Welcome to the NYExUG Sept 09 Meeting

1. Welcome to the NYExUG Sept 09 Meeting • Group Details: meetings (2nd Tue of every month) open to all, free, pizza dinner included, raffles at end of meeting, 2 mailing lists (announce – sign-up via emailing join@nyexug.com or meetup.com/exchange). • September Meeting – Virtualization Explained and Usage for Exchange. Demo of VMware ESX & Microsoft HyperV. • October Meeting – Explaining August 09’s DoS on Exchange 2007 and the recovery. • November Meeting – Exchange 2010 Launch Party. • New Raffle Opportunities (bring a new member and get an additional raffle ticket) • Meeting Topics Ideas – let me know in person or via email ben a.t reefsolutions . com

2. Presented September 08, 2009 at NYExUG Meeting Is virtualization all marketing hype? Or can virtualization really reduce costs, make an admin’s life easier, and save the planet. Superscript numbers (e.g. word1) throughout presentation are for additional reference information in back of presentation on Noted References page. Ben SerebinEhlo & Network ConsultantREEF Solutions (www.reefsolutions.com) ben a t reefsolutions . c o mIf you can’t get enough Exchange & technologyread my blog http://ehlotech.blogspot.com

3. About Ben Serebin • Working in the IT sector since 1996 • Specialty is Exchange Server, Spam Filtering, DNS, & Wireless. • Recently Completed Project Q2/3 09: Free open-source iSCSI SAN (OpenFiler) deployment for VMware ESX “archived” VMs, implemented an in-house geographic diverse (NY & TX) file data backup solution, upgraded network imaging solution from Ghost to Acronis, and deployed Windows 7 RTM on my own production desktop environment. • Current Projects Q3 09: reviewing geographic diverse Exchange backup solution using AppAssure 4.0 release, investigating deploying Exchange 2010, and considering Amazon’s cloud virtualization (EC2) for 2 Linux web-servers. • Admin for Exchange 2007 Server on Windows 2008, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and had run Good Mobile Messaging Server. Current handheld email device is a BlackBerry Bold. • My PPTs are focused on conveying a tremendous amount of technical information. So, any question, do not hesitate to ask.

4. What is virtualization? • The most commonly component in virtualization is a virtual machine (aka vm’s), which is a software implementation of a hardware computer that executes programs like a real physical machine. 2 • Since virtualization is software, one can run multiple vm’s on 1 physical server. This is possible due to another “master” program called a hypervisor (e.g. VMware Server, Workstation, ESX, Virtual PC, HyperV, etc). This shares the one physical machine with many virtual machines. • Not as difficult to define as spam.  • Virtualization refers to the abstraction of computer resources. 1 As shown to the right.

5. Pro’s and Con’s of Virtualization • Pro’s: improve server efficiencies on usage (run many virtual servers on 1 physical server), cheaper to deploy new servers, faster deployments, more energy efficient, ability to restore servers to dissimilar hardware, backups are easier & faster, ability to gain high availability when application does not support it, ability to perform server hardware maintenance with no downtime, save IT time and effort through easier remote OS troubleshooting and deployments. • Con’s: shared environment can be affected by other virtual servers, new virtualization environment to learn, updates to Hypervisor can require reboots affecting all VMs, and poorly configured physical server or environment can affect up to all VMs.

6. Virtualization and Exchange Server • Virtualization works for the vast majority of applications on the market. • Good for file servers, printer servers, web servers, vpn servers, domain controllers, terminal servers, application servers (e.g. SQL, BES, Symantec Anti-Virus), and Exchange Servers (all 2007 roles but 1). • Bad for fax servers, Exchange unified messaging, specialty hardware (e.g. Firewire, SCSI tape drives, etc), • Is Exchange with virtualization Microsoft supported? YES! I’ll explain more 2 slides later.

7. New to virtualization, a good introduction. • If you are new to virtualization, I would recommend you use non-bare metal hypervisor such as VMware Server, Workstation, or the Microsoft Hyper-V role for Windows 2008. These all can run on top of Windows or you can buy new OEM hardware with an installed version of VMware ESXi. • Virtualize a non-mission critical application (e.g. 2nd domain controller, application server, web server, etc). I personally like VM-ing BES. Very low I/O, memory requirements (<1GB), and storage (<20GB) requirements, which makes it an ideal candidate as a VM for testing and building a comfort level. • In the virtualization world, you’ll acronyms such as P2V, P2P, V2P, V2V, etc. This has to do with OS migrations. The P stands for physical and the V stands for virtual. So, “P2V” means a physical to virtual server migration. There are a # of methods to do this. This is a separate conversation.

8. Microsoft’s Exchange Support Policies3 Explained Current as of September 7, 2009 via primary sources by Ben Serebin. Microsoft has established “joint support relationship for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization” with: Cisco, Citrix, Novell, Oracle, Sun, Unisys, Virtual Iron, and VMware. 4. In English, this means, MS will support some virtualization solutions from each of the vendors above. Microsoft customer with premier-level support running non-Microsoft hardware virtualization from vendor with which Microsoft does not have an established support relationship [see above]… Microsoft will investigate potential issues. Microsoft has a Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) for Microsoft Support. The following products are Microsoft validated and supported to run Microsoft products: Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades 4.1, Citrix XenServer 5 & 5.5, Hitachi Virtualization Manager v57, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2, VMware ESX 3.5 U2/U3/U4, ESXi 4.0, & ESX 4.0, and Stratus Avance Version 1.6. 5 Microsoft will support the following OSes (Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, etc) as long as they are supported as per the lifecycle policy (5 yrs main, 5 yrs extended support). 6 Microsoft supports 40+ applications (Exchange 2007 SP1+, Forefront for Exchange, ISA, SBS 2008, EBS 2008, SQL 2005/2008, Search Server, etc) in a virtualization environment as listed in SVVP or Server 2008 with Hyper-V or Hyper-V Server 2008. 7

