The Problem

Microsoft Exchange administrators have their hands full with email servers that are always running at capacity. These administrators struggle to manage a client base spread over a growing number of servers, limit mailbox capacity or productivity features to ensure responsiveness, and wrestle with disk failures that require hours of recovery work and cost the company days of productivity. Meanwhile, demands for data needs and increased performance translate to ever-growing server loads.

Until now, the solution has been a continual outlay on high-performance disks that buy only a few months of breathing room because they don’t actually solve disk I/O constraints. Worst of all, these disk-based solutions require adding more server racks and peripherals that increase system complexity and administration overhead, while consuming valuable real estate and escalating power and cooling costs. By adding more hardware into the Microsoft Exchange environment, you likewise introduce more failure points, decreasing the reliability of the system.

The Fusion-io Solution

Fusion's ioMemory devices dramatically improve the performance of Microsoft Exchange servers with the lowest latency, highest bandwidth, and highest IOPS in the industry, eliminating mail slowness and providing better consistency in response times. It takes only minutes to configure Microsoft Exchange and place storage mailboxes onto ioMemory. The ioMemory technology maximizes performance even in the most demanding enterprise systems, with reliability qualified by OEMs such as HP, IBM, Dell, and Supermicro. Fusion-io reduces infrastructure footprint while retaining High Availability—in most cases even eliminating the need for a SAN.

Fusion-io integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and 2010. Most Microsoft Exchange server data fits comfortably on one or two ioMemory devices. With Microsoft Exchange 2010, an ioMemory and mailbox archiving hybrid can be configured to extend capacity in the Microsoft Exchange environment (see page six for this configuration).

ioMemory is an ideal solution for companies with over 500-1,000 users, whose Microsoft Exchange needs are beyond what an in-server array can support, or who are looking to scale to future growth.

If your Microsoft Exchange environment is experiencing any of the following symptoms, consider deploying Fusion-io:

• Slow-running disks that create unacceptable high latency
• Delays in sending and delivering mail
• Delays in sending and delivering attachments

Fusion’s ioMemory technology not only boosts performance, but also speeds failover and protects against data loss.

Benefits

Fusion ioMemory greatly improves Microsoft Exchange response times by delivering terabytes of persistent, high-performance NAND flash memory per server. This provides the following benefits:

• Support more mailboxes and more users per server
• Achieve faster searching and indexing of mail
• Provide consistent response times
• Serve attachments more quickly
• Achieve faster database rebuilding from logs
• Enable the mobile workforce
• Eliminate I/O complications in virtualized environments

 

Support More Mailboxes and More Users Per Server 

Adding Fusion-io to Microsoft Exchange dramatically improves mailbox and user performance. Each ioMemory device easily achieves 5,000 TPS, which is more than most environments require—and more workload than most JBODs or SANs. By guaranteeing ample transactions per second (TPS), ioMemory makes it easy to size and budget for your environment. With a Fusion Powered Exchange system, administrators need budget only for capacity. This headroom easily accommodates growth in the number of users or in the capacity of mailboxes, and enables organizations to enable productivity software, like Unified Communication and SharePoint, whose performance impact may have prevented integration before.

Achieve Faster Searching and Indexing of Mail 

The speed of ioMemory minimizes the impact of indexing on server response and maximizes random access I/O, accelerating user searches through gigabytes of attachments to promote high user productivity.

Provide Consistent Response Times 

Fusion Powered Microsoft Exchange servers boost performance so that even peak traffic and morning boot storms are handled gracefully and without perceptible slowdown. With ioMemory, users will never wait on virus scans again.

Serve Attachments More Quickly 

Because of the high performance ioMemory offers, user complaints about email slowness and timeouts will be virtually eliminated.

Faster Database Rebuilding from Logs

ioMemory provides best-in-breed performance to business-critical servers, reducing disaster recovery times and tightening Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). Using ioMemory for backups and restoring reduces recovery times by orders of magnitude. Exchange environments will require fewer redundancy servers and rebuild faster.

Figure 1. Backup and Restore from ioMemory devices for a small or medium enterprise.

Enable the Mobile Workforce 

ioMemory allows mobile devices to access their Microsoft Exchange data in seconds, wherever they are. Searches from mobile devices on disk-based systems are often slow, but with ioMemory, employees can work remotely around the globe without waiting for data to copy to the client access server.

