HP storage June 2003

Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Internal deployment of the Operations Technical Group (OTG) at Microsoft
Technical
whitepaper

Table of contents Executive summary 2

HP and Microsoft— partners in technology 2
Overview of Microsoft OTG infrastructure 2
Exchange organizations 2
Messaging infrastructure 3
Legacy SAN design for Exchange 2000 3
New platform technologies 4
HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 5
Virtualization 5
Pools of Storage 5
Virtual Disk 5
Fibre Channel physical disk drives 5
Adding Capacity 6
OTG Storage Design and Deployment of Exchange 2003 6
HP ProLiant servers 6
EVA SAN storage 7
Headquarter data center SAN 8
Regional Small SAN 9
Redundant storage systems No Single Point of failure (NSOPF) 10
Backup 10
Recovery Storage Group 12
Understanding snaps and clones 12
Managing and monitoring 13
Microsoft Operations Manager 13
HP Storage Management Appliance (SMA) 14
HP Open SAN Manager 14
SMA Security 14
Command View EVA (HSV Element Manager) 14
HP StorageWorks Secure Path 15
Secure Path Manager 4.0x 15
Learning and challenges 15
Services 16
Why HP 16
Appendix A: Regional cluster 17
Appendix B: Headquarter cluster 20
Appendix C: ProLiant server 23
Appendix D: Extending logical volumes 26
Appendix E: Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) integration framework 28
For more information 30
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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Executive Microsoft’s Operations and Technology Group (OTG) has worked toward a worldwide
deployment of Microsoft Exchange 2003 within its own infrastructure, servicing over
summary 82,300 mailboxes as of May 2003. As part of that effort, HP hardware played a key
role as the deployment platform of choice for Exchange 2003. In an effort to capitalize
on the vast amount of learning and knowledge gathered throughout the planning and
deployment process, HP and Microsoft have provided documentation in the form of this
case study, which focuses on the hardware storage design, sizing, and configuration of
Exchange 2003 on HP ProLiant servers and HP StorageWorks storage within Microsoft’s
infrastructure.
This document examines the architecture of Exchange 2003 on HP StorageWorks
technology from a hardware design, configuration, and optimization point of view.
In particular, the focus is on Microsoft OTG’s Exchange 2003 Large Mailbox Server
configuration. This information will aid organizations deploying Exchange 2003 through
knowledge transfer of the methodologies and factors that influenced Microsoft OTG’s
choice for an Exchange 2003 deployment platform.

HP and Exchange 2003 represents a huge development investment for Microsoft as the company
has continued to build upon Exchange technology and added key features required by
Microsoft— enterprise messaging and collaboration customers. Many of the largest companies in the
partners in world run their messaging systems using Exchange. In fact, HP has one of the largest
deployments of Exchange and is also in the midst of deploying of Microsoft Windows
technology
Server 2003 and planning its Exchange 2003 deployment.
Within OTG, HP has played a key role as the server platform (ProLiant) and storage
platform (HP StorageWorks) of choice for Microsoft’s Exchange 2003 deployment.

Overview of Managing Microsoft’s global messaging environment is a real team effort that spans the
globe and involves many different teams within OTG. Message traffic averages well
Microsoft OTG over 6.3 million messages per day, with around 2.5 million messages per day traveling
infrastructure to and from the Internet.
OTG is a worldwide organization responsible for operations spanning more than 400 IT
locations in 65 countries. Because the main business objectives of the Microsoft
Corporation are software development and marketing, OTG has unique business
objectives and plays a key role as an early adopter of Microsoft software such as
Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003. This scenario has become known in the industry
as “eating your own dog food.” The large-scale implementation of early software
releases provides immediate feedback during development cycles. This benefits all
customers in that the product does not ship until it has proven itself by running one of the
world’s most demanding messaging organizations. Microsoft’s global overall availability
for Exchange servers (including both planned and unplanned outages) exceeds 99.9%.

Exchange Microsoft supports all Exchange servers worldwide from one centrally located support
organizations organization and centralized location. In addition, three other Exchange organizations,
called DogFood (pure beta, build-of-the-day environment), WinSE (legacy support), and
WinDeploy (the last two of which are used to test cross forest behavior and support),
focus on development and test purposes.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Messaging Combining advance reliability and monitoring features of Windows 2003, Exchange
infrastructure 2003, Microsoft Operations Manger (MOM), and HP technology, Microsoft has
consolidated from over 70 physical locations to seven physical sites with Exchange
servers. In addition to the global locations hosting mailbox servers, the messaging
infrastructure also includes:
• 101 mailbox servers
• 310,000 unique public folders created and managed on public folder servers
• Six Instant Messaging (IM) servers
• Nine fax and Unified Messaging servers
• 11 Internet Gateway Servers
– Five outbound only
– Six inbound and outbound
Table 1. Evolution of Microsoft’s Exchange deployment

Mailbox Exchange Exchange Exchange Exchange Exchange

Parameter 4.0 5.0 5.5 2000 2003
Mailbox/server 305 305 1024 3750 101
Mailbox 50 MB 50 MB 50 MB 100 MB 200 MB
size/user
Restore ~12 hours ~12 hours ~8 hours ~1 hour ~1 hour
time/MDB
Total mailboxes ~32,000 ~40,000 ~50,000 ~70,000 ~82,300

Table 2. OTG user profile

Exchange Parameter Value

Mailbox quota 200 MB
Maximum number of users 82,300
Average message size 44 KB
Daily messages 6.3 million

Legacy SAN design
for Exchange 2000
The successful deployment of Exchange 2000 storage area networks (SANs) is the basis
for migrating to the new large SAN design. Headquarters data center hosts the majority
of mailboxes equally distributed across 10 eight-way ProLiant PL8500R servers.
In the legacy SAN, each server supports 3,000 user mailboxes across three storage
groups. Each of the storage groups supports five mailbox databases. An HP
StorageWorks Enterprise Modular Array 8000 (EMA8000) supports the storage for
each storage group. Each EMA8000 with dual redundant controllers services 42 SCSI
disks spread across three shelves and six SCSI buses.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Figure 1. Headquarter Exchange 2000 legacy SAN

