WIXLIB

Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMCPowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageJuly 2020H18409Design GuideAbstractThis design guide provides design guidance and validation that isrequired to implement Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMCPowerEdge R740xd2 servers.Dell Technologies Solutions

CopyrightThe information in this publication is provided as is. Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respectto the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particularpurpose.Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.Copyright 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and othertrademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Intel, the Intel logo, the Intel Inside logo and Xeon are trademarksof Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.Published in the USA 07/20 White Paper H18409.Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to changewithout notice.2Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide

ContentsContentsExecutive summary.4Solution overview.6Solution components.10Design principles .14Comprehensive solution design .15Solution sizing.19Sample implementation .20Verification.21Conclusion.23Additional resources.23References .23Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide3

Executive summaryExecutive summaryMicrosoft Exchange Server 2019 is a leading enterprise messaging system that deliversemail, calendar, and contacts to users on various devices through the Outlook client.Exchange Server 2019 provides reliable, scalable, enterprise-class email with complianceand e-discovery features integrated with Microsoft SharePoint and Skype for Business.Exchange Server 2019 supports people and organizations as their work habits evolvefrom communicating to collaborating. The Exchange 2019 database design reducesstorage I/O requirements, optimizing Exchange for cost-effective, low-speed storage. AnExchange deployment must be correctly sized to meet not only specific message profilerequirements, but also growth and high availability (HA) requirements.Exchange Server is a messaging platform that provides email, scheduling, and tools forcustom collaboration and messaging service applications. Exchange Server 2019 brings anew set of technologies, features, and services to Exchange Server. The DellTechnologies Global Solutions Engineering team has developed a pre-architected andvalidated solution for Exchange Server 2019 to help customers simplify implementation.We based our design on best practices obtained from the experience Microsoft and DellTechnologies gained by supporting hundreds of customers worldwide. This solutionbalances performance and cost, provides faster time to value, and increases return oninvestment.SolutionintroductionThe pre-architected Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 solution uses the DellEMC PowerEdge R740xd2 server as a building block, which meets the requirements ofthe Microsoft Exchange Preferred Architecture (PA).HA and site resilience are essential to ensure business continuity. Business growth alsorequires an easily scalable solution. We account for these requirements in our design forthis solution.The implementation that we describe addresses the following client requirements: 50,000 10 GB mailboxes 100 KB average message size 100 messages sent or received per dayThe high-level goal is to implement these requirements within a single DatabaseAvailability Group (DAG) to offer a cost-effective design while keeping administration to aminimum. If larger implementations are required—such as more mailboxes, largermailboxes, larger message size—you can scale up and scale out by deploying additionalDAGs. However, to implement a more complex solution, Dell Technologies recommendsthat you engage with your Dell Technologies Consulting Services sales representativeand provide the specific email requirements that your company needs.We validated and verified the design by using the Microsoft Exchange Jetstress tool.Documentpurpose4This guide describes design principles and components for the Dell TechnologiesExchange 2019 Solution, which is suited for medium- to large-scale deployments. If yourDell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide

Executive summaryrequirements differ, contact your Dell Technologies sales representative. Exchangepresales engineers can assist you in sizing your environment correctly.The following sections in this white paper include: Solution overview—Provides a brief overview of the Dell Technologies Exchange2019 solution Solution components—Introduces the Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 systemcomponents and the solution architecture Design principles—Explains the design principles including HA, applicationperformance, and best practices Comprehensive solution design—Explains the comprehensive solution designand describes the core components of the solution Solution sizing—Describes solution sizing and important considerations Sample implementation—Describes a sample implementation and provides proofpoints from the Microsoft Exchange Jetstress verification of the referenceimplementation Verification—Provides an overview of the verification that ensures that the solutionmeets the design requirementsAudienceThis guide is intended for IT managers, messaging administrators, and consultantsinterested in designing and deploying a medium- to large-scale Exchange 2019 solutionon PowerEdge R740xd2 servers for various user profiles. Users are expected to havesufficient understanding and knowledge of Exchange 2019.We value yourfeedbackDell Technologies and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on thesolution and the solution documentation. Contact the Dell Technologies Solutions team byemail or provide your comments by completing our documentation survey.Author: Ajith Suresh BabuContributors: Douglas Collimore, Robert F. SondersNote: For links to additional documentation for this solution, see the PowerEdge R740xd2Documentation.Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide5

Solution overviewSolution overviewThe first step in any solution is to discover and document the requirements. This stepoffers a road map that ensures that you remain focused on the result. Introducing featuresthat are not within the scope of the requirements, while nice to have, might be detrimentalto the result.During this phase, start on the design path and document your requirements, as listed inthe following table:Table 1.High-level Exchange requirementsItemsRequirements 1Version2019Total number of mailboxes in the environment50,000 active mailboxes (with 0% additionalgrowth)Mailbox size and I/O requirementTier 1 – cached 10 GB mailbox and 0.07IOPS per userMailbox User profile – Sent/ReceivedTier 1–100 messages per dayTarget average message sizeTier 1–100 KBNumber of Exchange mailbox servers perDAG8 primary mailbox serversNumber of active mailboxes per server6,250 active mailboxes per Exchange ServerSite resiliency modelActive/activeNumber of copies4HA requirements1 DAGDisaster Recovery (DR) requirements2 copies using DAG replicationDeleted items retention window (“dumpster”)30 daysLagged database copies (passive)NoneLogs protection buffer5 days24 x 7 BDM configurationEnabledOther informationNone8 secondary mailbox serversWhen you determine the high-level requirements, add these values to the ExchangeServer Role Requirement Calculator. As of the publication of this guide, the latest versionof the calculator for Exchange 2019 is v10.4. It is only available through Microsoft onCumulative Update #5 as an .iso image file.16The requirements column shows the values that we used for our sample implementation.Dell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide

Solution overviewThis calculator provides the required information to size the solution correctly for thePowerEdge R740xd2 server in this sample implementation. The following figure shows aportion of the calculator:Figure 1.Exchange Server Role Requirements CalculatorUsing the output from the calculator, the solution uses the PowerEdge R740xd2 server asthe mailbox server. Each server comes with 26 drives installed, as shown in the followingtable:Table 2.Installed drivesDescriptionNotes20 x 7200 RPM 3.5-inch NL-SAShard drivesInstalled in the front drive bays in RAID 0 configurationand used for storing the 190 TB of capacity necessary forthe Exchange databases and transaction logs2 x 2.5-inch 1.92 TB 6 Gb/s SSDsInstalled in the rear drive bays in RAID 1 configurationand used for installing the operating system, binaries,and other applications.1 hard driveMarked as Restore LUN1 hard driveMarked as Auto Reseed volume2 drivesUnused and are available as spare disksDell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide7

Solution overviewThe solution uses a four-copy DAG layout (active/active) with 16 Exchange serversdistributed equally between two sites—the Primary Datacenter and the SecondaryDatacenter, as shown in the following figure:Figure 2.Physical layout of DAGThe following figure shows the RAID LUN layout for the Exchange databases:Figure 3.8RAID LUN layout of Exchange databasesDell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide

Solution overviewRAID 0 was used with the 12 TB disks to maximize IOPS potential while using all thecapacity of the devices. Microsoft recommends one physical disk per data or databasegroup so that there is no impact to the entire server.The following figure shows the external data center architecture:Figure 4.External data center architecture for Exchange deploymentDell Technologies Microsoft Exchange 2019 SolutionImplementing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Servers and StorageDesign Guide9