Source: Virtualization and Management: Trends, Forecasts, and Recommendations; Enterprise Management Associates (EMA); April 2008 “What types of workloads have you deployed virtualization technology”

Virtualization Platform Business Critical ApplicationsManagement Platform Enterprise Applications Line Of Business (LOB) Custom Applications Database Communication Business Applications Microsoft Server Applications Collaboration Hyper-V™ Microsoft Virtualization = Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V +System Center

Virtualization Deployment Scenarios for Microsoft SQL Server

Higher Isolation, Higher Costs Higher Density, Lower Costs Databases Instances IT Managed Environment Virtual Machines Schemas Microsoft Confidential Sales_1 Marketing_1 Online_Sales ERP_10 DB_1 DB_3 DB_2  Currently a variety of consolidation strategies exist and are utilized  Typically, as isolation goes up, density goes down and operation cost goes up MyServer

Multiple SQL Instances Multiple Virtual Machines (VM) Isolation Shared Windows instanceDedicated Windows instance CPU Resources Number of CPUs visible to Windows instance Up to 4 virtual CPUs CPU over-commit is supported Memory Server Limit Dynamic(max server memory) Statically allocated to VM (Offline changes only) 64GB limit per VM 2 TB Limit per Host Storage SQL Data Files with standard storage options SQL Data Files using Passthrough or Virtual Hard Disks exposed to VM Resource Management Windows System Resource Manager(process level) SQL Server Resource Governor Hyper-V guest VM SQL Server Resource Governor Number of instances 50Practical limit determined by physical resources High Availability Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, Replication Live Migration, Guest Clustering, Database Mirroring, Log Shipping, Replication Performance GoodComparable with multiple instances, acceptable overhead

) ) % CPU Throughput (Batch requests/sec) Relative Throughput for Windows Server 2008 Heavy Load Moderate Load Low Load CPU over-commit Almost Linear Scale No CPU over-commit Almost Linear Scale No CPU over-commit Results: Increased throughput with consolidation Near linear scale in throughput with no CPU over-commit Improved performance with Windows Server 2008 R2 and SLAT processor architecture Configuration: OS: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Hardware: HP DL585 (16 core) with SLAT HP EVA 8000 storage Virtual Machines: 4 virtual processors and 7 GB RAM per virtual machine; Fixed size VHD

Results: Drop-in compatibility of Istanbul processors with existing infrastructure ~50% performance improvement with AMD HyperTransport Assist feature Keep cache coherency traffic between the two sockets from appearing on the external bus Configuration: OS: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Hardware: HP DL785 (32 core, and 48 cores) with SLAT Hitachi Data Systems AMS2500 Storage Virtual Machines: 4 virtual processors and 7 GB RAM per virtual machine; Fixed size VHD

Virtualization Benefits: Increase agility by rapidly provisioning and scaling-out BI components on demand Reduce the number of physical servers, save on power and space Scenario Description: Business Intelligence (BI) components with lower resource requirements such as Data Mart (DM), OLAP Cube, Reporting Servers are good candidates for scale out and ideal for virtualization Operational Data Store (ODS), Data Warehouse (DW), SQL Server® Integration Services could be physical or virtual depending on scale up requirements If virtual, put SSIS and Data Warehouse on the same Virtual Machine (VM) ERP External 1 2 Operational Data Store Web Legacy Click Here For More Information Reporting Server Data Mart & OLAP Cube Reporting Server Data Mart & OLAP Cube VM SQL Server® Integration Services (SSIS) Data Warehouse (DW)

Scenario Description: Help protect from data loss with SQL Server® Database Mirroring. Automatically, failover from primary to standby using witness. Consolidate mirrored database servers on standby site with virtualization Use mirrored databases with database snapshots for reporting Ensure there is enough CPU capacity at the standby site to provide acceptable SLA upon failover Virtualization Benefits: Better server utilization on standby site due to consolidation Cost effective disaster recovery solution without using costly specialized hardware Management efficiency based on SQL Server and System Center management tools 2 1 SQL Server Database Mirroring 2 3 Click Here For More InformationVM Reporting Server (DB Snapshot)

