HP Business Decision Reference Architecture

Transcription

1 Technical white paper HP Business Decision Reference Architecture Using HP and Microsoft technology to bring BI to the masses Table of contents Executive summary... 2 Introduction... 2 Overview... 2 Solution components... 3 Capacity and sizing... 4 HP LoadRunner... 4 Workload description... 4 Workload results... 5 Analysis and recommendations... 9 Configuration... 9 Setting the internal drive configuration... 9 Network connections... 9 Setting up the hypervisor... 9 Configure the virtual resources PowerShell Configure SQL server back end Configure web front end Additional considerations High Availability Expandability HP Insight Remote Support HP networking HP ilo Advanced HP Smart Array Advanced Pack Bill of materials Summary Implementing a proof-of-concept Appendix A: PowerShell scripts Virtual network and machine setup script For more information... 24

2 Executive summary The difference between winning and losing can often be traced back to speed. Decisions are made and the speed of those decisions can make the difference between one being a leader, or being a follower. This distinction is also true in the business world where companies spend large sums of money to uncover the gems of business intelligence that exist within their own ever-increasing data sets. Business Intelligence is not an afterthought, but rather, it is a driving thought towards success. Microsoft has continued to position its application offerings to provide business intelligence towards an ever-widening pool of corporate employees demanding more and faster access to data in order to make the best day-today decisions. In the role of trusted advisor to HP customers, HP engineering has created this reference architecture for PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 to help HP customers quickly and more easily deploy the systems they require to meet the growing demand of their employee base who are seeking to adopt self-service Business Intelligence. Target audience: Customers that are interested in deploying a self-service Business Intelligence (BI) solution for sharing workbooks built around the Microsoft suite of BI tools, such as PowerPivot, and PowerView with SharePoint This white paper describes testing performed by HP in February Introduction When Microsoft first introduced the PowerPivot add-on for Excel and SharePoint, it set in motion a revolution in the BI market space. The concept of BI for everyone, built on a set of tools that most people were already familiar with, was a paradigm shift. Working closely with Microsoft, HP released a tightly bundled offering, the HP Business Decision Appliance (BDA), which contained all the necessary elements of the software stack built on top of the award-winning HP ProLiant DL360 G7 server. For HP customers, this appliance approach was designed to provide a solution that allowed them to easily access and share PowerPivot workbooks. The BDA has many advantages; however, it also has some drawbacks. Customers, although generally accepting of the appliance approach, required more solution flexibility than an appliance could provide. To address this customer requirement, HP engineering has developed, tested, and offers this reference architecture for customers looking to deploy a self-service BI solution built around the current HP and Microsoft product set. Overview Microsoft Self-Service BI users can be thought of in two distinct groups. The first group creates the BI workbooks, using tools such as PowerPivot, and PowerView within Excel. Typically, we refer to this group as the content generators. The second group is the much larger population of users that will use the workbooks that are created; they are referred to as the content consumers. When examining the role of SharePoint in the Self-Service BI model, it becomes clear that its primary role is directed at the content consumer, SharePoint serves as a host and distribution service for the workbooks. That is, when a BI workbook is created, it is uploaded to the SharePoint PowerPivot site where it can be accessed, either by downloading to Excel, or by viewing and manipulating it directly in a browser using Excel Services. Additionally, when the workbooks are stored within the SharePoint environment, the security, versioning, and access control can all be handled natively by the Microsoft security model. This reference architecture is designed to address the needs of the second group of BI users, the content consumers, by providing them with a tested, repeatable configuration that can be easily purchased, configured, and deployed. The business decision reference architecture utilizes Microsoft Windows Server 2012, SharePoint 2013, and SQL Server 2012 and is designed to take advantage of all the latest technological advancements from Microsoft. The solution is virtualized to allow maximum flexibility for deployment and management. By virtualizing the solution using Hyper-V version 3, we can take advantage of the advances made in the hypervisor that Microsoft provides in Windows Server This advantage allows us to scale the virtual machines to a much higher level than previously available, translating in to a virtualized environment that looks very much like a bare metal install in respect to the number of servers being deployed to support the solution. In the case of this reference architecture, HP engineers use two virtual machines (VM) to support the workload. The first VM is deployed in the role of the web front end where SharePoint 2013 is installed, while the second VM is deployed to support the SQL Server back end role of the SharePoint farm and provide the SQL analysis engine that supports PowerPivot for SharePoint. By using an internal network to provide high-speed communication between the web front end and SQL back end, we can eliminate load the customer s network, while increasing the overall performance of the solution. Figure 1 below illustrates the layout for this reference architecture. 2

3 Figure 1. Architectural diagram of the HP Business Decision Reference Architecture This solution is currently utilizing the internal disk subsystem of the DL380p Gen8 server. This is done to reduce cost of the overall solution; however, if customers need to expand the storage capacity of this solution, adding external storage is definitely an option. Customers will want to keep in mind that any additional or substitution of the storage configuration can change the overall performance of the solution. The solution also supports a single inbound network connection which can be expanded to handle additional network connections available within the DL380p Gen8 server. Note Additional virtual networks will require modifications to the web front end virtual machine. Solution components This reference architecture is built on top of the HP DL380p Gen8 server platform. Although the solution stack is virtualized, the underlying hardware that was chosen for this reference architecture provides a cost effective solution, while maintaining enough capacity to provide an excellent user experience. Customers are welcome to adjust this hardware as their needs require; however, adjustments made to the underlying hardware for this solution can result in changes in the performance characteristics of the overall solution. 3

