Best Practices for SharePoint

• • • • • Brief description of key business critical application concepts for virtualized environments Overview of virtualization and Microsoft Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Show how Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ provides an ideal platform for deployments using virtualization Demonstrate how Microsoft and partners are providing “better together” solutions for SharePoint in virtualized environments Resources: o

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/partners.aspx

external, customer facing site with a range of partner solutions and case studies

Virtualization Drivers for Business Critical Applications

Increased management workload while reducing cost Fast changing business requirements Underutilization and proliferation of application servers Increased need for service uptime

Virtualization is the next level of IT optimization for business critical applications

3

Virtualization Trends

“What types of workloads have you deployed virtualization technology for 2006 vs. 2008”

Test and Development Production Application Servers Disaster Recovery Systems Production Databases Data/Storage Mgmt Systems Production Web Servers End-User Desktops Production Middleware Systems

0%

5% 64% 79% 74% 74% 51% 29% 50% 30%

20%

47% 21% 47% 47% 45% 26%

40%

41%

60%

2008 2006

80% Source: Virtualization and Management: Trends, Forecasts, and Recommendations; Enterprise Management Associates (EMA); April 2008 5

Server Virtualization Application Virtualization Presentation Virtualization Desktop Virtualization

“Having one vendor for the hypervisor, operating system, and much of our application software was very appealing to us from a support and cost perspective.” Bert Van Pottelberghe, Sales Director, Hostbasket

User State Virtualization

Document redirection Offline files

Highlight of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Improvements

Virtualization Feature

Logical Processor Support Address Space Management Core Parking/Deeper Sleep States (C3) IPv6 offloads Chimney Jumbo Frames

Windows Server ® 2008 Hyper-V™ RTM

16 Software Only No – Limited C States No No No Virtual NIC interrupts IO Sizes (Virtual SCSI) VHD Block Size Hot add of storage VP0 64KB 512KB No

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V SP2

24 Software Only No – Limited C States No No No VP0 64KB 512KB No

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (aka Win7 HyperV)

64 Hardware (SLAT Processors) Yes Yes Yes – Off by default in RC Yes VP0 receive/ distributed for send 8MB 2MB Yes

Delivers high levels of availability for production workloads via flexible and dynamic management while reducing overall costs through efficient server consolidation via:

Processor Compatibility Mode

2.8 GHz Dual Core Processor

P-State=0

Core 1 Processor Core 1 Active

P-State Percent Frequency

0 100 2.800 GHz 1 2 3 4 5 90 2.520 GHz Processor Core 2 Inactive 50 1.680 GHz 1.400 GHz Processor Core 3 Inactive Processor Core 2

P-State Percent Frequency

0 100 2.800 GHz 1 2 3 4 5 Processor Core 4 Inactive 75 60 50 2.100 GHz 1.680 GHz 1.400 GHz

Reads Per Second for Data Volumes

2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Low OLTP Workload Root OS - Hyper-V Disabled Single VM (Passthrough Disks) Med OLTP Workload High OLTP Workload Root OS - Hyper-V Enabled Single VM (Fixed Size VHD)

Average Disk Latency in Seconds

0,009 0,008 0,007 0,006 0,005 0,004 0,003 0,002 0,001 0 Low OLTP Workload Med OLTP Workload Root OS - Hyper-V Disabled Single VM (Passthrough Disks) High OLTP Workload Root OS - Hyper-V Enabled Single VM (Fixed Size VHD)

Microsoft Business Critical Applications

Virtualization Benefits for Microsoft Server Applications

Customer Challenges Microsoft Virtualization Benefits

Underutilization of hardware Lead time to provision new servers Multiple, disparate tools to manage both physical and virtual environments Managing planned and unplanned downtime Overhead of setting up a test environment Increase server utilization Rapidly provision servers End-to-end management across both physical and virtual environments Improve uptime with clustering and migration Streamline development, testing and staging 15

Reaping the Benefits of Virtualization

• • •

Save Costs: Improve Resource Utilization

Reduce server sprawl, save space Save on power and cooling costs Optimize usage of current hardware resources “By the time we hit our fifth virtual machine on a host, we’ve usually paid for the host. Long term, we will be able to reduce our total data center holdings by 75 percent.”

Robert McSkinsky, Senior Systems Administrator, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

• • •

Enhanced Business Continuity

Increase availability of business applications Delivers cost effective high availability Improve service levels, less downtime “We can no longer tolerate service interruptions. With virtualization, we are creating a redundant data center in Normandy to ensure business continuity”

Amaury Pitrou, Projects Architecture, Desktops and Mobility Director Bouygues Constructions

• • •

Agile and Efficient Management

Rapidly provision business applications Quickly test applications Increase administrative flexibility “Building a physical server took almost four hours before virtualization. Hyper-V™ has helped decrease this time to 20 minutes.”

