mailbox server role, as described in Table 10.

Table 10. Exchange Server 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 that 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 your customer requires an Edge Transport server, they can install an Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server in the perimeter network.





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

Figure 2. VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

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.

You can deploy application-based solutions such as Exchange on VSPEX Proven Infrastructures. We validated the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Exchange solution using VNX or VNXe and a Hyper-V virtualized Windows Server platform to provide storage and server hardware consolidation. You can centrally manage the virtualized infrastructure, which enables you to efficiently deploy and manage a scalable number of virtual machines and associated shared storage.

Features and enhancements

The EMC VNX flash-optimized unified storage platform delivers innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block, and object storage in a single, scalable, and easy-to-use solution. Ideal for mixed workloads in physical or virtual environments, VNX combines powerful and flexible hardware with advanced efficiency,

EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure

EMC Next-Generation VNX



management, and protection software to meet the demanding needs of today’s virtualized application environments. VNX includes many features and enhancements designed and built upon the first generation’s success. These features and enhancements include:

More capacity with multicore optimization with Multicore Cache, Multicore RAID, and Multicore FAST™ Cache (MCx™)

Greater efficiency with a flash-optimized hybrid array

Better protection by increasing application availability with active/active

Easier administration and deployment by increasing productivity with the new Unisphere Management Suite

VSPEX is built with the next generation of VNX to deliver even greater efficiency, performance, and scale than ever before.

Flash-optimized hybrid array

VNX is a flash-optimized hybrid array that provides automated tiering to deliver the best performance to your critical data, while intelligently moving less frequently accessed data to lower-cost disks.

In this hybrid approach, a small percentage of flash drives in the overall system can provide a high percentage of the overall IOPS. Flash-optimized VNX takes full advantage of the low latency of flash to deliver cost-saving optimization and high performance scalability. The EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering Suite (FAST Cache and FAST VP) tiers both block and file data across heterogeneous drives and boosts the most active data to the flash drives, ensuring that customers never have to make concessions for cost or performance.

Data generally is accessed most frequently at the time it is created. Therefore, new data is first stored on flash drives to provide the best performance. As that data ages and becomes less active over time, FAST VP tiers the data from high-performance to high-capacity drives automatically, based on customer-defined policies. This functionality has been enhanced with four times better granularity and with new FAST VP solid-state disks (SSDs) based on enterprise multi-level cell (eMLC) technology to lower the cost per gigabyte. FAST Cache dynamically absorbs unpredicted spikes in system workloads. All VSPEX use cases benefit from the increased efficiency.

VSPEX Proven Infrastructures deliver private cloud, end-user computing, and virtualized application solutions. With VNX, customers can realize an even greater return on their investment. VNX provides out-of-band, block-based deduplication that can dramatically lower the costs of the flash tier.

VNX Intel MCx Code Path Optimization

The advent of flash technology has been a catalyst in totally changing the requirements of midrange storage systems. EMC redesigned the midrange storage platform to efficiently optimize multicore CPUs to provide the highest performing storage system at the lowest cost in the market.




MCx distributes all VNX data services across all cores (up to 32), as shown in Figure 3. The VNX series with MCx has dramatically improved the file performance for transactional applications like databases or virtual machines over network-attached storage (NAS).

Figure 3. Next-Generation VNX with multicore optimization

Multicore Cache The cache is the most valuable asset in the storage subsystem; its efficient use is key to the overall efficiency of the platform in handling variable and changing workloads. The cache engine has been modularized to take advantage of all the cores available in the system. Multicore RAID Another important part of the MCx redesign is the handling of I/O to the permanent back-end storage—hard disk drives (HDDs) and SSDs. Greatly increased performance improvements in VNX come from the modularization of the back-end data management processing, which enables MCx to seamlessly scale across all processors.

VNX performance

Performance enhancements VNX storage, enabled with the MCx architecture, is optimized for FLASH 1st and provides unprecedented overall performance, optimizing for transaction performance (cost per IOPS), bandwidth performance (cost per GB/s) with low latency, and providing optimal capacity efficiency (cost per GB).

VNX provides the following performance improvements:

Up to four times more file transactions when compared with dual controller arrays

Increased file performance for transactional applications by up to three times with a 60 percent better response time

Up to four times more Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server OLTP transactions

Up to six times more virtual machines



Active/active array service processors The new VNX architecture provides active/active array service processors, as shown in Figure 4, which eliminate application timeouts during path failover since both paths are actively serving I/O.

Figure 4. Active/active processors increase performance, resiliency, and efficiency

Load balancing is also improved and applications can achieve an up to two times improvement in performance. Active/active for block is ideal for applications that require the highest levels of availability and performance, but do not require tiering or efficiency services like compression, deduplication, or snapshot.

With this VNX release, VSPEX customers can use virtual Data Movers (VDMs) and VNX Replicator to perform automated and high-speed file system migrations between systems. This process migrates all snaps and settings automatically, and enables the clients to continue operation during the migration.

Note: The active/active processors are only available for classic logical unit numbers (LUNs), not for pool LUNs.