New platform Windows Server 2003 has many compelling features supporting the business
technologies decision to upgrade from a previous platform. OTG is required to run production
servers on beta releases. They truly “eat their own dog food,” so that it is proven in a
large global organization. They are passionate about these great new features such as
an eight-node cluster, mount point support within clusters, Volume Shadow Service (VSS),
and much more.
Windows 2003 Enterpriser Server Edition and Datacenter Edition supports server
cluster configurations of up to eight nodes. This support allows increased flexibility
for deployments: particularly for geographically dispersed cluster configurations and
to support N+1 configurations (N active with 1 spare). N+1 will be particularly
important for supporting larger Microsoft Exchange Server deployments using
Windows Server 2003.
Volume mount point support, as cluster resources, is a new feature for Windows 2003
Enterpriser Server Edition and Datacenter Edition. Mount points reduce the number of
driver letters required to support LUNs.
OTG has designed Exchange 2003 clusters to take advantage N+1 configurations
and volume mount points. OTG has tested new features of Exchange 2003, such as
the Recovery Storage Group (RSG), which allows mail to continue sending and
receiving while data is being restored in the background. Numerous features are
beyond the scope of this paper but are covered in detail on the Microsoft Web site.
New hardware refreshes for servers and storage are also a compelling part of the
story on achieving server consolidation while increasing user mailbox size.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

HP StorageWorks The HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) is the newest generation of
Enterprise Virtual HP StorageWorks SAN technology, enabled by VersaStor virtualization. The EVA
Array fundamentally changes the way customers have designed storage. Disk drive
performance is no longer limited to a single RAID abstraction. Modular growth
allows up to 16 EVA controller pairs in a single SAN. Database design is simplified
and enhanced with VersaStor technology. A LUN can be created with the concept of
storage pools known as disk groups. A single disk group on the EVA can span from 8 to
240 physical disks. LUNs of any size can be carved out of a disk group up to 2 TB in
size. Virtualization enables storage administrators to meet their customers’ requirements
for LUN size and provide the performance needed to satisfy high I/O rates. The EVA
spreads the data evenly across all the physical disks in the LUN, providing databases
with many disks to support multiple application requests of reads and writes.

Virtualization Storage virtualization is generally defined as the transparent abstraction of storage at

the block level. Virtualization separates logical data access from physical data access.
Large storage pools are then created from physical storage. Virtual disks are created
from the storage pools and allocated to servers on the network as logical storage when
needed.

Pools of Storage A disk group is the set or storage pool of physical disk drives in which virtual disks can
be created. Each physical disk drive can belong to only one disk group. Multiple virtual
disks can be created in one disk group, up to the capacity of the disk group. Each virtual
disk exists entirely within one disk group.
A disk group contains all the physical disk drives in a controller pair’s array, or it can
contain a subset of the array. The minimum number of disks in a disk group is eight.
Disk groups allow the data to be spread evenly across all physical disks within the
group. This benefits peak I/O requests on LUNs that are carved out of the disk group.
Many spindles are available to satisfy the data requests.

Virtual Disk Virtual disks are carved out of the unused capacity of a disk group and then presented
to host servers as LUNs. Distribution of all data within the virtual disks is spread evenly
across all physical disks in the disk group.
Vraid is an attribute, similar to RAID, chosen when creating a virtual disk.
Vraid levels include:
• Vraid 0 requires one block of physical space per block of usable space and
provides no redundancy
• Vraid 1 requires two blocks of physical space per block of usable space and
provides highest redundancy
• Vraid 5 requires 1.25 blocks of physical space per block of usable space and
provides moderate redundancy
Fibre Channel The Enterprise HSV110 controllers can support up to 240 Fibre Channel disk drives at
physical disk drives 2-Gb/s transfer rates, using four Fibre Channel loops arranged in dual redundant Fibre
Channel loop configurations. The EVA supports 36-GB, 72-GB 10,000- and 15,000-rpm
drives and 146-GB 10,000-rpm drives. Refer to the Quick Specs on the HP Web site for
more details and current specifications.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Adding Capacity The ability to expand virtual disk capacity dynamically (or on-the-fly without application
downtime) greatly improves capacity efficiency at the system level. Virtualization enables
administrators using the EVA to monitor the capacity usage of a volume or disk group
pool and dynamically allocate additional capacity to either as is needed.
As this capacity allocation occurs, the existing data will then be load leveled across all
of the spindles in the volume. The disk group total capacity changes, and virtual disk
(LUNs) within the disk group can be expanded, all with zero downtime. Refer to
Appendix D: Extending logical volumes for more information.

OTG Storage With nearly 100% of the Microsoft installed base of users already deployed on
Exchange Server 2003 beta code, Microsoft is really “eating its own dog food.” The
Design and HP ProLiant DL580G2 has been chosen as the server, and the HP StorageWorks
Deployment of EVA5000 has been chosen as the storage that can deliver all the messages.
Exchange 2003
HP ProLiant servers Microsoft has recently deployed ProLiant DL580G2 mailbox servers that are Intel® Xeon-
based at 1.9 GHz with four processors. The 400-MHz front side bus (FSB) has shown a
significant gain in processing speed over legacy machines. These servers are
characterized to support:
• Multi-node clustered SANs with up to 16,000 users per fabric
• 4,000 and 2,700 user server configurations
• Regional SANs with three active Exchange instances with one passive and one
alternate node
• Headquarter data center SANs of four active Exchange instances, one primary
passive, and two alternate passive cluster nodes
• 200 users per database on the 4,000-user headquarter SAN server
• 135 users per database on the medium-sized, 2,700-user regional SAN server
• Four storage groups per server, five databases per storage group, 20 mailboxes per
server
• Each database is limited using mailbox limits with a maximum of 50 GB in size
• Doubled mailbox capacities with a 200-MB limit on user mailboxes
• SAN-based storage engineered for a maximum database size of 54 GB on the
4,000-user servers and 36 GB on the medium-sized, 2,700-user servers
Table 3. OTG standard Exchange servers

Exchange 2003 Users/ HBA 2 GB Internal disk

Server Configuration mailbox CPU RAM FCA2101 drives
Headquarter large 4,000 x 4 x Xeon III/ 4 GB 2 2 x 36 GB
SAN server HP 200-MB 1.90 GHz RAID1
ProLiant DL580G2 mailbox C$ OS
D$ Exch App
Regional medium 2,700 x 4 x Xeon III/ 4 GB 2 2 x 36 GB
SAN server HP 200-MB 1.90 GHz RAID1
ProLiant DL580G2 mailbox C$ OS
D$ Exch App
For more information on the server configuration refer to Appendix C: ProLiant server.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

