Ms Exchange Server Acceleration

7/28/2019 Ms Exchange Server Acceleration

1/8

MS Exchange Server Acceleration

Using virtualization to dramatically maximize user experience or Microsot

Exchange Server

Allon Cohen, PhD

Scott Harlin

OCZ Technology Group

White Paper

enterprise
http://ocz.com/http://ocz.com/enterprise/literature/white-papershttp://ocz.com/enterprisehttp://ocz.com/enterprisehttp://ocz.com/enterprise/literature/white-papershttp://ocz.com/


2/8White Paper: MS Exchange Server Acceleration

1 Introduction

Microsot (MS) Exchange Server is one o the most widely used e-mail server

platorms in enterprise environments. It utilizes client applications such as MS

Outlook to connect hundreds or even thousands o users in an organization

to central servers to enable e-mail communications and other personal

management capabilities such as calendars, tasks, contacts, notes, journals,

and web browsing. In conjunction with MS SharePoint Server, MS Exchange

Server enables SharePoint sites to be developed or the public exchange or

access o olders, calendars, meeting schedules and databases (DBs).

To maximize the end user experience o MS Exchange Server, storage

latency and transactional input/output operations per second (IOPS) must be

perorming at the highest levels in order to successully service these largenumbers o users, and not adversely aect their productivity especially during

peak usage. These two parameters directly impact the usability o the e-mail

system as well as the number o mailboxes that can be hosted in a virtual server

environment. Thereore, transactional access rates and database read latencies

are key perormance parameters designated by Microsot to determine the

number o users that can be supported in a given environment, and in turn, how

the user experience will be perceived.

This white paper will present a solution that dramatically increases MS

Exchange transactional IOPS and reduces database read latency to maximize

perormance, as well as the user experience. The solution also allows or urther

server consolidation, as well as lower power and cooling requirements, leading

to a reduction in overall Total Cost o Ownership (TCO).

Introduction

Virtualization o the MS Exchange Server Environment

The OCZ VXL Sotware Solution

The OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe Hardware Solution

Perormance Testing

Perormance Results

Conclusion

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ContentsPage



2 Virtualization o the MS Exchange Server

Environment

Virtualization achieves cost reductions through consolidation or MS Exchange

Server environments. With MS Exchange Server running in a Virtual Machine

(VM), multiple VMs can run on one platorm and can be moved or copied rom

one physical host to another to help balance the data center system load or

to expand processing capabilities. From a cost perspective, deploying and

managing less physical hosts (and multiple VMs) signicantly reduces overall

system and maintenance costs versus adding and managing isolated servers

or each application load.

In virtualized environments, storage has traditionally been relegated to external

storage arrays. These external storage arrays are typically lled with hard

disk drives (HDDs) that in most cases experience diculty in servicing a large

number o VMs concurrently due to their preerence or sequential, non-random

access to data. Additionally, external storage increases latency and causes data

bottlenecks as data access occurs through slower, external link protocols such

as FC (Fibre Channel) and iSCSI.

Since all connected VMs and associated applications in a virtualized

environment need access to external storage simultaneously rom the host, the

next logical step is to cache the most requently used data on fash memory that

resides within the virtualization host server. This approach enables any VM on

the host, such as MS Exchange Server, to access data at a much higher speed

and lower latency. The key to this approach is utilizing sotware that delivers

fash caching and storage virtualization into this virtualized server platorm.

To maximize storage capabilities, PCI Express (PCIe) fash cards (such as OCZs

Z-Drive R4 SSD) can be deployed within the virtualization server (that hosts the

MS Exchange Server) enabling fash cache to scale with either the size o the

cluster or the total capacity o the external storage area network (SAN). This

provides complete scalability in deployment and management o the fash within

the cluster.

3 The OCZ VXL Sotware Solution

To achieve the highest transactional IOPS and storage latency in virtualized

MS Exchange Server environments, OCZ Technologys VXL sotware provides

an optimized solution designed to operate in and enhance perormance o

enterprise virtualization environments. The sotware includes a rich eature set

that delivers heightened data acceleration, high availability (HA) and resiliency,

Server virtualization

requires strong randomaccess which is a major

problem or HDDs.



and is deployed as a virtual

appliance on the virtualization host

server, distributing fash resources on

demand across VM applications to

maximize perormance. See Figure 1.

VXL sotware employs an advanced

caching and virtualization algorithm

that eatures optimized caching

strategies specic to MS Exchange

applications and decides which

data to cache in fash memory in the

most ecient and optimal manner.

This algorithm is transparent to

VMs, and since the fash cache is

shared dynamically between all VMs

supported by the host server, VXLsotware ensures that the fash cache is optimally utilized at all times, regardless

o how many VMs are running concurrently.