4 The hardware components for this solution consist of the following: A single DL380p Gen8 Intel Xeon E P 32GB-R P420i SATA SFF 750W PS High Perf Server (4) 8GB PC R (DDR3-1600) Registered DIMMs (Included in the model SKU) (14) 16GB Dual Rank x4 PC R (DDR3-1600) Registered DIMMs HP Smart Array P420/1GB FBWC 6Gb 2-ports Int SAS Controller (2) HP Mini SAS Straight to Straight 37in Cable Assembly HP DL380/DL385 Gen8 8 Small Form Factor Hard Drive Backplane Cage Kit (2) HP 300GB 6G SAS 10K rpm SFF (2.5-inch) SC Enterprise 3yr Warranty Hard Drive (8) HP 600GB 6G SAS 10K rpm SFF (2.5-inch) SC Enterprise 3yr Warranty Hard Drive HP 2GB P-series Smart Array Flash Backed Write Cache The software required for this solution consists of the following: HP Service Pack for ProLiant (ver or later) Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Edition Microsoft SQL Server 2012 with SP1 Business Intelligence Edition Optional software includes: HP Insight Remote Support Standard Software HP Integrated Lights-Out (ilo) Advanced including 3yr 24x7 Technical Support and Updates Single Server License HP Smart Array Advanced Pack 2.0 No Media 1 Server 1yr 24x7 Support Software A full bill of materials is available in Bill of materials section of this white paper. Capacity and sizing The solution outlined in this reference architecture white paper is designed to handle a 2500 user environment. In a typical SharePoint deployment, the number of active users versus configured users is typically characterized as a 10% concurrent user base. If we look at that percentage as our model, it means at any given moment this reference architecture will be able to handle 250 users actively working within the SharePoint environment doing related BI tasks. In order to ensure that the solution meets the performance requirement, HP engineers created a set of PowerPivot workbooks ranging in size from 30MBs to 130MBs, and uploaded them to the PowerPivot site created with the SharePoint 2013 farm. A workload was then created using HP LoadRunner. HP LoadRunner HP LoadRunner is a tool that can emulate hundreds or thousands of concurrent users and apply workloads to almost any client platform or environment. By applying consistent, measurable, and repeatable loads, LoadRunner stresses an application from end-to-end, providing test results that can be used to identify scalability issues that might affect real users in a production environment. In this particular testing, HP engineers used the web protocol within LoadRunner s Virtual User Generator (VuGen) to record the different types of activities relating to PowerPivot. The resulting scripts were then combined, modified, and parameterized to apply to a multiple-user SharePoint 2013 environment. Workload description The workload created SharePoint 2013 PowerPivot workload emulated users logging on to a PowerPivot SharePoint 2013 site, opening a PowerPivot Workbook, and manipulating the workbook in the same manner a typical user would by accessing data slicers. In the case of this testing, 300 PowerPivot workbooks were loaded into the PowerPivot site, representing approximately 19GBs worth of data. The workbooks ranged in size from 30MBs to 130 MBs each, and contained a PowerPivot element, and at least one set of slicers that controlled it. 4

5 The run logic for this workload was as follows. 1. An emulated user would log on to the main URL associated with the PowerPivot site within the SharePoint 2013 farm. Each user was unique, associated to a unique IP address, and authenticated via the Active Directory system in the testing environment. 2. The user then navigated the document library where the workbooks had been placed. Note: the PowerPivot gallery was not tested during the workload, as it requires Microsoft Silverlight to be installed on the client browser, and LoadRunner currently doesn t support it. 3. The user then randomly chose one of the 300 files, and opened it in the browser, using Excel Calculation Services. 4. When the workbook was displayed in the browser, the user made a slicer selection, recalculating the workbook. The user repeated this step between one and four times before restarting. Between each iteration of the above run logic, the browser cache for the user was reset to emulate a new user logging on to the site. Pauses, or think times, randomly between 5 and 20 seconds, were inserted between the steps in the run logic to emulate a user digesting the information being displayed by the browser. Total response times for each of the steps in the run logic were recorded to provide data on transaction response times. Additional performance metrics including hits per second, throughput, and server performance statistics were recorded during the running of this workload. Users were started two at a time, 15 seconds apart, to create a ramp up time of just over 30 minutes. When all users were logged on and running, the system achieved what is referred to as steady state. The system was then allowed to run for over two hours collecting data to provide an accurate look at average performance metrics. Workload results The results presented here are based on the first hour of testing time after the solution had reached steady state. All performance results were collected via HP LoadRunner, allowing the data set to be manipulated as a whole. Transaction summary Table 1 below details the average, minimum and maximum response times of each of the four sections in the run logic, along with the total number of transactions completed within the 60 minute data sample, and the average number of transactions completed per second. Table 1. Response times and transactions completed Transaction name Minimum response time Average response time Maximum response time Total transactions Average number transactions per second PowerPivot - Nav to PowerPivot Site PowerPivot - Nav to Document Library , , PowerPivot - Open Workbook , PowerPivot - Adjust Slicer ,