EVA SAN storage Microsoft has recently deployed HP Enterprise Virtual Array 5000 (EVA5000) storage
for Regional and Headquarter Exchange 2003 multi-node clustered SANs. Each SAN
is configured as a fully redundant no single point of failure (NSPOF) component that is
centrally managed and has been locally and remotely deployed.
Each Exchange Virtual Server has four storage groups containing five databases.
The databases are presented to the host as one drive letter. The underlying storage
subsystem spreads the data across all the physical disk members of the storage pool
known as a disk group. There are two data disk groups per EVA for the headquarter
data center cluster, and three data disk groups per EVA for the regional cluster. All
storage group LUNs are Vraid 1.
For customers deploying Exchange 2000 or 2003, storage group LUN design is a
major consideration. Both versions can support up to 20 databases per server, within
a container known as a storage group (SG). Each SG can contain up to five databases
that can be mounted or dismounted independently of each other. Each SG has one set
of transaction logs for all its databases. With the regional and headquarter data center
clustered Exchange Virtual Servers, OTG has designed the LUN at the SG level, that is,
there is one logical drive letter for each SG. Within the large LUN, the databases share
the same drive letter path. Another design option is to place each database within its
own unique logical volume or virtual disk.
The Exchange transaction logs are located on a separate disk group from their
respective SG databases. Both regional and headquarter clusters combine all transaction
logs on a single disk group per EVA. All transactions log LUNs are Vraid 1.
Backup LUNs are carved out of dedicated backup disk groups. They are separated from
the data LUNs to avoid impacting the database I/O stream. Reducing the number of
disk groups is a design goal, as is having enough disks to service the peak period I/O
requests of the Exchange database. Cluster resource groups add additional requirements
for timely failover. Microsoft testing has shown that disk groups that contain cluster
resources and are servicing over 4,000 IOPS may respond slower to a failover than a
cluster resource that is in a separate disk group with less I/O.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Headquarter data The core design of the headquarter data center multi-node cluster is built on 4 active
center SAN node servers, one primary passive node server, two alternate passive node servers, and
two 2C12D EVA 5000 storage units.
The primary passive node is designed as a cluster failover node in the event of a primary
node being offline. The two alternate passive nodes have two main functions: (1) as a
SAN-based backup to a tape silo for the database storage group disk-to-disk backup
LUNs and as a future backup to tape of snapclone LUNs and (2) to facilitate in place
cluster upgrades of the operating system.
• Each cluster supports 16,000 mailboxes.
• Each Exchange cluster supports four Exchange Virtual Servers (EVS).
• Each EVS instance supports 4,000 mailboxes.
• Each EVA has five disk groups total.
• Each EVA has two database/SMTP disk groups.
• Each EVA has two disk-to-disk SG backup disk groups.
• Each EVA has one log disk group for all SGs.
• Two EVAs are configured for each 16,000 mailbox data center Exchange clusters.
• Each individual data DG can sustain 5000–6000 disk transfers per second with a
1–3 millisecond write latency.
Table 4. OTG headquarter EVA Disk Group and Data LUN

EVA disk group Number of 72-GB disks Data type Vraid Type
DG1 48 Data/SMTP 1
DG2 48 Data/SMTP 1
DG3 14 Log/Quorum 1
DG4 28 Backup 5
DG5 28 Backup 5

Additional information on the headquarter cluster can be found in Appendix B:

Headquarter cluster.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Regional Small SAN
The core design of the remote regional multi-node cluster is built on four active node
servers, one primary passive node server, one alternate passive node server, and one
2C12D EVA 5000 storage unit.
The design of the regional cluster utilizes seven disk groups on the EVA.
The primary passive node is designed as a cluster failover node in the event of a
primary node being offline. The alternate passive node has two main functions: (1) as
a SAN-based backup to a tape silo for the database storage group disk-to-disk backup
LUNs and as a future backup to tape of snapclone LUNs and (2) to facilitate in place
cluster upgrades of the operating system.
• Each cluster supports 8,000 mailboxes.
• Each Exchange cluster supports three EVS.
• Each EVS instance supports 2,700 mailboxes.
• EVA has seven disk groups.
• EVA has three database/SMTP disk groups.
• EVA has three disk-to-disk SG backup disk groups.
• EVA has one log disk group for all SGs.
• One EVA supports 8,000 mailboxes in a regional cluster.
Table 5. OTG Regional EVA Disk Group and Data LUN

EVA disk group Number of 72-GB disks Data type Vraid type
DG1 34 Data/SMTP 1
DG2 34 Data/SMTP 1
DG3 34 Data/SMTP 1
DG4 18 Log/Quorum 1
DG5 14 Backup 5
DG6 14 Backup 5
DG7 14 Backup 5
Additional information on the headquarter cluster can be found in Appendix A: Regional
cluster.

Overall, storage design was the most important and complex part of the Microsoft’s
Exchange 2003 regional and headquarters server design. Both headquarter data center
and remote deployments share a similar design that can meet their customers’ Service
Level Agreement (SLA) and performance requirements. In addition, when designing for
peak loads, the overall design must consider running in a reduced state and supporting
peak loads.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Redundant storage For maximum redundancy and fault tolerance several technologies and design
systems No Single techniques were used. The SANs are composed of two separate dedicated Exchange
Point of failure 2003 fabrics. Each component has multiple paths for redundancy and performance.
(NSOPF) First, HP StorageWorks Secure Path provides multi-path access to each physical LUN
through dual Host Bus Adaptors (HBAs). This provides tolerance for fiber cable, HBA,
switch, and controller failures as well as load balancing across all ports.
The storage is built on Vraid technology and OTG has placed the critical database and
log files on mirrored (Vraid1) virtual disks. The Virtual Controller Software (VCS) is
responsible for disk failure protection. The EVA manages sparing in a unique way
know as “distributed sparing.” This feature does not require a dedicated online spare.
Capacity can be reserved within a disk group for a virtual spare. This virtual spare can
hold the data from the largest disk in the disk group, and is spread across all disks in the
disk group in a level fashion. Since the data is striped across multiple spindles, more
spindles can access the data simultaneously than with a conventional spare and rebuild
data faster.
OTG storage designs always use sparing, and, depending on the size of the disk group,
they use a single protection level for small SGs (8–79 disks) and double protection level
for groups larger than 80 disks.

