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Executive summary
Many configuration details must be considered when deploying Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 (Exchange). The Exchange deployments can incorporate different server, storage and application availability features to support tiered service level requirements. To better understand these hardware and application deployment options, HP has developed a series of tiered solution briefs. The tiered solution briefs are categorized using the HP Exchange user Experience (EuE) matrix, which defines both the server and storage hardware components and configurations along with the appropriate Exchange availability features for each of the given tiers.
The EuE matrix not only incorporates selected hardware and availability options for the given tier, it also incorporates a more realistic test workload for validation. Unlike prior high-water benchmark testing, the solution tiers are focused on production style settings and workloads. There are four tiers in the EuE matrix: platinum, gold, silver and bronze.
The platinum tier is the highest level in the EuE matrix and combines the HP enterprise server and storage redundancy options, along with Exchange’s high availability and site resiliency features. The gold tier is similar to the platinum tier which combines the HP enterprise server and storage redundancy options along with Exchange high availability features within the primary site; however, it does not include Exchange site resiliency features such as Standby Continuous Replication (SCR). The silver tier is designed to provide data redundancy using Local Continuous Replication (LCR) and the bronze tier is targeted at cost sensitive environments using basic server services and Exchange configurations without high availability. For additional details on the tiered solutions, refer to the Tiered solutions section of this document.
This gold tier solution brief provides both the configuration details and test results of the HP ProLiant BL480c server blade coupled with the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays. The tested environment consists of two ProLiant BL480c server blades configured as a clustered mailbox server using Exchange’s Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) feature. This testing procedure simulated 4,000 heavy mailbox users configured with 1GB mailboxes. To provide data protection and redundancy, both of the Exchange cluster nodes were connected to separate HP StorageWorks 8000 Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVA8000). The Active Directory (AD) and Exchange support roles, including Hub transport (HUB) and Client Access Server (CAS), were also installed on ProLiant BL480c server blades. All servers were configured with Microsoft Windows® Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For additional details, refer to the Tested configuration section of this document.
Key findings: The HP gold tier solution using the ProLiant BL480c server blades and EVA8000 storage arrays is an ideal platform to support 4,000 heavy mailboxes. The high availability components of the gold tier solution have been tested with both normal and peak message workloads. The solution provided high performance, while protecting the messaging environment from potential hardware component failure as well as protecting against Exchange application or database service disruptions.
Target audience: The information contained in this white paper is intended for solutions architects, engineers, and project managers involved in the planning and design of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 solutions. The reader should be familiar with Exchange Server 2007 terminology and best practices.
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