PartnerPRO Technology BrocadeMonitor IO performance from the server to the data in the SAN DellThe “PRO-enabled” Dell Management Pack ensures that host machines operate under normal power and temperature thresholds. Other PRO alerts include memory, storage controller, and disk remediation. CitrixWorkflows can be initiated to automatically start or provision VMs based on an entity’s health and automatically update NetScaler load balancing rules EmulexMonitor I/O rates across the HBA relative to maximum available bandwidth HPMonitor the following attributes of their servers: hard drive, array controller, power, temperature, processor, memory, fans, and alert on degradation or critical errors providing the appropriate recommended resolution Quest SoftwareFor non-Windows Operating Systems and non-Microsoft application technologies, the solution enables intelligent virtual machine tuning Secure VantageExtends the native capabilities of Security Management providing users the ability to mitigate risk and remediate policy violations across virtual environments Virtual Machine Manager PRO Packs For complete list, visit

Virtualization Deployment Scenarios for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

What is a SharePoint® Farm? A collection of one or more SharePoint Servers and SQL Servers® providing a set of basic SharePoint services bound together by a single configuration database in SQL Server Key Components: Web Front End (WFE) Servers: o Windows ® SharePoint Services o Web Application Service Application Servers: o Office SharePoint Server Search Service (Index or Query) o Document Conversion Launcher Service o Document Conversion Load Balancer Service o Excel Calculation Services SQL Server

Role Virtualization Decision Considerations and Requirements Web Role Render Content Ideal Easily provision additional servers for load balancing and fault tolerance Query Role Process Search Queries Ideal For large indexes, use physical volume over dynamic expanding VHD Requires propagated copy of local index Application Role Excel Forms Services Ideal Provision more servers as resource requirements for individual applications increase Index Role Crawl Index Consider Environments where significant amount of content is not crawled Requires enough drive space to store the index corpus Database RoleConsider Environments with lower resource usage requirements Implement SQL Server ® alias for the farm required

Scenario Description: Optimized scenario for high-end production is mixed physical and virtual Index and database roles on dedicated physical servers to provide very high scalability Virtual web, query, and application roles All servers managed by System Center Suite Virtualization Benefits: Unified management: physical and virtual Dynamic data center: scale dynamically and on-demand provisioning TEST DEV PRODUCTION Shared Storage iSCSI, SAS, Fibre Failover Server VM Index

Best Practices and Recommendations CPU Configure a 1-to-1 mapping of virtual processor to logical processors for best performance Be aware of “CPU bound” issues Memory Ensure enough memory is allocated to each virtual machine Disk Be aware of underlying disk read write contention between different virtual machines to their virtual hard disks Ensure SAN is configured correctly Network Use VLAN tagging for security Associate SharePoint® virtual machines to the same virtual switch Others Ensure that integration components are installed on the virtual machine Do not use other host roles (use server core) Avoid single point of failure: load balance your virtual machines across hosts and cluster virtual machines

Virtualization Deployment Scenarios for Microsoft Exchange Server

Deployment Recommendations Exchange application is not ‘virtualization aware’ Core Exchange Design Principles Still Apply Design for Performance, Reliability and Capacity Design for Usage Profiles (CAS/MBX) Design for Message Profiles (Hub/Edge) Virtualization Design Principles Now Apply Design for Performance, Reliability and Capacity Virtual machines should be sized specific to the Exchange role (EDGE, HUB, CAS, MBX, multi-role) Hosts should be sized to accommodate the guests that they will support