Backup Microsoft’s OTG group does extensive planning, testing, and design work in its
Exchange 2003 Server backup plan. A proper backup strategy should start with SLAs.
At Microsoft, the key recovery SLA is about a one-hour database backup and restore.
Microsoft’s Exchange 2003 servers are configured with four storage groups, each with
five databases, so there are 20 databases per server, each with about a 1-hour
backup/restore SLA. (Note: The backup SLA is more driven from a scheduling need
rather than a service level required). The SLAs are also derived from the total user load
per server and the maximum database size (derived from the backup and restore rates
attainable in the environment). The net result is a large server with 20 databases spread
across four SGs per server, supporting 4,000 users locally and around 2,700 users in
regional deployments.
Backup is broken into two stages. Stage 1 is a disk-to-disk backup, and stage 2 is a
disk-to-tape backup.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Stage 1 is a traditional full backup using the Exchange Backup API. The active cluster
backs up to locally mounted backup LUNs, which is referred to as a disk-to-disk backup.
The number of concurrent backup jobs running is based on the number of EVA
controllers supporting the SGs. At any time six active backup schedules might be running
per EVA.
Each storage group backs up an individual database in sequential order, starting with
database A and finishing with E.
Stage 2 is based on non-disruptive backup where the backup LUNs are mounted on
the alternate passive node(s) and then backed up to tape, which offloads the overhead
of running backup away from the active EVS. The offloading allows for a shorter
maintenance window and results in an improved user experience by minimizing the
backup window on the active node. The passive node can backup to tape at any period
of the day without disrupting users.
Figure 2. Stage 1 and 2 backup to disk and tape

The cluster design utilizes multiple cluster virtual servers maintained within cluster
resource groups. The Exchange virtual servers are configured within their own resource
groups, which support all required resources to form an Exchange server. The backup
LUNs belong to backup resource groups to enable independent resource group
movement between nodes in the cluster (disk-pivot).
The resource groups supporting the backup disks are configured with a clustered IP
Address and Network Name resource. This configuration ensures that access is
maintained to the backup LUNs independent of what cluster node to which the
groups reside.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Recovery Storage Using a new Exchange 2003 feature called the Recovery Storage Group (RSG), OTG
Group can quickly restore service in the event of a loss that could include a single database or
all SGs. Users can send and receive mail as soon as the decision is made to mount the
new database. The restoration of the old mail is done in the background. The original
server database is restored to the RSG. When the restoration is complete, OTG can
merge the old and new data using the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (also
called Exmerge). Then the databases are swapped with minimal disruption. OTG can
now also offer single mailboxes restores without affecting any other users on the server.

Understanding snaps One of the compelling features of Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 is the
and clones now-supported VSS. With Windows Server 2003, third-party backup applications can
use the VSS framework to generate shadow copies for backup and to restore those
copies when necessary. VSS implements a generic framework for creating and using
shadow copies for the Windows file systems. The shadow copies do not require
dismounting of databases for the backup and are fully supported by the Exchange 2003
application. At the point this document is being released, VSS is being tested by OTG
and is not implemented in a production capacity for Exchange Server 2003.
The functionality provided by instantaneous copies of large amounts of data has been
around for many years. These are often branded as Business Continuance Volumes
(BCV). Typically, they can be defined as either clone or snap. BCVs have had limited
deployment for Exchange server as a vendor-supported only solution. For Windows
2003 Server and Exchange 2003 VSS support, vendors must write a hardware provider
to plug their products into the VSS framework. Applications use the VSS services through
writers, which implement application-specific recovery packages. Requestors are
developed to support backup and recovery solutions. Additional information is provided
in Appendix E: Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) integration framework.
A clone is an exact copy of an existing LUN or logical volume. A clone typically exists
on separate physical disks and is isolated from failures that may impact the original data
LUN. A clone can also be mounted on another host (such as a backup server) and not
impact the performance of the production server (non-disruptive backup). Using a clone
is critical if utilities are run against the BCV to determine its health.
Like the clone, the snap functions as a point-in-time copy of the data. However, a snap
does not exist on separate physical disks and will likely suffer any disruption in service
that the original volume of data does. There is also some overhead to maintain the exact
point-in-time copy of data. A snap is most applicable as a temporary copy and not a
recovery disk.
Both snap and clone are typically read/write and mountable to other hosts. A snap or
clone of a cluster resource must have the disk signature modified before being mounted
to a cluster node, if the original disk is still mounted.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Managing and Proactive management has several key components including performance management,
monitoring configuration management, and fault management. For specific storage SANs there is
a requirement to also collect real-time and baseline data from HBAs, switches, and
controllers. The data being collected from the host does not give the complete picture
of the environment. Today each component has its own tool for configuration and
monitoring. This adds more complexity to proactive managing and monitoring.

Microsoft Operations Microsoft OTG relies on Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) as a proactive tool to
Manager monitor the health of its line of business (LOB) application servers. Additional information
for MOM is collected for specific storage events from the host servers and from the
HP OpenVeiw Storage Manager Appliance (SMA).
MOM includes predefined out-of-the-box downloadable solutions called Management
Pack modules. Management Pack modules provide immediate monitoring of specific
application and environments such as SQL Server or Exchange Server 2000 or
Exchange Server 2003. The Exchange module was developed by the Exchange Product
unit to include built-in knowledge of common problems. In addition, documentation is
included to begin the steps to resolve issues when alerted.

Figure 3. Centrally managed MOM Exchange topology for Microsoft

With extensive embedded expertise, this Management Pack module allows OTG to
proactively manage and report on their Exchange installation and avoid outages. For
example, the Management Pack module performs the following tasks to alert you of
possible critical conditions:
• Monitors vital performance monitor data, which can indicate that the server is
running low on resources.
• Collects important warning and error events from Exchange 2000 servers, and alerts
operators to problems.
• Monitors disk capacity and alerts operators when disk capacity is running low.
• Provides knowledge about which Exchange files are on the affected drives.
• Monitors the Exchange services that are expected to be running on a specific server.
• Monitors whether an Exchange database can actually be reached by a MAPI client
logon, which verifies both the Exchange database and the Active Directory
functionality.
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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

• Monitors high queue lengths that are caused by an inability to send e-mail to a
destination server.
• Monitors and alerts operation to a high number of simultaneous connections,
indicating a denial of service attack.
• Monitors configuration errors or resource shortages affecting service levels. In
addition OTG uses MOM to monitor backup and restore of all Exchange servers
from a central console.
The OTG MOM data collection ratio of alerts to tickets has been measured at 3:1.

