9/11/2010 1

Virtualization of SharePoint 2010

Michael NoelConvergent ComputingTwitter: MichaelTNoel

Michael Noel

• Author of SAMS Publishing titles “SharePoint 2010 Unleashed,” “SharePoint 2007 Unleashed,” “SharePoint 2003 Unleashed”, “Teach Yourself SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes,” “Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed,” “Exchange Server 2010 Unleashed”, “ISA Server 2006 Unleashed”, and many other titles .

• Partner at Convergent Computing (www.cco.com / +1(510)444-5700) – Bay Area based Infrastructure/Security specialists for SharePoint, AD, Exchange, Security

What we will cover

• Why Virtualize?• SharePoint 2010 Virtualization Guidelines and

Models• Virtualization of SharePoint Roles• Virtualization of SQL Server• Memory Limitations and Guidelines for Guests• Performance Monitoring for Virtual Machines• Microsoft Virtualization Software Options• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008• Third Party Virtualization Product Support• Microsoft Licensing for Virtual Servers

Why Virtualize?

Why Virtualize?• Direct Server over consumption / Utility Bills / “Greener” technology

• Less Physical space to consume • Less cost to cool multiple servers

Reduce Costs

• Reduce number of physical servers• Get rid of legacy hardware• Get rid of legacy hardware• Dedicated specialty servers

Consolidate / Dedicate

• Idle Servers free up their memory for other servers• No proliferation of disk volumes• Very large number of servers can run on a single box

Optimise Investment

SharePoint 2010 Virtualization Guidelines

Virtual Host Guidelines• Dedicated hosts for SharePoint Virtual Guests• Assume 1GB of memory taken by host OS

(Hyper-V), 3rd party varies• No Software on Host OS! (Except A/V or Backup)

General

• Allocate Direct / Passthrough NICs when possible• Create dedicated NIC for Management• Create dedicated NIC for Failover

NICs

• Dedicated spindles for SharePoint• Dedicated volume for Host OS• Dedicated volume for Guest OS VHDs• Dedicated volume for Databases and Logs

Disk

• Do not overallocate (applies to memory as well)• No more than 2 vCPUs for every Core on host• Ideally closer to 1:1 for most critical systems

2:1 Core/vCPU Ratio

SP2010 Role Virtualization

• Excellent Virtualization Candidate• Can be easily provisioned via templatesWeb

• Higher proc/mem requirements, but still good candidate• Often paired with SP2010 Web Role• Requires 2nd Disk for Index

Query/Crawl

• Higher proc/mem requirements, but still good candidate• Low disk requirements compared to other rolesApp

• Requires the most memory, proc, and disk IO• Be cautious when virtualizing, make sure host is scaled• If virtual, be sure to use pass-through or fixed size disks

DB

  vCPU RAM (Minimum)

RAM (Recommended)

Web Only* 2 6GB 8GB

Service Application Roles Only

2 6GB 8GB

Search/Query Only 2 8GB 10GB

Combined Web/Query/Service Apps

4 10GB 12GB

Database* 4 10GB 16GB

SharePoint Guest Guidelines

SharePoint Role VM Guidelines• Fixed size Disk a minimum• Pass-through (raw) disk is recommended, but not

required.• Address Disk I/O (Dedicated spindles, etc.)

Disk

• Created dedicated virtual switch for SharePoint• Use VLAN tagging for Security• Ensure host has redundant network links• Highly consider passthrough NICs

Network

• Load balance like servers across hosts• Install Integration components on servers (Win2008 R2

automatically does for Hyper-V)General

SQL Server VM Guidelines• Passthrough Disk (Raw) strong recommendation• Dedicated volumes for Logs, DB, OS• Follow best practices for tempDB, others Disk

• Install in same virtual switch as SP Roles• Use multipathing on hosts• Ensure host has redundant network links• Passthrough NICs dedicated to SQL Important

Network

• Be sure your hosts have the necessary capacity, or you will have performance bottlenecks

• SQL Mirroring and Clustering now supported on virtual guests (KB 956893)

General

SharePoint 2010 Virtualized Farm Architecture

Allows Organizations that wouldn’t normally be able to have a test environment to run one

Allows for separation of the database role onto a dedicated server Can be more easily scaled out in the future

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureCost-effective Virtual Environment / No HA

Server Memory Processors Disk

Virtual host 24GB RAM 2 quad-core (8 cores)

C drive: OS - Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V; 50GB dedicated volume

D drive: dedicated volume for OS VHDs E drive: 500GB dedicated volume for

SQL Database VHDs F drive: 100GB dedicated volume for

SQL Logs VHDs.