One o the key benets o VXL sotware is that no guest agents are required

within the application VM so IT deployment, management, and maintenance are

much simpler. Utilizing hypervisor connectivity, VXL works with any operating

system supported by a virtualization platorm including Windows, Linux,

OpenSolaris and FreeBSD. This is in contrast to other cache sotware solutions

that require agent or driver installation on every VM in the virtualized cluster. The

OCZ VXL no-agents approach dramatically simplies both the deployment and

management o storage especially since there can be thousands o VMs in a

virtualized environment.

As VXL sotware virtualizes the local fash resources, connected VMs are

transparently accelerated and continue to unction as they would regularly in

virtualized environments. All key virtualization capabilities such as vMotion, HA,

and ault tolerance are ully supported. Furthermore, VXL uses PCIe fash as a

single, dynamic resource as opposed to the static allocation per-VM perormed

by competitive solutions. As a result, VXL sotware dynamically distributes thefash between VMs based on need, making sure no VM holds the fash idly

when it can be used elsewhere in the environment. This provides the highest

return on investment (ROI) in a virtualized environment, where many VMs

share the same fash and oten do not reach peak work load requirements

concurrently.

VXL sotware also enables virtualization o fash cards as a highly available

network resource. It achieves this through VXLs SAN-less Data Center mode

VMware(ESX)

Microsoft(Hyper-V)

Citrix(Xen)

Host Server

VM-1 VM-2 VM-3 OCZ VXL

Much less data

required from SAN

SAN (HDD)

Z-Drive R4

What is VXL?

VXL is Flash Caching and

Storage Virtualization sotware

Unleashes Virtualization ull

potential by dissolving HDD

storage bottlenecks

How Does it Works?

Monitors VM data requests

to/rom external SAN

Keeps critical data in Z-Drive

R4 inside the server

SAN by 90%

Figure 1: Combining the power o fash with the power o virtualization using OCZ VXL sotware and

OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSDs



that enables the fash to be exposed to any VM in a virtualized cluster without

negating any o the virtualization capabilities o the hypervisor layer. This

approach sets the precedence or an all silicon, SAN-less data center while

still delivering high availability and mirroring without the need or costly external

SANs.

4 The OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe Hardware Solution

OCZs Z-Drive R4 PCIe card provides a compact, power-ecient solid-state

solution that ts directly into a systems PCI Express slot to increase server

application perormance while delivering ast and reliable access to data

without burdening host CPU and memory resources. When combined with

OCZs VXL sotware, any PCIe-based Z-Drive R4 model (including the Z-Drive

R4 CloudServ) can be utilized as an accelerator or traditional iSCSI and FC

storage.

This combination o VXL sotware with a Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD enables the

delivery o a complete virtual perormance system or enterprise customers

looking to eciently distribute fash resources across VMs as a means to

maximize perormance o key applications. Since cached data is treated as

a virtualized storage entity, VMs can be migrated seamlessly between host

servers without perormance loss. This also eliminates the need or costly tier-1

SANs in a wide range o enterprise IT inrastructures and is simpler and more

cost eective to maintain.

5 Perormance Testing

This white paper presents the accelerated perormance

achievable with VXL sotware in virtualized MS Exchange

Server environments. Using Microsot Exchange Servers

Jetstress trac generator, the tests perormed compare

a VM running an MS Exchange Server database beore

and ater VXL sotware and a Z-Drive R4 PCIe fash SSD

are added to the host, testing or both transactional

IOPS and database read latency. The baseline reerence

environment (beore VXL sotware and the Z-Drive R4

PCIe SSD is added) eatures a VM that implements

the MS Jetstress trac generator deployed on a Dell

PowerEdge R710 host server and is connected to an IBM

DS3400 storage array system utilizing a RAID 0 SATA

LUN or database, and a RAID 5 SAS LUN or logs. A

VMware ESX 5.0 hypervisor was used on the host server,

containing 2 six core Intel XEON X5690 processors. See

Figure 2.

Another more efcient way

is to add an SSD into theserver and have it unction

as an accelerator by

caching the most requently

used data.

VMware ESX 5.0

Host Server

(Dell PowerEdge R710)

Exchange

Jetstress on

Win 2008 VM

Much less data

required from SAN

4Gb FC SAN

(IBM DS3400)

Figure 2: The baseline reerence environment beore VXL sotware and the

Z-Drive R4 PCIe SSD is added



The fash accelerated environment utilizes the baseline

reerence host with the addition o VXL sotware (as a

virtual acceleration appliance) and a Z-Drive R4 PCIe

card. In read cache mode, the fash is used to accelerate

reads while all writes are directed to SAN storage

(write-through). In the fash virtualization (SAN-less

Data Center) mode, VXL virtualizes the Z-Drive R4 PCIe

solution and exposes it as accelerated storage to the

Microsot Exchange Virtual Server. See Figure 3.

