virt exchange2k7 final frontier v mworld2007

Session S288993Virtualizing Exchange Virtualizing Exchange 2007: The Final Frontier?S t b 2007September 2007

Todd Muirhead, Enterprise TechCenter, DellK Y Vi t li ti S l tiKong Yang, Virtualization Solution Engineering, Dell

Some or all of the features in this document may be representative of feature areas under development. Feature commitments must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements p gof any kind. Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.

Introduction

Mi ft E h 2007 B h i O ESX SMicrosoft Exchange 2007 Behavior On ESX Server Virtual Machines Are Not Well Understood

– How does Exchange 2007 profile differ from Exchange g p g2003?

– 64-bit – New server roles: Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Unified

Messaging, and Edge Transport– Other new features such as CCR, administrative tools

– How will these features affect an Exchange 2007 VM?– More memory utilization and features means that the

performance profile could change.– The new server roles offer opportunities to virtualize the different

rolesroles.– Where to start?

Stages of Virtualization AdoptionAdoption

S O E l i / T d DStage One: Evaluation / Test and Dev– Introduction to virtualization– Use of single server or small farm for test and– Use of single server or small farm for test and

developmentStage Two: Virtualization of Some Production Level Apps / C lid i/ Consolidation

– An initial set of “good candidates” for virtualization – Farm of servers is used to support load-balancing high– Farm of servers is used to support load-balancing, high

availability, and easy maintenanceStage Three: Extend Virtualization

– Virtualize more applications to extend same advantages as seen in earlier stages

Typical Application “Good Candidates” for Virtualization Candidates for Virtualization

Ch i iCharacteristics – Low utilization – Low I/O– Low I/O– Running on old hardware

Examplesp– Test and development servers– Domain controllers– DNS servers– Intranet application servers

Anything running on Pentium Pro servers!– Anything running on Pentium Pro servers!

Exchange 2007 –The Final Frontier?The Final Frontier?Exchange 2007 Is a Demanding Application

– 64-bit high I/O large RAM and large disk64 bit, high I/O, large RAM, and large disk – Not the first application that should be virtualized– If Exchange 2007 can be virtualized, then other

d di li ti b did t lldemanding applications can be candidates as wellReasons to Virtualize Exchange 2007– Want to leverage virtualization infrastructure alreadyWant to leverage virtualization infrastructure already

in place for other apps– Take advantage of increased administrative

flexibilityflexibility– Exchange 2007 server roles can be considered

separatelyMailbox Hub Transport Client Access Edge Unified– Mailbox, Hub Transport, Client Access, Edge, Unified Messaging

Exchange 2007 –The Final Frontier?The Final Frontier?

Reasons not to Virtualize Exchange 2007– Not officially supported by Microsoft1Not officially supported by Microsoft– Easier-to-virtualize applications still exist in

environment– Requirement for a very large number of users per

server

1 When considering the deployment of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on a virtualization platform such as VMware ESX Server, please refer to support.microsoft.com/kb/897615 for information about the Microsoft

support policy for their applications running in non-Microsoft virtualization software.

Where to start with Exchange 2007 VMs?Exchange 2007 VMs?Capacity Planning and Reference Architecture

Starting Point: Dell Physical Reference Architecture– Starting Point: Dell Physical Reference Architecture for Microsoft Exchange 20071

– Evaluate four major subsystems: CPU, Memory, Di k d N t kDisk and Network

– Analyze Exchange 2007 VM Behavior under loadExchange 2007 VM BehaviorExchange 2007 VM Behavior– How will VMotion be affected?– Can I run other VM types with Exchange 2007

VM ?VMs?– How does VMware HA perform with Exchange 2007

VMs?

1. www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/Dell_Exchange_2007_Advisor.pdf

Sizing Exchange 2007 VMsg g– Small, medium, and large VM configurations1

– Physical server specifications– DellTM PowerEdgeTM 2950Dell PowerEdge 2950

– Two quad-core 2.33 GHz Intel® Xeon ®– 16 GB RAM

– DELL / EMC CX3-80 – RAID 1/0 for data and logs

Small Medium LargeUsers 500 1,000 2,000

RAM 8 GB 8 GB 16 GB

Data Disks 4 8 16

Log Disks 2 4 8

vCPU 1 to 4 1 to 4 1 to 4

vNIC 1 1 1

Storage Groups 4 8 16

1. www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/Dell_Exchange_2007_Advisor.pdf

g p

vCPU Scaling Test Results for 1VM @ 500 Users1VM @ 500 Users

– Results of 1, 2, 4 vCPU VM testing in small configuration

S dM il 95th ti i b l 560– SendMail 95th response time is below 560 ms.– Overall CPU utilization is below 6% on an 8-core PE2950.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Small VM ConfigvCPU Scaling for 500 Heavy Users

540

560

580

ms)