SQL server 10GB RAM 4 virtual processors

C drive: OS - 100GB fixed-size VHD D drive: fixed-size VHD (100GB)

dedicated for SQL logs E drive: fixed-size VHD (500GB)

dedicated for SQL Data

SharePoint Web/Query/App

10GB RAM 4 virtual processors

C drive: OS and Transport Queue Logs; 100GB fixed-size VHD

E drive: 100GB fixed-size VHD for Index/Query

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureCost-effective Virtual Environment / No HA

High-Availability across Hosts

All components Virtualized

Uses only two Windows Ent Edition Licenses

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureHighly Available Farm with only Two Servers

Server Memory Processor DiskVirtual hosts 48GB RAM 2 quad-core (8

cores) C drive: OS; Windows Server 2008 R2

with Hyper-V; 50GB dedicated LUN D drive: dedicated LUN for VHDs Raw volume: 100GB dedicated LUN for

SQL Logs Raw volume: 2TB dedicated LUN for

SQL Databases

SQL Servers 16GB RAM 4 virtual processors

C drive: OS; 50GB fixed-size VHD D drive: pass-through dedicated LUN

(100GB) for SQL Logs E drive: pass-through dedicated LUN

(2TB) for SQL Data

SharePoint Web/App Servers

12GB RAM 2 virtual processors

C drive: OS; 100GB fixed-size VHD

SharePoint Search/Query Servers

12GB RAM 2 virtual processors

C drive: OS; 100GB fixed-size VHD D drive: 200GB fixed-size VHD for

Index/Query

SQL Witness Server

2GB RAM 1 virtual processor

C drive: OS; 50GB fixed-size VHD

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureHighly Available Farm with only Two Servers

Highest transaction servers are physical

Multiple farm support, with DBs for all farms on the SQL cluster

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureBest Practice Virtual/Physical with HA/Perf

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureLarge Virtual Farms

NUMA Memory Guidelines

NUMA Memory Limitations and Guidelines

• Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) Boundaries exist at the hardware level.

• Virtual guests that are allocated more memory than exist within a single NUMA memory boundary have significantly impacted performance

• NUMA boundaries vary by processor and motherboard vendor, but good rule of thumb to calculate boundaries is to divide the amount of memory in the system by the total number of cores.

• i.e. Dual Quad-core host (2x4 cores = 8 cores) with 64GB of RAM on the host would mean NUMA boundary is 64/8 or 8GB.

• In this example, allocating more than 8GB for a single guest session would result in performance drops.

NUMA Memory Limitations and Guidelines

• Keeping NUMA boundaries in mind, this means that you will get significantly better performance provisioning two SharePoint front-ends with half the amount of RAM as a single front-end with twice as much RAM.

• This applies to any Virtualization platform, as the limitation is hardware specific. NUMA allocation specifics will vary by vendor, however.

• Refer to MS Whitepaper on Virtualization of SharePoint (http://tinyurl.com/virtualsp) for more specifics.

NUMA Example: 2x Quad Core, 64GB RAM

8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB

Proc 1

8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB

Proc 2

NUMA Example: 2x Quad Core, 8GB RAM

1GB 1GB 1GB 1GB

Proc 1

1GB 1GB 1GB 1GB

Proc 2

Virtualization Performance Monitoring

Virtualization Performance MonitoringCollect Performance Data

• Manually with Perfmon counters• Collect data over a week minimum to look

for trends throughout the week• Consider using System Center Operations

Manager 2007 R2 for long-term performance analysis and threshold alerting

Virtualization Performance MonitoringPerformance Counters and Thresholds on Hosts

• Processor - <60% Utilization = Good - 60%-90% = Caution - >90% = Trouble• Available Memory - 50% and above = Good - 10%-50% = OK - <10% = Trouble• Disk – Avg. Disk sec/Read

or Avg. Disk sec/Write - Up to 15ms = fine - 15ms-25ms = Caution - >25ms = Trouble

• Network Bandwidth – Bytes Total/sec– <40% Utilization = Good– 41%-64% = Caution– >65% = Trouble

• Network Latency - Output Queue Length– 0 = Good– 1-2= OK– >2 = Trouble

Virtualization Performance MonitoringPerformance Counters and Thresholds on Guests

