EMC AUTOMATED PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION for MICROSOFT APPLICATIONS

Transcription

1 White Paper EMC AUTOMATED PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION for MICROSOFT APPLICATIONS Automated performance optimization Cloud-ready infrastructure Simplified, automated management EMC Solutions Group Abstract This white paper presents a solution that explores the scalability and performance for shared application workloads using EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP) and highlights the ease of management with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM 2008 R2). March 2012

2 Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com. All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Part Number H

3 Table of contents Executive summary... 7 Business case... 7 Solution overview... 7 Introduction... 9 Purpose... 9 Scope... 9 Audience... 9 Terminology Technology overview EMC Symmetrix VMAX EMC Symmetrix Management Console Microsoft Hyper-V Microsoft SCVMM Benefits EMC Replication Manager EMC FAST VP Consolidated applications storage design on EMC VMAX Overview Application environment highlights General design guidelines FAST VP FAST VP theory FAST VP storage design for applications FAST VP storage sizing for Microsoft applications FAST VP building block for Exchange Phase 1 Collect user requirements Phase 2 - Design the storage architecture based on user requirements IOPS calculation example Disk space calculations Capacity calculation example Phase 3 Validate design Microsoft SQL Server Phase 1 Collect user requirements Phase 2 Design the storage architecture based on user requirements IOPS calculation Capacity calculation

4 Microsoft SharePoint Phase 1 Collect user requirements Phase 2 Design the storage architecture based on user requirements IOPS calculation Disk space calculation Final best configuration FAST VP management tools FAST VP policy Applications building block design on Symmetrix VMAX Microsoft Exchange Exchange Server 2010 database and DAG design Hyper-V and virtual machine design Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server configuration overview SQL Server test application SQL Server database design overview Hyper-V and virtual machine design Microsoft SharePoint SharePoint 2010 farm design considerations SharePoint farm design overview Server role overview SharePoint WFE server Database server SharePoint crawl server SharePoint query server SharePoint database design Hyper-V and virtual machine design Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Hyper-V design Virtual Provisioning and FAST VP design on the Symmetrix VMAX Space reclaim utilities Microsoft SCVMM Backup and restore of Microsoft applications using Replication Manager Overview Replication Manager design Replication Manager theory and best practices Exchange SQL Server SharePoint Replication Manager design layout Microsoft Exchange

5 Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Rapid restore using Replication Manager Microsoft SQL Server Rapid restore using Replication Manager Microsoft SharePoint Rapid Restore using Replication Manager Performance testing and validation results Notes Methodology and tools LoadGen TPC-E VSTS Data collection points Microsoft Exchange Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft Exchange test results with FAST VP Validation results with Jetstress Environment validation with LoadGen Test 1: End-to-end validation with FAST VP for Exchange under normal conditions Objectives Configuration Performance results and analysis Test 2: End-to-end validation with FAST VP for Exchange in a failover condition Objectives Configuration Performance results and analysis Exchange client results Consolidated applications test results with FAST VP Environment validation for all Microsoft applications Objectives Configuration Microsoft Exchange Hyper-V and virtual machines performance results Exchange client results Microsoft SQL Server Performance results and analysis SharePoint Test methodology design and data preparation SharePoint test results summary Virtual machine performance results

6 SharePoint test results Metalogix StoragePoint test summary Metalogix StoragePoint BLOB externalization overview BLOB externalization results RBS externalization best practices Impact of TimeFinder/snapshot Storage and performance Snapshot sizing Hyper-V HA migration Conclusion Summary Findings Appendix SQL Server restore using Replication Manager SharePoint Restore using Replication Manager References Product documentation

7 Executive summary This white paper outlines the design guidance and architecture of a solution for a mixed Microsoft application workload on EMC Symmetrix VMAX utilizing Microsoft Hyper-V as the hypervisor. The demonstrated applications are Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM 2008 R2), to provide for management of the Hyper-V virtual machines. Business case When deploying multiple applications on a storage array, today s customers need to take performance, total cost of ownership, and ease of management into consideration, and architect a solution that best meets all their needs. To achieve this, many customers have completely separated physical infrastructures. This can lead to an increase in complexity and higher operational costs, management costs, and capital costs. For today s customers, it is a constant critical business challenge to maintain or improve the performance of a company's mission-critical applications, while reducing costs and providing for simplified management to administer the environment. One way to reduce costs and eliminate bottlenecks is through manual application layouts on static storage tiers and virtual provisioning bottlenecks but the complexity of managing multiple applications does not justify it any longer. This solution provides a simplified architecture to host the different business applications of a company, ensuring that each business line s information is separated from that of the other. It greatly simplifies the overall environment and reduces operational and management costs. By leveraging additional EMC software such as EMC Symmetrix Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP), Virtual Provisioning, and Microsoft SCVMM, the solution provides for automated storage tiering and enables quick provisioning of virtual machines and rapid scaling of additional workloads. Solution overview This solution simulates a scenario demonstrating three distinct applications, each with separate requirements for user profile and size, where the physical infrastructure is shared. For example, this architecture could be used for a large enterprise customer whose IT department is looking to provide for ease of management, growth, and automated performance-tuning, using storage tiering for the different business units within the company. There is a growing need among customers to be able to run multiple workloads and applications on shared infrastructure and meet expected performance levels at lower costs, as dictated by business service level agreements (SLAs). This solution showcases a comprehensive design methodology to run a consolidated workload across the Symmetrix VMAX platform, and demonstrates a private cloud solution for customers who are looking for enterprise consolidation with VMAX. The environment includes Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint 2010, and SQL Server 2008 R2. The architecture includes management provided by SCVMM to manage the Hyper-V environment. In an enterprise environment, a customer must allow for requirements where multiple applications are hosted on the same hardware. This solution, on the EMC VMAX array, is ideal because it enables virtual machines to be automatically allocated in a 7