6 Network consumption Measured in bytes per second, the workload represented an average of a 39.1 Mbps load on the existing network. This number represents the amount of network traffic between the client systems and the web front end. Figure 2. Network consumption CPU utilization CPU utilization, recorded at the local virtual machine level, is a percentage of the total CPU resources available to the individual VMs. Accordingly, the CPU utilization for each of the VMs in this solution must be viewed separately rather than compared to each other. 6

7 CPU consumption web front end CPU utilization on the web front end VM averages at 24.6%, with peaks to 99.5%. Figure 3. CPU consumption on web front end CPU consumption SQL back end CPU utilization on the SQL Server back end VM averages at 3.6% with peaks to 36.3% Figure 4. CPU utilization on SQL back end 7

8 Memory consumption web front end Average memory consumption by the web front end is just over 23 GBs of RAM, with peaks to 28.3 GBs of RAM. Figure 5. Memory consumption web front end Memory consumption SQL back end Memory consumption on the SQL back end shows a steady increase in consumption as more and more workbooks are cached to the PowerPivot cache, maxing out at over 30 GBs over the first hour of the test. Figure 6. Memory consumption SQL back end 8

9 Analysis and recommendations When looking at the testing results for this environment, a few things become clear. Overall user response time averages are excellent; however, the data is a little skewed. This is because the first time a workbook is opened it takes longer to open then if the workbook had been previously opened due to the caching of the workbook by the analysis engine. When a workbook is opened, it is loaded into the cache of the analysis engine if it doesn t already exist in that cache. When a workbook is in the analysis engine cache, and a user requests that workbook, it is loaded not from SQL Server, but from the cache on the analysis engine, making the opening and manipulation of workbooks much faster. At 250 users, the network consumption is fairly low. This is a direct result of the work that Microsoft invested in reducing the overall networking footprint in SharePoint What remains to be seen with this data is how this network traffic will change as users are uploading and downloading the workbooks. The workload only tests users opening workbooks within the browser using Excel Services. As workbooks are created, or need to be modified, file transfers will also play into the overall network consumption. With an average of Mbps per user, there is ample room for growth. CPU utilization for both the web front end, and SQL server back end tiers of this solution are relatively spikey in a timed interval. Upon further investigation, the spikes correspond with SharePoint maintenance tasks that run automatically in the farm. Looking beyond the normal maintenance tasks, we can see that the load of 250 users is creating an average CPU load in the low 20% range on the web front end, while barely putting pressure on the SQL Server back end at 3.5%, which would indicate that the solution can be scaled beyond the current positioning of 250 active users. It is true that SharePoint is a product that, once deployed, can expand in its scope of usage, often far beyond the initial design parameters. It is recommended that customers keep a close eye on the performance metrics of their SharePoint deployments to ensure that their user community is receiving the best possible user experience. Memory consumption is exactly what we would expect to see. As workbooks are opened, they are placed into the cache of the analysis engine, so as the test progresses, memory consumption increases. When a workbook is placed into the cache, the cached version is then used to service other users requesting that same workbook. When the workload has opened all the workbooks, the increase in the memory consumption levels out. Further investigation shows that the leveling out of memory consumption does occur past the two-hour mark within the workload, but it is just not visible within this subset of data. The performance metrics and analysis offered here are only applicable to solutions that are built in accordance to this reference architecture. Customers are encouraged to use these results as guidelines when deviating from the prescribed architecture to meet their own hardware and software requirements. Configuration In this section, we will describe the steps required to build the solution from a bare metal installation. In some cases, the steps can be consolidated into PowerShell scripts that are provided in the Appendix of this white paper. Setting the internal drive configuration The solution calls for 12 drives to be installed internally to the HP DL380p Gen8 server. Create two logical drives through the use of the Option ROM Configuration for Arrays tool that is available by pressing F8 during the power up of the server. The first logical drive should contain the two 300 GB SAS drives, and be configured as RAID1. This drive will be used for the hypervisor s OS disk. Configure the remaining drives into a single large RAID5 set, which will be used to host the virtual machines. Network connections For this solution, the DL380p Gen8 server will require at least one network connection. HP engineering highly suggests that you use two network connections, one to the local network ports, and one for the ilo management. You can use more than one local network port for this solution although it is not a requirement to do so. Setting up the hypervisor Install Windows Server 2012 to the ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server choosing the Standard Edition with GUI, making sure that you choose Drive 0 as your installation location. 9

