Monthly Archives: October 2012

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EMC at SQL Server Pass Summit

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SQLpass

 

SQL PASS Summit is the single largest gathering of Microsoft SQL Server professionals in the world and brings together a significant community of SQL Server DBAs and BI architects and users.  This year SQL Pass Summit will be held November 6-9, 2012 in Seattle, WA.

EMC wouldn't miss it again this year and will be a Gold Sponsor for the show!  Come by our booth and meet EMC experts (and me) to learn about EMC and MIcrosoft technologies.  We'll be showcasing our SQL Server solutions focusing on how we Optimize and Scale SQL Server, how we Protect SQL Server environments and how to simplify management of SQL Server.

EMC has several great solutions for SQL Server including our FAST Suite which includes tiered data storage for optimal performance as well as our Flash solutions that extend cache from the storage array and into the servers for near zero performance latency!   We'll also showcase our data protection products including advanced backup and restore for SQL including support for Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V!  Other demos include replicating SQL databases and associated applications across distances and integrating with Windows clustering for geographic stretched clusters.  We'll showcase advanced management through EMC tools and System Center to simplify management of Windows and Hyper-V workloads.

Oh and what about those new Windows 2012 features for SQL?  SMB support and features such as Continuous Availability?  Yup, we'll have that too.   What about Microsoft's own high available solutions within SQL Server called AlwaysOn?  Yes, we'll talk about how those features work on EMC storage and how we are integrating with AlwaysOn to extend the great benefits they bring.

So, come by and meet the experts (and me), pick up a t-shirt and enter to win our contests!  We'll be in booth 201 or the one with the crowd.

 

 

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EMC Support for Windows Server 2012 Webcast Series

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Have you had a chance to learn all about the new features in Windows Server 2012?  All the changes to Hyper-V?  Virtual FC?  SMB 3.0?  ODX?  Storage Spaces?  Powershell enhancements?  SMI-S?

It’s ok if you’re still learning…we get it, there are a lot of changes!  Join EMC and Windows IT Pro for a 3 part webcast and get caught up on all the new features of Windows Server 2012 and learn about how EMC is supporting and integrating with Microsoft’s new operating system!

Earlier this week I joined Mike Otey from Windows IT Pro and Mike Truitt from Microsoft to explain some of the new Windows features and how EMC is already working with Microsoft on an updated Private Cloud Fast Track solution based on Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1!  That webcast is now available to replay On Demand and there are still two more webcasts coming up later this month and in early November focusing on Microsoft virtualization, management and data protection.  All the details can be found here:

 

 

Understanding Windows Server 2012

Tuesday, October 16th at 12PM ET\9AM PT

This presentation will provide an overview of Windows Server 2012. We’ll look at the challenges IT faces today and how Windows Server 2012 addresses those challenges. IT needs to be more responsive than ever to end-user requests and to provide more flexibility for running critical applications. At the same time there’s the need to reduce costs and improve availability. Plus, today’s businesses really need to understand how they can best take advantage of the cloud. To show how Windows Server 2012 can help your business address these problems, we’ll cover some of Windows Server 2012’s most important changes in management, virtualization, storage, and networking. You’ll learn about the importance of such new features as the new Hyper-V, NIC teaming, SMB 3.0, ODX, and Storage spaces. Finally, we’ll look at some of the vital planning and deployment considerations for Windows Server 2012.

Replay the Webcast! 

 

Windows Server 2012 Management and Virtualization

Wednesday, October 31st at 12PM ET\9AM PT

In this presentation you’ll learn about the management and virtualization features in Windows Server 2012. In the first part of this presentation you’ll learn about the new default Server Core installation option. Next you’ll see how the new Server manager can perform multi-server management and how you can use it to manage groups of servers. Then you’ll see how the new PowerShell can be used to automate IT administrative tasks. In the second part of this presentation you get a tour of the new virtualization features in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and how to leverage your infrastructure and storage investments for end to end management success.. Here you learn about the new scalability capabilities in Hyper-V as well as the enhanced live migration and live storage migration.. In addition you’ll see how the new Hyper-V Replica feature can provide disaster recovery for Hyper-V VMs.