• Processor (N/A)• Available Memory - 50% and above = Good - 10%-50% = OK - <10% = Trouble• Disk – Avg. Disk

sec/Read or Avg. Disk sec/Write

- Up to 15ms = fine - 15ms-25ms = Caution - >25ms = Trouble

• Network Bandwidth – Virtual NIC Bytes Total/sec– <40% Utilization = Good– 41%-64% = Caution– >65% = Trouble

• Network Latency - Output Queue Length– 0 = Good– 1-2= OK– >2 = Trouble

SharePoint Virtualization Support

Microsoft Support of SharePoint Virtualization

• Microsoft’s official SharePoint support stance is that any SharePoint role or service is supported for hardware Virtualization, including SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server 2008 R2. There are only three requirements for Virtualization that must be satisfied, these are as follows:

• Hardware-assisted Virtualization, which is available in processors that include a Virtualization option—specifically processors with Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology.

• Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is available and enabled.

• Either deployed on Microsoft Hyper-V (RTM or R2 version) or a validated third-party hypervisor that is part of the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) – KB 897615

What does this mean for SharePoint on Third party?

• SharePoint supported on VMware ESX/ESXi, Citrix XenServer, or others in the SVVP

• This only covers Hypervisor products, so excludes products such as VMware Workstation or VMWare Server

• Less need to reproduce problems in physical environment

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

Hyper-V R2 for SP2010Overview • Hyper-V Introduced shortly after released of

Windows Server 2008 RTM• Hyper-V R2 included with Windows Server 2008 R2• Installs on any edition (Std., Ent, Datacenter)

Versions

• 4x Hyper-V v1 Performance• Support for up to 384 Guests or 512 VPs, whichever

comes first• Core Parking to reduce resource consumption

Performance

• Hot Add Storage• Processor Compatibility (Intel-Intel or AMD-AMD)Flexibility

• Multipathing for network availability• Cluster Shared Storage Support• Live Migration host high availability with VMM 2008• Active/Active failover with no guest downtime

Availability

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

• Virtualization Host and Guest Management Platform

• Part of the System Center Management Suite, which includes the following:

• System Center Operations Manager 2007• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2• System Center Mobile Device Manager 2007• System Center Essentials 2007• System Center Capacity Planner 2007• System Center Service Manager 2010

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2

• New version out (VMM 2008 R2)• VMM 2008 R2 has P2V (Physical to virtual migration) and V2V (VMware

Guest migration to Hyper-V) tools• For SharePoint, allows for creation of SharePoint template servers that

can be quickly provisioned for test farms or for new farm members in production

• Can manage both Hyper-V and VMware guests (though must ‘go through’ a Virtual Center server to manage VMware guests.)

• Self-Service Portal allows end users and remote admins to be able to provision their own virtual machines based on templates

• PowerShell support allows for scripted provisioning of SharePoint 2010 or other servers into a farm

Quick SP2010 Farm Provisioning with VMM 2008 R2

1. Create new Virtual Guest (Windows Server 2008 R2)

2. Install SP2010 Binaries. Stop before running Config Wizard

3. Turn Virtual Guest into Template, modify template to allow it to be added into domain

4. Add PowerShell script to run on first login, allowing SP to be added into farm or to create new farm

Voila! 15 minute entire farm provisioning…

QUICK FARM PROVISIONING WITH VMM 2008 R2

Live Demonstration

37

Farm Provisioning Script(Thanks to Muhanad Omar, MVP)