Unisphere Management Suite

The Unisphere Management Suite extends Unisphere’s easy-to-use interface to include VNX Monitoring and Reporting for validating performance and anticipating capacity requirements. As shown in Figure 5, the suite also includes Unisphere Remote for centrally managing up to thousands of VNX and VNXe systems with support for EMC XtremSW™ Cache.




Figure 5. Unisphere Management Suite

Virtualization management

EMC Storage Integrator EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) is targeted towards the Windows and application administrator. ESI is easy to use, delivers end-to end monitoring, and is hypervisor agnostic. Administrators can provision in both virtual and physical environments for a Windows platform, and troubleshoot by viewing the topology of an application from the underlying hypervisor to the storage.

Microsoft Hyper-V With Windows Server 2012, Microsoft provides Hyper-V 3.0, an enhanced hypervisor for private cloud that can run on NAS protocols for simplified connectivity.

Offloaded Data Transfer The Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) feature of Microsoft Hyper-V enables data transfers during copy operations to be offloaded to the storage array, freeing up host cycles. For example, using ODX for a live migration of a SQL Server virtual machine doubled performance, decreased migration time by 50 percent, reduced CPU on the Hyper-V server by 20 percent, and eliminated network traffic.

The VNXe series is optimized for virtual applications delivering innovation and enterprise capabilities for file, block, and object storage in a scalable, easy-to-use solution. The VNXe series is purpose-built for the IT manager in smaller environments.

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

EMC VNXe



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

VNXe software suites

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

Table 11. 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 12 lists the software packs that are available with VNXe.

Table 12. VNXe software packs

Pack Features

VNXe3300 Total Protection Pack

Includes the Local, Remote, and Application Protection Suites

VNXe3150 Total Value Pack

Includes the Remote Protection, Application Protection, and Security and Compliance Suites

EMC backup and recovery solutions—Avamar and Data Domain—deliver the protection confidence needed to accelerate deployment of virtualized Exchange.

Optimized for virtualized application environments, EMC backup and recovery reduces backup times by 90 percent and speeds recoveries with single-step restore. EMC backup appliances add another layer of assurance with end-to-end verification and self-healing for ensured recovery.

For Exchange, EMC backup delivers advanced capabilities including granular recovery of individual Exchange email messages for faster recovery and support for backups of DAGs, which ensures that as databases move they still are protected. In addition, features such as autodiscovery and autoconfiguration reduce complexity and save time while ensuring that critical data is always protected.

EMC backup and recovery solutions also deliver big savings. The deduplication solutions reduce backup storage by 10 to 30 times, backup management time by 81 percent, and bandwidth by 99 percent for efficient offsite replication—delivering a seven-month payback on average.

For full technical guidance, refer to the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide. The guide

EMC backup and recovery solutions




describes how to design, size, and implement EMC backup and recovery solutions for VSPEX Proven Infrastructures for virtualized Exchange.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V provides a complete virtualization platform, which provides increased scalability and performance with a flexible solution from the data center to the cloud. It makes it easier for organizations to realize cost savings from virtualization and to optimize server hardware investments. Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V high-availability options include:

Incremental backup support

Enhancements in clustered environments to support virtual adapters within the virtual machine

Inbox network interface card (NIC) teaming

In Hyper-V, “shared nothing” live migration enables the migration of a virtual machine from a server running Hyper-V to another one without the need for both of them to be in the same cluster or to share storage.

Multipathing solutions use redundant physical path components adapters, cables, and switches to create logical paths between the server and the storage device.

Microsoft MPIO architecture supports iSCSI, FC, and SAS SAN connectivity by establishing multiple sessions or connections to the storage array. In the event that one or more of these components fails, causing the path to fail, multipathing logic uses an alternate path for I/O so that applications can still access their data. Each NIC (for iSCSI) or host bus adapter (HBA) should be connected by using redundant switch infrastructures to provide continued access to storage in the event of a failure in a storage fabric component.

MCS is a feature of the iSCSI protocol, which enables combining several connections inside a single session for performance and failover purposes.

Note: Microsoft does not support the use of both MPIO and MCS connections to the same device. Use either MPIO or MCS to manage paths to storage and load balance policies.

EMC recommends that you install EMC PowerPath on Windows 2012 Hyper-V hosts for advanced multipathing functionality, such as intelligent path testing and performance optimization. PowerPath is a server-resident software solution designed to enhance performance and application availability. PowerPath combines automatic load balancing, path failover, and multiple path I/O capabilities into one integrated package.

PowerPath for Windows is an intelligent path management application specifically designed to work within the MPIO framework. PowerPath enhances application availability by providing load balancing, automatic path failover, and recovery functionality.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V

MPIO and MCS

EMC PowerPath



Chapter 4: Solution Implementation



Chapter 4 Solution Implementation


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

Physical setup ....................................................................................................... 34

Network implementation ....................................................................................... 34

Storage implementation ........................................................................................ 35

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V infrastructure implementation ......... 50

Exchange Server virtualization implementation ..................................................... 53

Application implementation ................................................................................... 57

Backup and recovery implementation .................................................................... 61



Overview

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

Physical setup

This section includes preparation information for the solution’s physical components. After you complete the tasks in Table 13, the new hardware components are racked, cabled, powered, and ready for network connection.