10 At the end of the installation process you will need to enter a local administrator password, make sure that the password you choose conforms to your corporate standards for security. When the password is set, log in to the server using the password you just created. When you are logged into the server, Windows Server 2012 will launch the Server Manager. First thing we should do is set the IP address of the network adapter. By default, the network adapter is configured to pick up an IP address using DHCP. If the network address needs to be set to a static IP address, that can be done by selecting Local Server on the left side of the Server Manager, and then locating the actively connected Ethernet adapter. The connected Ethernet adapter will have a value of IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled. Click on this value to bring up the Network Connections window. Highlight the connected Ethernet adapter, right click and select Properties. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and press the Properties button. Select the Use the Following IP Address radio button. Enter in the static IP and DNS values that correspond with your networking environment. Press OK. Press Close. Close the Network Connections window when the IP address values are correctly set. Activate the server from the Server Manager by locating Product ID in the properties pane. If the status of Product ID is Not Activated, select it, and enter your Windows Server 2012 product key. Adjust the time and time zone. Directly above the Product ID on the properties pane in the Server Manager is Time Zone. Click on the time zone value, and set it appropriately. Rename the server and add it to the local Active Directory. Note It is not a requirement for this solution that the hypervisor be a member of the Active Directory, HP engineers highly recommend it to facilitate easier management of this server. Locate the computer name on the properties pane of the Server Manager, and click on its value. This action will bring up the System Properties window. Press the Change button. In the Computer Name Field, enter in a name that is appropriate for this hypervisor and complies with your corporate standards. Select the Domain radio button, and enter the name of the domain this server will reside in, and press OK. You will be prompted for domain account credentials to have the necessary authority to add a server into the domain. Enter the user name and password, and press OK. When successful, you will receive a welcome to the domain message, followed by a message that the server will need to reboot. Press OK in both instances. Press Close. Press Restart Now. The server will restart, and you need to log back in using a domain account that is a member for the Domain Admins group. Installing the HP Service Pack for ProLiant HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) is a comprehensive systems software and firmware update solution, which is delivered as a single ISO image. This solution uses HP Smart Update Manager (HP SUM) as the deployment tool and is tested on all HP ProLiant Gen8, G7, and earlier servers. HP engineers strongly recommend that customers download and install the SPP on all HP server deployments to ensure that customers are using the latest drivers and firmware. More information about the HP SPP, and the HP Smart Update Manager can be found in the For more information section of this white paper. 10

11 Prepare storage, and install Hyper-V feature The following steps will create the partition on the second drive, present it as drive E:, and format it. When the drive configuration is completed, you add the Hyper-V features to the server and reboot it. Start PowerShell by pressing the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type Diskpart Type Select disk 1 Type Clean Type Create partition primary Type Select partition 2 Type assign letter = e Type format fs=ntfs label= BDRA Storage quick Type Exit Type md e:\vms Type add-windowsfeature RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools Type add-windowsfeature Hyper-V Type restart-computer At this point, the server will reboot two times as it configures the Hyper-V service. When the server is rebooted, log back in, and continue to the next step. Configure the virtual resources The following steps can be completed in one of two ways. Either use the Hyper-V Manager to manually set up all the resources or expedite the process automatically, referring to the PowerShell script provided in Appendix A. PowerShell Windows PowerShell is the Microsoft task automation framework first introduced in 2006 and later integrated into Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7. It consists of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on top of.net Framework. PowerShell has proven highly useful in automating deployments, and configurations. If you choose to utilize the PowerShell script to complete this Configure the virtual resources section, copy and paste the script file located in Appendix A of this paper, and save it to the hypervisor with a.ps1 extension. Then start PowerShell by pressing the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned Navigate to where you saved your script file, and execute it by typing./script.ps1 where script.ps1 is the name of the file you created. Advance to the Configure SQL server back end section when the execution is complete. To continue with this section manually, you need to start the Hyper-V Manager. In the Server Manager tool, select the Tools option in the upper right hand corner, and then select Hyper-V Manager. Create virtual switches From within the Hyper-V Manager, select Virtual Switch Manager on the right actions pane. Here we will create two networks, an internal and an external network. Create the External Switch first, by selecting External in the dialog box, and pressing the Create Virtual Switch button. In the name field type BDRA, and select a network adapter that has connectivity to the user environment, and press OK. You will receive a warning, Pending Changes may disrupt network connectivity, press Yes. The Virtual Switch Manager will close. Select the Virtual Switch Manager again, select Internal in the dialog box, and press the Create Virtual Switch button. In the name field type BDRA-Internal. Press OK. At this point, your virtual switches are created. Set the Hyper-V default paths From the Hyper-V Manager, select Hyper-Settings on the right actions pane. Select Virtual Hard Disks in the left navigation pane, and enter e:\vms. Select Virtual Machines in the left navigation pane, and enter e:\vms. Press the OK button. 11

12 Create virtual hard disk From the Hyper-V Manager, select New and then Hard Disk for the right action pane. Press the Next button to bypass the Before You Begin section, and then choose VHDX. Press Next. Select Dynamically expanding for disk type, and press Next. Under disk name, type os.vhdx. Under Location, type e:\vms\webfrontend\. Press Next. In the Configure Disk section, choose create a new blank virtual hard disk, and set the size at 250 GB. Press the Finish button. From the Hyper-V Manager, select New and then Hard Disk for the right action pane. Press the Next button to bypass the Before You Begin section, and then choose VHDX. Press Next. Select Dynamically expanding for disk type, and press Next. Under disk name, type os.vhdx. Under Location, type e:\vms\sqlbackend\. Press Next. In the Configure Disk section, choose create a new blank virtual hard disk, and set the size at 250 GB. Press the Finish button. From the Hyper-V Manager, select New and then Hard Disk from the right action pane. Press the Next button to bypass the Before You Begin section, and then choose VHDX. Press Next. Select Dynamically expanding for disk type. Press Next. Under disk name, type data.vhdx. Under Location, type e:\vms\sqlbackend\. Press Next. In the Configure Disk section, choose create a new blank virtual hard disk, and set the size at 3584 GB. Press the Finish button. Create the virtual machines From the Hyper-V Manager, select New and then Virtual Machine for the right action pane. Press the Next button to bypass the Before You Begin section. Enter the name WebFrontEnd, and press Next. In the startup memory field, enter Press Next. In the connection field, select BDRA. Press Next. In the Connect Virtual Hard Disk section, select Use an existing virtual hard disk, and in the location field enter E:\vms\WebFrontEnd\os.vhdx. Press Finish. From the Hyper-V Manager, select New and then Virtual Machine for the right action pane. Press the Next button to bypass the Before You Begin section, and then enter the name SQLBackEnd. Press Next. In the Startup memory field enter Press Next. In the Connection field, select BDRA. Press Next. In the Connect Virtual Hard Disk section, select Use an existing virtual hard disk, and in the location field enter E:\vms\SQLBackEnd\os.vhdx. Press Finish. Adjust the settings From the Hyper-V Manager, highlight the WebFrontEnd VM, right click, and select Settings. Highlight the Processor field on the left navigation pane, and change the number of virtual processors to 24. Highlight Network Adapter, and change the Virtual Switch from Not connected to BDRA. Highlight Add Hardware, select Network Adapter, and press the Add button. Change the Virtual Switch from Not connected to BDRA-Internal, and then press OK. From the Hyper-V Manager, highlight the SQL back end VM, right click, and select Settings. Highlight the processor field on the left navigation pane, and change the number of virtual processors to 8. Highlight Network Adapter, and change the Virtual Switch from Not connected to BDRA. Highlight Add Hardware, and select Network Adapter, and press the Add button. Change the Virtual Switch from Not connected to BDRA-Internal. 12