5

6

480

500

520

540

Send

Mai

l 95t

h (m

2

3

4

CPU

Util

izat

ion

(%)

420

440

460S

0

1

C

SendMail 95th Percentile (ms) 471 485 560

1vCPU 8GB 2vCPU 8GB 4vCPU 8GB

VM ConfigSendMail 95th Percentile (ms) Host Server CPU Utilization (%)

Host Server CPU Utilization (%) 3.5 4.5 5.3

vCPU Scaling Test Results for 1VM @ 1 000 Usersfor 1VM @ 1,000 Users– Results of 1, 2, 4 vCPU VM testing in medium

configurationconfiguration– SendMail 95th response time is below 814 ms.– Overall CPU utilization is below 13% on an 8-core PE2950.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Medium VM ConfigvCPU Scaling for 1000 Heavy Users

700

800

900

s)

12

14

300

400

500

600

700

endM

ail 9

5th

(ms

6

8

10

U U

tiliz

atio

n (%

)

0

100

200

300Se

0

2

4 CPU

S dM il 95th P til 693 482 814

1vCPU 8GB 2vCPU 8GB 4vCPU 8GB

VM ConfigSendMail 95th Percentile Host Server CPU Utilization

SendMail 95th Percentile 693 482 814

Host Server CPU Utilization 6.8 8.2 12.7

vCPU Scaling Test Results for 1VM @ 2 000 Usersfor 1VM @ 2,000 Users– Results of 1, 2, 4 vCPU VM testing in large configuration

– 1vCPU 16GB DNF test runs.– 95th Response time is below 934 ms.– Overall CPU utilization is below 24% on an 8-core PE2950.

25

900

1000

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Large VM ConfigvCPU Scaling for 2000 Heavy Users

10

15

20

400

500

600

700

800

Utiliz

ation

(%)

dMail

95th

(ms)

1vCPU 16GB 2vCPU 16GB 4vCPU 16GBSendMail 95th Percentile 934 664

0

5

0

100

200

300 CPU

Send

Host Server CPU Utilization 12.5 22.3 23.4

VM Config

SendMail 95th Percentile Host Server CPU Utilization

Number of VMs Testing ResultsTesting Results– How does performance of single large VM compare to

multiple smaller VMs in small configuration?multiple smaller VMs in small configuration?– 2 VMs with sufficient vCPU and memory resources performs best.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 VM ScalingSmall Config with 500 Heavy Users

800

900

10

12

300

400

500

600

700

ndM

ail 9

5th

(ms)

4

6

8

10

U U

tiliz

atio

n (%

)

0

100

200

300

1VM 2vCPU8GB (8GB

2VM 1vCPU4GB (8GB

1VM 4vCPU8GB (8GB

4VM 1vCPU2GB (8GB

2VM 4vCPU8GB (16GB

4VM 2vCPU4GB (16GB

Sen

0

2

4

CPU

Total) Total) Total) Total) Total) Total)

VM Config


Number of VMs Testing ResultsTesting Results– How does performance of single large VM compare to g g

multiple smaller VMs in medium configuration?– 1 VM with sufficient vCPU and memory resources performs best.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 VM ScalingMedium Config with 1000 Heavy Users

1200

1400

18

20

600

800

1000

1200

dMai

l 95t

h (m

s)

8

10

12

14

16

U U

tiliz

atio

n (%

)

0

200

400

1VM 2vCPU8GB (8GB

2VM 1vCPU4GB (8GB

1VM 4vCPU8GB (8GB

4VM 1vCPU2GB (8GB

2VM 4vCPU8GB (16GB

4VM 2vCPU4GB (16GB

Send

0

2

4

6

CPU


VM Config


Number of VMs Testing ResultsTesting Results– How does performance of single large VM compare to

lti l ll VM i l fi ti ?multiple smaller VMs in large configuration?– 1 VM with sufficient vCPU and memory resources performs best.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 VM ScalingLarge Config with 2000 Heavy Users

4500

5000

35

40

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

ndM

ail 9

5th

(ms)

15

20

25

30

U U

tiliz

atio

n (%

)

0

500

1000

1500

1VM 2vCPU16GB (16GB

2VM 1vCPU8GB (16GB

1VM 4vCPU16GB (16GB

4VM 1vCPU4GB (16GB

2VM 4vCPU8GB (16GB

4VM 2vCPU4GB (16GB

Sen

0

5

10 CPU


VM Config


Heterogeneous VM Testing with Exchange 2007 VMswith Exchange 2007 VMs– What is the impact to different types of VMs running on the same server as a

Microsoft Exchange 2007 VM? – Tested by running Exchange VM alongside SQL Server and SLES LAMP VMs.– SQL and LAMP VMs overall performance decreased by 1-2%; Avg RT increased less

than 10ms.