Table 13. Tasks for physical setup

Task Description Reference

Preparing network switches

Install switches in the rack and connect them to power.

Vendor installation guide

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

Vendor installation guide

Preparing VNX or VNXe

Install the VNX or VNXe storage array in the rack and connect it to power.

VNXe Installation Guide

VNX Unified Installation Guide

For details of the physical setup, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Network implementation

This section describes the network infrastructure requirements that you need to support the solution architecture. Table 14 provides a summary of the tasks for switch and network configuration and references for further information.

Table 14. Tasks for switch and network configuration


Configuring infrastructure network

Configure the storage array and Windows host infrastructure networking as specified in the solution reference architecture.

Refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading

Completing network cabling

Connect:

Switch interconnect ports

VNX or VNXe ports

Windows server ports

Configuring VLANs

Configure private and public VLANs as required.

Vendor switch configuration guide




For network implementation details, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Storage implementation

This section describes how to configure the VNX or VNXe storage array. This guide uses iSCSI as a block storage example for the Exchange Server 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 Guide in Essential reading for more information about storage implementation.

Note: Microsoft has support policies on the types of storage (file or block protocols) that Exchange virtual machines can use for Exchange data. For detailed information, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Exchange Server 2013 Virtualization.

Table 15 provides a summary of the tasks required for switch and network configuration, and references for further information.

Table 15. Tasks for VNX or VNXe storage array configuration


Setting up the initial VNX or VNXe configuration

Configure the IP address information and other key parameters, such as DNS and Network Time Protocol (NTP), on the VNX or VNXe.



EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Generic iSCSI Storage

EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Windows

Provisioning the storage for Hyper-V datastores

Create storage pools and provision storage that will be presented to the Windows servers as Hyper-V datastores that host the virtual machines.

Provisioning the storage for Exchange databases and logs

Create storage pools and provision storage that will be presented to the Exchange Mailbox server virtual machines as pass-through disks hosting the virtual machines.

Overview

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



Figure 6 shows an example of the high-level architecture of the Exchange components and storage elements validated in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 on a Hyper-V virtualization platform and VNX storage array.

The system volumes of all virtual machines are stored in Hyper-V virtual hard disk format (VHDX) disks on a cluster-shared volume (CSV), and all Exchange database and log LUNs are presented to the virtual machines as pass-through disks.

Figure 6. Exchange Server 2013 storage elements on a Hyper-V and VNX platform

Example architectures




Figure 7 shows an example of the high-level architecture of the Exchange 2013 components and storage elements validated in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 on a Hyper-V virtualization platform and VNXe storage array.

The system volumes of all virtual machines are stored in the Hyper-V VHDX disks on a CSV. All Exchange database and log LUNs are presented to the virtual machines as pass-through disks.

Figure 7. Exchange Server 2013 storage elements on a Hyper-V and VNXe platform



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

For more information about how to configure the VNX or VNXe platform, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

To configure the iSCSI servers on VNX or VNXe and provision storage for Hyper-V datastores, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

In this solution, all the Exchange database and log LUNs are presented to Exchange Mailbox server virtual machines as pass-through disks. Before you provision the storage for Exchange, follow the recommendations from the VSPEX Sizing Tool and the Design Guide.

Provisioning iSCSI storage for Exchange on VNX

Table 16 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange on VNX, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool. For more information about the storage layout recommendations and design, refer to the Design Guide.

For increased efficiency and performance, Exchange database pools use thin LUNs and contain both high-performance and high-capacity disks, with FAST VP enabled for storage tiering.

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

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

RAID 1 (1+1) FAST VP SSDs 100 GB 2

Exchange database pool 2 RAID 1/0 (16+16) 7,200 rpm NL-SAS disks 3 TB 32

RAID 1 (1+1) FAST VP SSDs 100 GB 2

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

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

To configure iSCSI network settings, storage pools, and iSCSI LUNs on the VNX array:

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

2. Select Settings > Network > Settings for Block.

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

4. Select Storage > Storage Configuration > Storage Pools.

5. Select Pools and create the additional storage pools in the VNX for the Exchange database and transaction logs, according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation.

Setting up the initial VNX or VNXe configuration

Provisioning storage for Hyper-V datastores

Provisioning storage for Exchange datastores and logs




6. To create and optimize the thin LUNs in a VNX storage pool for maximum performance, refer to Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices and Design Guidelines for EMC Storage.

Table 17 shows an example of an iSCSI LUNs layout for Exchange databases and transaction logs. Thin LUNs were used for this layout.

Table 17. Example iSCSI LUNs 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






















To configure iSCSI LUNs and unmask LUNs on the VNX array:

1. Select Host > Storage Groups.

2. To create a storage group to unmask LUNs to the Hyper-V hosts:

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

b. Click Yes to finish the creation.

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

d. Select LUNs. Under Available LUNs, select all the LUNs created previously and click Add.

e. Select Hosts. Under Available Hosts, select the Hyper-V servers to be used and add them to The Hosts to be Connected.

f. Click OK to finish.



