Exchange Architecture & SizingDave StorkArchitect @ OGD ict-dienstenExchange MVP

Mail: dave.stork@ogd.nlTwitter: @dmstorkBlog: https://dirteam.com/davePodcast: www.theUCarchitects.com

Agenda

FundamentalsPreferred ArchitectureSizingVirtualization

Fundamentals

Fundamentals

On-prem, full cloud or Hybrid?I’ll assume on-premises for this talk ;-)

Which version?Exchange 2007 & 2010– Extended Support until 2017 & 2020– Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2000 & 2003Exchange 2013– Mainstream support until 2018– Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2007Exchange 2016– not yet released– Lowest coexistence with Exchange 2010

Fundamentals

What is necessary to run Exchange?Active DirectoryDNS– Active Directory integratedCertificates– Use SHA2 certificatesWindows Server– Use highest supported version– Enterprise or Standard?Server resources– CPU & Memory– Storage– Network

Fundamentals

What might be necessary?Load Balancer– When more than one (Client Access) server

Reverse Proxy– Extra security layer– Pre-authentication

Office Web App ServerOthers 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

Fundamentals

Exchange 2010 RolesClient Access– HTTPS: OWA Rendering, ActiveSync etc.Hub Transport– SMTP transport and handlingMailboxUnified Messaging– Voicemail and Auto-AttendantBest practice: Multi role (CAS, HUB, MBX)Edge Transport– Perimeter network SMTP cleaning– Non-domain joined

Fundamentals

Exchange 2013 RolesClient Access– “Just a proxy”

Mailbox– Alle business logic; SMTP, HTTP, UM, Database

Best practice: Multi roleEdge Transport– Perimeter network SMTP cleaning– Non-domain joined– Since SP1 (CU4)

Fundamentals

Exchange 2016 RolesThere is just one role– However, the concept of Client Access Proxy is still

present in Exchange 2016.– Consider 2016 an automatic 2013 multi-role

Edge Transport– Perimeter network SMTP cleaning– Non-domain joined

Infrastructuur

Database Availability Group (DAG)“Clustering” for High Availability and Disaster RecoveryThere is always one Active CopyThere can be multiple Passive Copies of a databaseMax 16 (Mailbox) servers in a DAG– Theoretically max 16 copies of DB (including Active)

Lagged DBRecommended 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

DAG

Preferred Architecture

Preferred Architecture

What is the Preferred Architecture (PA)?“The PA is the Exchange Engineering Team’s prescriptive approach to what we believe is the optimum deployment architecture for Exchange 2013, and one that is very similar to what we deploy in Office 365”There are two versions, one for 2013 and one for 2016My advice: stay as close as possible to PA with your design. Describe any deviations and why this deviation is required.

Namespace design

DAG design

mail.contoso.com

Sizing

Sizing

Design and validate your Exchange environment according to business requirements and usage.

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

Sizing

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

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

Sizing

What steps are involved?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

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– This can take several days

Resolve any issuesRemove Jetstress and install ExchangeMonitor

Virtualization

Virtualization

What to consider when virtualizing?Design as if physical, but…Hypervisor is validated in SVVPNo dynamically expanding disks– Exception VHDX on Hyper-V

No dynamic memoryNo overcommit of memory on hostMaximum CPU overcommit ratio of 1:2 of host– Every 1 physical core is assigned 2 times max

Virtualization

Hyper Threading doesn’t countLoosened 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 movesNo snapshot back-up (Only VSS)

Virtualization

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– This is also true when physical. Find your acceptable

optimal point.

Virtualization

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– Total cost of ownership/operation could be lower than with

virtual

Microsoft Ignite 2015 sessions

Meet Exchange Server 2016Exchange Server Preferred ArchitectureDeploying Exchange Server 2016Exchange on IaaS: Concerns, Tradeoffs, and Best Practices

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015

Questions?Mail: dave.stork@ogd.nlTwitter: @dmstorkBlog: https://dirteam.com/davePodcast: www.theUCarchitects.com