RolePhysical DeploymentVirtual DeploymentNotes Maximum Processor Cores Memory Sizing Processor Core : MBX Ratio Maximum Virtual Processors Memory Sizing Standard VM Standard VM Ratio Edge/ Hub 12 processor cores 1 GB per processor core 1:5 with Anti-Virus 1:7 with no AV 4 virtual processors 1 GB per processor core 4 VPs + 4GB 1 HUB VM : 5 MBX VMs To accommodate peak I/O (e.g. processing queue) locate Transport DB + Logs on separate spindles CAS12 processor cores 2GB per processor core 3:44 virtual processors 2 GB per processor core 4 VPs + 8GB 3 CAS VMs : 4 MBX VMs Detailed guidance on TechNet CAS/ Hub Multi- Role 12 processor cores 2GB per processor core 1:14 virtual processors 2 GB per processor core 4 VPs + 8GB 1 CAS/HUB VM : 1 MBX VM Simplifies core ratio. Better balanced workloads on typical servers which have 8, 16 or 24 core counts. MBX12 processor cores 4GB MB per MBX N/A4 virtual processors 4GB MB per MBX 4 VPs GB Adjust for number of mailboxes and database cache for send/receive profile 8 cores 16 cores 24 cores CAS / HUB Multi-Role Server

Database Cache requirements are the same for physical and virtual deployments Total Send + Receive (75k message size) Database Cache Per Mailbox (MB) Total Send + Receive (75k message size) Users Per Core Physical MBX Role Users Per VP Virtual MBX Role Virtual Processor ≠ Logical Processor Hypervisor and the Virtualization Stack consume CPU Reduce recommended MBX count by ~10%

Virtual SCSI (passthrough or fixed disk) Recommended configuration for database and log volumes iSCSI Standard best practice for iSCSI connected storage apply (dedicated NIC, jumbo frames, offload, etc.) iSCSI initiator in the guest is supported but need to account for reduced performance

Database Availability Group (DAG) A group of up to 16 Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox servers that provide automatic database-level recovery Uses continuous log replication and a subset of Windows Failover Clustering technologies Can extend across multiple datacenters/AD sites Benefits of Exchange Native Data Protection Protection from database, server or network failure Automatic failover protection and manual switchover control is provided at the mailbox database level instead of at the server level. Support for up to 16 copies, support for lag copies

Host Based Failover Clustering HA Using Host Based Failover Clustering and automatically failing VMs to an alternate cluster node in the event of a critical hardware issue (virtualization platform independent) What you need to be aware of: Not an Exchange Aware Solution Only protects against server hardware/network failure No HA in the event of storage failure / data corruption Trend is larger mailboxes = larger database sizes = longer time to recover from data loss = DAG Not supported for MBX VMs that are members of a DAG

Physical Computer Maintenance Operating System/Application Updates Hardware Maintenance Rebalancing Workloads Dynamic Redistribution of VM’s to optimize workload on physical hardware Green IT ‘Off Peak’ Virtual Machine Consolidation

TechNet is the single source: SVVP Support Policy Wizard is a great tool: Always confirm SPW results with our TechNet article Check back for updates Clarifications published frequently

Supported Root: Hyper-V or any virtualization platform in SVVP Guest: Exchange 2010 Windows 2008 SP2 or R2 Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Edge roles Meets basic Exchange system requirements Storage is fixed VHD, SCSI pass through, or iSCSI Not Supported Combination of Exchange Mailbox HA (i.e. Mailbox servers in a DAG) and any host/hypervisor-based clustering or migration technologies (e.g. Microsoft Live Migration, VMware V-Motion, etc.) Snapshots, differencing/delta disks Unified Messaging role Virtual/logical processor ratio greater than 2:1 Applications running in root partition (excluding AV)

Microsoft Server Applications Built for Windows Low Cost Complete Solution Low Cost Complete Solution Complete Management Solution Complete *Physical & Virtual Management *Cross Platform and Hypervisor Support *Deep Application Knowledge *Built-in Virtualization with One-stop Support Increased Deployment Options *Large Partner Ecosystem *A comparable solution can cost up to six times more† *Lower Ongoing Costs Virtualization-friendly Licensing *Only available with Microsoft Virtualization †Based on a comparison of Microsoft® System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter with VMware® vSphere Enterprise Plus with VMware vCenter Server.. Assumes a five host configuration, 2 processors on each host, 2 years support costs for both products, and no operating system costs included.. The Microsoft solution can use either the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 hypervisor or an existing Windows Server 2008 R2 hypervisor. Based on Microsoft estimated retail prices and published VMware prices available at as of 08/04/2009 for purchases in the United States. Actual reseller prices may vary.