Figure 8 shows an example of a storage layout for VNX. Next-Generation VNX does not require you to manually select specific drives as hot spares. Instead, VNX considers every unbound disk in the array to be available as a spare. VNX will always select an unbound disk that most closely matches the disk type, disk size, and location of the failing or failed disk.

Figure 8. Example of storage layout for EMC 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 Guide in Essential reading.




Provisioning storage for Exchange on VNXe

Table 18 shows an example of storage pools for Exchange on VNXe, in addition to the VSPEX private cloud pool. For more information about the storage layout recommendations and design, refer to the Design Guide.

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

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

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

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


Database LUNs 1,520 GB 2 Exchange data pool 1

Log LUNs 90 GB 2 Exchange data pool 1


Database LUNs 1,520 GB 2 Exchange data pool 2

Log LUNs 90 GB 2 Exchange data pool 2

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

1. Create a storage pool.

2. Create iSCSI virtual disk storage using the generic iSCSI Storage wizard.

Creating a storage pool To create a storage pool on the VNXe array to store Exchange data:

1. Log in to Unisphere as an administrator.

2. Select System > Storage Pools, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Selecting storage pools

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



4. Select the storage pool configuration mode by selecting Manually create a new pool as shown in Figure 10. Click Next.

Figure 10. Creating a new pool

5. The Specify Pool Name dialog box appears. Type a name and optional description for the storage pool, as shown in Figure 11. Click Next.

Figure 11. Specifying a pool name




6. The Select Storage Type window appears. Select a disk type for the storage pool, as shown in Figure 12, according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation. In this example, select SAS disks using RAID 5 (4+1). Click Next.

Figure 12. Selecting the storage type

7. Select the number of disks to use for the storage pool according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation, as shown in Figure 13. Click Next.

Figure 13. Specifying the number of storage disks

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

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



Creating iSCSI virtual disk storage VNXe includes an Exchange wizard for you to provision storage for Exchange 2007 or 2010; for Exchange Server 2013, you need to use the generic iSCSI Storage wizard. To configure the storage for Exchange Server 2013:

1. Log in to Unisphere as an administrator.

2. Select Storage > Generic iSCSI Storage, as shown in Figure 14, then click Create.

Figure 14. Configuring storage for Microsoft Exchange

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

4. The Configure Storage dialog box appears. Select the storage pool created previously for the DAG copy, as shown in Figure 15, type the size of the first Exchange database LUN. Click Next.

Figure 15. Selecting the storage pool




5. The Configure Protection dialog box appears. Select the protection options for the storage pool, according to the VSPEX Sizing Tool recommendation, 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 16. In this solution, assign access rights to both Hyper-V nodes in the cluster. Click Next.

Figure 16. Configuring host access

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

8. The Results dialog box appears. Review the results and ensure the job is completed.

9. Select Add Virtual Disk, as shown in Figure 17, then click Close. The Virtual Disk wizard appears to allow you continue to create additional Exchange database and log LUNs.

Figure 17. Adding virtual disks

10. Add all Exchange database and log LUNs from the same DAG copy as virtual disks by repeating the steps above. Figure 18 shows the iSCSI storage created for one DAG copy.



Figure 18. Virtual disks for Exchange database and log

11. These steps are sufficient for one DAG copy. Repeat this procedure for each additional DAG copy.

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

Figure 19 shows an example of the target storage layout for the VNXe system used in this solution. 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 Guide in Essential reading.

Figure 19. Storage layout example for VNXe




Using EMC Storage Integrator to manage storage for Exchange

You can also use EMC Storage Integrator (ESI) to provision and manage storage for Exchange on VNX or VNXe. Figure 20 shows the storage provisioned for Exchange on VNXe. ESI simplifies the various steps involved in viewing, provisioning, and managing block and file storage for Microsoft Windows. For more information, refer to the EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Product Guide.

Figure 20. Using ESI to manage the storage system

The following sections describe FAST Cache and FAST VP implementation steps on the VNX storage array.

Enabling FAST Cache on a VNX series array is transparent to Exchange. No reconfiguration or downtime is necessary. To use the FAST Cache feature, 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 about FAST Cache best practices, refer to the Design Guide.

To create and configure FAST Cache:

1. Refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading for detailed steps about how to create FAST Cache in Unisphere.

2. After creating the FAST Cache in Unisphere, select Storage, then select Storage Pool.

3. Choose an Exchange database pool, and click Properties.

4. In Storage Pool Properties, select Advanced, select Enabled to enable FAST Cache, as shown in Figure 21. Click OK.

Configuring FAST Cache on VNX



Figure 21. Storage pool properties—FAST Cache enabled

Note: FAST Cache 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.

If FAST VP is enabled on the VNX array, you can add flash disks (or SAS disks) into the Exchange database pool as an extreme performance tier. 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:

1. In Unisphere, select Storage, then select Storage Pool.

2. Choose an Exchange database pool and click Properties.

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

4. Under Extreme Performance, from the list boxes, select the number of flash disks and a RAID configuration to add into the Exchange database storage pool for tiering, as shown in Figure 22. EMC recommends using RAID 5 for the extreme performance tier in the Exchange database storage pool.