$configType = read-host "Do you wish to join an existing Farm? (Y/N)"if ($ConfigType -eq "Y") { $DatabaseServer = read-host "Sounds good. Please specify the name of your SQL Server"; $ConfigDB = read-host "Next, specify the name of your Farm Configuration Database"; $Passphrase = read-host "Finally, please enter your Farm passphrase" -assecurestring } else { $DatabaseServer = read-host "In that case, let's create a new Farm. Please specify the name of your SQL Server"; $FarmName = read-host "Please specify a name for your Farm (ex. SP2010Dev)"; $ConfigDB = $FarmName+"_ConfigDB"; $AdminContentDB = $FarmName+"_Admin_ContentDB"; Write-Host "Please enter the credentials for your Farm Account (ex. CONTOSO\SP_Farm)"; $FarmAcct = Get-Credential; $Passphrase = read-host "Enter a secure Farm passphrase" -assecurestring; $Port = read-host "Enter a port number for the Central Administration Web App"; $Authentication = read-host "Finally, specify your authentication provider (NTLM/Kerberos)"; }if ($ConfigType -eq "Y") { Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell; Connect-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseName $ConfigDB -DatabaseServer $DatabaseServer -Passphrase $Passphrase} else { Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell; Write-Host "Your SharePoint Farm is being configured..." New-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseName $ConfigDB -DatabaseServer $DatabaseServer -AdministrationContentDatabaseName $AdminContentDB -Passphrase $Passphrase -FarmCredentials $FarmAcct}Initialize-SPResourceSecurityInstall-SPServiceInstall-SPFeature -AllExistingFeaturesNew-SPCentralAdministration -Port $Port -WindowsAuthProvider $AuthenticationInstall-SPHelpCollection -AllInstall-SPApplicationContentWrite-Host "Your SharePoint 2010 Farm has been created!"if ($ConfigType -eq "N") { $WebAppCreation = read-host "Would you like to provision a Web Application using the default Team Site Template? (Y/N)"; if ($WebAppCreation -eq "Y") { $HostHeaderQ = read-host "Would you like to specify a host header? (Y/N)"; if ($HostHeaderQ -eq "Y") { $HostHeader = read-host "Please specify a host header for your Web Application (ex. intranet.contoso.com)"; $URL = "http://"+$HostHeader; Write-Host "Creating your Web Application..."; New-SPWebApplication -Name "SharePoint 2010 Team Site" -Port 80 -HostHeader $FQDN -Url $URL -ApplicationPool "Content_AppPool" -ApplicationPoolAccount (Get-SPManagedAccount $FarmAcct.UserName) -DatabaseServer $DatabaseServer -DatabaseName $FarmName+"_TeamSite_ContentDB_01"; New-SPSite $URL -OwnerAlias $FarmAcct.UserName -Language 1033 -Template "STS#0" -Name "Team Site"; Write-Host "Configuration completed."; } else { Write-Host "Creating a Web Application using the default Team Site Template..." } } else { Write-Host "Configuration completed."; } }Write-Host "Press any key to continue..."$x = $host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown")

Virtualization Licensing

$ £ ¥ €

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureMicrosoft Virtualization Licensing Primer

• Windows Server Virtualization Licensing• Standard Edition: One virtual guest (if host is dedicated to Virtualization

role)• Enterprise Edition: Four virtual guests (if host is dedicated to Virtualization

role) / Guests can be Std/Ent• DataCenter Edition: Unlimited Number of Virtual Guests / Per processor

socket license• Virtualization OS licensing applies to Hyper-V or any virtual host software

listed in SVVP (KB 897615)• System Center Virtualization Licensing• System Center Management Suite Standard Edition License: Gives DPM,

OpsMgr, ConfigMgr, and VMM Agents for 1 server.• System Center Management Suite Enterprise Edition License: Gives

unlimited DPM, OpsMgr, ConfigMgr, and VMM Agents for all virtual guests on the host.

• Check with Microsoft for Specifics…

Microsoft Virtualization Guest Licensing Model

• Guests can run any combination of downlevel licenses (i.e. Datacenter host, Ent or Std edition guests)

• Applies not only to OSes running Virtualized with Windows Virtualization, but it also applies to 3rd party Virtualization as well!

Session Takeaways

• Consider Virtualization for SharePoint, but architect host and guest environments very carefully.

• Best performance comes from dedicated virtual hosts, dedicated passthrough NICs (RDM), and dedicated passthrough disks (RDM) and by not overcommitting resources.

• Monitor performance metrics to look for bottlenecks• KB897615 outlines MS Support for 3rd Party Virtualization such

as VMware and XenServer…• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V technology gives high

performance and is a very cost competitive option• MS Licensing has new Virtualization support, and Datacenter

edition will provide for unlimited guests under a single host.

For More Information

SharePoint 2010 Unleashed (SAMS Publishing) (http://www.samspublishing.com)Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed and/or Hyper-V Unleashed (http://www.samspublishing.com)Microsoft ‘Virtualizing SharePoint Infrastructure’ Whitepaper (2007) (http://tinyurl.com/virtualsp) Microsoft ‘Virtualizing SQL Server’ Whitepaper (http://tinyyurl.com/virtualsql)Microsoft’s Guidance on Virtualization Monitoring (2007) (Brian Wilson, MCS) http://tinyurl.com/monitorsp Contact us at CCO.com

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Michael NoelTwitter: @MichaelTNoel

www.cco.com