8 balanced way, using Hyper-V's performance and resource optimization (PRO) loadbalancing feature, while at the same time continuing to meet or exceed performance levels per the business SLA, by leveraging EMC s FAST VP automated tiering technology. Microsoft SCVMM allows rapid provisioning of virtual machines on demand by each business unit for rapid scaling of additional workloads. 8

9 Introduction Purpose Scope This white paper presents a solution that explores the scalability and performance of shared application workloads using FAST VP and highlights the ease of management with Microsoft SCVMM. It utilizes the VMAX platform to host and protect the consolidated Microsoft workload, which appeals to the enterprise customer market. The scope of this paper is to document: The deployment of consolidated Microsoft applications on the VMAX array Performance and test results: automated storage performance using FAST VP storage tiering technology Protection of the consolidated environment using EMC Replication Manager Application protection using database availability groups (DAGs) for Microsoft Exchange The impact of hardware failure on applications Audience The intended audience for the white paper is: Customers EMC partners Internal EMC personnel 9

10 Terminology This paper includes the following terminology: Table 1. Terminology Term EMC VMAX EMC Replication Manager DAG SCVMM FAST VP VLUN Definition The array offering by EMC to provide high-end storage for the virtual data center. Its innovative EMC Symmetrix Virtual Matrix Architecture seamlessly scales performance, capacity, and connectivity on demand to meet all application requirements. The EMC Replication Manager product provides simplified management of storage replication and integration with critical business applications to take disk-based copies that serve as foundation for recovery operations. DAG is the base component of the high availability (HA) and site resilience framework built into Microsoft Exchange Server A DAG is a group of up to 16 mailbox servers that hosts a set of databases and provides automatic database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (SCMM), Service Pack 1 (SP1) helps enable the centralized management of the physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms. It includes end-to-end capabilities such as planning, deploying, managing, and optimizing the virtual infrastructure. Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools supports automated storage tiering at the sub-lun level. VP refers to virtual pools, which are virtual provisioning thin pools. The Virtual LUN technology enables migration of data between storage tiers within the same array, without any production disruption. 10

11 Technology overview This solution provides a comprehensive design methodology aimed at helping customers to create a scalable building block for their business units, including Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and SQL Server 2008 R2. The testing simulates a consolidated multi-application scenario by demonstrating three separate environments Messaging (Exchange), Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) Database (SQL), and enterprise-class collaboration (SharePoint) each with separate requirements for user profile and size, where the physical infrastructure is shared across the VMAX platform and Hyper-V environment. The solution also includes local HA and backup and restore for all three applications. The following components are used in this solution: EMC VMAX EMC Symmetrix Management Console Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology Microsoft SCVMM EMC Replication Manager EMC FAST VP Metalogix for SharePoint binary large object (BLOB) externalization Figure 1. Physical architecture design 11

12 EMC Symmetrix VMAX EMC Symmetrix VMAX Enginuity version 5875, with the strategy of simple, intelligent, modular storage, incorporates a new, highly scalable Virtual Matrix Architecture that enables VMAX arrays to grow seamlessly and cost-effectively from an entry-level configuration into the world s largest storage system. It offers: Unmatched application availability: For the highest level of information protection, the VMAX system is the only platform in the industry that can deliver comprehensive solutions for local, remote, and multi-site business continuity. Redundancy: The VMAX platform provides for excellent redundancy, including multiple engines, with two integrated highly available directors per engine, and a mirrored cache across all the engines that prevent it from being a single point of failure. More scalability: Up to twice the performance, with the ability to manage up to 10 times more capacity per storage administrator. More security: Built-in encryption, RSA-integrated key management, increased value for virtual server and mainframe environments, replication enhancements, and a new elicensing model. The tiered storage configuration used in the test environment is based on the following VMAX features: Sub-LUN FAST VP Virtual LUN VP mobility EMC Symmetrix Management Console The Symmetrix VMAX storage system provides a built-in web browser interface, Symmetrix Management Console (SMC). SMC provides a centralized management to the entire VMAX storage infrastructure. In the context of FAST, SMC integrates easy-to-use wizards to: Create thin pools Create storage tiers Define and associate storage groups Set up FAST policies Microsoft Hyper-V Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, with Hyper-V, builds on the architecture and functions of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V by adding multiple new features that enhance product flexibility. Hyper-V provides server virtualization and has increased flexibility in the deployment and life cycle management of applications. Hyper-V virtualization helps to consolidate workloads and reduce server sprawl. Additionally, it allows deploying virtualization with clustering technologies to provide a robust IT infrastructure with high availability and quick disaster recovery. 12