5. Under Disks, review the flash drives that you will use for the extreme performance tier. You can choose the drives manually by selecting Manual. Click OK.

Configuring FAST VP on VNX




Figure 22. Expand Storage Pool dialog box



Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V infrastructure implementation

This section lists the requirements for installing and configuring the Windows hosts and infrastructure servers required to support the solution architecture. Table 20 describes the tasks required to complete the implementation.

Table 20. Tasks for server installation


Installing the Windows hosts

Install Windows Server 2012 on the physical servers deployed for the solution.

Installing and configuring Failover Clustering

Install and configure Failover Clustering. Deploy a Hyper-V Cluster

Configuring Windows hosts networking

Configure Windows hosts networking including NIC teaming.

Configuring multipathing

Configure multipathing to optimize connectivity with the storage arrays.

Understanding MPIO Features and Components

EMC PowerPath and PowerPath/VE for Windows Installation and Administration Guide

Configuring the initiator to connect to a VNX or VNXe iSCSI server

Configure Windows Server 2012 initiator to connect to a VNX or VNXe iSCSI server.

EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V


Publishing the VNXe datastores or VNX LUNs to Hyper-V

Configure the VNX or VNXe to enable the Hyper-V hosts to access the created datastores.



Connecting the Hyper-V datastores

Connect the Hyper-V datastores to the Windows hosts as CSVs.

EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V


For more details, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide listed in Essential reading.

Overview

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

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619734(v=WS.10).aspx





Ensure that all the servers in a Hyper-V failover cluster are running the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2012.

For detailed steps on how to configure the Windows hosts, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

To install and configure Failover Clustering:

1. Apply the latest service pack for Windows Server 2012.

2. Configure the Hyper-V role and the Failover Clustering feature.

For detailed steps, refer to Microsoft TechNet topic Deploy a Hyper-V Cluster.

To ensure performance and availability, the solution requires:

At least one NIC for virtual machine networking and management (separated by network or VLAN if desired)

At least two NICs for iSCSI connection (configured as MCS, MPIO, or PowerPath)

At least one NIC for live migration

To configure additional paths for high availability, use MPIO or MCS with additional network adapters in the server. This creates additional connections to the storage array in Microsoft iSCSI Initiator through redundant Ethernet switch fabrics.

For detailed instructions about how to install and configure MPIO or MCS, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Alternatively, you can use EMC PowerPath for optimal performance. PowerPath is host-resident software that works with both VNX and VNXe storage systems to deliver intelligent I/O path management. Using PowerPath, administrators can improve the server’s ability to manage heavy storage loads through continuous and intelligent I/O balancing.

PowerPath automatically configures multiple paths, and dynamically tunes performance as the workload changes. PowerPath also adds to the HA capabilities of the VNX and VNXe storage systems by automatically detecting and recovering from server-to-storage path failures.

For detailed instructions about how to install and configure PowerPath, refer to the EMC PowerPath and PowerPath/VE for Windows Installation and Administration Guide.

Installing the Windows hosts

Installing and configuring Failover Clustering

Configuring Windows host networking

Configuring multipathing




To connect to the VNX or VNXe targets (iSCSI servers or iSCSI ports), the host uses an iSCSI initiator, which requires Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator and the iSCSI initiator service. These services are part of the Windows Server 2012 software; however, the drivers for them are not installed until you start the service. You must start the iSCSI initiator service using the administrative tools.

For instructions on configuring an iSCSI initiator to connect to VNX or VNXe via iSCSI, refer to EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V and EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Windows.

At the end of the storage implementation process on VNXe, you have datastores that are ready to be published to the Hyper-V. Now that the hypervisors are installed, you must return to Unisphere and add the Hyper-V servers to the list of hosts that are enabled to access the datastores. Because you are using VNXe iSCSI targets in a clustered environment, you must grant the datastore access to all the Windows Server 2012 hosts in the Hyper-V cluster.

On VNX, configure the Storage Group to grant LUN access to all the Windows Server 2012 hosts in the Hyper-V cluster. For more information, refer to EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Windows.

Connect the Hyper-V datastores configured in Storage implementation to the relevant Windows hosts as CSVs. The datastores are used for virtual server infrastructure.

For instructions about how to connect the Hyper-V datastores to the Windows host, refer to EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V and EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Windows.

After you connect and format the datastores on one of the hosts, enable CSV, and then add the clustered disks as CSV disks. Figure 23 shows the CSV disk used in this solution.

Figure 23. CSV disk in Failover Cluster Manager

Configuring the initiator to connect to VNX or VNXe via iSCSI

Publishing VNXe datastores or VNX LUNs to Hyper-V

Connecting Hyper-V datastores




You can also use ESI to view and manage CSV disks in an efficient manner. Figure 24 shows the same CSV disk in the ESI GUI.

Figure 24. CSV disk in EMC Storage Integrator

For more information, refer to EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Product Guide.

Exchange Server virtualization implementation

This section describes the requirements for the installation and configuration of the Exchange host virtual machines as outlined in Table 21.

