ON-PREMISES EXCHANGE:REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES PLANNING AND DEPLOYINGSpeaker: Dave StorkCompany: OGD ICT ServicesPosition: Architect

Who Am I?I am Dave Stork – Architect @ OGD ICT Services. Working in IT for over 15 years.

I am a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) in ‘Office Servers and Services’ and a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).

Co-author of upcoming book with fellow MVP Damian Scoles: Practical PowerShell - Exchange 2016. www.practicalpowershell.com

I tweet from @dmstorkI blog at dirteam.com/daveOccasional podcast: www.theucarchitects.comEmail me dave.stork@ogd.nl

TITLEHERE• Fundamentals• Preferred Architecture• Sizing• Virtualization

CONTENTS

#GWAVACon

FUNDAMENTALS

What is necessary to run Exchange?

• Active Directory Topology• Windows Server

• Use highest supported version• .Net Framework• Clients

Want to know more? Check the Exchange Server Supportability Matrix

What is necessary to run Exchange?

Certificates• Use SHA-2 certificates!• Use Exchange tools to create request or check:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3032024• Request is SHA-1, but most public CA’s will give SHA-2

• Unless you were using WoSign/StartCom Server resources• CPU & Memory• Storage• Network

What might be necessary?

• Load Balancer• Availability; when more than one server

• Reverse Proxy• Extra security layer• Pre-authentication

• Office Web App / Office Online Server

• Others from business requirements

Outer DMZpublic IP adressing

Inner DMZprivate IP adressing Datacenter Zone

Users (Outlook, Mobile, OWA)

Exchange DAG

Reverse Proxy (TMG)

Load balancer

File share Witness

Office Web App

(Optional)

Users (Outlook, Mobile, OWA)

IP-PBX(Optional)

Lync (Optional)

SharePoint (Optional)

Anti Malware

Which version? From a support view:

• Exchange 2007 & 2010• Extended Support until april 2017 & 2020• Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2000 &

2003

• Exchange 2013• Mainstream support until 2018• Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2007

• Exchange 2016• Mainstream support until 2020• Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2010

Exchange 2003*? Don’t be like red-shirt!

* Or those still running 5.5

PREFERRED ARCHITECTURE (PA)

Database Availability Group (DAG)• “Clustering” for High Availability and Disaster

Recovery• There is always one Active Copy• There can be multiple Passive Copies of a

database• Max 16 (Mailbox) servers in a DAG

• Lagged DB• Recommended max 2TB per DB in DAG

• I prefer smaller database sizes even in a DAG (~300GB)• File Share Witness

• Tie breaker: the majority of votes of interconnected servers wins

Consider the DAG as a RAID5 set with Exchange servers as the disks.

What is that PA you keep talking about?• Reference design for Exchange 2013 and 2016• Based on experiences from Exchange Online• Highly available & no backup required• Focus on simplicity

• Physical Servers “commodity hardware”• Advisory on server design, storage, security etc.

• Namespace design• What URLs do clients use if you have multiple datacenters?

• DAG stretched over two datacenters• 2 DB copies per datacenter; 4 total

• One is lagged for Native Data Protection

PA in action

DC2-LONDC1-BHX

DAG

DC3/Azure

Witness Server

Active DBPassive DBLagged DB

In summary• “The Preferred Architecture provides the optimal

deployment model for on-premises”• Native Data Protection keeps getting better• Simpler is the best route!

However, not al organizations are able to implement it. Try to keep your design as close as possible and document deviations.

SIZING

What do you mean with sizing?• Design and validate your Exchange environment

according to business requirements and usage.

What information do you need?• User activity• Business requirements• High available and disaster recovery? RTO/RPO• Growth and lifecycle of environment• Physical or virtual?

What steps are involved?• Gather user statistics

• Generate-MessageProfile.ps1

• Have a general design idea including server resources• Find SPECInt 2006 rate of the CPU of your choice

• Use the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator• Note: version and update specific• Input user statistics• CPU information• Other

SiteName MailboxesAvgTotalMsgs AvgTotalKB

AvgSentMsgs

AvgRcvdMsgs AvgSentKB

AvgRcvdKB

BHX 5888 24 176 7 18 166 180

Server Configuration/ Primary

Datacenter Server (Single

Failure)Recommended RAM Configuration 24 GBNumber of Processor Cores Utilized 2Server CPU Utilization 18%Server CPU Megacycle Requirements 4821Server Total Available Adjusted Megacycles 26430Possible Storage Architecture RAIDRecommended Transport Database Location System Disk

Host IO and Throughput Requirements / Database / Server / DAGTotal Database Required IOPS 1 66 133Total Log Required IOPS 0 15 29Database Read I/O Percentage 60% -- --Background Database Maintenance Throughput Requirements 1.0 MB/s 58 MB/s 116 MB/s

Disk Space Requirements

/ Databa

se / Server / DAG

/ Environme

ntTransport Database Space Required -- 66 GB 264 GB 264 GBDatabase Space Required 259 GB 3107 GB 12426 GB 12426 GBLog Space Required 11 GB 126 GB 505 GB 505 GBDatabase+Log Volume Space Required

393 GB 4711 GB 18844 GB 18844 GB

Log Volume Space Required 0 GB 0 GB 0 GB 0 GBRestore Volume Space Required -- 284 GB 1134 GB 1134 GB

Distribution sheet

Distribution sheet hidden gems

Export of data files using your input and sizing, in order to provision volumes, mountpoints, DAGs, databases and database copies

What steps are involved? (continued)• Adjust your design

• Other processor (or server)• More Exchange servers• Different quota’s• Etc.

• Use the sizing calculator again• Evaluate, repeat, evaluate, repeat…• Choose your optimal supported sizing

And then?• Build your servers up until installing Exchange

• including all patches/updates, Exchange requirements, antivirus, back-up agent etc..

• Validate your storage with Jetstress• Use the 2013 version for Exchange 2016• Study the Jetstress Field Guide• This can take several days

• Resolve any issues• Remove Jetstress and deploy Exchange• Monitor

Tip: Performance & User experience not what is expected? Recalculate your sizing with current information. Still valid? Troubleshoot further.

VIRTUALIZATION

What to consider when virtualizing?• Design as if physical, but…• Hypervisor is validated in SVVP• No dynamically expanding disks

• Exception VHDX on Hyper-V

• No dynamic memory• No overcommit of memory on host• Maximum CPU overcommit ratio of 1:2 of host

• Every 1 physical core is assigned 2 times max

What to consider when virtualizing? (Continued)• Hyper Threading doesn’t count

• Loosened heartbeat• If there is a requirement for migration of the host while running etc.

• Anti affinity rules• Don’t put Exchange servers and supporting infrastructure on the same host

• No save state moves• No snapshot back-up (Only VSS)

What to consider when virtualizing? (Continued)• Take NUMA boundary into account

• non-uniform memory access (NUMA)• Fastest complex of processing unit and memory

• Sometimes more smaller servers is a better fit with virtualization• Find your acceptable optimal point.

• Don’t deploy more Exchange VMs than Hypervisor hosts• Consider capacity management for your virtualization

environment• I’ve seen a lot of issues when CPU ratio was higher than 1:2

• Consider physical deployment or hosting/Office 365

SUMMARY

• Use the Exchange Supportability Matrix• Plan with the Support Lifecycle date in mind• Use the Preferred Architecture as a baseline design• Correct sizing is key for a good user experience

• Use user activity data• Exchange Role Calculator

• Validate storage with Jetstress• When virtualizing

• Adhere to support guidelines• Smaller is often better• Consider physical, hosting/Office 365

QUESTIONS?

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