13 Microsoft SCVMM Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, with Service Pack 1 (SP1), provides centralized management of the physical and virtual IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms. It includes end-to-end capabilities such as planning, deploying, managing, and optimizing the virtual infrastructure. Benefits Centrally creates and manages virtual machines across the entire datacenter. Easily consolidates multiple physical servers onto virtual hosts. Rapidly provisions and optimizes new and existing virtual machines. PRO enables the dynamic management of virtual resources through management packs that are PRO-enabled. As an open and extensible platform, PRO encourages partners to design custom management packs that promote the compatibility of their products and solutions with PRO's powerful management capabilities. EMC Replication Manager EMC FAST VP EMC Replication Manager manages EMC s point-in-time replication technologies through a centralized management console. Replication Manager coordinates the entire data replication process from discovery and configuration to the management of multiple application consistent disk-based replicas. Auto-discover your replication environment and enable streamlined management by scheduling, recording, and cataloging replica information, including auto-expiration. With Replication Manager, you can put the right data in the right place at the right time on-demand or based on schedules and policies that you define. This application-centric product allows you to simplify replication management with application consistency. FAST VP is EMC s new automated storage tiering technology introduced in the latest Symmetrix Enginuity microcode version (5875). FAST VP combines a "sub-volume" auto-tiering technology from EMC and leverages Virtual Provisioning technology. It enables storage administrators to implement automated, policy-driven plans that perform dynamic, nondisruptive changes to the storage layouts of different applications. This is done by ensuring that the hot spots of a volume or LUN are served by high-performance drives and the inactive data is handled by cost-effective drives. With FAST VP, customers can achieve: Most efficient utilization of Flash drives for high-performance workloads Lower cost of storage with the majority of the less-accessed data on Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives Better performance at a lower cost, requiring fewer drives, less power and cooling, and a smaller footprint Radically simplified automated management in a tiered environment 13

14 FAST VP can move data among (up to) three tiers (Flash drive, fibre channel (FC), and SATA drives) to meet the performance and capacity demands of a broad range of applications. Frequently accessed data is moved to, or kept at, proper storage tiers, based on the access patterns of sub-volumes and the defined FAST policy. Based on the changing performance requirements of applications, FAST VP only promotes those active hot spots of a volume or LUN to high-performance drives such as Flash drives, but not the entire volume or LUN. At the same time, FAST VP also moves less accessed portions of a volume or LUN to low-cost drives such as SATA drives. Customers thus get the best of both worlds; high performance and low cost. 14

15 Consolidated applications storage design on EMC VMAX Overview Storage design is a critical element to successfully deploy a mixed Microsoft application workload on the VMAX, hosted on the Hyper-V virtualization server platform. The process is essentially the same design for a physical environment as a virtual building block, from a disk perspective, except that in the virtual environment the virtual machine s OS volume also needs to be accounted for. The virtualized Microsoft consolidated application storage design comprises a number of different pieces including: Storage design requirements Disk requirements and layout. Virtual Provisioning Pool design. FAST VP automated storage tiering design. Hyper-V virtual machine building block Hyper-V root and virtual machine design and resource requirements. Each of these will be discussed in detail in this section. Backup and restore design and capabilities using EMC TimeFinder snapshots and Replication Manager. The high level objectives of this design are to: Validate and show how FAST VP in a virtualized consolidated Microsoft environment can support multiple Exchange, SQL and SharePoint workloads across the same disks Showcase how easy it is to provide each application the performance level and flexibility by using the right mix of drive types Provide sizing recommendations for all of the applications in a consolidated FAST VP environment Show how the VMAX and replication manager can be used to centrally manage protect multiple applications. Validate Microsoft SCVMM: Monitor the health and performance of the environment Application environment highlights The solution was designed to showcase a mixed Microsoft application workload on the VMAX, hosted on the Hyper-V virtualization server platform. VMAX FAST VP automated storage tiering technology was leveraged to detect the I/O patterns of the different applications and handle unanticipated spikes, and provide optimal performance for multiple applications. Microsoft SCVMM was implemented to manage and monitor the virtualized environment. This solution simulates a multi-tenant scenario by demonstrating three distinct business units, each with unique requirements for user profile and size where the physical infrastructures are shared. This architecture could be leveraged by companies whose IT organizations service different departments. 15