Table 21. Exchange host virtual machine installation and configuration


Creating the Exchange virtual machines

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

Create a virtual machine

Installing the Exchange guest OS

Install Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition on the Exchange virtual machines.

Install the guest operating system

Installing integration services

Install the integration services on the Exchange virtual machines.

Install or upgrade integration services

Assigning IP addresses

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

Join all the Exchange Servers to the domain.

Attaching pass-through disks to Exchange virtual machines

Attach the database LUNs and log LUNs to the Exchange Server mailbox virtual machines as pass-through disks.

Using EMC Storage Integrator to manage CSV disks for Exchange

Overview

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

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846766.aspx#BKMK_step3






EMC recommends that you use the VSPEX Sizing Tool and follow the recommendations in the Design Guide to determine the number of Exchange Server 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 22 shows an example of equivalent reference virtual machine requirements for each Exchange Server role. In this example, you need to set up two Exchange Mailbox servers and two Client Access servers to support the requirements for a small Exchange organization. To determine the total number of reference virtual machines for each Exchange server role, you select the largest of the individual resource requirements (CPU, memory, capacity, or IOPS) and multiply by the recommended number of virtual machines.

The system volumes of all Exchange virtual machines are stored on the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure pool, and are presented as CSV disks in the Hyper-V cluster.

Table 22. 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



2 36 Equivalent reference virtual machines

4 18 2 1

Client Access server



2 12 Equivalent reference virtual machines

4 6 1 1

Total equivalent reference virtual machines 48

For example, each Mailbox server requires four vCPUs, 36 GB of memory, 200 GB of storage, and 25 IOPS. This translates to:

Four reference virtual machines of CPU

Eighteen reference virtual machines of memory

Two reference virtual machine of capacity

One reference virtual machine of IOPS

The values round up to 18 reference virtual machines for each Mailbox server, multiplied by the number of virtual machines needed (two in this example), which results in 36 total reference virtual machines for the Mailbox server role.

18 reference virtual machines x 2 virtual machines = 36 total

reference virtual machines

Creating the Exchange virtual machines




For more details about how to determine the equivalent reference virtual machines, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Install Windows 2012 on the Exchange virtual machines and apply the latest service pack.

EMC recommends that you install the Hyper-V integration software package on the guest OS to improve integration between the physical computer and the virtual machine.

Assign an IP address for each of the network adapters in all the Exchange virtual machines, according to what you have planned for the IP reservation for each server. Join every server to the existing domain.

For more information, refer to the Configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013.

To attach the Exchange LUNs to Mailbox server virtual machines as pass-through disks:

1. Ensure that the Hyper-V nodes recognize the newly created Exchange LUNs on VNX or VNXe by opening Computer Manager and selecting Rescan Disks, as shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25. Rescanning disks

Installing the Exchange guest OS

Installing integration services

Assigning IP addresses

Attaching pass-through disks to Exchange virtual machines



2. Initialize the disks by:

a. Bringing the new Exchange LUNs online.

b. Initializing the disks.

c. Switching the LUNs to offline.

3. Add all Exchange LUNs to the Hyper-V cluster, in Microsoft Failover Cluster Manager, by selecting Storage > Disks > Add Disk, as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26. Adding disks

4. Expand the Hyper-V node, and then select the Exchange Mailbox server virtual machine that hosts the Exchange LUNs.

5. Right-click on the virtual machine and select Settings.

6. Click Add Hardware and select SCSI Controller.

7. Add a hard drive by clicking Add.

8. Select Physical hard disk, then select the proper Exchange LUN and click OK. The selected Exchange LUN is added as a pass-through disk.

Note: Repeat these steps to add additional pass-through disks planned for this Exchange Mailbox server.

9. Verify the storage disk status, as shown in Figure 27, and ensure that the pass-through disks are correctly assigned to the Exchange Mailbox server virtual machine.




Figure 27. Configuring pass-through disks in Failover Cluster Manager

You can also use ESI to view and manage pass-through disks in an efficient manner. Figure 28 shows the same pass-through disks in the ESI GUI.

Figure 28. Pass-through disks in EMC Storage Integrator

For more information, refer to EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Product Guide.

Application implementation

This section provides information about how to implement Exchange 2013 in a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.

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

After you complete the tasks in Table 23, the new Exchange organization is ready to be verified and tested.

Using ESI to manage pass-through disks for Exchange

Overview



Table 23. Tasks to implement Exchange Server 2013

Task Description References

Verifying pre-deployment with Jetstress

Run Jetstress to verify the disk subsystem performance.

Using Jetstress to verify performance

Preparing Active Directory Prepare Active Directory for the Exchange organization.

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

Installing Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox server role

1. Install Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox server role.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.

Deploy a New Installation of Exchange Server 2013

Mailbox Server

Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Client Access server role

1. Install Exchange Server 2013 Client Access server role.

2. Install Exchange latest service pack and update rollup.


Client Access Server

Deploying the 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

You must run Jetstress to verify the disk subsystem performance before you implement the Exchange application. For details, refer to Using Jetstress to verify performance.

