Building a Dynamic and Flexible Exchange...
Transcript of Building a Dynamic and Flexible Exchange...
Building a Dynamic and Flexible Exchange Architecture
B S Nagarajan
Senior Technology Consultant
6th November, 2008
Agenda
� What is new in Exchange 2007?
� Why Virtualize Exchange?
� Sizing guidelines
� Eat your own Dog Food
� Customer references
State of the Art – Exchange Architectural Changes
Exchange 2003
32-bit Windows
900MB database cache
4Kb block size
Requires high-end storage
Storage is common pain pointSmall, fast, expensive drives to provide required IOPS.
Primitive roles
Front-End, Back-End
Exchange 2007
64-bit Windows
Multi-GB database cache
8Kb block size
50% reduction in disk I/O
Affordable storage
iSCSI, DAS
Eliminates storage pain point
More granular roles
More flexible deployment topology
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• Server role is a logical concept used to organize Exchange 2007 services and features across one or more servers.
• While Exchange 2003 provided primitive server roles called Back End server and Front End server, Exchange 2007 has more granular divisions.
• Dividing Exchange features among several server roles has advantages:
• More flexible deployment topology
• Better hardware utilization and scalability
• Easy to maintain
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• Mailbox (MB): Host mailbox and public folder data. Provides MAPI access for Outlook clients. If Clustered Mailbox role is selected, other server roles cannot be combined on the same physical server.
• Client Access (CA): Provides other mailbox server protocol access apart from MAPI. Similar to Exchange 2003 FrontEnd server, it enables user to use an Internet browser (OWA), 3rd party mail client (POP3/IMAP4) and mobile device (ActiveSync) to access their mailbox.
• Unified Message (UM): This role enables end users to access their mailbox, address book, and calendar using telephone and voice. IP-PBX or VoIP gateway needs to be installed and configured to facilitate much of the functionality of this server role.
• Hub Transport (HT): The Hub Transport role handles mails by routing them to next hop: another Hub Transport server, Edge server or mailbox server.
• Edge Transport (ET): The last hop of outgoing mail and first hop of incoming mail, acting as a "smart host" and usually deployed in a perimeter network, Uses ADAM with one-way sync from AD, does not require Active Directory to function once synced, can function with limited access to the corporate network for increased security. Cannot mix with other roles in same box.
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Exchange 2007 Server RolesExchange 2007 Server Roles
Enterprise NetworkOtherSMTP
Servers
Mailbox
Routing Hygiene Routing Policy
Voice Messaging
Client Access
PBX or
VoIP
Public Folders
Fax
ApplicationsOWA
ProtocolsActiveSync, POP,
IMAP, RPC / HTTP …
ProgrammabilityWeb services,
Web parts
Unified Messaging
EdgeTransport
HubTransport
Mailbox
INTERNET
State of the Art – Server Hardware Changes
Exchange 2007 requires 64-bit hardware
256GB+ physical RAM
Multi-core (2/4/6 cores)
Hardware-assisted virtualization
Exchange 2007 workload more efficient
Virtualization to unlock full power of this hardware
State of the Art – ESX Server Changes
Increased guest OS memory (64GB)Increased physical RAM on ESX (256GB)Network improvements lower CPU utilizationNUMA optimizations improve multiple VM performanceImproved storage efficiencyAnd many more improvementsESX Server 3.5 is ready for Exchange
Exchange 2007 Performance on VI3
PerformanceMyth: Exchange performs poorly in a VM especially in terms of disk I/O.
Reality: Numerous performance studies have been conducted with our server and storage partners:
HP Performance Testing -http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/exchange_hp_performance_wp.pdf
Dell EMC Performance Testing -http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/exchange_ms_virtualizing_wp.pdf
IBM Performance Testing -http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/ibm_exchange_vmworld.html
Summary of findingsNegligible I/O differences running in a VM…some tests were slightly better than physical.
Slightly higher processor utilization (5 – 10%) in a virtual machine.
8K mailboxes
Native VMware Infrastructure
8 VM
16K mailboxes
16 core
128 GB 16 core
128 GB
Record Capacity for Exchange 2007
How many mailboxes can ESX Server support on a single server?
Is storage the limit?No. Exchange 2007 on Windows Server makes excellent use of correctly configured storage.
Is CPU the limit?Possibly. The Mailbox Server’s recommended maximum is eight cores.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998874(EXCHG.80).aspx
Is memory the limit?Possibly. The maximum recommended memory allocation is 32G per server
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2007/plan/hardware.mspx?wt.svl=sysreqs
Maximum mailboxes: 8,000Eight cores at recommended 1,000 mailboxes per core
This results in providing 3.75MB/user at the server; this is in the middle of the 2-5MB/user recommendation
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Exchange 2007 server role Minimum Recommended Maximum
Edge Transport 1 x processor core
2 x processor cores
4 x processor cores
Hub Transport 1 x processor core
4 x processor cores
8 x processor cores
Client Access 1 x processor core
4 x processor cores
4 x processor cores
Unified Messaging 1 x processor core
4 x processor cores
4 x processor cores
Mailbox 1 x processor core
4 x processor cores
8 x processor cores
All-in-one server roles (except ET)
1 x processor core
4 x processor cores
4 x processor cores
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Exchange 2007 server role Minimum per
server
Recommended Maximum per
server
Edge Transport 2 GB 1 GB per core (2 GB minimum)
16 GB
Hub Transport 2 GB 1 GB per core (2 GB minimum)
16 GB
Client Access 2 GB 1 GB per core (2 GB minimum)
8 GB
Unified Messaging 2 GB 1 GB per core
(2 GB minimum)
4 GB
Mailbox 2 + n GB 2 + n GB 32 GB
All-in-one server roles (except ET)
2 + n GB 4 + n GB 8 GB
Building Block Performance
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14000
16000
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1 VM 2 VMs 3 VMs 4 VMs 5 VMs 6 VMs 7 VMs 8 VMs
Virtual Machines
Mai
lbox
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Mailboxes
SendMailLatency
Record-setting Server Performance
Quick Sizing Discussion
Processor:
Light/Average: 1,000 users/core
Heavy/Very heavy: 500 users/core
Memory:
2GB base
2MB per “light” mailbox
3.5MB per “average” mailbox
5MB per “heavy/very heavy” mailbox
Sizing Examples
500 “heavy” users:1vCPU
2GB base + (500 x 5MB) = 5GB RAM
1,000 “heavy” users:2 vCPU
2GB base + (1,000 x 5MB) = 7GB
2,000 “heavy” users:4 vCPU
2GB base + (2,000 x 5MB) = 12GB
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• Single Copy Clusters (SCC) uses at least two servers and a shared disk storage to house the database, logfiles, and quorum.
