Agreed, I too have not touched a physical Exchange server in about 3 years. SAN or no SAN you have to be able to satisfy the requirements. With ESX 4.0 the "too much IO for virtualization" should not be an objection (even with previous versions but...). A single ESX 4.0 host can push greater then 300k IOPS. Exchange 2010 is no where near the IO hog that 2003 was. We've seen about .1 IOPS per mailbox for heavy workloads.
As to real world examples, we currently run about 2200 extremely heavy Exchange 2007 users (.7 IOPS/1.3 RPC Ops/sec) on the standard MBX build, 4vCPU/16GB VM. Average mailbox size is about 1.2GB. With that build we run about three of those + 1-2 CAS (2vCPU/4GB) and 1-2 HT (2vCPU/4GB) on the same hardware. Carry that 5x over and we have our entire Exchange environment on 5 physical servers. The underlying hardware is HP C-Class, 4x4 Intel procs (2.4Ghz) with 64GB RAM. The mailbox VMs themselves run about 35-60% utilized and the physicals run about 65% utilized. -alex On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Joseph L. Casale < jcas...@activenetwerx.com> wrote: > I haven’t worked on a physical one in years. > > If your Host hardware is crap, it will be worse obviously, but with good > iron underneath it, it’ll run very well w/o a san… > > > > *From:* Leedy, Andy [mailto:ale...@butlerschein.com] > *Sent:* Wednesday, May 12, 2010 1:09 PM > > *To:* MS-Exchange Admin Issues > *Subject:* RE: P2v - from a physical Dell server to a VMware virtual > server > > > > “Every virtualized Exchange horror story i've heard of has been the result > of poorly planned storage or virtural resources (over committment).” > > > > I’ve always been afraid to virtualize Exchange due to the high I/O, CPU, > and memory requirements. > > > > Is a SAN recommend? > > > > -Andy > > > > > > *From:* Alex Fontana [mailto:afontana...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Wednesday, May 12, 2010 3:01 PM > *To:* MS-Exchange Admin Issues > *Subject:* Re: P2v - from a physical Dell server to a VMware virtual > server > > > > Not really assuming you take the proper precautions; dismounting databases, > stopping services, having a good backup standing by. You also need to > remember to remove any old OEM software left behind that is used to monitor > hardware, drivers, etc. Those use up resources that you probably won't want > to be wasting. > > > > The usual advice is to spin up a new VM, install Exchange and migrate > mailboxes using the native methods. > > > > Of course, as Steven mentioned - make sure your resources are adequate, > especially the storage you plan to host this on. Every virtualized Exchange > horror story i've heard of has been the result of poorly planned storage or > virtural resources (over committment). > > > > -alex > > On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Shih, Henry <hms...@ci.livermore.ca.us> > wrote: > > We plan to perform a p2v on our Exchange 2003 server because the hardware > warranty will be expired soon. Is there any issue of performing p2v on > Exchange server? > > Thanks. > > Henry Shih > City of Livermore > www.ci.livermore.ca.us > > > > > > > ********************************************************************** > > > CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE - The information transmitted in this message is > intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may > contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, > dissemination or other use of this information by persons or entities other > than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, > please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this document. Thank you. > > > Butler Schein Animal Health > > > ********************************************************************** > >