16 This solution architecture helps provide direction on how to run consolidated applications of different departments, simplify management of these workloads, and serve as guidance towards a private cloud deployment. The following applications are part of the solution: Microsoft Exchange 2010 Total of 42 databases, with 500 users per database, to house 21,000 users 14 mailbox virtual machines and 14 HUB/CAS servers in a two-copy DAG configuration Four Hyper-V servers hosting 28 virtual machines, to support 21,000 Exchange 2010 DAG environment Replication Manager application sets and jobs are based on the grouping of three databases taking snapshots off the passive copy Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Three SQL servers running hot, warm, and cold TPC-E-like OLTP workloads Total environment size is 1.2 TB A shared Hyper-V cluster with four nodes to support the SQL and SharePoint environment Replication Manager application sets and jobs per server, taking pointer based snapshots for each database Microsoft SharePoint TB SharePoint farm A shared Hyper-V cluster with four nodes to support the SQL and SharePoint environment Replication Manager application sets and jobs to take pointer-based snapshots of the SharePoint farm General design guidelines The following list provides general design guidance for running a mixed Microsoft application workload on a VMAX: I/O requirements include user I/O (send/receive), any other overhead plus an additional 20 percent. (For Exchange, the 20 percent accounts for some overhead as well as log and BDM I/O) Database and log I/O should be evenly distributed among the SAN and storage back-end Use larger hyper volumes when creating LUNs to achieve better performance A minimum of two HBAs are required per server to provide for redundancy When using a hypervisor to virtualize the Microsoft Exchange servers a minimum of three IP connections are recommended for each Hyper-V server Always calculate I/O spindle requirements first, then capacity requirements 16

17 Use the following read/write ratio for the different Microsoft applications when unsure: Microsoft Exchange 3:2 in a mailbox resiliency configuration and 1:1 in a standalone configuration Microsoft SQL Server 85:15 Microsoft SharePoint Server Content Databases - 90:10 R:W Tempdb Search 50:50 Install EMC PowerPath for optimal path management and maximum I/O performance. For more information on installing and configuring the PowerPath application, visit: Follow these recommendations to ensure the best possible server performance: Note Format new NTFS volumes on Windows Server 2008 R2 with the allocation unit size (ALU) set to 64 KB. This can be done from the drop-down list in Disk Manager or through the command prompt using diskpart. Partition alignment is no longer required when running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 as partitions are automatically aligned to a 1 MB offset. Visit the following Microsoft links for guidance on determining server memory and CPU requirements for the Microsoft Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server role: (Memory) (CPU) Visit the following Microsoft links for guidance on determining server memory and CPU requirements for Microsoft SQL Server Visit the following Microsoft links for guidance on determining server memory and CPU requirements for Microsoft SharePoint FAST VP FAST VP is a policy-based system that automatically moves sub-lun data across storage tiers to achieve performance service levels and cost targets. It enables the storage administrator to set high-performance policies that utilize more Flash drive capacity for critical applications, and cost-optimized policies that utilize more SATA drive capacity for less-critical applications. This section introduces FAST VP functionality and describes how the technology was leveraged in this solution to provide optimal performance for all applications. 17

18 FAST VP provides automation to the tiered storage for Virtually Provisioned (VP) devices. Sub-LUN data movement for VP devices provides dramatically improved capacity utilization and a reduction in time and complexity to manage storage. This enables FAST VP to: Be more responsive to changes in the production workload activity Improve performance Utilize capacity more efficiently by: Requiring fewer Flash drives in the system Placing more data on FC and SATA drives FAST VP theory FAST VP has three main components: Storage tiers: A storage tier is a combination of drive technology and RAID protection in the VMAX array. The storage tiers can be either virtual pools or disk groups. Storage group: Storage groups are collections of LUNs that are associated with a FAST VP policy. In this solution there are three storage groups (one per application) associated with FAST VP policies. FAST policy: FAST policy is a setting that initiates data movement between storage tiers based on compliance and performance policy thresholds. A FAST VP policy combines storage groups with storage tiers, and defines the configured capacities, as a percentage that a storage group is allowed to consume on that tier. 18

19 FAST VP storage design for applications It is necessary to perform disk sizing for all applications individually before designing the best configuration for FAST VP. Sizing will depend on multiple factors, such as disk type, protection type, and cache. The following is a general guideline approach for sizing a consolidated workload with FAST VP: Perform sizing as per FAST VP policy requirements. A recommended starting point would be 80/20 skew assumption. Note Skew can vary and will depend on the actual application profile. Choose RAID 5 or RAID 6 protection types for faster tiers; FC and EFD to yield the best total cost of ownership (TCO) Mirrored protection for SATA normally yields best performance results For Exchange only: Separate DAG copies on different spindles Size the tiers to account for a full failover scenario where all the database copies are running on a single server Perform sizing exercise for only FC and SATA tiers and allow a small amount of EFD to handle unanticipated spikes Adopt a building block approach size for one server and scale This section addresses the sizing for each of the Microsoft applications that are part of this solution. FAST VP storage sizing for Microsoft applications FAST VP building block for Exchange 2010 Sizing and configuring storage for use with Microsoft applications can be a complicated process, driven by many variables and factors, which vary from organization to organization. Properly configured storage, combined with properly sized server and network infrastructure, can guarantee smooth operation and the best user experience. The sizing for this solution was performed for consolidated workloads of multiple Microsoft applications. The following sizing exercise provides general guidance on FAST VP sizing for consolidated workloads. The sizing was performed for this solution to best leverage a three-tier FAST VP solution to support a mixed Microsoft application workload. The storage requirements for Microsoft Exchange, often a capacity-driven application, can in most cases be satisfied by SATA drives. This solution, nevertheless, showcases how Exchange works with FAST VP, particularly in a consolidated application environment leveraging multiple storage tiers. One of the methods that can be used to simplify the sizing and configuration of large Microsoft Exchange environments is to define a unit of measure a building block. A building block can be defined as the amount of disk and server resources required to support a specific number of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 users. 19