Table 6. OTG MOM data collection for Exchange servers

OTG MOM data collection Per server per day

Alerts 1.0
Events 210
Performance Data 6000

HP Storage The SMA is a centralized appliance-based monitoring and management server for
Management the SAN fabric. Designed to connect directly to the SAN fabric, the SMA performs
Appliance (SMA) management functions without involving the host servers. Located out of the SAN data
path (out of band), the appliance allows data transfers to proceed independently
between servers and storage devices whether the appliance is operating or not. The
SMA replaces legacy HP configuration tools (SWCC) and monitoring tools (Steam). All
configuration and event monitoring through MOM will be performed through the SMA
for each independent SAN. The SMA removes the burden of storage monitoring and
configuration from the application servers and centralizes it to a dedicated SMA server.
OTG primarily uses the SMA for remote management of regional and local SANs.
Additional storage management applications are available and being developed to
integrate with the SMA.
There are two main utilities included with the SMA used by OTG for remote
management of the SAN resources through a common interface.

HP Open SAN Provides a Web-based aggregation and entry point (or portal) for all SMA software
Manager applications.
• Allows the user to organize, visualize, configure, and monitor storage from a single
navigation point on the SAN.
• Provides a centralized launch site for a variety of external management applications
(that is, fabric management).
SMA Security For OTG the SMA joins the security domain for event logging and console security. The
web interface is also forced to run only over an encrypted Web protocol and SSL port.
The physical location of all SAN components is secured in local and regional data
centers.

Command View EVA • Graphical storage monitoring tool and configuration tool for the HP StorageWorks
(HSV Element EVA (HSV1xx).
Manager) • Remote management of HP SANs.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

HP StorageWorks Secure Path is multi-path software that manages and maintains continuous data access to
Secure Path HP storage systems enabling NSPOF from server to storage. Secure Path is host-resident
software that monitors the data paths between server and storage to increase availability
of information. In the event that a path failure is detected, Secure Path fails over to an
alternative path. When that path becomes available, Secure Path can automatically fail
back to the original path.

Secure Path Manager • Simplified management of a Web-based GUI that can integrate with the
4.0x Management Appliance.
• Host or storage views of preferred and available paths.
Learning and The road from Exchange 4.0 to Exchange 2003 has first been driven by one of the
challenges largest consumers of messaging in the world. They “eat their own dog food” first and
run their line of business applications on beta software before anyone else. They migrate
to new builds of Exchange weekly in the Exchange DogFood production site supporting
nearly 5,000 users. WinDeploy and their 5,000 users test scale-up and scale-out
designs to see how hard they can push it. WinSE maintains legacy code for test.
Combined with OTG, over 80,000 users have road tested Windows 2003, with the
new Exchange 2003 on HP StorageWorks products.
The storage configurations previously discussed represent a great deal of planning and
testing on the part of Microsoft OTG staff members and are based on Microsoft’s own
internal messaging system requirements. While these configurations (both server and
storage) were selected for Microsoft’s deployment, they might not meet your deployment
needs. As always, careful analysis, planning, testing, and piloting should precede any
Exchange deployment design decision. Ensure that you apply Microsoft and HP best
practices and recommendations when making your own design decisions but be careful
to ensure that you have properly characterized your environment before server
configuration choices are made and hardware is purchased.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Services HP consultants can help you build an always-on messaging infrastructure on which your
organization can depend. Available consulting services include:
• Readiness assessment
• Planning and design
• Migration planning
• Implementation
HP can help you address your requirements for availability, manageability, server
consolidation, storage and capacity planning, backup and restoration, co-existence with
other messaging systems, global deployment, definition of service level objectives, and
implementation of management policies.

Exchange consulting HP can help you assess your current and future messaging
services and collaboration solution requirements and then design a
solution that leverages the full power of Microsoft Exchange to
meet those needs enterprise-wide.
Microsoft education HP has fully certified and integrated education solutions that
services quickly train your IT professionals and end users on your
Exchange server system.
Microsoft software HP can help you manage Microsoft licensing on a worldwide
licensing services basis, optimizing software procurement and deployment for
your entire organization.
Global deployment The HP on-site installation services are fully coordinated with
services its integration services to get your Microsoft Exchange solution
up and running quickly and reliably.
Support services After HP has helped you build a messaging and collaboration
solution, HP keeps it running strong with industry-leading
software, hardware, and network support services. These
comprehensive services provide a single point of contact for
both HP and multi-vendor products.

Why HP • HP provides tested and supported Exchange solutions built with world-class servers
and storage, supported by a single point of contact—HP.
• HP is a prime integrator of Exchange 2000, as designated by Microsoft, and has
over 4.3 million Exchange 2000 seats deployed or under contract.
• HP servers and storage arrays are Microsoft-certified platforms.
• HP storage supports Microsoft’s corporate Exchange infrastructure and a
development platform for Exchange.
“…HP is as knowledgeable on Exchange as it gets. In fact, HP has more people
dedicated to working on Exchange than Microsoft has developing the product. When
it comes to deployment—what works and what doesn’t for real customers in the real
world— they are the clear experts.”
Eric Lockard
Former General Manager
Exchange Business Unit
Microsoft Corporation

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Figure 4. Regional multi-node cluster

Appendix A:
Regional cluster

Table 7. Regional Exchange virtual server LUN mapping

Host Disk Size/ RAID

name Disk drive letters Data type group EVA GB type LUN
EVS1 E:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG1 EVA-1 50 1 1
E$ SG1-Data DG1 EVA-1 230 1 2
F$ SG2-Data DG1 EVA-1 230 1 3
G$ SG3-Data DG1 EVA-1 230 1 4
H$ SG4-Data DG1 EVA-1 230 1 5
U$ SG1-Backup DG5 EVA-1 200 5 28
U:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG5 EVA-1 200 5 29
U:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG5 EVA-1 200 5 30
U:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG5 EVA-1 200 5 31
E:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 6
F:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 7
G:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 8
H:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 9
EVS2 I:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG2 EVA-1 50 1 10
I$ SG1-Data DG2 EVA-1 230 1 11
J$ SG2-Data DG2 EVA-1 230 1 12
K$ SG3-Data DG2 EVA-1 230 1 13