Eliminate I/O Complication in Virtualized Environments

Many organizations want to virtualize Exchange to consolidate hardware and ease management, but cannot due to the performance impact of virtualization. ioMemory increases the workload virtual environments can support, allowing greater consolidation, even placing the hub transport and the client access servers in the same appliance.

Best Practices/Configurations

Microsoft Exchange 2007

As described in the previous sections, ioMemory provides significant benefits for Microsoft Exchange 2007. With CCR (Continuous Cluster Replication), Microsoft Exchange administrators no longer need a SAN for High Availability. Storage groups can be placed onto an ioMemory device installed into each server. Mobile devices continually check Client Access servers, increasing I/O load, further increasing the benefit of ioMemory.

Figure 2. Microsoft Exchange 2007 with storage groups on ioMemory.

• User mailboxes on the M:\ drive, spanned in a RAID 0 to maximize mailbox capacity
• Redundancy provided on Passive Node 2
• Logs Duplicated with RAID 1 for an extra level of resiliency

Configuring ioMemory with Continuous Copy Replication (CCR) improves site resiliency with increased performance, faster loading mailboxes, and reduced SLAs. Use the passive node for offline backup or offsite replication of backups to reduce traffic on the active node.

The use of storage groups allows you to create mailbox subsets among company employees. Storage groups allow another layer of abstraction to assign specific employees to specific mailbox databases. This way, if one storage group is lost, the entire company isn't impacted. 

Microsoft Exchange 2010

Fusion's ioMemory integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, allowing you to fully utilize Database Availability Groups (DAGs). DAGs eliminate the need to rely on external storage and achieve high availability and data protection. The following illustrates how to configure Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to put storage groups on ioMemory and implement DAGs for High Availability.

Figure 3. Microsoft Exchange 2010 with storage groups on ioMemory and DAGs implemented for High Availability.

Microsoft Exchange servers not running MS Cluster are not dependent on shared storage in a SAN; the existing disk can simply be replaced with an ioMemory device, such as the ioDrive. Most Microsoft Exchange environments will fit comfortably on one or two ioDrives.

Sizing Exchange Servers Containing ioMemory Devices

ioMemory can be deployed in client access, mailbox, hub transport, and edge transport servers. In the mailbox server, ioMemory can house both transactions logs and database files. In the other server roles, it can be configured to hold temporary files as messages are transferred to and from clients, server, during virus scans, and in transport rule processing.

Installing ioMemory into a Microsoft Exchange server changes the CPU performance and memory capacity needs for the server. For the mailbox server, adding ioMemory affects the server count, database number, and database size recommendations from the Microsoft tools. To obtain more information on sizing, please see the contact information on the last page of this document.

 
Archiving to a SAN for High Availability 

For large enterprises, an archival SAN can periodically backup the passive Exchange server. This configuration improves the environment’s availability profile and doesn’t interfere with mail operation. Running backup and restore processes from ioMemory to SAN storage allows Microsoft Exchange environments to achieve very High Availability with a small number of redundant servers.

Figure 4. Backup and restore from ioMemory for a large enterprise for High Availability.

Hybrid ioMemory and Disk Systems for Cost-Effective Capacity

Combining Fusion ioMemory devices with a disk-based archival database can provide a cost-effective solution for large capacity, high-transaction load environments. This is achieved where the “hot” or current message database is placed on ioMemory, and the archival message database is held on disks. 

Figure 5. Using a disk/ioMemory hybrid in your Microsoft Exchange environment makes the most of the system’s capacity—disks for archived mail and ioMemory for recent, active mail.

Unlike other SSD solutions, integrating ioMemory into your Microsoft Exchange environment doesn’t require expensive servers for disk arrays—ioMemory still works with older servers, which can be configured to hold 1,000 users. These “standard” servers can also be configured to use its hard drives as archival stores. Fusion ioMemory devices can hold both active and passive databases, achieving 5,000 TPS, while allowing you to expand the system incrementally.

Summary

Fusion’s low latency and high-performing ioMemory allows Microsoft Exchange administrators to improve mailbox server performance without breaking the budget. With easy maintenance, enterprise storage, and proven reliability, Fusion-io can make your Microsoft Exchange user experience seamless.

Contact

Fusion-io products are available through OEM partners and resellers. For more information, contact sales@fusionio.com Phone: 801-671-6015.