QLogic 2500 Series 8Gb Fibre Channel Adapter of Choice in Microsoft Exchange Environments - Manual (Page 2)

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Introduction
this paper provides performance testing information for two specific
QLogic solutions for exchange environments:
• FabricCache Fibre Channel adapters featuring integrated, flash-based
caching for application performance acceleration
• Standard Fibre Channel adapters featuring high-performance and low-
power requirements for SaN attachment
For FabricCache adapters, QLogic used Microsoft’s Jetstress workload tool
to test end-to-end server, network, and storage performance operating in
an infrastructure that includes a Fibre Channel attached storage array with
standard hard disk drives as the target, and the QLogic FabricCache 10000
Series 8Gb Fibre Channel adapter as the device under test (DUt). QLogic
chose this configuration to characterize the operational performance of the
FabricCache adapter in a real-world environment, where an existing legacy
SaN would typically be present. the results provide baseline performance
data for the configured environment without caching enabled, and with
various levels of caching enabled to provide a performance comparison.
Microsoft provides the Jetstress 2010 tool for simulating Microsoft
exchange Server 2010 database i/O load and for validating hardware
deployments against design targets.
the test’s objectives are selected to enable the best understanding of
application performance and environmental usage under various user
loads with key indicators such as transaction latency and iOPS.
For the testing performed on the standard Fibre Channel adapters, QLogic
used the industry-standard iOmeter workload tool and a solid-state storage
system as the target to facilitate a maximum performance environment for
the QLogic and emulex Fibre Channel adapters as the DUt.
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 application administrators, and recent challenges are poised
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 a total installed base that is expected to reach 470 million
by 2014, with an average annual growth rate of 12 percent. With
this expanding penetration of exchange, it is imperative that the
user experience remains unaffected by increasing exchange server
workloads. exchange iOPS and latency relate directly to the usability
of exchange and its associated end-user e-mail systems, as well
as the number of mailboxes that can be effectively supported on a
server. today, exchange is mission critical, demanding the highest
levels of performance from servers and their associated SaN storage
infrastructure. the introduction of multiprocessor CPUs coupled
with virtualization technologies provide the resources to meet these
demanding requirements for exchange servers, but compound the
demand for high-performance, low-latency, scalable i/O connectivity
between servers and SaN storage.
it is imperative to deploy a high-performance, scalable server
adapter technology to meet this ever-growing requirement for i/O.
1 the radicati Group, inc.’s latest study, Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Analysis 2010 – 2014
the QLogic FabricCache 10000 Series 8Gb Fibre Channel adapter,
featuring server-based caching operation, and the QLogic 2500 Series
8Gb Fibre Channel adapter, featuring standard host Bus adapter
operation, provide high-performance, scalable solutions for exchange
server environments.
to help it decision makers determine the best, most informed adapter
choice, QLogic has developed a series of benchmarks showing the
performance and scalability of QLogic FabricCache 10000 Series 8Gb
Fibre Channel adapters. Benchmarks also show the performance and
scalability advantages of the QLogic 2500 Series 8Gb Fibre Channel
adapter over the emulex 8Gb LightPulse adapter in a variety of real-
world scenarios using SaN-attached exchange environments.
QLogic compared the overall performance of the 8Gb adapters when
configured to emulate a real-world SaN with maximum throughput
workloads. these tests highlight the advantage delivered by the
QLogic 10000 Series adapters and QLogic 2500 Series adapters in
exchange environments.
Executive Summary