20 The amount of required resources is based on: Specific user profile type Mailbox size Disk requirements The building block approach simplifies the implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox server. Once the initial building block is designed, it can be easily reproduced to support the required number of total users in an organization. This approach serves as a baseline for Microsoft Exchange administrators to create their own building blocks, based on their company s specific Microsoft Exchange environment requirements. This approach is very helpful when future growth is expected, as it makes Microsoft Exchange environment expansion much easier, and straightforward. EMC s best practices involving the building block approach for Microsoft Exchange Server design has proved to be very successful throughout many customer implementations. Phase 1 Collect user requirements The user requirements used to validate both the building block storage design methodology and VMAX performance are detailed in Table 2. Table 2. User requirements Item User equipment Total number of users 21,000 User I/O profile 150 messages sent\received per day =.15 IOPS per user per day in a DAG setup User mailbox size Deleted item retention Concurrency Recovery point objective (RPO) Recovery time objective (RTO) Mailbox resiliency solution (DAG) Backup/restore required Start with 500 MB, grow to 1 GB 14 days 100 percent Remote < 5 minutes, local = 6 hours 60 minutes Yes Yes (hardware volume shadow service (VSS)) The requirements include starting with a user mailbox size of 500 MB with the ability to seamlessly grow to 1 GB. This document shows how this can be easily accomplished, using the VMAX Virtual Provisioning feature (Virtual Provisioning and FAST VP design on the Symmetrix VMAX). 20

21 Based on the user requirements, a virtual Microsoft Exchange Building block of 3,000 users per server was created. The decision for the number of users per server was based on a number of factors, including: Total number of users use this number to find a figure that can be evenly divided by a per-server number. User profile a larger user I/O profile or large mailbox usually dictates fewer users per building block. Recovery Time Objective with a smaller RTO and depending on the backup and restore technology used, fewer users may be supported within a single building block. Array features the ability of an intelligent array, such as the VMAX, to backup and restore larger amounts of Microsoft Exchange data in seconds, makes it much easier to achieve good consolidation. Simplicity and ease of design fewer larger databases will help and using a SAN and intelligent storage will make this easier to achieve. Hyper-V server configuration, memory and number of virtual CPUs available the building block must fit the hardware resources so that the Hyper-V resources are factored in Table 3. Table 3. Required information for building block design Building block characteristic Maximum number of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 users per server Value 3,000 Number of databases per server 6 Number of users per database 500 Disk type Number of Hyper-V servers for Microsoft Exchange Mailbox virtual machines Total number of Microsoft Exchange Mailbox virtual machines Mixed disk type supported by FAST VP storage tiering technology 4 14 Database read/write ratio 3:2 Logs truncation failure buffer 6 21

22 Phase 2 - Design the storage architecture based on user requirements It is recommended to first calculate the spindle requirements per building block from an I/O perspective, and then the space requirements. When performing spindle calculations to satisfy I/O requirements, follow the guidelines outlined below: 1. Calculate total Exchange I/O as using the following formula: Total I/O = (No. of users * I/O profile) + 20 percent 2. Apply a FAST policy split to size the tiers. It is recommended to start with an 80/20 skew 80 percent of I/Os to be serviced by faster tier, 20 percent to be serviced by slower tiers 3. Total I/O for faster tier = (0.8 or the larger percentage) * (Total Exchange I/O) 4. Total I/O for slower tier = (0.2 or the smaller percentage) * (Total Exchange I/O) 5. Array IOPs = (Total IOPs *.60) + RAID penalty (Total IOPs *.40) 6. Disks required = Array IOPs / IOPs per spindle Notes Tasks 5 and 6 need to be performed for each tier involved. When using thick or thin devices with Microsoft Exchange 2010, the initial spindle requirements for the pools must meet the I/O requirements. Once that has been accomplished, the sizing calculations should follow. IOPS calculation example Total I/O for 3,000 users= 3000 *.15 = percent = 540 IOPS Total I/O for FC = (80 percent of 540) = 432 Total I/O for SATA = (20 percent of 540) = 108 SATA disks required to service 108 I/Os in a RAID 1 configuration (108*.60)*W 2(108*.40)= 152 / 55 ~ 4 FC disks required to service 432 I/Os in a RAID 5 configuration (432*.60)*W 4(432*.40)= 948 / 130 ~ 8 From an I/O sizing perspective, using 80 percent FC, 20 percent SATA split, the following disks are required per server: 4 7.2k 2 TB SATA 8 10k 600 GB FC Disk space calculations EMC recommends that the Microsoft calculator be used when performing disk space calculations. Current Microsoft calculations require more than 60 percent capacity over the user mailbox target size. EMC s Virtual Provisioning is a key to reducing upfront storage purchase and addressing any unforeseen growth. The LUN calculations were performed to account for the final mailbox size (1 GB) and the spindle calculations for the initial size (0.5 GB). 22

