| Author | Messages | |
jamesmasters2
Posts:9
 | | 07/18/2008 9:02 AM |
| This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| davyp
Posts:11
| | 07/18/2008 9:02 AM |
| I'm not such an expert on Exchange, but my thought would be that VMware is
not disaster recovery, at least not compared to Windows clustering.
You only have one (virtual) OS, and if the OS is damaged by an update or
powerdown or something, you can put your "bluescreen on boot" server on
vmware 1 and let it bluescreen there, or on vmware2 and let it bluescreen
there, but no real failover of your data to a working operating system like
you can with a windows cluster.
The only protection you really get from vmware is for hardware failure (that
didn't damage your software), and what are the chances for that?
VMware is God's greatest gift to flexibility and the "virtual datacenter" an
all, but it's not God's greatest gift to DR.
Just my 5 cents, if anyone disagrees, flame away.
Davy
_____
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: woensdag 16 juli 2008 20:38
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should
they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local
replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each
production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm
considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| cleric
Posts:18
| | 07/18/2008 9:06 AM |
| VMware does have High Availability products including a full End 2 End
DR Management product called VMware Site Recovery Manager.
Thanks,
Stuart
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of Davy Pierson
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:08 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
I'm not such an expert on Exchange, but my thought would be that VMware
is not disaster recovery, at least not compared to Windows clustering.
You only have one (virtual) OS, and if the OS is damaged by an update or
powerdown or something, you can put your "bluescreen on boot" server on
vmware 1 and let it bluescreen there, or on vmware2 and let it
bluescreen there, but no real failover of your data to a working
operating system like you can with a windows cluster.
The only protection you really get from vmware is for hardware failure
(that didn't damage your software), and what are the chances for that?
VMware is God's greatest gift to flexibility and the "virtual
datacenter" an all, but it's not God's greatest gift to DR.
Just my 5 cents, if anyone disagrees, flame away...
Davy
________________________________
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: woensdag 16 juli 2008 20:38
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic
should they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local
replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for
each production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm
considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| hcoleman
Posts:29
| | 07/18/2008 9:08 AM |
| In the event that you fail over to your DR site, are you expected to provide equal performance/response to all of the clients? If so, then I would think that you would want to spec your DR gear to match your production gear. If not, then you *could* consider virtualization, but I'm not sure that you'd be getting very much benefit for the added complexity. FWIW, I wouldn't consider running 20,000 mailboxes on virtualized Exchange servers in production, and I wouldn't want to explain to my boss why the DR site looked good on paper but crumbled under the failover load.
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org [mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 12:38 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| michael1
Posts:184
| | 07/18/2008 9:08 AM |
| How is ESX going to buy you DR over CCR? You've already got redundant
servers and redundant data locally that does failover automagically with
CCR, and another redundant server and redundant data remotely with SCR -
failover with a single command when necessary. I'd like to know what you are
trying to accomplish with virtualization of the Exchange environment before
commenting more.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:38 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should
they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local
replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each
production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm
considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| jamesmasters2
Posts:9
| | 07/18/2008 9:33 AM |
| Sorry for not being clear - My question is, would ESX be a good candidate for running the SCR targets upon.
What'd I'm seeking to accomplish with virtualization is reduced server sprawl, quick portability of those machines, and of course reduced cost (6 decent sized blades vs 1 host)
Thanks,
James
----- Original Message ----
From: Michael B. Smith <michael@TheEssentialExchange.com>
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:03:14 PM
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
How is ESX going to buy you DR over CCR? You’ve already got redundant servers and redundant data locally that does failover automagically with CCR, and another redundant server and redundant data remotely with SCR – failover with a single command when necessary. I’d like to know what you are trying to accomplish with virtualization of the Exchange environment before commenting more…
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org [mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:38 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
| | | |
| michael1
Posts:184
| | 07/18/2008 9:37 AM |
| It's all about IOPS. If you can drive the required I/O performance for 20K
users then you've met your design objectives, right?
But a DR solution that can't handle production load isn't much of a DR
solution.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 1:24 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
Sorry for not being clear - My question is, would ESX be a good candidate
for running the SCR targets upon.
What'd I'm seeking to accomplish with virtualization is reduced server
sprawl, quick portability of those machines, and of course reduced cost (6
decent sized blades vs 1 host)
Thanks,
James
----- Original Message ----
From: Michael B. Smith <michael@TheEssentialExchange.com>
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:03:14 PM
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
How is ESX going to buy you DR over CCR? You've already got redundant
servers and redundant data locally that does failover automagically with
CCR, and another redundant server and redundant data remotely with SCR -
failover with a single command when necessary. I'd like to know what you are
trying to accomplish with virtualization of the Exchange environment before
commenting more.
Regards,
Michael B. Smith
MCITP:SA,EMA/MCSE/Exchange MVP
http://TheEssentialExchange.com <http://theessentialexchange.com/>
From: ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org
[mailto:ActiveDir-owner@mail.activedir.org] On Behalf Of James Masters
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:38 PM
To: ActiveDir@mail.activedir.org
Subject: [ActiveDir] OT: Exchange on VMWare for DR
This is way off topic, but I value the group's opinion on this topic should
they chose to share it nonetheless.
I am responsible for designing my company's email DR solution.
My environment: 4 2-node Exchange 2007 SP1 / CCR clusters for local
replication.
At a remote site, approx 40 miles away, we will have SCR targets for each
production CCR storage group. This is approximately 20,000 users.
My question is - is anybody running 20,000+ users in ESX 3.5? I'm
considering ESX for DR? Thoughts? Concerns? Caveats?
Thanks all!
-James
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