13 Highlight the IDE Controller 0 on the left navigation pane, select Hard Drive, and press the Add button. In the Media section, enter e:\vms\sqlbackend\data.vhdx in the Virtual Hard Disk field, and press OK. Configure SQL server back end Follow these directions to install Windows Server 2012 on your SQL back end virtual machine. If the Hyper-V Manager is not currently running, start or switch to the Server Manager and select the Tools option in the upper right corner, and then select Hyper-V Manager. From the Hyper-V Manager, double click on the SQL back end VM. This will connect you to the console of the virtual machine. At this point, the virtual machine has not started. Before we start the virtual machine, we will need to connect it to the Windows Server 2012 media. If your media is in ISO form, copy it to the C: drive of the hypervisor, and then attach it to the virtual machine by switching to the Virtual Machine console and selecting Media, and then DVD drive, and then Insert Disk. Navigate to the location where you copied your ISO, and select it. If your Windows Server 2012 media is in DVD form, make sure it is located in the DVD drive for the hypervisor and attach it to the virtual machine by switching to the Virtual Machine console and first selecting Media, then DVD drive, and Capture D:. When your media is attached to the virtual machine, you can turn it on by going to Action, and selecting start, or by pressing the green power button on the Virtual Machine console. Install Windows Server 2012 choosing the Standard Edition with GUI as normal, making sure that you choose Drive 0 as your installation location. At the end of the installation process you will need to enter a local administrator password. Make sure that the password you choose conforms to your corporate standards for security. When the password is set, log in to the server using the password you just created. Preparing the VM for SQL installation When you are logged into the SQLBackEnd VM, Windows Server 2012 will launch the Server Manager. Immediately configure the network adapters. The VMs are configured with 2 virtual network adapters. The first adapter is connected to a virtual switch that is connected to customers LAN, while the second adapter is attached to an internal switch. For this solution, we will be passing the communication between the WebFrontEnd VM, and the SQL back end VM via the internal switch, therefore it is important to set an IP address for the adapter called Ethernet 2. Locate Ethernet 2 in the properties pane of the Server Manager. Click on its value to bring up the Network Connections window. Highlight Ethernet 2, right click and select Properties. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and press the Properties button. Select the Use the Following IP Address radio button. In the IP address field enter In the Subnet mask field enter Press OK. Press Close. The virtual Ethernet adapter named Ethernet is attached to the customer LAN, and is configured to pick up an IP address using DHCP. If this is not acceptable, change the IP address values by highlighting Ethernet, right clicking, and selecting Properties. Set the Static IP addressing to the values that meet your corporate criteria. When the IP address values are correctly set, close the Network Connections window. Activate the server within the Server Manager. To accomplish this action, select Local Server on the left side of the Server Manager and locate the Product ID in the properties pane. If the status of Product ID is Not activated, select it, and enter your product key. Adjust the time and time zone. Directly above the Product ID on the properties pane in the Server Manager is Time Zone. Click on the time zone value, and set it appropriately. 13