23 When performing capacity calculations, follow the outlined steps below: Calculate total capacity based on mailbox requirements Apply a FAST policy split to size the tiers. EMC recommends to start with an 80/20 skew 80 percent of capacity to reside on slower tier Total capacity for slower tier = (0.8 or the larger percentage) * (Total Exchange Capacity) Total capacity for faster tier = (0.2 or the smaller percentage) * (Total Exchange Capacity) Spindle requirement per server = <Total Capacity>/ <Usable Capacity> Note Sub-task 6 needs to be performed for each tier involved. Capacity calculation example Capacity requirements = Total database capacity per server + Total log capacity per server Database size = <Number of mailboxes> x <Mailbox size on disk> x <Database overhead growth factor> = 500 users x 1.23 GB + 20 percent = 738 GB Based on this, the database LUN capacity can be calculated as follows: Database LUN size = <Database size> + <Content Index Catalog / (1 - Free space percentage requirement) = (738 GB GB)/0.8 = 1024 GB Log LUN size = Logs per day per user x number of users x truncation failure tolerance x 20 percent = 30 1 MB x 500 users x 6 days x.20 = 115 GB Total database capacity per server (for initial 0.5 GB mailbox size) = <Database LUN size> * <No. of databases> = 1024*6 = 3072 GB Total log capacity per server = <Log LUN size> * <No. of databases> = 115*6 = 345 GB Total capacity = < Total database capacity per server> + < Total log capacity per server> = = 3417 GB Usable capacity available per 2 TB SATA drive = 1754 GB Usable capacity available per 600 GB 10K FC drive = 536 GB Spindle requirement per server = <Total capacity> / <Usable capacity> Disk capacity skew recommendations are 80 percent SATA, 20 percent FC Capacity on SATA is 3417*0.8 = 2733 GB Capacity on FC is 3417*0.2 = 684 GB Required spindles (SATA mirrored) 2733 / 1754 ~ 4 (mirrored disks) Required spindles (FC RAID 5) 684 / 536 ~ 4 23

24 From a capacity sizing perspective, using an 80 percent SATA and 20 percent FC split, the following disks would be required per server: 4 7.2k 2 TB SATA 4 10k 600 GB FC The best configuration based on both I/O and capacity requirements is as follows: 1 GB mailbox state No. of spindles required to satisfy both I/O and capacity Thin LUN size (Database) Thin LUN size (Log) 4 7.2K 2 TB SATA drives 8 10K 600 GB FC 1024 GB 115 GB For Exchange, the sizing does not account for Flash drives, which are used in small quantities to handle any unanticipated spikes. In many cases, as Exchange 2010 is capacity bound, requirements can be satisfied by SATA drives as opposed to a tiered solution. Phase 3 Validate design Microsoft Exchange Jetstress and Microsoft Exchange LoadGen tools were used to validate the storage design. For a complete summary of Jetstress and LoadGen findings, see the Performance testing and validation results section of this white paper. Microsoft SQL Server To maintain flexibility, performance, and granularity of recovery, ensure that the storage sizing and back-end configuration for SQL Server is optimal. Outlined in this section is the approach adopted when sizing SQL Server in a FAST VP configuration. Phase 1 Collect user requirements The SQL configuration for this environment is outlined in Table 4. Table 4. Item SQL configuration user requirements User equipment Total number of users 100,000 Database users per server 20,000, 30,000, 50,000 respectively Total IOPS 6,000 Number of databases 3 Database profile RPO Hot / Warm / Cold Remote < 5 minutes, local = 6 hours 24

25 Item RTO User equipment 60 minutes Read/write ratio 85:15 Backup/restore required Yes (hardware VSS) Phase 2 Design the storage architecture based on user requirements It is recommended to first calculate the spindles for the SQL Server to satisfy I/O requirements, and then the space requirements. Shown below is the sizing calculation for this solution. IOPS calculation Total I/O for 225,00 users = 6, percent = 6, ,200 = 7,200 IOPS Calculate the back-end I/O as per FAST VP policy requirements. In this solution, the FAST VP sizing was calculated based on the following skew for I/O 75 percent SATA, 15 percent FC and 10 percent Flash. Calculate the backend I/O for each tier: Total backend I/O for RAID 1/0 SATA = (10 percent of 7,200) = (720*0.85) + 2 (720*0.15) = 828 Total I/O for RAID 5 FC = (15 percent of 7,200) = (1,080*0.85) + 4(1,080*0.15) = 1566 Total I/O for RAID 5 Flash = (75 percent of 7,200) = (5,040*0.85) + 4 (5,040*0.15) = 7308 Total Back-end I/O = 10,224 SATA disks required to service 808 I/Os in a RAID 1/0 configuration 828/50=~17 round up to 18 for R1/0 FC disks required to service 2,088 I/Os in a RAID 5 configuration 1,566 / 130= ~12 FLASH disks required to service 7,308 I/Os in a RAID 5 configuration Note 7,308/1,800=~4 When calculating for performance, the fastest tier needs to service the maximum number of I/Os. From an I/O sizing perspective, using the above policy settings, the following disks are for the environment: k 2 TB SATA drives 12 10k 600 GB FC drives GB Flash drives 25