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

L$ SG4-Data DG2 EVA-1 230 1 14

V$ SG1-Backup DG6 EVA-1 200 5 32
V:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG6 EVA-1 200 5 33
V:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG6 EVA-1 200 5 34
V:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG6 EVA-1 200 5 35
I:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 15
J:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 16
K:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 17
L:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 18
EVS3 M:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG3 EVA-1 50 1 19
M$ SG1-Data DG3 EVA-1 230 1 20
N$ SG2-Data DG3 EVA-1 230 1 21
O$ SG3-Data DG3 EVA-1 230 1 22
P$ SG4-Data DG3 EVA-1 230 1 23
W$ SG1-Backup DG3 EVA-1 200 5 36
W:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG7 EVA-1 200 5 37
W:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG7 EVA-1 200 5 38
W:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG7 EVA-1 200 5 39
M:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 24
N:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 25
O:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 26
P:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 27
CLUSTER Y$ Quorum Quorum DG-4 EVA-1 10 1 40

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Table 8. Regional SAN example storage component list

Description Part number Quantity

EVA Components: Controller, Shelves
HP EVA configure-to-order—required 258158-888 1
HP Enterprise 2C12D-A 60 Hz (2 controllers, 12 disk shelves 283195-B21 1
with loop switches)
HP SANworks Management Appliance 189715-002 1
EVA Software: Controller VCS, Platform Kit, Secure Path
HP StorageWorks Platform Solution Kit: 250195-B22 4
2000/.Net/x86 (EVA)
HP EVA VCS Base Software Package V2.0 250203-B24 1
HP StorageWorks Secure Path Software: 165989-B22 4
Win2000/.Net; V4.0a
Fabric Elements: HBA, Switch, Interconnects
HBA: FCA 2101; FC2; LC; PCI (MSA1000/EVA/SAN Tape) 245299-B21 10
FC Switch: 16 Port; FC2; Rack Mount Kit; redundant power 283056-B21 2
supply (EL switch, Brocade 3600)
Fabric Watch for SAN Switch 2/16 (2Gb/s) 262864-B21 2
GBIC: FC2; MM Fiber; LC; SFPSW 221470-B21 14
Fiber Jumper: MM Fiber; 50µ; LC-LC; 5m length 221692-B22 12
Fiber Jumper: MM Fiber; 50µ; LC-SC Duplex; 5m length 221691-B22 2
Fibre Channel Disk Drives
HP 72-GB 10K rpm dual-port 2-Gb Fibre Channel drives 238921-B21 168

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Appendix B: Figure 5. Headquarter multi-node cluster for 16,000 Exchange users

Headquarter
cluster

Table 9. Headquarter Exchange virtual server LUN mapping

Host Disk Size/ RAID

name Disk drive letters Data type group EVA GB type LUN
EVS1 E:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG1 EVA-1 50 1 1
E$ SG1-Data DG1 EVA-1 350 1 2
F$ SG2-Data DG1 EVA-1 350 1 3
G$ SG3-Data DG1 EVA-1 350 1 4
H$ SG4-Data DG1 EVA-1 350 1 5
U$ SG1-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 37
U:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 38
U:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 39
U:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 40
E:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 6
F:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 7
G:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 8
H:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG4 EVA-1 40 1 9
EVS2 I:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG2 EVA-1 50 1 10
I$ SG1-Data DG2 EVA-1 350 1 11
J$ SG2-Data DG2 EVA-1 350 1 12
K$ SG3-Data DG2 EVA-1 350 1 13
L$ SG4-Data DG2 EVA-1 350 1 14

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

V$ SG1-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 41

V:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 42
V:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 43
V:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG3 EVA-2 350 5 44
I:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG5 EVA-1 40 1 15
J:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG5 EVA-1 40 1 16
K:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG5 EVA-1 40 1 17
L:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG5 EVA-1 40 1 18
EVS3 M:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG1 EVA-2 50 1 19
M$ SG1-Data DG1 EVA-2 350 1 20
N$ SG2-Data DG1 EVA-2 350 1 21
O$ SG3-Data DG1 EVA-2 350 1 22
P$ SG4-Data DG1 EVA-2 350 1 23
W$ SG1-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 45
W:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 46
W:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 47
W:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 48
M:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG4 EVA-2 40 1 24
N:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG4 EVA-2 40 1 25
O:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG4 EVA-2 40 1 26
P:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG4 EVA-2 40 1 28
EVS4 Q:\Exchsrvr (Mount Point) SMTP DG2 EVA-2 50 1 19
Q$ SG1-Data DG2 EVA-2 350 1 29
R$ SG2-Data DG2 EVA-2 350 1 30
S$ SG3-Data DG2 EVA-2 350 1 31
T$ SG4-Data DG2 EVA-2 350 1 49
X$ SG1-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 50
X$:\Dump2 (Mount Point) SG2-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 51
X$:\Dump3 (Mount Point) SG3-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 52
X$:\Dump4 (Mount Point) SG4-Backup DG3 EVA-1 350 5 32
Q:\Log (Mount Point) SG1-Log DG5 EVA-2 40 1 33
R:\Log (Mount Point) SG2-Log DG5 EVA-2 40 1 34
S:\Log (Mount Point) SG3-Log DG5 EVA-2 40 1 35
T:\Log (Mount Point) SG4-Log DG5 EVA-2 40 1 36
CLUSTER Y$ Quorum Quorum DG3 EVA-1 10 1 53

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Table 10. Headquarter SAN example storage component list

Description Part number Quantity

EVA Components: Controller, Shelves
HP EVA configure-to-order — required 258158-888 2
HP Enterprise 2C12D-A 60 Hz (2 controllers, 12 disk 283195-B21 2
shelves, with loop switches)
HP M5214 Fibre Channel Disk Enclosure Kit 232113-B21 8
HP SANworks Management Appliance 189715-002 1
EVA Software: Controller VCS, Platform Kit, Secure Path
HP StorageWorks Platform Solution Kit: 250195-B22 4
2000/.Net/x86 (EVA)
HP EVA VCS Base Software Package V2.0 250203-B24 2
HP StorageWorks Secure Path Software: 165989-B22 4
Win2000/.Net; V4.0a
Fabric Elements: HBA, Switch, Interconnects
HBA: FCA 2101; FC2; LC; PCI (MSA1000/EVA/SAN Tape) 245299-B21 14
FC Switch: 16 Port; FC2; Rack Mount Kit; redundant power 283056-B21 2
supply (EL switch, Brocade 3600)
Fabric Watch for SAN Switch 2/16 (2Gb/s) 262864-B21 2
GBIC: FC2; MM Fiber; LC; SFPSW 221470-B21 18
Fiber Jumper: MM Fiber; 50µ; LC-LC; 5m length 221692-B22 16
Fiber Jumper: MM Fiber; 50µ; LC-SC Duplex; 5m length 221691-B22 2
Fibre Channel Disk Drives
HP 72-GB 10K rpm dual-port 2-Gb Fibre Channel drives 238921-B21 332

