QLogic 10000 Series Accelerating Microsoft Exchange Servers with I_O Caching - Manual (Page 2)

SSG-WP13001D SN0430934-00 rev. D 05/13 2
White PaPer
Server-Side Storage Acceleration
Storage i/O is the primary performance bottleneck for data-intensive
applications such as Microsoft exchange Server. Processor and memory
performance have grown in-step with Moore’s Law—that is, getting faster
and smaller—while storage performance has lagged far behind. Over the
past two decades, delivering performance from data storage has become
the bane of the applications administrators, and recent challenges are
poised to severely constrain the capabilities of the infrastructure in the face
of increasing virtualization, consolidation, and user loads.
a new class of server-side storage acceleration is the latest innovation in
the market addressing this performance disparity. the idea is simple: fast,
reliable, solid-state flash memory connected to the server brings faster
exchange data access to the server’s CPU. Flash memory is highly available
in the market and promises to perform much faster than any rotational disk
under typical small, highly random, i/O enterprise workloads.
the QLogic 10000 Series adapter from QLogic provides i/O acceleration
across the storage area network for exchange servers. the 10000 Series
adapter is a PCie-based i/O device that provides the integrated storage
network (Fibre Channel) connectivity, i/O caching technology, integrated
flash memory, and embedded processing that are required to make
management and caching tasks transparent to the host server. the QLogic
patent-pending FabricCache solution delivers the application performance
acceleration benefits of transparent, server-based cache, without the
limitations of solutions that require separate, server-based storage
management software and OS filter drivers.
For optimal Microsoft exchange performance, maximized transactional i/O
speed and minimized i/O latency indicate a peak-performing exchange and
e-mail system. By optimizing these performance values, the platform can
absorb additional users, thereby reducing server, management, and overall
infrastructure costs. the key benefits identified in this paper are the QLogic
10000 Series adapter improvements of exchange Server performance that
reduce overall costs.
Exchange Server Benchmark Using Microsoft Jetstress
Microsoft provides the Jetstress 2010 tool for simulating Microsoft
exchange Server 2010 database i/O load and for validating hardware
deployments against design targets. in this paper, Jetstress was used to
simulate exchange 2010 against both non-cached and cached i/O data
implementations with the QLogic 10000 8Gb Fibre Channel adapter.
test Setup
the test setup was configured with an intel ® Xeon ® server connected to
an hP ® enterprise Virtual array (eVa) storage through the QLogic 10000
adapter and QLogic 5800V/5802V Fibre Channel Switch. Jetstress runs
were executed with cache levels varying in size from zero to 100 percent of
the actual exchange database size.
increased demands on the Microsoft exchange Server make it critical
to optimize its i/O performance in the SaN. the QLogic 10000 Series
8Gb Fibre Channel adapter meets that need for high performance. By
implementing a unique i/O caching architecture with Fibre Channel
connectivity, the 10000 Series adapter significantly increases the
performance of transactional i/O (iOPS) and i/O read latency for
large exchange data volumes. this combined approach of enterprise
server i/O with server-based i/O caching using flash memory delivers
dramatic and smoothly scalable application performance.
e-mail has grown to be one of the most important communication and
collaboration applications for worldwide businesses. according to a
report from the radicati Group
1 , Microsoft exchange Server will have
1 the radicati Group, inc. study, Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis 2010–2014
a total installed base that is expected to reach 470 million by 2014,
with an average annual growth rate of 12 percent. this expanding
penetration of exchange makes it imperative that the user remains
unaffected by increased server loads. exchange iOPS and latency
relate directly to the usability of exchange and user e-mail systems, as
well as the number of mailboxes that can be hosted on a server.
to help it decision-makers make the best, most-informed adapter
choice, QLogic has assessed performance benchmarks that show the
i/O performance and scalability advantages of the QLogic 10000 Series
8Gb Fibre Channel adapter. this white paper examines the advantages
provided by QLogic’s technology in the 10000 Series adapter, and
gives guidance for making informed decisions when considering the
value of flash memory to enhance server performance.
Executive Summary