Heterogeneous VMs running with Exchange 2007 VM

8000

9000 60

4000

5000

6000

7000

tions

per

Min

ute

30

40

50

spon

se T

ime

(ms)

0

1000

2000

3000

8 SQL Server 2005 VMs 8 SQL Server 2005 VMs + 8 SLES LAMP VMs 8 SLES LAMP VMs +

Ope

rat

0

10

20

Avg

. Res

8 SQL Server 2005 VMs 8 SQL Server 2005 VMs Exchange 2007 VM with

1000 users

8 SLES LAMP VMs 8 SLES LAMP VMs Exchange 2007 VM with

1000 users

VM Configurations

Operations per Minute Avg RT (ms)

Heterogeneous VM Testing with Exchange 2007 VMswith Exchange 2007 VMs

Wh t i th i t t th E h 2007 VM ith th VM i h t– What is the impact to the Exchange 2007 VM with other VMs running on host server?

– Exchange VM impacted more than the SQL and LAMP VMs.– 95th percentile response time increased from 482 ms to 1211 ms.– Exchange VM Contribution to host server CPU utilization: 8.2% alone increased to

19.7% CPU utilization with other VMs running.

1200

1400

600

800

1000

1200

vg RT (m

s)

0

200

400

1 Medium 1000 User Exch VM 1 Medium 1000 User Exch VM + 8 SQL VMs + 8 LAMP

Av

1 Medium 1000 User Exch VM 1 Medium 1000 User Exch VM + 8 SQL VMs + 8 LAMP VMs

SendMail Avg RT (ms) SendMail 95th Percentile Avg RT (ms)

VMotion With Exchange 2007 VMs2007 VMs

– What happens to large heavily loaded VMs when moved?– Complete 10 VMotions during a 2 hour period of Exchange 2007 activity

and record VMotion time and VM behaviorand record VMotion time and VM behavior.– From Virtual Center, VMotion completes in all cases but Load Generator

shows some skipped tasks in the 1k user case and terminates in the 2k case.

Small Medium Large LargeUsers 500 1000 2000 2000# of VMs 1 1 1 4RAM per VM 16GB 16GB 16GB 4GBvCPU 4 4 4 4vCPU 4 4 4 4VMotion Times 3-5 Minutes 4-6 Minutes 10 Minutes 3-5 MinutesSkipped Tasks No Yes N/A NoTask Queue > 5000

No No Yes No

VMware High Availability with Exchange 2007 VMswith Exchange 2007 VMs

H d VM hi h il bilit f ti ith– How does VMware high availability function with Exchange 2007 VMs?– Testing VMware High Availability

– Remove power from host ESX server that has the Exchange 2007 VM handling Load Generator tasks.

– VMware HA brings the VM online on another ESX Server.– Observe and record the down time and the behavior after the VM– Observe and record the down time and the behavior after the VM

comes online.

Testing High Availability with Exchange 2007 VMswith Exchange 2007 VMs– Results from Testing VMware HAg

– The Exchange 2007 VM had a downtime of a few minutes.– 500 users had 563 exceptions; 1000 users had 1106 exceptions; 2000

users did not recover.

VMware HA Testing with Microsoft Exchange 2007 VMs

3000

3500 1200

1500

2000

2500

3000

Mai

l 95t

h (m

s)

600

800

1000

sk E

xcep

tions

0

500

1000

1500

Send

M

0

200

400

# of

Tas

500 Users 1000 Users 2000 Users

Configuration

SendMail 95th # of Task Exceptions

Summary of Observations for Exchange 2007 VMsfor Exchange 2007 VMs

B t P ti f E h 2007 i VM– Best Practice for Exchange 2007 in a VM– Utilize Dell Exchange Reference Architecture for sizing RAM,

storage, and networkTh b f CPU VM d d th b f– The number of vCPUs per VM depends on the number of users to be supported

– Small – 1vCPU, medium – 2vCPU, large – 4vCPUExchange 2007 VM does not greatly affect overall performance of– Exchange 2007 VM does not greatly affect overall performance of other VMs; but its overall performance was impacted.

– VMware HA was effective in bringing small, medium Exchange 2007 VMs back online from a simulated host server failure.

– VMotion of the Small Exchange 2007 VM was successful.– Larger Exchange 2007 VMs require more investigation

Conclusions

Mi ft E h 2007 f ll bl i VI3– Microsoft Exchange 2007 fully capable in VI3– Stacking multiple, small Exchange VMs improves

VMotion, HA capabilitiesp– Design Exchange 2007 VMs from physical reference

Architecture– Ensures basic quality of service for storage and network subsystemsEnsures basic quality of service for storage and network subsystems– Provides tuning of CPU/memory through resource allocation in VI3

Questions?

S i S288993Session S288993Virtualizing Exchange 2007: The Final Frontier?

Todd Muirhead and Kong YangDell Inc.

For more information …www.dell.com/vmwarewww.dell.com/techcenterwww.delltechcenter.com

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