Appendix B

Planning a Virtualization Strategy for

Exchange Server 2010

Overview

• Hyper-V Overview

• High Availability Options with Hyper-V

• Planning a Virtualization Strategy for Exchange Server 2010

Lesson 1: Hyper-V Overview

• What Is Hyper-V?

• Requirements and Limits for Hyper-V Hosts

• Planning for Disks and Storage

• Virtual Machine Overview

• Virtual Disk Configuration Options

• Identifying Server Virtualization Candidates

• Using Virtual Machine Manager to Manage Virtual Environments

What Is Hyper-V?

Applications Applications Applications

Windows Server 2003, 2008

Windows Kernel VSC

VMBusVMBus

“Designed for Windows” Server Hardware

Windows hypervisor

Supported Linux

Distributions

Linux VSC

Linux VSC

Child Partitions

OS ISV / IHV / OEM Microsoft Hyper-V

User Mode

Kernel Mode

Ring -1

Windows Server 2008

Windows Kernel

VMBusVMBus VMBusVMBus

Parent Partition

VM ServicesVM Services

WMI ProviderWMI Provider

VM Worker

Processes

Applications

Microsoft / CitrixProvided by

VSPVSP

IHV Drivers

Non-Hypervisor Aware OS

EmulationEmulation

Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization technologyHyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization technology

Requirements and Limits for Hyper-V Hosts

Component Description

Logical processors 64

Virtual processors per logical processor 8

Virtual machines per server 384 running virtual machines

Memory 1 terabyte

Storage No limits imposed by Hyper-V

Physical network adapters No limits imposed by Hyper-V

Planning for Disks and Storage

Hyper-V host computers can use:

• Directly attached storage

• Storage Area Networks

Virtual machines require storage for:

• Virtual hard disk files

• Snapshots

• Failover clustering

• Application data files

Virtual Machine Overview

Virtual machines components include:

• Virtual processors

• Memory

• Network adapters

• Virtual disks

Component Description

Virtual processors 4

Memory 64 GB

Virtual IDE disks 4

Virtual SCSI disks 256

Virtual hard disk capacity

2,040 GB

Snapshots 50

Virtual network adapters

12

Virtual machine components

Virtual Disk Configuration Options

Storage controller types:

• IDE

• Required for the boot and system volume

• Maximum of two controllers with two drives per controller

• SCSI

• Maximum of four SCSI controllers with 256 drives

• Slightly better performance

Virtual disk types:

• Dynamically expanding

• Fixed-size

• Differencing

• Pass-through

Identifying Server Virtualization Candidates

When identifying server workloads to virtualize, consider:

• Hardware requirements

• Compatibility

• Supportability

• Licensing

Using Virtual Machine Manager to Manage Virtual Environments

Virtual Machine Manager is used to:

• Manage virtual machines running on different host platforms

• Convert physical and virtual machines to Hyper-V virtual machines

• Intelligently manage virtual machine placement Enable self-service management of virtual machines Enable storage of virtual machine components in a

library Integrate with System Center Operations Manager 2007

to manage virtual machines and hosts

Lesson 2: High Availability Options with Hyper-V

• Options for Providing High Availability for Virtualization

• How Network Load Balancing Works

• What Is a Failover Cluster?

• Failover Cluster Functionality in Windows Server 2008 R2

• Requirements for Failover Clustering in Hyper-V

• The Process for Implementing Hyper-V and Failover Clustering

Options for Providing High Availability for Virtualization

High availability options Description

Host clustering • Virtual machines are highly available

• Does not require virtual machine operating system or application to be cluster aware

Guest clustering • Virtual machines are failover cluster nodes

• Virtual machine applications must be cluster-aware

• Requires iSCSI for shared storage connections

Network load balancing (NLB) • Virtual machines are NLB cluster nodes

• Use for Web-based applications

How Network Load Balancing Works

Client network

Hyper-V Host 1 Hyper-V Host 2

NLB application NLB application

A dedicated networkconnects the NLB cluster

nodes

Virtual MachineNode 1

Virtual MachineNode 2

What Is a Failover Cluster?

Failover Cluster Functionality in Windows Server 2008 R2

• Clustered Shared Volumes

• Live migration

• Processor compatibility mode

• Windows PowerShell cmdlets for failover clusters

• Additional tests in cluster validation

Requirements for Failover Clustering in Hyper-V

• Hardware requirements for cluster nodes and storage

• Software requirements for cluster nodes

• Network infrastructure requirements

The Process for Implementing Hyper-V and Failover Clustering

Validate the cluster configuration

Install the Hyper-V and failover clustering features

Configure shared storage

Create the cluster

Install and configure Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 11

22

33

44

55

Create a virtual machine on one of the cluster nodes 66

Make the virtual machine highly available 77

Lesson 3: Planning a Virtualization Strategy for Exchange Server 2010

• Exchange Server 2010 Virtualization Support

• Planning Hyper-V Hosts

• Guidelines for Planning Exchange Server 2010 Virtual Machines

• Designing Virtualization for Client Access Servers

• Designing Virtualization for Transport Servers

• Design Virtualization for Mailbox Servers

Exchange Server 2010 Virtualization Support

Category Requirement

Virtualization host • Hyper-V or supported hypervisor-based platform

• Dedicated as a virtualization host

Virtual machines • Unified Messaging role not supported

• Total processor limitations

Storage • Supported – Fixed Disk, SCSI pass-through disks, iSCSI-attached disks

• Not supported – Dynamically expanding disks, differencing disks, snapshots

Planning Hyper-V Hosts

When planning Hyper-V hosts:

• Simplify and standardize the host platform

• Consider using the Server Core installation option

• Automate and standardize administration of the virtual server environment

• Separate the administration of the host computersand virtual machines

• Reserve at least one GB of RAM for the host

• Dedicate a network adaptor for management and a network adapter for live migration

• Configure separate LUNs for the host operating system,the virtual machine operating system, and data storage

• Use Windows Server 2008 R2 for failover clustering

Guidelines for Planning Exchange Server 2010 Virtual Machines

When designing virtual machines for Exchange Server:

• Use standard server-sizing rules

• Configure appropriate storage

• Do not use virtual machine snapshots

• Configure adequate CPU resources

• Consider other options for ensuring physical server utilization

• Assign virtual machines running different Exchange Server roles to each host computer

Designing Virtualization for Client Access Servers

When designing virtual machines for Client Access servers:

• Consider using NLB for high availability and load balancing

• Distribute virtual machines in an NLB cluster across hosts

• Plan a standard hardware configuration

• Deploy three Client Access servers for each Mailbox server

• Configure required storage

Designing Virtualization for Transport Servers

When designing virtual machines for Transport servers:

• Use built-in Hub Transport server redundancy

• Plan a standard hardware configuration

• Deploy one Hub Transport server for each Mailbox server

• Configure required storage

Design Virtualization for Mailbox Servers

When designing virtual machines for Mailbox Servers:

•Do not combine host clustering and DAGs

•Consider using DAGs for high availability

•Assign members of the same DAG to different hosts

•Consider performance implications

•Plan for storage

•Plan a standard hardware configuration

Module Review and Takeaways

• Review Questions

• Real-world Issues and Scenarios

• Best Practices

• Tools