Register Here!

 

Windows Server 2012 High Availability, Disaster Recovery and Data Protection

Wednesday, November 7th at 2PM ET\11AM PT

Maximizing availability and protecting your corporate data are quite possibility two of the most important tasks that the IT administrator has. Downtime is expensive both in terms of direct costs as well as in lost opportunities and frustrations for the end users. Even more important than providing high availability is the ability to protect your corporate data and to be able to quickly recover your data in the event of a disaster or site level failure. In this presentation we’ll look at the new features in Windows Server 2012 that are designed to maximize availability and protect your corporate assets from disasters. We’ll dive into the enhancements in Windows Failover Clustering where you’ll learn about the new clustering scalability and availability enhancements. Next, you learn about the enhanced file server and infrastructure availability enhancements that are part of the new SMB 3.0 file sharing protocol and the new DHCP failover features. You’ll learn how you can provide disaster recovery protection for your VMs using the new Hyper-V Replica feature. Finally, you will learn how to extend your infrastructure investments to simplify backup and data protection across your virtualized Microsoft applications and private cloud environments—and confidently address increasing SLA requirements.

 Register Here!

 

 

 

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Is it time to say goodbye to Jetstress?

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The short answer?  “Yes”  The long answer?  “Yyyyyesssss”

But first let me get this out of the way:  If you want to run Jetstress against any storage configuration I come up with, feel free.  I wouldn’t put it forward if I weren’t confident it could handle the workload. 

Prior to 2007, Jetstress REALLY mattered.  You had 500MB mailboxes that could easily 2-5 IO/s per mailbox.  Cached clients were rare – so storage latency was the primary driver of customer complaints.  Over the last ten years, Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making Exchange a much more storage-friendly application, and they’ve succeeded.  Today you have 0.1 IO/s per mailbox, and it’s spread over 2-5 GB.  Exchange is now Just Another Workload.  So why are we spending all this time and money (not to mention implementation delays) using an unwieldy purpose-built testing tool for something that’s Just Another Workload?

With Exchange 2010 and its very modest IO profile, I question the value of Jetstress as opposed to other testing tools.  The level of effort and sheer amount of time required to create the databases, replicate them, and then run the test are significant.  It can run to weeks for reasonably sized deployment.  Yes, you get assurance that your storage rig is operating properly, but you can get that assurance from tools like Iometer, which can take seconds to set up, and mere hours to complete.

For all the effort and time involved in a Jetstress run, I just expect more.  I’d expect that my entire infrastructure would be validated.  I’d expect assurance that I have enough RAM and CPU in my virtual machines, that my network is up to snuff, access to my domain controllers and global catalog servers is sufficient… but I don’t get any of that with Jetstress.

If I’m going to put in the kind of time and effort into my testing that Jetstress requires, I’m going to fire up an entire infrastructure and use Loadgen and verify my entire configuration – not just my storage.  On the other hand, if I’m going to test my storage independently from my server and network, I would:

Roll my own Exchange IO test with Iometer in 30 minutes

  • Set up your storage on a your production mailbox server
  • Determine the file sizes for your database and logs  You can find that on the LUN Requirements tab of the Exchange Mailbox Storage Calculator

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  • Using fsutil (built in Windows command line tool), create files called iobw.tst sized according to the DB Size + Overhead and Log Size + Overhead using fsutil.  For our example, we’re looking at 1595 GB database files and  34 GB log files.  This part is not strictly necessary, but I like it.  Creating a file called iobw.tst in the root directory of the target will prevent ioMeter from creating thick files that occupy the entire LUN.
    • fsutil file createnew e:\iobw.tst 1672478720 <———-simulated 1.5 TB database file
    • fsutil file createnew f:\iobw.tst 35651584 <————-simulated 34 GB log file
  • Download Iometer and the Exchange 2010 .icf file I’ve created.  Launch ioMeter and open the icf file.
    • If you’re using mount points instead of drive letters, download the latest Iometer Release candidate for mount point support
  • Determine the target IO throughput for the databases and logs.  This can be determined from the Role requirements tab of the Exchange 2010 Storage calculator