9. Microsoft’s Exchange 2003, 2007, and 2010 Exchange 2003 – supported by Microsoft Support • Only Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and later • VMware supports Exchange Server 2003 and there are ample evidence this works well. Exchange 2007 SP1+ – officially supported by Microsoft • SVVP products (e.g. VMware ESXi & ESX) for Windows Server 2008 OS and Hyper-V. • All roles for Exchange Server supported except Unified Messaging (real time clock issue). Exchange 2010 - RC upgrade to RTM officially supported by Microsoft • I suspect all roles to be supported under VM.

10. Do you lose performance in a VM? • Anyone who says no, is a liar. But, it’s very little (1-2%) if properly configured. Most hardware is not used to this capacity, so it’s not noticed. The benefits vastly outweigh the 1-2% loss. • Before Microsoft Hyper-V, virtualization solutions from Microsoft offered poor performance. Hyper-V fixed this, and so does the RTM release of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. From a performance perspective, Hyper-V and ESX are essential equal. • Features and management, VMware ESX is still vastly ahead of the game. Initial cost, Hyper-V is less, but in the long run, total cost of ownership would probably show ESX winning. Also, more 3rd party applications are ESX compatible than Hyper-V.

11. Virtualization is More Important than Performance • Improve server inefficiencies on usage (run many virtual servers on 1 physical server). On average you can run 8-20 VMs per Hypervisor host. Imagine economies of scale. • Cheaper to deploy new servers. No need to purchase hardware since you have it already. • Faster deployments. Software configuration adds new virtual “hardware”. • More energy efficient. Virtualization solution can power off Hypervisor hosts not needed during off-peak hours. (e.g. VMware’s VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) • Ability to restore servers to dissimilar hardware. VMs core drivers (e.g. disk subsystem, video, network, etc) are the same across VMs. Makes running a VM on a HP Server the same as running it on a Dell or IBM. • Backups are easier & faster. Ability to natively use VMware Consolidated Backup and snapshots before an upgrade or major change. Ability to test configuration using real data (copy a VM for testing). • Ability to gain high availability when application does not support it (VMware’s High Availability). • Ability to perform server hardware maintenance with no downtime. (e.g. VMware VMotion and VMotion Storage). • Save IT time and effort through easier remote OS troubleshooting and deployments. Ability to troubleshoot non-booting VMs by using HyperVisor Console. It’s similar to a built-in Dell DRAC/HP iLo functionality.

12. Give Exchange Server What It Wants… • Lots of RAM and a fast disk subsystem (IOPS [a disk speed performance measurement] for SATA vs SAS/SCSI up to 300% difference and RAID configuration (RAID 1, 5, 6, 10) is important as well) and can change the equation by up to 100% difference. So, 400% performance swing depending on what you select. Configure wisely! • Exchange 2003 to 2007, saved about 70% in I/O. 2007 to 2010 saved another 70%. • Exchange 2003 is a 32 bit application, so 4GB is the limit. • Exchange 2007 is a 64 bit application, so case studies show 32GB is the limit. 16-32GB is a good sweet spot. • Exchange 2010 is a 64 bit application, and limit is not known yet. • When looking to deploy Exchange, read VMware’s Exchange Best Practices Guide. Microsoft Hyper-V also has a guide about this.

13. Noted References • 1 – Virtualization defined http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization • 2 – Virtual Machine defined and enhanced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization • 3 – Microsoft Support Policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx • 4 – Microsoft support partners list for non-Microsoft supported hardware virtualization http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=944987 • 5 – Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program - http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm • 6 – Microsoft OS and Applications Lifecycle Support Policy http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=lifecycle • 7 – Microsoft server software and supported virtualization environments http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957006

14. Raffles – do not forget, if you bring in new members, you 2x, 3x, or more your chances to win raffle prizes.TechHit.com (Outlook add-ons) – raffling off any one of their products (SimplyFile [intelligent filing], EZ-Detach [easily detach multi-emails of attachments], MessageSave [backup, archive, save msgs], AutoRead [mark as read/remove new mail icon], & QuickJump [quickly open/move between Windows folders]. Thank you for attending the September 2009 NY Exchange User Group Meeting. Now for Question of the Month……

15. Q) What fundamental method for simplifying clustering setup has changed with Exchange 2010 compared to Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, and 2007? A) Clustering setup is handled within the Exchange setup, and not within Windows. So, no more dealing with Windows Clustering Service, etc. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298136%28EXCHG.140%29.aspx Exchange 2010 integrates high availability into the core architecture of Microsoft Exchange to enable customers of all sizes and in all segments to be able to economically deploy a messaging continuity service in their organization. Exchange 2010 includes many changes to its core architecture. The following features in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) no longer exist in Exchange 2010: Local continuous replication (LCR) & Single copy clusters (SCC). In addition to these features, the concept of a clustered mailbox server no longer exists in Exchange 2010. Two other features, cluster continuous replication (CCR) and standby continuous replication (SCR), have been merged and renamed as a set of new features in Exchange 2010: incremental deployment, continuous mailbox availability, database mobility, database copies, and database availability groups. Question & Answer of the Month See you next month…