IBM DS6000, DS8000 Conclusion

Exchange 2003 VSS Backup Solution

For IBM Storage DS8000/DS6000

And Symantec Backup Exec 11d

Page 73 David West, David Hartman

©Copyright IBM Corp. 2007

In order to fully leverage the performance capabilities of the IBM DS8000 and

6000, detailed consideration needs to be given to the logical configuration of

the storage units. This is particularly true with I/O intensive applications such

as Exchange Server 2003, and even more so when implementing VSS

technology.

Volumes intended for VSS use should be created:

• So that source & target volumes are in different ranks

• So that source & target volumes are on the same RIO loop

• So that source & target volumes are managed by different DA pairs

• So that overall system usage is balanced, eliminating ‘hot-spots’

• Host-based striping can further reduce latency

• Backup should occur when applications are least active

• Volume creation & storage sizing for maximum Exchange performance

should follow published Microsoft guidelines. Contact Microsoft for

further information.

• For additional information on configuring your IBM DS8000 for

maximum performance, please refer to the IBM System Storage

DS8000 Series: Performance Monitoring and Tuning Redbook, which

can be found at

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247146.html?Open

Conclusion

The system configurations described here, constructed jointly by IBM and

Symantec, and reviewed by Microsoft, are designed to address demanding

enterprise requirements for highly available email servers running Microsoft

Exchange. Microsoft VSS technology is designed to enable consistent point-

in-time copies of Exchange databases, while Transportable Shadow Copies

affords the benefit of shifting the task of executing Eseutil consistency

checking to another server. Both of these features help reduce the traditional

backup load on production Exchange servers.

IBM servers and storage systems are designed to provide the processing

throughput and storage needed for large user populations. Symantec Backup

Exec software is designed to alleviate the complexities of protecting

Exchange, while eliminating the traditional daily Exchange backup window.

This hardware and software combination forms a high availability platform for

mission critical email servers.