The document discusses the advantages of using QLogic adapters in Microsoft Exchange environments to enhance mailbox hosting capabilities and access times. It covers email requirements, Microsoft Exchange server architecture, deployment complexities, and the impact of increased email size and user mobility on storage performance. Additionally, best practices for optimizing I/O performance and ensuring reliability in Exchange server environments are presented.

1. QLogic Solutions
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange environments can host more mailboxes with
faster access times when using QLogic adapters

2. MSFT Exchange Collateral
• All files are located at: http://www.qlogic.com/info/exchange
• PPT Slides
• Solution Sheet
• White Paper
• Competitive Brief
• Video
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3. Agenda
• Email requirements within the datacenter
• Understanding Microsoft Exchange─I/O Perspective
• Variances within versions of Exchange
• Topology & Storage Designs
• Planning and Validation Tools
• QLogic Adapter capabilities and MS Exchange Performance
• I/O Best Practices for MS Exchange
• SAN
• Convergence
• Conclusion
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4. Business Runs on Email
• Email growth is accelerating
• Email represents a significant portion of an organization’s total data
• Email is a consolidated method for communication in a wired world
• Email through Corporate
• Internet access, Web Browsers
• Instant Messaging, Integrated Voicemail & Web Conferencing
• Many organizations retain email records indefinitely
• Service level agreements getting tougher
• Access and performance is crucial to conducting business
• Corporate compliance and regulatory laws require timely─and
secure─access to email records
Exchange environments must be
Predictable  Scalable  Flexible
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5. Microsoft 2010 Exchange Server
• Microsoft Exchange is the most used email server on the market today
• Email architecture and design requires a scalable infrastructure as email
systems grow
• More users (mailbox size is growing)
• More mobility/devices (mobile users need 4X Transactional versus desktop user)
• More data is being stored within the mailbox (larger attachments)
• Microsoft has made significant changes within Exchange 2010 to address
deployment flexibility, better collaboration tools, and continuous replication,
along with security and compliance
• Microsoft is addressing deployment complexity and budget reductions for
both Hardware Expenditures & Administrative Cost
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6. Microsoft 2010 Exchange Deployment – Focus on I/O
Enterprise Network
Edge Transport Hub Transport Phone system (PBX or
External SMTP VOIP)
Routing & AV/AS Internal email Routing
servers
ISR FC to iSCSI or FCIP
10GbE
10GbE
4/8/Gb Switch/HBA
Mailbox
10Gb CNA Storage of mailbox items
Unified Messaging
Voice mail &
voice access
4/8Gb Switch/HBA
Mobile phone 10GbE
Client Access 10GbE
Web browser Client connectivity
Web services
Line of business application
Outlook (remote
user) Outlook (local user)
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7. Differences within Exchange Versions
32-bit OS support 32 bit and 64 bit 64 bit only
OS
Memory usage 4GB or less Memory usage - up to 32GB Memory usage – up to 32GB
Database
Average Message Size = 25k Average Message Size = 50k Average Message Size = 75k
Page size – 4k Page size – 8k Page size – 32k
IOPS/mailbox – 1.0 to 1.5 IOPS/mailbox - .48 to .64 IOPS/mailbox - .18 to .60
I/O Type
Random Random Random + Sequential
Hardware
HA
Cluster Continuous Replication Database Availability Groups
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8. Database Availability Group
• Database level failover San Jose
• No more single point of failure
• Exchange takes care of clustering
configuration
• Transaction log shipping
• Compression & Encryption Dallas
• TCP instead of SMB Local
• Replicate data to remote datacenter
• Up to 16 copies of the data can be
kept
• Online Mailbox Moves
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9. Storage Options Based on Scalability & Performance
QLE2562 & 5800 for FC deployments
Storage Area • Scalable Shared Resources
Network (SAN)
Number of Users 750 or Greater
iSCSI storage with QLE8242 for remote iSCSI connectivity
SAS Disks • Hardware Protocol offload, Granular QOS
Number of Users 250 to 750
Direct Attached