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Appendix C:
ProLiant server
Server design OTG implemented a cluster design with five servers, each with four hyperthreading
1.9-GHz processors and 4 GB of RAM. These servers run Windows Server 2003
Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server 2003 with the following modifications:
• /3-GB switch set in the Boot.ini file.
• /USERVA=3030 parameter set in the Boot.ini file.
• SystemPages set to 0.
• Mount Points are used to reduce the effect of drive letter limitations supporting the log
and backup drives.
• Resource groups supporting the backup disks are configured with a clustered IP
address and Network Name resource to ensure OTG has access no matter on which
node the group resides.
Each EVS hosts four SGs for a total of 20 databases of about 50 GB each per EVS. Each
database is configured with a 200-MB limit per user mailbox. This design means a
maximum of 200 mailboxes per database, which equals 4,000 per EVS.
The alternate passive node configuration is a less expensive server with dual 2.7 GHz
CPU and 2 GB RAM.

Table 11. Comparison of regional and headquarter servers

Server overview Regional Headquarter

4 CPU Active Node 3 4
4 CPU Passive Node 1 1
2 CPU Alternate Passive Node 1 2
Mailboxes per server 2,700 4,000

Backup OTG testing has more than doubled backup rates using the Windows Backup utility after
modifying a registry key value.

Table 12. Backup testing

Windows backup utility Before modification After modification

600 MB/min 1400 MB/min
Per job ~.7 GB/min 1.4 GB/min
Four concurrent jobs ~2 GB/min ~4 GB/min
This modification allows backup of a 50-GB database in under the one-hour SLA.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Caution: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
Modify the following registry key:
Location: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\NtBackup\BackupEngine
Registry Key: Logical Disk Buffer Size
Value: 32 to 64
Registry Key: Max Buffer Size
Value: 512 to 1024
Registry Key: Max Num Tape Buffers
Value: 9 to 16
Six PCI slots are used for the Ethernet network and Fibre Channel SAN. Two Fibre
Channel HBAs are installed on separate PCI buses for multiple paths to the storage
devices. The third HBA will be used for SAN-based tape backup.

CPQKGPSA driver The HBAs are one of the critical components of the storage subsystem. HP delivers
parameters supported settings of the HBA device parameters for the intended operating system and
storage subsystem. Currently, the driver parameters are tested to support both HSG80
and HSV controllers. Optimal host performance on a Windows host with EVA-only
storage requires a registry change to support OTG performance requirements.
Microsoft modifies three values of the default CPQKGPSA HBA driver device parameters.
Caution: These changes are can only be used in EVA-only SANs. LPUTILNT parameter
changes are not supported.
Caution: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Table 13. CPQKGPSA Registry changes for EVA-only SAN

Queue target From 1 to 0

Queue depth From 25 to 128
Number of requests From 50 to 150 (decimal)

The HBA registry settings that require edits are in the following keys under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:
• These parameters are located in the “DriverParameter” value located in
HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\CPQKGPSA\Parameters\Device\.
• Each parameter is included in the “parameter=00” format, with some numbers in
decimal and some in hex, delimited by a semicolon.
• The “NumberOfRequests” DWORD value parameter should also be changed to
0x96 (150 decimal) and is located in the same registry key location.
The full explanation of all possible Emulex HBA parameters can be found on the
Emulex Web site.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Table 14. HBA parameter names, values, and explanations for modified entries

Parameter name Value Explanation

queuetarget=n 0 Defines how the QueueDepth parameter is interpreted,
on a per-LUN or per-target (subsystem) basis.
If set to 0 = QueueDepth applies on a per LUN-basis.
If set to 1 = QueueDepth applies on a per-target basis.
queuedepth=n 128 QueueDepth requests per LUN/Target (see
QueueTarget parameter). This value may be
1–255 (decimal).

Table 15. PCI-X slots available in the ProLiant DL580G2

DL580 G2 Slot 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 Use LP952 for NIC LP952 NIC LP952 NIC
PCI X fiber- Cluster SAN Client SAN Client
Slots attached Communi- Path A Communi- Path B Communi-
tape library cations cations cations
Future
Use

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Appendix D: Growing volumes

The EVA can grow a Windows basic disk volume from the controller by using the
Extending logical HSV Element Manger.
volumes Figure 6. HSV Element Manger/Virtual Disk Active Properties

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Capacity must first be available in the parent disk group of the volume to be grown. To
add capacity to a disk group, additional disk drives can be migrated if unmanaged disks
are available. This process can be automatic or manual as directed by the storage
administrator.
To extend a basic disk use the following Microsoft diskpart utility.
Note: Although LUN growth is a non-disruptive storage activity, it should be scheduled
during a low activity maintenance period.

Figure 7. Disk 4 showing the unallocated space available to expand the logical volume K

Diskpart utility
To extend a basic volume:
1. Open the command prompt by entering:diskpart
2. Enter list volume.
3. Make note of the number of the basic volumes you want to extend.
4. Enter select volume n, where n is the basic volume you want to extend into
contiguous, empty space on the same disk.
5. Enter extend [size=n], where n is the size in megabytes to which you want to
extend the selected volume.