26 Capacity calculation User database size Hot 200 GB Warm 300 GB Cold 600 GB Calculate the database LUN size based on the user database sizes: Database LUN size = <Database size> + Free space percentage requirement (20 percent) Hot = percent = 360 GB Warm = percent = 480 GB Cold = percent = 840 GB Calculate the tempdb and log LUN sizes for each of the databases. The log and tempdb sizes are calculated as 20 percent the size of the database: Log and tempdb size Hot database 20 percent of 300 = 60 GB Warm database 20 percent of 400 = 80 GB Cold database 20 percent of 700 = 140 GB The user database log and the tempdb are laid out on a separate LUN for each database. Based on this, the log LUNs were sized at 120 GB for the hot and warm databases and 140 GB for the cold database: Total database size = Sum of the sizes of all the databases = 2,448 GB Usable capacity available per 2 TB SATA drive = 1,754 GB Usable capacity available per 600 GB 10K FC drive = 536 GB FAST policy skew used was 75 percent SATA, 15 percent FC and 10 percent Flash Capacity on each tier is: SATA = 2,448*0.75 = 1,836 GB FC = 2,448*0.15 = 368 GB Flash = 2,448*0.1 = 245 GB Spindle requirement = <Total capacity> / <Usable capacity> Spindles required for each tier is: Note SATA (mirrored) = 4 FC (RAID 5 3+1) = 4 Flash (RAID 5 3+1) = 4 When calculating for capacity, the slowest tier needs to host the majority of the data. 26

27 From a capacity sizing perspective, using these policy settings, the following disks are required for the environment: 4 7.2k 2 TB SATA drives 4 10k 600 GB FC drives GB Flash drives The best configuration based on both I/O and capacity requirements are as follows: 1 TB ( 200GB, 300GB, 500GB) SQL Server database No. of spindles required to satisfy both I/O and capacity Thin LUN sizes (Database) Thin LUN size (Log) K 2 TB SATA drives 12 10K 600 GB FC drives GB Flash drives Hot 360 GB Warm 480 GB Cold 840 GB Hot 120 GB Warm 120 GB Cold 140 GB Microsoft SharePoint The SharePoint Server farm has storage requirements that typically are mid to low IOPS on its content database search components. With FAST VP on VMAX, the SharePoint farm storage configuration can be simplified and the requirements of the disk I/O request in the farm can be dynamically satisfied with the auto-tiering technology. This section outlines the approach adopted when sizing SharePoint Servers in a FAST VP configuration. Phase 1 Collect user requirements The user requirements used to validate both the building block storage design methodology and VMAX performance are detailed in Table 5. Table 5. Building block storage design methodology and VMAX performance user requirements SharePoint farm profile Total data Document size range Quantity/size/type 3 TB 200 KB-5 MB Total site count 40,000 Size per site 20 GB Total site collections count 16 Content database size 200 GB 27

28 SharePoint farm profile Quantity/size/type Total IOPS 2,000 Total site collection 1 Total user count 30,000-40,000 heavy users (Microsoft defined) Usage profile(s) (% browse / % search / % modify) 80% / 10% / 10% User concurrency 10% Phase 2 Design the storage architecture based on user requirements It is recommended to first calculate the spindles for SQL Server and other SharePoint Servers that require storage to satisfy I/O requirements, and then for space requirements. In a SharePoint farm, the requirement for IOPS is much less than applications such as SQL Server. A two-tier (SATA and FC) configuration can be used to satisfy its disk needs. Shown below is the sizing calculation for this solution. IOPS calculation Total I/O for the farm = 2,000*( percent)= 2,400 IOPS Apply a FAST policy split to size the tiers. EMC recommends to start with a 90/10 skew 90 percent of I/Os to be serviced by faster tier, 10 percent to be serviced by slower tiers Calculate back-end I/O for each tier: Note Total back-end I/O for RAID 1/0 SATA (10 percent of 2,400) = (240*0.85) + 2 (240*0.15) = 276 Total I/O for RAID 5 FC (90 percent of 2,400) = (2,160*0.85) + 4 (2,160*0.15) = 3,132 Total back-end I/O = 3,408 When calculating for performance, the fastest tier needs to service the maximum number of I/Os. From an I/O sizing perspective, using the above policy settings, the following disks are required for the environment: 6 7.2k 2 TB SATA drives (276/50 ~ 6) 24 10k 600 GB FC drives (3132/130 ~ 24) Disk space calculation EMC s Virtual Provisioning is key to reducing up-front storage purchase and handling any unforeseen growth. When performing capacity calculations, follow the steps below: Calculate the total capacity based on SharePoint farm requirements Apply a FAST policy split to size the tiers. In this solution, a 90/10 skew for the SharePoint farm, where 70 percent of the capacity resided on the slower tier, was used. 28