Vito Forte, Chief Information Officer WorleyParsons

17

Microsoft Business Server Applications Deployment Scenarios

–

SharePoint

Understanding the Environment for Virtualization

–

SharePoint Farm

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 o o Document Conversion Launcher Service Document Conversion Load Balancer Service Excel Calculation Services SQL Server 19

SharePoint Key Roles and Virtualization Considerations

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 • • Environments with lower resource usage requirements Implement SQL Server® alias for the farm required

Database Role

Consider For details, see SharePoint Virtualization whitepaper at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/solutions/business-critical-applications 20

Non Production

–

Development, Test, and QA

• • • • • • • •

Virtualization Benefits:

Rapidly provision and teardown virtual machines Reduce hardware costs and increase utilization Easy and flexible testing―ex: high availability Improve the software development and test lifecycle

Development Test and QA Web/Query Web/Query Index Excel Database Web/Query Web/Query Index Excel Database

VM 21 Click Here for More Information

• • • •

Production

–

Virtual Only

• • •

Virtualization Benefits:

Reduce hardware costs, save power and space Improve server utilization Easier set up and provisioning VM

Web/Query Web/Query Excel Services Database Shared Storage iSCSI, SAS, Fibre Web/Query Index Document Conversions System Center VMM Database

Click Here for More Information 22

Production

–

Physical & Virtual Mix

• • • •

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

DEV TEST

• •

Virtualization Benefits:

Unified management: physical and virtual Dynamic data center: scale dynamically and on-demand provisioning

PRODUCTION Failover Server Index

VM

Shared Storage iSCSI, SAS, Fibre

Click Here for More Information 23

Partner Evidence: SharePoint Performance Enabled by Hyper-V

• • •

Description:

Deployment with mix of physical & virtual servers Web, Query and Application roles are deployed virtual; database role is deployed physical Managed with System Center • • • •

Virtual Machine Specification: 1 Index server dedicated for

crawling (each VM with 4 CPUs, 6 GB RAM)

10 Web Front End & Query servers

(each VM with 4 CPUs, 4 GB RAM) 2 Application servers (each VM with 2 CPUs, 2 GB RAM) Domain controllers (each VM with 2 CPUs, 2 GB RAM) •

Test Results:

With a heavy user load profile of over 300K user capacity – an average response time of under 3-5 seconds with 1% concurrency Source: EMC Virtual Architecture for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enabled by Hyper-V (whitepaper) Click here for more information

Best Practices for Configuring SharePoint with Hyper-V

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 25

See it in Booth 1008

Microsoft Server Applications Deployment Scenarios

–

SQL Server

SQL Server Consolidation with Virtualization

• • •

Scenario Description:

Reduce servers by consolidating virtualized SQL Server® instances on fewer servers Start with departmental applications with low server utilization Deploy mission critical apps – evaluate case-by case and determine if Service Level Agreement (SLA) is met after virtualization

File Server Applications Server

CPU utilization

Web Server CRM Applications SQL Server + Print Server

• • • •

Solution Benefits:

Help realize a higher ROI and lower TCO by reducing: o Hardware costs o Energy costs o Data center space o Management overheads SQL Server Enterprise Edition offers unlimited virtualized SQL Server instances if licensed for all processors on physical server, therefore potentially reducing licensing costs Fewer licenses due to greater licensing mobility across servers in a farm Centralize data services on fewer servers Click Here For More Information

1 Consolidate from 5 to 2 Physical Servers File Server

CPU utilization

Applications Server Web Server 2 CRM Applications SQL Server + Print Server

VM 29

Virtualization for BI Infrastructure High Availability with Live Migration Remote Site Consolidation with DB Mirroring High Availability with Guest Clustering Using iSCSI

Optimizing for SQL Server

Running SQL Server workloads within Hyper V guest VM’s is a viable option for production environment Assuming limitations of Guest VM meet requirements of the workload.

Hyper utilization each VM V guest VMs are limited to a maximum of 4 virtual CPU’s (limit of 2 virtual CPU’s on Windows 2003 guest VMs) When compared against native the same throughput can be achieved within a guest VM at a cost of slightly increased CPU Assuming comparable hardware resources Proper hardware sizing is critical to SQL Server performance Ensure that cumulative physical CPU resources on a server are adequate to meet the needs the guest VMs Test/Monitor your workloads Important to scale the performance to the total workload required of Don’t migrate 20 physical servers with 40 spindles each to a Hyper -V host with 10 spindles

Summary

Microsoft Virtualization: The Best Choice for Microsoft Server Applications

Microsoft Server Applications Built for Windows Complete Management Solution Low Cost Complete Solution *Built-in Virtualization with One-stop Support *Deep Application Knowledge *A comparable solution can cost up to six

times more†

*Large Partner Ecosystem *Physical & Virtual Management *Lower Ongoing Costs

Increased Deployment Options

*Cross Platform and Hypervisor Support

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 https://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore as of 08/04/2009 for purchases in the United States. Actual reseller prices may vary. 33

Useful Links:

  o

SQL Server®

o o http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/white-papers.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/virtualization.aspx