14 Preparing the data drive to install SQL Server Note Leave the Windows Server 2012 media attached to the VM when performing the following steps. Start PowerShell by pressing the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type Diskpart Type Select disk 1 Type Clean Type Create partition primary Type Select partition 2 Type assign letter = e Type format fs=ntfs label= SQL Storage quick Type Exit Type add-windowsfeature NET-Framework-Core Source d:\sources\sxs Close PowerShell. Rename the server, and add it to the local Active Directory. Locate the computer name on the properties pane of the Server Manager. Click on its value to bring up the System Properties window. Press the Change button. In the Computer Name Field, enter in a name that is appropriate for this VM and complies with your corporate standards. Select the Domain radio button, and enter the name of the domain this server will reside in, and press OK. Enter the domain account credentials when prompted to have the necessary authority to add a server into the domain. Enter the user name and password, and press OK. When successful, you will receive a welcome to the domain message followed by a message that the server will need to reboot. Press OK again. Press Close. Press Restart Now. The server will restart, and you need to log back in using a domain account that is a member for the Domain Admins group. Installing SQL Server At this point your server is ready to install SQL Server For this solution we are using SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence edition with SP1. SP1 is a requirement for this solution. If your media for SQL Server does not include SP1, you will need to get it from microsoft.com, and apply it after the installation is complete. Attach your SQL Server 2012 media to the SQL back end, either by attaching the ISO file, or directly connecting the DVD drive to the VM via the Virtual Machine console. Open the File Manager form the bottom task bar, and navigate to Computer. Highlight DVD Drive (d:) and double click if the installation does not start automatically. The SQL Server Installation Center window will open. Select Installation on the left side navigation pane. Select New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation option. Setup Support Rules will check the system status to validate it is ready to install. Press OK. The SQL Server 2012 Setup screen will open, and you will be prompted to enter the product key for SQL Server. Enter the key, and press Next. Accept the license terms, and press Next. At this point, the installation will search for updates from the Windows Update Service. If your server does not have access to the Internet, the search will fail. This is OK. Press Next. Setup is now installing the SQL Setup Files. When the Setup Files are installed, the installation will check the support rules. There will be a warning on Windows Firewall, please ignore the warning and press Next. 14

15 The installation will ask for the setup role. Choose SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint, making sure that Add SQL Server Database Relational Engine Services to this installation is selected. Press Next. Feature Selection. Leave all settings at default. Press Next. The installation will check the installations rules and you will receive a passed 5 message. Press Next. Instance Configuration. The default instance ID will automatically be set at POWERPIVOT. Press Next. The installation will check disk space requirements. Press Next. Server configuration. Enter in a domain account, and password for the SQL Server Analysis Services, leave all other values at default settings. Press Next. Database Engine Configuration. Add domain users that will be SQL Server administrators for the Database Engine note you must select at least one. Select the Data Directories tab, and change the Data root directory to E:\Microsoft SQL Server\. Press Next. Analysis Services Configuration. Add domain users that will be Analysis Services administrators. You must select at least one. Select the Data Directories tab, and change the directories as follows: Press Next. Data directory - E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS11.POWERPIVOT\OLAP\Data Log file directory - E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS11.POWERPIVOT\OLAP\Log Temp Directory - E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS11.POWERPIVOT\OLAP\Temp Backup Directory - E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS11.POWERPIVOT\OLAP\Backup Error Reporting. Select Send Windows and SQL Server Error Reports to Microsoft if this conforms to your corporate standards. Press Next. Installation Configurations Rules. These will check the entries and validate the install is ready. Press Next. Ready to Install. This message displays a tree view of the installation choices. Press Next. Installation will commence. When completed, press Close. Setting Firewall Rules Because we are forcing communications between the web front end, and the SQL back end across a separate network, and the IP addresses for that network are static, we can set up two firewall rules to allow the SQL server to receive all incoming TCP and UDP traffic from the WebFrontEnd VM across the internal network. The quickest way to set up these rules is through PowerShell. Start PowerShell by pressing the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type New-NetFirewallRule DisplayName SharePoint 2013 TCP Direction Inbound Protocol TCP RemoteAddress Action Allow Type New-NetFirewallRule DisplayName SharePoint 2013 UDP Direction Inbound Protocol UDP RemoteAddress Action Allow Close PowerShell. The SQL back end VM setup is now complete. Configure web front end With the SQL back end fully configured, we can proceed to configure the web front end virtual machine. From the Hyper-V Manager, double click on the WebFrontEnd VM. This action will connect you to the console of the virtual machine as it was before the virtual machine has not started. Connect the Windows Server 2012 media to this VM as was done for the SQL back end VM. If your media is in ISO form, attach it to the virtual machine by selecting Media, DVD drive, and then Insert Disk. Navigate to the location where you copied your ISO, and select it. If your Windows Server 2012 media is in DVD form, make sure it is located in the DVD drive for the hypervisor, and attach it to the virtual machine by switching to the VM console and selecting Media, DVD drive, and then Capture D:. With the installation media attached to the VM, power on the VM, either by going to Action, and selecting Start, or by pressing the green power button on the VM console. Install Windows Server 2012 choosing the Standard Edition with GUI as normal. 15

16 Preparing the VM for SharePoint 2013 installation When you are logged into the WebFrontEnd VM, Windows Server 2012 will launch the Server Manager. First thing we should do is set the IP addresses. Locate Ethernet 2 in the properties pane of the Server Manager, and click on its value. This will bring up the Network Connections window. Highlight Ethernet 2, right click and select properties. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and press the properties button. Select the Use the Following IP Address radio button. In the IP address field enter In the Subnet mask field enter Press OK. Press Close. The virtual Ethernet adapter named Ethernet is attached to the customer LAN, and is configured to pick up an IP address using DHCP. If this is not acceptable, change the IP address values by highlighting Ethernet, right clicking, and selecting Properties. Set the Static IP addressing to the values that meet your corporate criteria. When the IP address values are correctly set, close the Network Connections window. When the IP addresses are assigned, we can activate the server by selecting Local Server on the left side of the Server Manager, and then locating the Product ID in the properties pane. If the status of Product ID is Not activated, select it, and enter your product key. Adjust the time and time zone. Directly above the Product ID on the properties pane in the Server Manager, is Time Zone. Click on the time zone value, and set it appropriately. Add the.net feature. Note Leave the Windows Server 2012 media attached to the VM when performing the following steps. Start PowerShell by press the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type add-windowsfeature NET-Framework-Core Source d:\sources\sxs Close PowerShell. Rename the server, and add it to the local Active Directory. The name of the server running within this virtual machine has a major impact on how users will access the SharePoint 2013 farm, as the default site URL is based on the name of the server running in the WebFrontEnd VM. For example, if you rename the server to POWERPIVOT, when users access the SharePoint farm, the URL will be Locate the computer name on the properties pane of the Server Manager, and click on its value. This action will bring up the System Properties window. Press the Change button. In the Computer Name Field, enter in a name that is appropriate for this VM and complies with your corporate standards. Select the Domain radio button, and enter the name of the domain this server will reside in. Press OK. You will be prompted for domain account credentials to have the necessary authority to add a server into the domain. Enter the user name and password, and press OK. When successful, you will receive a welcome to the domain message followed by a message that the server will need to reboot. Press OK in both instances. Press Close. Press Restart Now. The server will restart, and you need to log back in using a domain account in the Domain Admins group. 16