• Local Continuous Replication (LCR) keeps an additional copy of the database and log files on the same server.
• Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) keeps an additional copy of the database and log files on a different server. Both node must be in same subnet. Auto failover possible.
• Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) replicate Storage Group to a number of remote servers. Need SP1. Source can be an CCR,SCC, or Stand alone mailbox server. Manual failover only.
Native
Mailbox Mailbox
MSCCR
VMware Infrastructure
Network Load Balancing
Edge Hub Client Mailbox
Simpler, Cost-Efficient Availability for Exchange 2007
Edge Hub Client
MSLCR
VMware HA & VMotion
SimpleEliminate complexity of MS clusteringOne HA solution for all Exchange roles
Cost-effectiveWindows and Exchange Standard EditionNo dedicated standby servers
ReliableVMware HA for unplanned downtimeVMotion for planned downtimeLCR for data replication
Improve Testing Efficiency with Snapshots and Clones
Exchange ExchangeBlackBerry
ServerBlackBerry
DB
ProductionTest
Archive for Fast Roll-back
Exact copy of production
12
Run more tests faster
3
Move changes into production
4
> Faster testing> More accurate testing on exact production copy> Lower cost testing infrastructure
VMware Exchange Deployment
Business and User Characteristics
� Business Type: Software Company
� Typically 1 million internal / 100k external / 40k spam messages per day� Primary datacenter in Palo Alto
� No Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery capabilities
� Single Active Directory site
� Production Mailboxes: ~9000
� Mailbox profiles� Unlimited mailbox sizes for users (largest ~54GB)
� Total mailbox data: 10TB
� Average mailbox size: ~1GB
� Average IOP rating per user: 2.25
Exchange 2007 Architecture
� 3 physical locations (Multi-Site configuration)� Primary datacenters in Palo Alto and Santa Clara
� Fail-over between primary datacenters
� Second Palo Alto site for file share witness
� 1 Gig connection between facilities
� Mailboxes (9,000 and rapidly growing)� Extra-large or non-quota’d mailboxes (>2 GB): ~2000
� Standard mailboxes (1-2 GB): ~7000
� Mailbox profiles� 1 and 2 GB mailbox quotas for regular mailboxes
� 3, 4 and 5 GB mailbox quotas for extra-large mailboxes
� Average 1,200 mailboxes per VM
� No mailbox sizes greater than 5GB
Exchange 2007 ArchitectureSystem-Wide� Active Directory Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Enterprise Edition (Multi-Site configuration)
� Exchange 2007 Enterprise Edition
� Clustered Continuous Replication (CCR) over stretched VLAN used for database replication
� 1 GB connection between sites (Bandwidth is tunable depending on requirements)
� 11 application-aware (2 –node) High Availability VMs using CCR
� 9000 mailboxes transitioned to the Exchange Server 2007 environment
� Project completion date: 30-June-2008
� Entire Exchange infrastructure is virtualized using VMware Infrastructure 3
Palo Alto Datacenter• 17 Exchange Server VMs
• 6 Hub/CAS
• 11 Mailbox VMs
• Fiber Channel SAN
• 2 EMC Networker storage node VMs
Santa Clara Datacenter• 14 Exchange Server VMs
• 3 Hub/CAS (proxy and transport only)
• 11 Mailbox VMs
• Fiber Channel SAN
• 2 EMC Networker storage node VMs
• 2 Windows 2003 Std 32 bit DC/GC VMs
Other Virtualized Exchange Customers
� University of Plymouth, 50K mailboxes
� University of Texas, Brownsville, 20K mailboxes
� VIA Health / Rochester General, 5K mailboxes
� Branch of US govt, 750K mailboxes
� Atrenta, Delhi
� Chitale diary, Pune
� Macawber Beekay, Delhi
� Helix Financials, Delhi
“The university has virtualized 50,000 Exchange 2007 mailboxes on VMware Infrastructure. We not only have a more manageable and flexible Exchange
environment, but we have replaced Microsoft clustering with VMware’s built-in high availability solutions such as HA and VMotion. We couldn’t be happier with the uptime
and performance of our Exchange implementation on VMware. VMware technology works for small companies all the way up to massive financial institutions. And clearly,
it has worked for us.”
Adrian JaneHead of Faculty Support and StrategyUniversity of Plymouth
University of Plymouth
Performance
Cost
Exchange Performs Well on VMwareIO is not an issueScales out better on shared hardware
Reduce infrastructure costsConsolidate Exchange server rolesEliminate need for dedicated standby servers
ManagementDynamic Management
Streamline testing & troubleshooting with snapshots and clonesProvision in minutesScale dynamically and right-size infrastructureAchieve high availability without complexity of clustering
Summary - Why Run Exchange on VMware
Microsoft SVVP Support and LicensingSupport
Questions and, possibly, answers