SharePoint®

o o http://blogs.msdn.com/uksharepoint/archive/2009/03/04/topic-1 recommendations-for-optimizing-the-performance-of-a-virtualized sharepoint-environment.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909840 o o o http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/managing-microsoft applications/optimizing-sharepoint.aspx

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6623366/SharePoint-Virtualization-Best Practices http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-1877ENW.pdf

Virtualization

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/virtualization consolidation.aspx

Additional Material;

not presented, but referenced

Additional Virtualization Resources

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/default.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/case-studies.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/defaul t.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/hvs http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-faq.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/default .mspx

• •

Virtualization for BI Infrastructure

•

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 • •

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 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)

External ERP Web Legacy Reporting Server

VM

Data Mart & OLAP Cube Operational Data Store SQL Server® Integration Services (SSIS) Data Warehouse (DW) Reporting Server Data Mart & OLAP Cube

Click Here For More Information 37

High Availability with Live Migration

• • • • •

Scenario Description:

Manage high availability with multipathing and live migration for planned downtime situations, such as hardware and software maintenance Failover individual virtual machines (VMs) to other hosts within a cluster by using Cluster Shared Volume (in Windows Server® 2008 R2) Use Microsoft ® System Center Virtual Machine Manager for migrations. System Center VMM can perform host compatibility checks before migrations and manage multiple Live Migrations with queues.

Nodes in cluster can be active-active Ensure there is enough CPU capacity for the failover nodes in cluster

Live Migration

VM • • • •

Virtualization Benefits:

No loss of service during failover with live migration. Migration is completely transparent to the user Improve availability with less complexity Better server utilization due to consolidation Easier set up and management through System Center VMM Click Here For More Information

Host cluster Shared Storage iSCSI, SAS, Fibre

38

SAN Migration with SCVMM

VM • • • • • •

Scenario Description:

N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is a Fiber Channel facility that allows administrators to migrate VMs between host by remapping World Wide Port Name (WWPN) Recommended for high levels of security Support high performance SQL Server® workloads Deploy Hyper-V™ while preserving Fiber Channel security infrastructure System Center VMM orchestrates virtual machine (VM) Migration VM boot and data disks migrate transparently

1 1 2 2 3 SAN Migration 3 2

 NPIV Switch FC Switch

(NPIV supported)

• • • •

Virtualization Benefits:

Provides redundancy without requiring failover cluster NPIV allows administrators to migrate VMs between host by remapping world wide name Data only needs to be exposed to specific virtual ports (WWPNs) to ensure security Reduces network overhead of migrating VMs Storage LUNS Key: NPIV Switch: N-Port ID Virtualization Switch FC Switch: Fiber Channel Switch NPIV HBA: N-Port ID Virtualization Host Bus Adapter

2

 NPIV HBA 39

Remote Site Consolidation with DB Mirroring

VM • • • •

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 1

1 SQL Server Database Mirroring Reporting Server

2 • • •

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 SQL Server Database Mirroring 3

1 Click Here For More Information 40

HA with Guest Clustering Using iSCSI

• • • • •

Scenario Description:

Improve high availability with a combination of guest clustering and host clustering Only iSCSI is supported for guest clustering iSCSI Initiator runs within the VM allowing storage to be fully visible to the VM Storage is fully visible to the guest cluster and enables high-availability of services and applications in the virtual layer Support the use of multiple redundant paths using Microsoft Multipath IO (MPIO) or MCS (multiple connections per session) from within the VM

Guest Cluster Guest Cluster

VM

2 1

• • • • •

Virtualization Benefits:

Provide fault tolerance both at application and host level All applications can run in the context of the VM Management efficiency based on SQL Server® and System Center management tools Backup applications have full visibility to data within the application context Storage providers such as MPIO, VDS, VSS run within the VM Redundant Paths to storage

Shared Storage iSCSI

Click Here For More Information 41

Recommendations for Configuring SQL Server with Hyper-V

Best Practices for SQL Server® with Hyper-V™

• • • • • • • Guest virtual machines limited to 4 CPU cores Configure a 1-to-1 mapping of virtual processor to logical processors for best performance Network intensive applications should be tested for acceptable SLAs Use multipathing on host or within the VM to ensure maximum throughput and high availability for VM workloads Utilize either pass-through disk or fixed-size VHD for guest virtual machines o o o Pass-through disk configuration provides the best I/O performance and predictability Pass-through disks allow movement of data by remapping disks vs. copy overhead on network infrastructure Virtual Machines using VHDs are easier to move around than pass-through disks Storage size should be considered with workload and response time requirements Avoid using emulated devices. Instead, ensure integration components are installed and synthetic devices are being used.

42

http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957006/ http://support.microsoft.com/?id=956893

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.  2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft ® SQL Server®, Microsoft ® Exchange, Microsoft ® Office SharePoint® Server , Microsoft ® System Center 2008, Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Windows Server® 2008 Hyper -V ™ are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.