29 Total capacity for slower tier = (0.9 or the larger percentage) * 3 TB = 2.7 TB Total capacity for faster tier = (0.1 or the smaller percentage) * 3 TB = 0.3 TB Usable capacity available per 2 TB SATA drive = 1,754 GB Usable capacity available per 600 GB 10K FC drive = 536 GB Spindle requirement for SATA drives = 2.7 TB / 1,754 GB = 4 Spindle requirement for FC drives = 0.3 TB/536 GB ~ 4 From a capacity sizing perspective, using a 70 percent SATA, 30 percent FC split, the following disks would be required for the farm: 2 7.2k 2 TB SATA 4 10k 600 GB FC The ideal configuration based on both I/O and capacity requirements are as follows: SharePoint farm disk requirement Number of spindles required to satisfy both I/O and capacity 6 7.2K 2 TB SATA drives 24 10K 600 GB FC Final best configuration The final disk configuration for this environment needs to satisfy both I/O and capacity for all of the applications. The application that benefited the most with FAST VP in this environment was SQL Server since the TPC-E-like load was very heavy when compared to the other two applications. The final best disk configuration that satisfies both the I/O and capacity requirements in this mixed workload environment is as follows: Mixed Microsoft workload disk requirement Total number of spindles required for the mixed Microsoft application workload 42 SATA 90 FC 8 Flash (4 introduced to handle unanticipated Exchange spikes) FAST VP management tools FAST VP policy The following management options are available to configure FAST VP: Solutions Enabler Command Line Interface (SYMCLI) Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) FAST VP in a VMAX environment provides an easy way to employ the storage service specializations of an array configuration with a mixture of drive types. FAST VP offers a simple and cost-effective way to provide optimal performance of a given mixed configuration, by automatically tiering storage to the changing application needs. The FAST VP tiers for this solution were chosen per the application requirements and FAST 29

30 VP policies were set to allow data movement between the tiers to optimize performance. The following FAST VP tiers were used for this solution: Table 6. FAST VP tiers Tier name MS_Flash MS_FibreChannel MS_SATA Drive technology 200 GB 15k Flash drives 600 GB 10K FC drives 2 TB 7.2K SATA drives The FAST VP policy settings varied for each application since the workload pattern of each application differed and their needs were different. For Exchange, FAST VP sizing was performed to leverage only FC and SATA tiers, and a small number of Flash drives were introduced to handle any unanticipated spikes and any hot-spots in the workload. This policy helped to automate performance and, at the same time, keep the cost in check. For SQL, the testing tool emulated an OLTP TPC-E-type load, which performs wide-stripe reads, hence the FAST VP policy was designed to include more Flash to manage the high performance requirements. This provided the best blend of cost and performance. SharePoint, being a fairly low I/O application, did not require the Flash tier, hence the policy was implemented to include only the FC and SATA tiers. Nevertheless, by sharing the same tiers, and allowing FAST VP to move data per the policy settings, optimal performance was achieved for each application. The skew for each application was obtained by using a modeling tool called Tier Advisor. Performance data is uploaded to the tool, which then models an optimal storage array configuration by enabling interactive experimentation with different storage tiers and storage policies until the desired cost and performance preferences are achieved. Tier Advisor helps define the amount of disk drives to use for each disk drive technology when configuring a tiered storage solution. 30

31 Applications building block design on Symmetrix VMAX Once the disk calculations are computed for each application, the virtual machine and Hyper-V requirements can be calculated. The memory and CPU requirements are based on Microsoft best practices. This section details this for each application, separately. Microsoft Exchange Exchange Server 2010 database and DAG design A DAG is a group of up to 16 Mailbox servers that host a set of databases, and provide automatic Exchange database-level recovery from failures that affect individual servers or databases. A DAG is a boundary for mailbox database replication, database and server switchovers and failovers, and for an internal component called Active Manager. Active Manager is an Exchange Server 2010 component that manages switchovers and failovers, and runs on every server in a DAG. The Exchange design for this solution incorporates an active/passive DAG design and adheres to the previously described guidelines, deploying three active and three passive databases for each mailbox virtual machine. Each virtual machine is capable of handling all six databases or 3,000 users in a switchover/failover condition, but under normal conditions only 1,500 users would be active on each mailbox virtual machine. This grouping of three databases and 1,500 users was used and carried over to the backup configuration with Replication Manager, in an effort to make the management as easy as possible. The design also accounted for the reboot or loss of a Hyper-V root server. The active database on MBX1 residing on Hyper-V root server 1 has its passive copies on Hyper-V root server 2. If either Hyper-V root server needs to be rebooted, due to patching or maintenance, there is no loss of service to the user mailboxes. The design incorporated the following: A total of 21 active and 21 passive databases, with 500 users per database to house the 21,000 users Mailbox databases are grouped in collections of three (1,500 users) Each mailbox virtual machine has three active and three passive mailbox databases The active and passive database copies do not reside on the same virtual machine or on the same Hyper-V root server Replication Manager application sets and jobs design based on groupings of three databases per Replication Manager backup job 31