Figure 8. The basic volume K is now expanded

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Appendix E: One of the compelling features of Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 is the
now-supported VSS. Third-party backup applications can use the VSS framework to
Volume Shadow generate shadow copies for backup, and restore when necessary. VSS implements a
Copy Service generic framework for creating and using shadow copies for the Windows file systems.
The shadow copies do not require dismounting of databases for the backup and are
(VSS) integration
fully supported by the Exchange 2003 application. At the point this document is being
framework released, VSS is being tested by OTG and is not implemented. It is worth noting, that the
storage design developed by OTG is well suited to take advantage of the VSS framework
in the near future.
The VSS service allows for local file-system or specific vendor storage based data copy
functionality. The target use for VSS is to replace data restores of recent data (2–4 weeks)
from a tape-based solution to a localized primary storage solution. VSS allows end-users
to provide self-help recovery of data, which saves on help-desk calls. OTG’s primary use
of VSS as of this writing is for file servers. VSS does not support the use of mount points,
which are critical to the clustered design. OTG continues to work closely with the product
development groups on design, development, and testing of this new service in clustered
environments.
For Exchange 2003 the supported backup is at the SG level and requires access to all
databases and the transactions logs. The supported VSS backup types are:
• Full: Backs up the databases and transaction log files, and truncates the
transaction logs.
• Copy: Backs up the database and all transaction log files, but does not truncate the
transaction logs. Copy backups are not intended for use in recovering failed systems.
Writers
To support VSS, Exchange Server 2003 includes an Exchange writer that is built into the
Exchange store engine (ESE). The Exchange writer coordinates with the ESE to gracefully
dismount SGs during backup, to create the point-in-time backup known as shadow
copies, and to correctly replay the transaction logs during restore.
Requestors
The backup/restore application, referred to as a VSS requestor, communicates with VSS
to obtain information about the system being backed up, to command the creation of
shadow copies, and to gain access to the data for backup. On restore, the requestor also
communicates with VSS to prepare the system for restore and to place the data back onto
the mass storage device. The requestor briefly communicates directly with the Exchange
writer to inform it which SGs and databases it will be operating on.
Hardware providers
The VSS component communicates with the Windows file system and with the mass
storage device drivers through the VSS providers. The third-party storage hardware
vendors supply VSS providers, although there is a generic provider for the Windows
file system that is provided with Windows. It is up to the hardware provider to
determine where and how the shadow copy is created. The VSS interface abstracts
the hardware-specific shadow copy so the backup/restore application can access the
shadow copy in a uniform manner, without knowing the hardware implementation
details.
The EVA hardware provider supports both types of Vsnap and snapclone.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Figure 9. VSS high-level overview of components for Exchange backup/restore

Vsnap Two types of snapshots, standard and Virtually Capacity-Free Snapshots (Vsnaps), are
supported by the EVA.
In a Vsnap, the storage system does not reserve capacity for the snapshot volume in
advance. Rather, space on the Vsnap volume is used only as the original virtual disk’s
data changes. The Vsnap volume is a new virtual disk that initially shares the original
virtual disk’s pointer-based entries. As the original virtual disk is written, free space
is consumed as necessary to preserve the original contents of the Vsnap. Vsnap is
especially useful when only a small portion of the virtual disk is expected to change over
time, or in situations where the Vsnap will only exist for a short period of time before a
backup procedure occurs. A significant feature of Vsnap is that it can be created from
any level of redundancy (Vraid 0, 1, or 5).
In a standard snapshot, a set amount of capacity equal to the original volume is reserved
for the snapshot. Data is not written into that reserved space until necessary. As the data
changes in the original virtual disk, the data in the snapshot volume is updated with the
original data. A customer may choose to make a standard snapshot when a significant
portion of the data will be changing over time, or when the snapshot itself will remain on
the storage system for extended periods of time.

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

Virtually Instantaneous Snapclone

The EVA makes a complete copy of your data that is accessible before the copy is
complete.
With Virtually Instantaneous Snapclone, a complete copy of the original virtual disk is
made as quickly as data transfer rates permit. As such, Virtually Instantaneous Snapclone
is the best option for creating a long-term preservation of a copy or a series of copies of
a virtual disk. Using snapshot technology, all data is copied into the reserved space
proactively so the result is two identical copies of the data, at the redundancy level of the
original volume, in the shortest time possible. This process is unlike traditional cloning
methods where the clone copy is not available until the copy is complete. As the Virtually
Instantaneous Snapclone is being created, the controller can access the original virtual
disk for the data and keep track of what data has changed since the moment the Virtually
Instantaneous Snapclone was taken. With a Virtually Instantaneous Snapclone, the
customer gets an immediate point-in-time clone of a virtual disk. Merger or resync with
the original production source is accomplished virtually instantaneously by reissuing the
snapclone command to the same target.

For more HP Solutions

HP Storage Solutions for Microsoft Exchange
information http://h18001.www1.hp.com/partners/microsoft/index.html
HP StorageWorks SAN consolidation solutions
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/solutions/consolidation/index.html
Mid-market and Enterprise Exchange solution technical blueprints are available at
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/solutions/exchange2kconfig/index.ht
ml
DAS-to-SAN Exchange Migration Solution
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/solutions/dassanex2k/index.html
NAS/SAN Fusion with Exchange 2000 White Paper
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/solutions/request/das2sanex2kwp.ht
ml
HP Servers
HP ProLiant DL and ML Servers
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/platforms/index-dl-ml.html
HP Server Exchange Solutions
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/HP/render/1,1001,5733-6-100-225-1,00.htm
HP Storage Hardware and Software
HP Modular SAN Array 1000
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/msa1000/index.html
HP Enterprise Virtual Array 3000
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/eva3000/index.html
HP Tape Storage Systems
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/tapestorage.html
HP OpenView Storage Data Protector
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/dataprotector/index.html
HP Open View Storage Area Manager
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/sam/index.html

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Microsoft Exchange 2003 Storage Design for the EVA5000

HP Services
HP Services for Microsoft Exchange
http://www.hp.com/hps/messaging/
Microsoft
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales
Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada
information Center at (800) 563-9048. Outside the United States and Canada, contact
your local Microsoft subsidiary or visit:
www.microsoft.com/
www.microsoft.com/technet/itshowcase/
Microsoft Exchange Server
www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.asp
To learn more about HP storage and our Exchange storage solutions, contact your local
HP sales representative or visit our Web site at www.hp.com/go/storage.
Let us know what you think about the technical information in this document. Your
feedback is valuable and will help us structure future communications. Send your
comments to Microsoft_Storage_Solutions@hp.com.

Microsoft®, Windows®, and Windows NT® are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel® is
a U.S. registered trademark of Intel Corporation. All other brand names are trademarks of their respective
owners.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2003 Hewlett-Packard Company
07/2003

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