To simulate the sustained storage loads in a production

MS Exchange Server environment, a standardized 2 hour

Jetstress test o 200 mailboxes each, with 2 gigabyte

mailbox sizes, was used or both environments. The total

transactional IOPS and database latency metrics, beore

and ater VXL acceleration, were then compared and the

results appear in the next section.

6 Perormance Results

The results o the acceleration tests indicate that deploying VXL sotware

using a VMware ESX operating system with host-based fash provides a

dramatic increase in transactional IOPS or MS Exchange running as a VM in

the environment. The transactional IOPS increased more than 18x (rom 252

IOPS to 4581 IOPS) in the SAN-less Data Center mode, and more than 6x

(rom 252 IOPS to 1473 IOPS) when writes are directed to SAN storage viawrite-throughs. This increase in IOPS perormance was accompanied by a large

decrease in the database read latency (rom 16.2ms to 1.5ms), reaching access

times that were 13x aster than the Microsot usability requirement o 20ms.

Table 1 below summarizes the transactional IOPS and database read latency

beore and ater acceleration with VXL sotware and host based fash.

VMware ESX 5.0

Host Server(Dell PowerEdge R710)

Exchange

Jetstress on

Win 2008 VM

Much less data

required from SAN

4Gb FC SAN

(IBM DS3400)

OCZ VXL

Z-Drive R4

Figure 3: The ater or baseline reerence environment with the addition o

VXL sotware as a virtual acceleration appliance and a Z-Drive R4 PCIe

card

VM w/o Acceleration

VM accelerated w/

VXL (Write throughSAN mode)

VM w/ VXL SAN-less

Datacenter (FlashVirtualization Mode)

Transactional IOPS 252 1473 4581

Acceleration Factor x6 x18

Latency 16.2 1.4 1.5

Table 1: MS Exchange transactional IOPS and database read latency with and without VXL acceleration



As outlined in Graph 1, the incorporation o VXL sotware

and host-based fash provides an up to 18x increase in

transactional IOPS perormance. For IT proessionals, this

addition o VXL sotware translates into support or many

more users in a VM environment as well as the capability

to support heavier usage loads and usage peaks without

aecting a clients usability experience.

As is evident in Graph 2, database read latency with

VXL acceleration was reduced to less than a tenth o its

previous value. It should be noted that beore VXL and

fash acceleration was added, the Exchange VM was

close to ailing the Microsot recommended threshold

requiring latencies o less than 20ms. When VXL and

fash acceleration was added, latency was ar below the

20ms requirement indicating that the Exchange VM easily

passed Microsots usability requirement, which in turn,enables additional users within the same environment.

6 Conclusion

OCZ VXL sotware, when combined with an OCZ Z-Drive

R4 PCIe SSD, provides an enterprise-class solution

to fash-based virtualization and acceleration in the

data center. As demonstrated rom the perormance

tests, when PCIe fash with host-based virtualizationand acceleration sotware was added to the VMware

environment, perormance o MS Exchange VMs

increased by a actor o 18 times. This increased

perormance translates into a higher ROI in the enterprise

as the same virtual inrastructure can now support a

much larger number o users. Employee productivity also

increases since peak usage no longer adversely aects

end user perormance.

The combined OCZ hardware/sotware solution alleviates the storage issues

that bog down virtualized server deployments. Enterprise IT departments and

cloud providers can enable virtualization or even heavy application loads, such

as MS Exchange Server, with condence. In addition, reduced CAPEX and

OPEX eciencies are realized that transorm the data center into a dynamic,

high-perormance environment that is able to handle the ever-increasing loads

and requirements typically associated with accelerating access to data in the

enterprise.

$0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

MS Exchange Transactional IOPS

VM w/ DB in SAN VM w/ VXL Flash Virtualization(SAN-less data center)

Graph 1: MS Exchange Transactional IOPS with and without VXL

acceleration

Graph 2: Database read latency with and without VXL acceleration

0

5

10

15

20

Latency (Lower is Better)

VM w/ DB in SAN VM w/ Flash Virtualization



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Disclaimer

OCZ may make changes to specications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. The inormation presented in this document is or

inormational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors. Any perormance tests and ratings are

measured using systems that refect the approximate perormance o OCZ products as measured by those tests. Any dierences in sotware or

hardware conguration may aect actual perormance, and OCZ does not control the design or implementation o third party benchmarks or websites

reerenced in this document. The inormation contained herein is subject to change and may be rendered inaccurate or many reasons, including but not

limited to any changes in product and/or roadmap, component and hardware revision changes, new model and/or product releases, sotware changes,

rmware changes, or the like. OCZ assumes no obligation to update or otherwise correct or revise this inormation.

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Ms Exchange Server Acceleration