17 Installing SharePoint 2013 The installation of SharePoint 2013 can be thought of in 3 distinct steps. In step one, you install the Prerequisites of SharePoint. SharePoint 2013 requires nine additional Microsoft applications, services and patches to be installed prior to the installation of SharePoint The SharePoint 2013 prerequisite install will automatically reach out to the Internet to retrieve these files. If your WebFrontEnd VM does not have Internet access, you must download the following files and install them manually. The required files are as follows: Microsoft.NET Framework version 4.5SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Native Client Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0 Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC) Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64) Windows Management Framework 3.0 which includes Windows PowerShell 3.0 Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) 1.0 and Microsoft Identity Extensions (previously named WIF 1.1) Windows Server AppFabric Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB ) When the installation is complete, run the SharePoint 2013 prerequisite install to configure IIS in preparation of the SharePoint 2013 installation. In step two, you will install the SharePoint 2013 code, but stop short of launching the configuration wizard. In step three you install the SharePoint PowerPivot code, and configure the SharePoint farm. Prerequisites Attach your SharePoint 2013 media to the WebFrontEnd VM, either by attaching the ISO file, or directly connecting the DVD drive to the VM via the Virtual Machine console. If the SharePoint 2013 installation does not start automatically, open the File Manager form the bottom task bar, and navigate to Computer. Highlight DVD Drive (d:) and double click it. Choose the Install software prerequisites option. The Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Products Preparation Tool will start, and display the list of items that need to be completed. Press Next. Accept the terms of the License. Press Next. The Preparation tool will first configure the IIS role, and then require a reboot. Press Finish. The WebFrontEnd VM will automatically reboot. When rebooted, log back in as the same Domain user. After you have logged back in the Preparation tool will continue automatically. When completed, the preparation tool will require a reboot. Press Finish, and the WebFrontEnd VM will automatically reboot. When rebooted, log back in as the same Domain user. After the second reboot, the preparation tool will launch again to validate the installations are completed and that you are ready to continue with the process. Press Finish. Installing SharePoint 2013 When the prerequisites are all installed, you will install the main SharePoint 2013 code. Assuming the SharePoint 2013 media is still attached to the VM, open the File Manager from the bottom task bar, and navigate to Computer. Highlight DVD Drive (d:) and double click it. When the SharePoint 2013 installer starts, choose the Install SharePoint Server option. The installer will require the Product key for SharePoint You must enter a product key that corresponds with the Enterprise edition because PowerPivot is not available in the Standard edition of SharePoint Enter the key, and press Continue. Accept the terms of the license, and press Continue. Verify that you have chosen a Complete installation under the Server Type. Press Install Now. When the installation is completed, the SharePoint 2013 installer will want you to run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. Unselect the box that is labeled Run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard Now. Press Close. 17