image 

  • Modify the transfer delay in “Exchange 2010 DB Workload” Global Access specification so it will generate the desired number of IOs. The math is: 1000 ÷ target IO/s. Our example requires 30 IO/s per database, and 1000 ÷ 30=33.3.  So we’ll set it to 33.  The original in the icf file is 25, which would generate 40 IO/s.

image

  • Modify the transfer delay in the “Exchange 2010 Log Workload” Global Access Specification so it will generate the desired number of IOs.  Our example requires 7 IO/s per log LUN, and 1000 ÷ 7=142.8, so we’ll set it to 143.  The orignial in the .icf file is 100, which would generate about 10 IO/s.

image

  • Assign the DB Worker and BDM Worker to the database LUNs
  • Assign the Log Worker to the Log LUNs
  • Click the Green Flag and start.  Let it run for 5-10 minutes for a quick sanity check, and stop it.  Make sure it’s driving the IO you want at the latencies you expect, and you’re not gated by CPU or anything like that.
  • Start a perfmon data collection (perfcollect is good for this).
  • Modify the test tab for a however long you’d like.  I recommend at least a few hours.

image

  • Take a nap
  • Go for a run
  • Eat some food
  • Watch some TV
  • When the test completes, open up your perfmon file, look at your disk latencies, make sure they’re steady, there were no spikes, and there were no aberrations in number of IO/s
    • If you’re an EMC customer and use perfcollect, zip up the perfcollect data collection and send it to your TC, or reseller TC, and ask for a WPA (miTrend) report on the server(s).  You’ll get a nicely formatted report with graphs and tables and twenty-seven 8×10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one

Using this method, you can get in and out of testing mode within easily 36 total hours, and your time will be less than an hour of setup and analysis.  That translates into weeks of time where your users can spend enjoying your cool new messaging infrastructure.

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Want to learn more about mission critical SQL Server? Attend the joint keynote by Microsoft and EMC…

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Mission Critical SQL Server Online Seminar

Thursday October 25th, 11:00 AM ET / 8:00 AM PT

 

Joint Keynote Presentation by EMC and Microsoft

“Delivering Mission Critical Confidence with SQL Server 2012 and EMC Infrastructure”

With the continued explosion in the volume and complexity of data today, organizations require a new mission critical, in which enterprise-class capabilities and tools are built-in and fully integrated as a part of the database solution. In this session, we will discuss the new mission critical and we will examine the built-in capabilities that Microsoft SQL Server 2012 delivers and how the integration with EMC technologies delivers best of breed mission critical solutions. We will discuss enterprise-grade security, availability, scalability and performance, along with support for a full range of complex data types. We will also show how EMC enhances SQL Server solutions by bringing a better Quality of Service (QoS) and also a faster time to value

Please register here:

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=519020&sessionid=1&key=7C92654418F8E952E3A2803EB9D37C54&sourcepage=register

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Learn More about Windows Server 2012! EMC Sponsoring Windows Server 2012 Webcast Series..

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Learn More about Windows Server 2012

EMC Sponsoring Windows Server 2012 Webcast Series

EMC is partnering with Windows IT Pro Technical Experts (Penton Media). Michael Otey and Sean Deuby on a series of webcasts focused on providing information and technical considerations for Windows Server 2012 and the role of infrastructure to confidently deploy virtualized Microsoft applications and Microsoft Private Cloud Environments.

