Best Practices Dell EMC SC Series: Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Abstract This document provides best-practices for using Microsoft® Exchange Server 2016 or 2019 with Dell EMC™ SC Series storage.
Revisions Revisions Date Description October 2012 Initial release April 2013 Update September 2015 Updated with new SC Series products and best practices updates August 2016 Updated for Exchange Server 2016 May 2019 Updated for Exchange Server 2019; template update Acknowledgements Engineering: Damon Zaylskie The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
Acknowledgements Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 Executive summary...................................................................................................
Acknowledgements 5.1.2 Snapshots .........................................................................................................................................................19 5.1.3 Database verification ........................................................................................................................................19 6 Recovery ................................................................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary This document provides best-practices for using Microsoft® Exchange Server 2016 or 2019 with Dell EMC™ SC Series storage. These guidelines apply to previous versions of Exchange still under support. These guidelines should be evaluated thoroughly since every environment configuration is different. They should not be construed as final recommendations in the configuration of SC Series or Microsoft Exchange environments.
Predeployment 1 Predeployment 1.1 Understanding storage virtualization Traditional SAN solutions require a LUN to be created by carving out a specific amount of disk space from a specified set of spindles. This process is time-consuming and hard to manage because it involves keeping track of which servers are mapped to which storage by which worldwide name (WWN).
Predeployment 1.3 Exchange architecture 1.3.1 Exchange 2016 With CPU hardware generally less expensive than in the past, the constraint of expensive server hardware has been alleviated. Exchange 2016 takes advantage of this with a primary design goal of simplicity in scale and hardware utilization. The number of server roles has been reduced to two: Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles.
Predeployment • 1.3.2 excessive memory consumption by the Microsoft Exchange Replication service (MSExchangeRepl.exe), and also for severe cases in which the system is in such a bad state that threads cannot be scheduled. DAG lagged copy enhancements: Lagged copies can care for themselves to a certain extent using automatic log play down. In addition, lagged copies can leverage Safety.Net (previously Transport Dumpster in Exchange 2010), making recovery or activation much easier.
Configuration 2 Configuration 2.1 Disk layout Microsoft provides the following storage configuration best practices for Exchange 2016/2019: RAID is often used to both improve the performance characteristics of individual disks (by striping data across several disks) and provide protection from individual disk failures. With the advancements in Exchange 2016/2019 high availability, RAID is not a required component for Exchange storage design.
Configuration • • The risk of database reseeding is very low when compared to a single disk JBOD. If a disk drive in an SC Series array fails, a SAN spare is automatically used and the server and application are unaware of any hardware change. The main reason Microsoft best practices put these multiple databases on a disk is to allow for faster reseeding of the storage space from multiple sources. Since this is not a factor for SC Series volumes, Dell EMC does not recommend this as a best practice.
Configuration SC Series customers who experience large snapshots (75 percent or greater of database size) can consider the 512 KB page option (not available on SCv2xxx arrays) for their Exchange volumes on the SC Series array if they are running hybrid or spinning drive systems. This will reduce the number of blocks written to a page, thus reducing the snapshot sizes. The tradeoff with this smaller page size is reduced storage capacity. 2.
Configuration Mailbox I/O requirements are substantially lowered since Exchange 2013. The overall I/O requirement for Exchange 2016 mailboxes has decreased by over 50 percent from Exchange 2010. Exchange 2019 data is not yet available. Mailbox profile I/O requirements 0.35 0.325 IOPS per mailbox 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.05 0.05 0.
Configuration Download the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator. 2.4.1 Archive mailboxes Each mailbox in the database can have an archive mailbox. This allows users to have an archive repository that does not impact existing mailbox quotas and allows them to retain data for longer periods of time. Archive mailboxes can help eliminate PST files and keep information contained within Exchange Server. It is important to note that an archive mailbox is a separate object from the user mailbox.
Configuration Note: Online database maintenance can have a major impact on snapshot sizes as the online defragmentation process moves data around and pages are cleared. Although disabling online database maintenance completely is not recommended, some customers have experienced relief in extreme situations by throttling the online database maintenance process back to one day per week. 2.5.
Performance and monitoring 3 Performance and monitoring 3.1 Monitoring Performance Monitor is a helpful tool for monitoring the overall operations of Exchange server. Several specific counters are good indicators of performance bottlenecks. The performance counters shown in Table 1 are helpful in monitoring and troubleshooting. The thresholds provided are based on standard industry guidance.
Performance and monitoring 3.1.2 Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager Dell EMC has developed a System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) Management Pack that provides the capabilities to manage SC Series storage within a Windows environment. There is also a custom Management Pack available for Exchange 2013, which uses Exchange Managed Availability to also run with Exchange 2016.
Troubleshooting 4 Troubleshooting 4.1 Dell Storage Manager Use Dell Storage Manager (formerly branded as Dell Enterprise Manager) to monitor, troubleshoot, and manage Exchange workloads along with other application workloads on Dell EMC storage systems in your organization. Graphical view of running application workloads 4.
Troubleshooting Set the MaxSize and MaxAge parameters appropriate to the capacity available on the disk. Exchange will delete the data as soon as it reaches the first of those two values. Microsoft Support recommends leaving these settings at the default to collect the appropriate logging required for detailed troubleshooting operations. For reference information on setting up and working with this new troubleshooting tool, see the WindowsITPro article. 4.
Backup and recovery 5 Backup and recovery 5.1 Backups and snapshots 5.1.1 Backup schedules A standard backup schedule should be established for every Exchange environment. This backup schedule should include at least one full backup per week. If an environment is small, or if time permits, a daily full backup is optimal. With Exchange 2013/2016/2019, Microsoft recommends using database copies to eliminate regular backups.
Recovery 6 Recovery 6.1 Recovery databases A recovery database is an Exchange 2013/2016/2019 feature that replaces the Recovery Storage Group (RSG) found in previous versions of Exchange. A recovery database is a special kind of mailbox database that allows mounting a restored mailbox database (using a snapshot) and extracting data from the restored database as part of a recovery operation. The Restore-Mailbox cmdlet can be used to extract data from a recovery database.
Disaster recovery 7 Disaster recovery VSS snapshots can be replicated using the SC Series Remote Data Instant Replay. This would allow data (as current as the last snapshot available) to be brought online at the main site or disaster recovery site. If Exchange Server boots from SAN, snapshots from the boot volume and data volumes can be easily mapped at the disaster recovery site, provided that duplicate hardware is used at the site.
Technical support and resources A Technical support and resources Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support. Storage technical documents and videos provide expertise that helps to ensure customer success on Dell EMC storage platforms. A.1 Related documentation Table 2 lists the referenced or recommended resources related to this document.