18 Before we add the PowerPivot code, and configure the new SharePoint 2013 farm, we must ensure that the WebFrontEnd VM only communicates to the SQL back end VM across the internal network. The easiest way to accomplish this is to place an entry into the host file of the WebFrontEnd VM that points directly at the IP address of the SQL back end VM. To accomplish this, do the following: Start PowerShell by press the blue PowerShell icon on the taskbar. Type notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts The Notepad application will start, and open the host file for the WebFrontEnd VM. Scroll to the bottom on the file, and enter , press Tab, and then enter the name you gave the server running in the SQL back end VM when you renamed it, and added it to the local Active Directory. Press Enter, and then save the file, by selecting File and then Save within the Notepad application. Close the Notepad application. Installing PowerPivot, and configuring the SharePoint 2013 farm PowerPivot for SharePoint comes as part of SQL Server 2012 SP1. During the installation of SP1 (or SQL Server if SP1 is included in the media kit) the file sppowerpivot.msi gets copied to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\Update Cache\KB \ServicePack\1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup. This file needs to be copied to and executed on the WebFrontEnd VM. Alternate ways to locate the sppowerpivot.msi file. 1. If the installation media for SQL Server 2012 has SP1 included, this file will be located on in the \PCUSOURCE\1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup folder of the media. The media can be attached to the WebFrontEnd, and the file executed from there. 2. If SP1 is applied manually, SP1 can be expanded on to the local disk of the WebFrontEnd, and then run from that location. When the sppowerpivot.msi file has been moved on to the WebFrontEnd VM execute the file by double clicking on it. This will start the Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 installer. The first screen that is displayed is the Welcome screen. Press Next. Accept the terms of the license, and press Next. At the Feature Selection screen, keep the default values, and press Next. The installer is ready to install. Press the Install button. When the installer has completed, press the Finish button. PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 code in now installed, the last task required is to launch the PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 Configuration tool. During the installation of the PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013, the installer created a shortcut to the tool in the new Windows Server 2012 Start menu. By hovering your mouse over the lower left corner of the screen (just left of the Server Manager icon on the task bar), the Start Menu will appear. When it appears, click on it to bring it to the foreground. Locate the green and white PowerPivot for SharePoint 2013 Configuration icon, and click on it. The PowerPivot Configuration Tool will start. The default choice, Configure or Repair PowerPivot for SharePoint will be selected, press OK. The Configuration tool will now examine the current state of the SharePoint farm, and build a list of tasks that will need to be accomplished. It will combine and sort the list, and determine what parameters will be needed to complete the installation. The PowerPivot configuration will require the following six items to complete the setup. 1. Default Account Username. This is the Active Directory account that will become the SharePoint administrator for the new farm, and the primary owner of the default PowerPivot website. 2. Default Account Password. The password that corresponds with the above account. 3. Database Server. For this entry, you will need to enter the name you used when you renamed the server running in the SQL back end VM, followed by \POWERPIVOT. 4. Passphrase. Introduced in SharePoint 2010, the passphrase is an added level of security that is used when adding additional servers into the SharePoint farm. 5. SharePoint Central Administration Port. This is the unique port on which the SharePoint Central Administration site runs. This value will be automatically chosen. 6. PowerPivot Server for Excel Services. This is the SQL Server where the Analysis engine resides. For this solution, the value of this field should be exactly the same as number 3. 18

19 When you have entered all your values, press the Validate button. The Configuration tool will then validate the information you have entered, and let you know if it succeeded. When it has succeeded and you have received a notification window of success, press the OK button, and the Run button will be selectable. Press the Run button to complete the installation. You will receive a warning that all the configuration settings will be applied. Press Yes. At this point the configuration will complete all the necessary tasks to get the PowerPivot farm up and running, including creating a default PowerPivot website. When the Configuration tool has completed, you can access the PowerPivot site by pointing the browser at the name of the server running in the WebFrontEnd VM, i.e., if you named the server in the WebFrontEnd VM POWERPIVOT, you would access the site with the following URL, Optional post-installation configurations At this point, your self-service Business Intelligence site is ready for use; however, there are a few optional post configuration changes that you may want to consider. By default, Excel services has a 200 MB file size limit for workbooks that can be opened within a browser, and a 1MB limit of the size of images or charts that can be displayed. These settings are adjustable by opening the Central Administration site on your SharePoint farm, navigating to Manage Service Applications in the Application Management group. From here, select the ExcelServiceApp1 link, and select Trusted File Locations. Click on the link in the address column to edit the Excel Services values. The fields you are looking for are grouped under Workbook Properties. If you choose to increase these values, understand that while you will be able to open larger workbooks within the browser, doing so while also increase the consumption of memory and disk space. Additional considerations High Availability While the levels of redundancy available from all the HP ProLiant servers should provide a sense of comfort to customers, for applications that are categorized as critical to business, additional layers of High Availability (HA) should be considered. By using virtualization technology to isolate the software stack from the underlying hardware, adding an HA option becomes much easier. There are many ways to deploy an HA solution for this configuration; however, for customers that require HA, HP recommends that the underlying hardware be changed to two HP DL380p Gen8 servers and a shared storage device, such as an HP 3PAR StoreServ This way a failover cluster can be created at the hypervisor level, resulting in a highly available option for this solution without having to make any changes to the solution at the application level. Figure 2 below is an architectural example of how a customer might deploy HA into this solution. 19

20 Figure 7. Example architectural diagram of a High Availability solution for the HP Business Decision Reference Architecture To add the high availability feature, HP engineers added a second HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server and redesigned the storage for the solution, using an HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200, and adding not only redundant pathing, but redundant fibre switching with the HP StoreFabric 8/24 Bundled FC Switches. The introduction of this shared storage configuration allows for the creation of a Microsoft Windows Failover Cluster, and the ability to host the virtual machines on either of the cluster nodes to provide protection for a single layer of failure. It is important to note that this example is one of many ways to achieve the HA goal. HP engineering suggests that customers interested in expanding the solution in this reference architecture contact their local HP systems architects to help design a solution that is tailored to their exact needs. Expandability HP engineers designed this reference architecture while keeping in mind that customers are going to want to protect their investments, and be assured that the solutions they are deploying today can continue to grow with them in the future. The virtualization technology in Windows Server 2012 gives this solution two layers. The first layer is the underlying hardware layer that can be expanded from the original reference architecture to accommodate growth. For example, as storage requirements grow, larger disks can be installed internally or external storage can be deployed to accommodate additional storage requirements. At the upper or application layer, the virtual machines can be adjusted, e.g., adding more CPU resources to the SQL back end VM to accommodate increased load on the farm. Finally, additional web front end servers can also be created, to expand the farm beyond the original single WebFrontEnd VM. There are many ways to accommodate farm growth with the design provided within this reference architecture and HP engineering encourages customers looking to do so to contact their local HP systems architects to ensure the creation of a solution that will best fit their overall goals and needs. 20