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

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

Setup /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

2. Create the required Active Directory containers and set up 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 the other Active Directory domains by running the following command:

Setup /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

For more information on how to prepare Active Directory, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Prepare Active Directory and Domains.

Verifying pre-deployment with Jetstress

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









Before installing Exchange Server roles, confirm that you have completed the steps described in the Microsoft TechNet topic Exchange 2013 Prerequisites. To install the Mailbox server role on a virtual machine, use the Exchange Server 2013 installation media and follow these steps:

1. In the Exchange Server 2013 Setup wizard, under Server Role Selection, select Mailbox Role, as shown in Figure 29. Click Next.

Figure 29. Selecting Mailbox role

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 these steps if there are other Exchange Mailbox server virtual machines to deploy.

Use the Exchange Server installation media to install the Exchange Server 2013 Client Access server role on a virtual machine:

1. In the Exchange Server 2013 Setup wizard, under Server Role Selection, select Client Access role, as shown in Figure 30. Click Next.

Figure 30. Selecting Client Access role

Installing Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox server roles

Installing the Exchange Server 2013 Client Access server roles




2. Follow the wizard to complete the installation and then apply the latest service pack and the latest update rollup.

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

A DAG is the base component of the high availability framework built into Exchange Server 2013. A DAG is a group of up to 16 Mailbox servers that hosts a set of databases and provides automatic database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. To deploy DAG in your Exchange Server 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, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Pre-Stage the Cluster Name Object for a Database Availability Group.

3. Run the following command to add the Mailbox server 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> -

Description "Network_Description" -Subnets <SubnetId> -

ReplicationEnabled:<$True | $False>

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

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 details, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Managing Mailbox Database Copies.

The Exchange organization is now running with the DAG deployed. To verify the functionality and monitor the system’s health, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Deploying the database availability group

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








Backup and recovery implementation

All VSPEX solutions are sized and tested with EMC backup and recovery, including EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain. If your solution includes backup and recovery components, refer to the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide for detailed information on implementing your backup and recovery solution.



Chapter 5: Solution Verification



Chapter 5 Solution Verification


Baseline infrastructure verification ........................................................................ 64

Exchange Server performance verification .............................................................. 66

Backup and recovery verification ........................................................................... 69



Baseline infrastructure verification

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

Table 24 describes the tasks that you must complete when verifying the VSPEX installation.

Table 24. Tasks for verifying the VSPEX installation


Verifying Hyper-V functionality

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

Monitoring Database Availability Groups

Verifying solution components redundancy

Verify the redundancy of the solution components:

Storage

Hyper-V host

Network switch

Vendor documentation

Verifying the Exchange DAG configuration

Verify the DAG configuration in the solution.

Monitoring the solution’s health

Use tools to monitor the solution’s health.

Server Health and Performance

VNX Monitoring and Reporting 1.0 User Guide

EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution

EMC recommends that you verify the Hyper-V configurations prior to deployment into production on each Hyper-V server.

For more detailed information about how to verify Hyper-V functionality, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

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, Hyper-V hosts, and network switches.

For details, refer to the relevant VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Guide in Essential reading.

Overview

Verifying Hyper-V functionality

Verifying solution component redundancy








To ensure that the Exchange DAG is working smoothly, verify the DAG configuration:

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

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server <Server_Name>

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. Normally, the active databases are hosted on different Mailbox servers as showed in Figure 31.

Figure 31. Verifying the DAG configuration

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

3. Monitor the database copy status to verify that the DAG detects the failure, as shown in Figure 32, and that the DAG automatically fails over the affected database to another Mailbox server that hosts a passive copy of these databases.

Figure 32. Verifying that the DAG detects the failure

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

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

Verifying the Exchange DAG configuration





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

Table 25 lists several tools you can use to monitor and troubleshoot the solution.

Table 25. Tools to monitor the solution

Tool Description

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

Exchange diagnostic logging

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

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 or VNXe Unisphere management interface

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

For more information on monitoring the VNX or VNXe health, refer to EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution.

VNX Monitoring and Reporting

VNX Monitoring and Reporting is a software solution that extends the Unisphere element manager capabilities by providing unified performance and capacity trending information of VNX storage systems. This solution complements Unisphere's health alerts and Unisphere Analyzer archive files, and automatically collects block and file storage statistics along with configuration data and stores them in a database that you can view through dashboards and reports.

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

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

Exchange Server performance verification

This chapter describes an example of verifying an Exchange environment. The purpose is to measure the performance of the Exchange Server roles to ensure the VSPEX solution meets your business requirements.

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

Monitoring the solution’s health

Overview




In this solution, we verified that the Exchange organization supports the user profile shown in Table 26.

Table 26. Example of verification questions for user profile


Number of mailboxes 900

Maximum mailbox size (GB) 1.5 GB

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

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

DAG copies (including active copy) 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%

Note: We tested 1,000 mailboxes to include the one-year growth with 11 percent growth rate.

Overview of Jetstress tool

Verify the Exchange Server 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 according to the metrics defined in that profile.

