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Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is a very random and aggressive, I/O intensive application that often necessitates dedicated storage to provide high performance. Successful Exchange Server 2003 deployments have a critical dependence on proper sizing and configuring of the storage subsystem to meet requirements for performance, fault tolerance, and reliability.
This white paper addresses best practices considerations when deploying Exchange Server 2003 on the HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA8000). Testing was conducted on the EVA8000 2C12D model with 168 disks (72-GB, 15K-rpm drives). The document includes the following information:
- Best practices for the configuration of the EVA8000 storage array for Exchange Server
2003 to achieve high performance while balancing the demands for high availability.
- Analysis of test results conducted on the EVA8000 using the Microsoft Jetstress utility
Key Findings: The following best practice recommendations serve as guidelines for deployment of Exchange Server 2003 on the EVA.
1. For the best combination of performance and availability, Exchange transaction logs and databases should be isolated into separate disk groups on the EVA.
2. As long as the number of spindles are properly sized and configured to support Exchange database activity (providing a recommended 15-20% overhead to handle peak I/O), either a single large database disk group or multiple smaller database disk groups can be configured to support the Exchange database I/O.
3. If additional workloads are running on the EVA, such as non-Exchange applications or disk to disk backups, an additional disk group should be configured to isolate this I/O.
4. For Exchange transaction logs, VRAID1 should be used to provide the best performance and availability.
5. For Exchange databases, VRAID1 should be used to provide the best performance and availability.
6. Leave the default value, shortest queue service time, as the load balancing algorithm when using HP?s Full Featured Multi-Pathing Input/Output (MPIO) driver.
Target audience
This document is intended for experienced Exchange storage architects and administrators and assumes that the reader has previous knowledge regarding Exchange and SAN technologies, specifically the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array. Additional background Exchange storage information is available at www.microsoft.com/exchange and www.hp.com/solutions/exchange.
Overview
When deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, there are a number of factors that must be addressed to ensure a successful application deployment. To provide a high performance Exchange server environment, the initial design and planning phase is critical and key decisions must be made around the type of server hardware, the amount of required memory, the network infrastructure, and Active Directory design. One area that requires extensive knowledge and discussion is the proper sizing and configuration of the storage subsystem.
Microsoft Exchange Server is a very I/O intensive application and is extremely sensitive to I/O latencies. Understanding proper storage sizing and best practices is vital, as one of the leading causes of poor Exchange Server performance is under or mis-configuration of the storage subsystem. This white paper will focus on providing guidelines for achieving a high performance Exchange configuration while balancing the requirements for high reliability and availability.
The tests documented in this white paper were driven by the Microsoft Jetstress utility, which simulates Exchange I/O load at the Jet database level and is a useful tool for analyzing storage performance.1 Tests were performed to determine the performance and scalability of the EVA8000 disk subsystem in various configurations, which included testing and quantifying the impact of:
- Changing disk group configurations
- Comparison of VRAID1 vs. VRAID5
- Changing load balancing algorithms with the full featured MPIO DSM
This white paper is meant to serve as a reference guide for the design and configuration of the EVA8000 for Exchange Server 2003 deployments. The best practices outlined in this document are recommended based on the analysis and observations from this testing. Keep in mind that other considerations may impact the design criteria based on specific customer or environmental situations.
HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Array
The HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Array is an enterprise class, high performance, high capacity, and high availability "virtual" storagearray solutions. The EVA8000 is designed to meet the needs of the data center to support critical application demands for consistently high transaction I/O.
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