with SATA Disks QLE3242 for high performance attachment
• Applies to all environment for baseline
infrastructure
Number of Users 0 to 250
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10. Exchange Implementation Challenges
• Fibre Channel SANs
• Increased email size and number of users require more I/O flowing through
Exchange
• Background Database Maintenance and Indexing tasks
• Transactional I/O from mobility users, Collaboration software and process
workflow applications
• Converged Networks
• Maintaining traffic flow for optimal performance
• Difficult to maintain and manage segmented traffic types and QoS consistently
• VMs may be accessing different storage subsystems, Fibre Channel/iSCSI
SANs require separate IO paths
• Exchange requires high CPU Utilization
• Running in a virtualized environment increases this further
• Performance and SLA requirements need be met
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11. I/O Best Practices for Microsoft Exchange
• QLogic 4Gb/s and 8Gb/s Fibre Channel Adapters
• Implementation of failover and multipathing within a SAN still provides the
best redundant access to mailbox databases
• Better Capex/Opex ROI based on the following criteria
• When storage is shared among other applications such as CRM and ERP
• Organizations above 750 clients
• Share multiple Distributed Access Groups within the SAN
• Seamless Growth─Grow the number of mailboxes and mailbox size –
demands flexible provisioning capabilities of the SAN
• N-Port Virtualization to support QoS based on priority or bandwidth controls
• Central point of backups and faster backup/restore technologies
• Single point of management and troubleshooting
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12. I/O Best Practices for Microsoft Exchange – Virtualization
• QLogic FlexOffload─
• An efficient offload engine (IOPS/CPU) reduces the amount of CPU required for
an Exchange mailbox server; enables efficient virtualization of the Exchange
server, leaving room to host additional services and applications
• QLogic Network Partitioning (NPAR)─
• Flexible function definitions, multiple virtual functions
• Ability to manage network bandwidth by priority of traffic
• Critical for virtualized deployments of Exchange with other enterprise workloads
• QLogic NPIV QoS─
• Configure bandwidth/priority based QoS per virtual port enables clear segregation
of SAN bandwidth, especially in virtualized deployments
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13. Trends driving the need for a high performance SAN
• Evolution of email usage and access driving the need for performance
• Transactional I/O─Storage IOPS
• Increase in mobile users  4X the IOPS of a regular user
• Increasing average email size  more I/O flowing though Exchange
• Third-party search and indexing software  Additional I/O overhead
• Integrated Collaboration Software  email, voice and chat converging
• Extensive integration of email with process workflow applications  CRM, Issue Tracking
• Deploying the Exchange mailboxes on a SAN provides the following benefits
• High disk utilization─with DAS for each mailbox server a higher percentage is disk space is left
un-utilized
• Seamless Growth─growth in number of mailboxes and mailbox size─demands the flexible
provisioning capabilities of the SAN
• Central point of backups and generally faster backup/restore technologies
• Single point of management and troubleshooting
• Wikibon analysis at - http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Should_Exchange_2010_use_DAS_or_SAN
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14. Exchange I/O Sizing Example
• Storage Performance Requirements (IOPS)
5000 Users (Send/Receive) Exchange 2003 Exchange 2007 Exchange 2010
Average (10/40) 2500 900 300
Heavy (20/80) 3750 1600 600
Very Heavy (30/120) 5000 2400 900
Extra Heavy (40/160) 7500 3200 1200
• Storage Performance Requirements (Throughput)
• Required for Background Database Maintenance (Checksum)─active and passive databases
• 5000 users, each with a 2GB mailbox = 10TB of mailbox data
• 10TB of mailbox data = 100 databases of 100GB each
• 5MB/s of SEQ Read I/O per database = 500MB/s of throughput required per mailbox sever
• For a 3-node mailbox server configuration this equates of 1500MB/s of total storage bandwidth
• Must complete in 72 hours
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15. Exchange I/O Sizing Example
• Network Performance Requirements
• E.g. 5000 heavy Office Outlook 2007 users, the average network traffic is:
• Network bytes/sec = (5000 heavy users (5,200 KB/user day)) (8 hr/day 3600
sec/hr) = 925KB/sec
• Assuming a daily peak of twice the average usage = 1850KB/s = 14Mb/s
• OWA users require twice the Outlook 2007 network performance
• CPU Cycles Availability Requirements
• E.g. 5000 extra heavy user mailboxes on a Nehalem (8 cores) = 72% CPU
• Less than 5-10% (est.) of the CPU Utilized is accounted for the I/O
• If hosting the mailbox server as a VM─add 10-15% more CPU cycles
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16. QLogic Adapter Capabilities
Mailbox Server – Background Database Maintenance – Throughput
(Exchange Requirements = 5MB/s per Database, Total Throughput depends on Number of Databases)
Microsoft Exchange
Throughput Capability Requirement Number of QLogic Ports required
QLogic Adapter
(for 5000 Users – 2GB Mailbox (with Failover)
and 100 databases)
QLogic 24xx FC HBA 360MB/s 500MB/s 4
QLogic 25xx FC HBA 780MB/s 500MB/s 2
QLogic 82xx CNA - FCoE 1100MB/s 500MB/s 2
QLogic 82xx CNA - iSCSI 450MB/s 500MB/s 4
QLogic 32xx IEA – SW iSCSI 1130 MB/s 500MB/s 2
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17. Microsoft Exchange Planning Tools
• Mailbox Role Requirements Calculator
• Inputs─Number of mailboxes, Type of users, Mailbox size, Database parameters etc.
• Provides─
• Microsoft recommendations on storage configuration, memory, mailbox sizing
• Produces I/O and capacity requirements, LUN design, Mailbox server count and processor
requirements
• Available at─
• Exchange 2010 – http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2010/01/22/3409223.aspx
• Exchange 2007 – http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2007/01/15/3397742.aspx
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18. Microsoft Exchange Validation Tools
• Exchange Jetstress 2003, 2007, 2010
• Exchange I/O simulator, uses Jet (ESE) database engine
• Analyzes server I/O performance for Exchange requirements
• Used for
• Storage performance validation
• Storage reliability testing
• End-to-end testing of storage components
• Exchange Storage Benchmarks typically are JetStress reported results
• Exchange Load Generator (LoadSim) 2003, 2007, 2010
• Multi-protocol client load generator for Exchange
• Generates load for Outlook 2003/2007 (online and cached), Post Office Protocol (POP),
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), OWA
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19. Microsoft 2010 Exchange Deployment – Focus on I/O
Enterprise Network
Edge Transport Hub Transport Phone system (PBX or
External SMTP VOIP)
Routing & AV/AS Internal email Routing
servers
ISR FC to iSCSI or FCIP
10GbE
10GbE
4/8/Gb Switch/HBA
Mailbox
10Gb CNA Storage of mailbox items
Unified Messaging
Voice mail &
voice access
4/8Gb Switch/HBA
Mobile phone 10GbE
Client Access 10GbE
Web browser Client connectivity
Web services
Line of business application
Outlook (remote
user) Outlook (local user)
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20. Key Takeaways
• QLogic has solutions for all Exchange environments
• Mobility is driving the need for higher backend performance
• Storage Area Networks provide the customer with better asset
utilization and availability
• IOPs is not a driving factor in Exchange 2010
• Performance & Bandwidth
• Hardware offload to increase CPU efficiency
• Nic Partitioning for better QOC
• Understand differences and where we fit to drive incremental
revenue opportunities
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21. Contact Us
For more information, contact solutions@qlogic.com
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© 2012 QLogic Corporation. Specifications are subject to change without notice. All rights reserved worldwide. QLogic, the QLogic logo, VMflex, ConvergeFlex, and FlexOffload are registered
trademarks of QLogic Corporation. Brocade is a registered trademark of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Emulex is a registered trademark of Emulex Corporation. Microsoft and Microsoft
Exchange are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. VMware and vMotion are registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners. Information supplied by QLogic Corporation is believed to be accurate and reliable. QLogic Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors in this
presentation. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in product design or specifications.
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