Key metrics

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

Using Jetstress to verify performance



Table 27. 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)

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 writes average latency (ms) Less than 10 ms

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 the Exchange Mailbox servers and provision storage to these virtual machines.

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

2. Install Jetstress on the virtual machines.

3. Populate the Jetstress databases according to your requirements.

4. Run the Jetstress tests and analyze the report.

Test results

We used Jetstress 2103 version 15.00.0658.004 to simulate an I/O profile of 0.101 IOPS per user. For detailed information about the Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox IOPS profile definition, refer to the Microsoft TechNet topic Sizing Exchange Server 2013 Deployments.

We validated the building blocks using a two-hour performance test. Jetstress simulated 1,000 active users on a single Mailbox server to validate the performance under the worst (failover) situation, with all active databases mounted on a single Mailbox server. Compared to the normal working situation, in which two Mailbox servers host 1,000 users (500 active users per server), the test situation doubles the pressure on the single Mailbox server’s disk subsystem.

Table 28 shows the average I/O and the average latency on the Mailbox server. The performance of the Exchange organization exceeds the design target.

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

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




Table 28. Jetstress verification example results

Database I/O Target values Single Mailbox server (1,000 users)

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


In this solution: 1,000 * 0.101 = 101

594

I/O database reads/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 416

I/O database writes/sec N/A (for analysis purpose) 178

Total I/O (DB+Logs+BDM+Replication)/sec

N/A 717

I/O database reads average latency (ms)

Less than 20 ms 19.4

I/O log writes average latency (ms) Less than 10 ms 4.3

Backup and recovery verification

All VSPEX solutions are sized and tested with EMC backup and recovery products, including Avamar and Data Domain. If your solution includes backup and recovery components, refer to the EMC Backup and Recovery for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 Design and Implementation Guide for detailed information on verifying the functionality and performance of your backup and recovery solution.



Chapter 6: Reference Documentation



Chapter 6 Reference Documentation


EMC documentation ............................................................................................... 72

Other documentation ............................................................................................. 72

Links ..................................................................................................................... 72



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.

EMC VNXe Series Using VNXe System with Microsoft Windows Hyper-V

EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe System with Generic iSCSI Storage

EMC VNXe Installation Guide

EMC VNXe Series Configuration Worksheet

EMC FAST VP for Unified Storage Systems

VNX File and Unified Worksheet

VNX Monitoring and Reporting 1.0 User Guide


EMC Unisphere: Unified Storage Management Solution


EMC PowerPath and PowerPath/VE for Windows Installation and Administration Guide

EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Product Guide

EMC Storage Integrator for Windows Suite Technical Notes

Microsoft Exchange Server: Storage Best Practices and Design Guidelines for EMC Storage

Other documentation

For documentation on Microsoft Exchange and Hyper-V, refer to the Microsoft website.

Links

Use the following links to obtain additional information on performing the tasks in this Implementation Guide.

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

Refer to the following topics on the Microsoft TechNet website:

Client Access Server

Create a Virtual Machine

Deploy a Hyper-V Cluster


Microsoft TechNet

https://support.emc.com/

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

http://www.microsoft.com/

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


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






Exchange Server 2013 Prerequisites

Exchange Server 2013 Virtualization

Install the guest operating system

Install or upgrade integration services

Installing and Configuring MPIO

Load Balancing

Mailbox Server

Managing Database Availability Groups

Managing Mailbox Database Copies

Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) Users Guide for Windows Server 2012

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

Understanding MPIO Features and Components

Use Cluster Shared Volumes in a Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster





http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619752(v=ws.10).aspx





http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30450


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








Appendix A: Configuration Worksheet



Appendix A Configuration Worksheet

This appendix presents the following topic:

Configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013 ............................................... 76



Configuration worksheet for Exchange Server 2013

Before configuring Exchange Server 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 29. Common server information

Server name Purpose Primary IP address

Domain Controller 01

Domain Controller 02

DNS Primary

DNS Secondary

DHCP

NTP

SMTP

SNMP

Mailbox server 01

Mailbox server 02

Client Access server 01

Client Access server 02

Table 30. Exchange information

Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) Purpose Primary IP address

Exchange DAG

Table 31. Hyper-V server information

Server name Purpose Primary IP address Private net (storage) addresses

Hyper-V Host 1

Hyper-V Host 2

Hyper-V Host 3

…




Table 32. Array information

Object Description

Array name

Array Type

Root password

Admin password

Management IP

SPA IP address

SPB IP address

iSCSI IP addresses on SPA

iSCSI IP addresses on SPB

VSPEX private cloud pool name

Exchange database pool 1 name

Exchange database pool 2 name

Exchange log pool 1 name

Exchange log pool 2 name

Table 33. Network infrastructure information

Name Purpose IP address Subnet mask Default gateway

Ethernet Switch 1

Ethernet Switch 2

…

Table 34. VLAN information

Name Network purpose VLAN ID Allowed subnets

Virtual machine networking management

iSCSI storage network

Live migration

Documents

EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Exchange 2013 with ... · IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE EMC VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT EXCHANGE 2013 WITH MICROSOFT HYPER-V Enabled by EMC Next-Generation