White Papers

Acknowledgements
3 Dell EMC SC Series: Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices | CML1037
Table of contents
Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................. 2
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
1 Predeployment ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
1.1 Understanding storage virtualization .................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Understanding Exchange I/O ............................................................................................................................. 6
1.3 Exchange architecture ........................................................................................................................................ 7
1.3.1 Exchange 2016 ................................................................................................................................................... 7
1.3.2 Exchange 2019 ................................................................................................................................................... 8
2 Configuration ................................................................................................................................................................ 9
2.1 Disk layout .......................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.2 SC Series page size considerations ................................................................................................................. 10
2.3 Storage profiles and Data Progression ............................................................................................................ 11
2.3.1 Microsoft recommends ReFS for Exchange 2016 database volumes (JBOD) ................................................ 11
2.3.2 Default allocation unit size ................................................................................................................................ 11
2.3.3 Partition type ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
2.4 Mailbox server sizing considerations ................................................................................................................ 11
2.4.1 Archive mailboxes............................................................................................................................................. 13
2.5 Online database maintenance .......................................................................................................................... 13
2.5.1 Online defragmentation .................................................................................................................................... 13
2.5.2 Online database scanning (checksumming) .................................................................................................... 13
2.5.3 Database fragmentation ................................................................................................................................... 14
3 Performance and monitoring ...................................................................................................................................... 15
3.1 Monitoring ......................................................................................................................................................... 15
3.1.1 Monitoring the database defragmentation process .......................................................................................... 15
3.1.2 Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager....................................................................................... 16
4 Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................................................................... 17
4.1 Dell Storage Manager ....................................................................................................................................... 17
4.2 Microsoft Exchange 2013/2016 Diagnostic Service logs ................................................................................. 17
4.3 Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant (2007/2010) ........................................................................... 18
4.4 Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (2007/2010) .............................................................................. 18
5 Backup and recovery .................................................................................................................................................. 19
5.1 Backups and snapshots ................................................................................................................................... 19
5.1.1 Backup schedules............................................................................................................................................. 19