Date/Time

Webcast   Topic

Registration   Link
Tuesday,   October 16th at 12:00pm ET/ 9:00am PT Understanding   Windows Server 2012 www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/emc/understandingws2012?cid=emclink
Wednesday,   October 31st at 12:00pm ET/ 9:00am PT Windows   Server 2012 Management and Virtualization www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/emc/WS2012management?cid=emclink

 
Wednesday,   November 7th, 2012 at 2:00pm ET/ 11:00am PT

 

 Windows   Server 2012 High Availability, Disaster Recovery and Data Protection www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/EMC/WS2012protection?cid=emclink

 

More detail on each webcast is noted below.

Understanding Windows Server 2012

Tuesday, October 16th at 12:00pm ET/ 9:00am PT

This presentation will provide an overview of Windows Server 2012. We’ll look at the challenges IT faces today and how Windows Server 2012 addresses those challenges. IT needs to be more responsive than ever to end-user requests and to provide more flexibility for running critical applications. At the same time there’s the need to reduce costs and improve availability. Plus, today’s businesses really need to understand how they can best take advantage of the cloud. To show how Windows Server 2012 can help your business address these problems, we’ll cover some of Windows Server 2012’s most important changes in management, virtualization, storage, and networking. You’ll learn about the importance of such new features as the new Hyper-V, NIC teaming, SMB 3.0, ODX, and Storage spaces. Finally, we’ll look at some of the vital planning and deployment considerations for Windows Server 2012.

Speakers

Michael Otey

Michael Otey is senior technical director for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Pro and author of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 High Availability with Clustering & Database Mirroring (McGraw-Hill).motey@sqlmag.com

Adrian Simays

Global Microsoft Presales Director
Adrian Simays manages a community of global Microsoft Specialists at EMC, working with customers and partners on designing and deploying EMC technologies with Microsoft. As part of his role, Adrian has a primary focus on leading EMC’s Microsoft virtualization business including the acceleration of EMC’s support, differentiation, integration and Go to Market around Microsoft Virtualization and Mission Critical Applications. Adrian works closely with engineering, sales, customers and with Microsoft establishing and building deep technical relationships and evangelizing technical solutions. Adrian has specialized on data storage and Microsoft

 

Windows Server 2012 Management and Virtualization

Wednesday, October 31st at 12:00pm ET/ 9:00am PT

In this presentation you’ll learn about the management and virtualization features in Windows Server 2012. In the first part of this presentation you’ll learn about the new default Server Core installation option. Next you’ll see how the new Server manager can perform multi-server management and how you can use it to manage groups of servers. Then you’ll see how the new PowerShell can be used to automate IT administrative tasks. In the second part of this presentation you get a tour of the new virtualization features in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and how to leverage your infrastructure and storage investments for end to end management success.. Here you learn about the new scalability capabilities in Hyper-V as well as the enhanced live migration and live storage migration.. In addition you’ll see how the new Hyper-V Replica feature can provide disaster recovery for Hyper-V VMs.

Speakers

Roberto Mendizabal

Roberto Mendizabal joined EMC in 2001 as a Senior System Engineer in the Business Continuity Practice.
Roberto in his current capacity at EMC as a Global Practice Manager for Microsoft Solutions, continues to collaborate in the global development of Microsoft Application related solutions and provides consulting to key customers.
Roberto attended Johnson and Wales University in Providence Rhode Island.

Michael Otey

Michael Otey is senior technical director for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Pro and author of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 High Availability with Clustering & Database Mirroring (McGraw-Hill).motey@sqlmag.com

 

Windows Server 2012 High Availability, Disaster Recovery and Data Protection

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 at 2:00pm ET/ 11:00am PT

Maximizing availability and protecting your corporate data are quite possibility two of the most important tasks that the IT administrator has. Downtime is expensive both in terms of direct costs as well as in lost opportunities and frustrations for the end users. Even more important than providing high availability is the ability to protect your corporate data and to be able to quickly recover your data in the event of a disaster or site level failure. In this presentation we’ll look at the new features in Windows Server 2012 that are designed to maximize availability and protect your corporate assets from disasters. We’ll dive into the enhancements in Windows Failover Clustering where you’ll learn about the new clustering scalability and availability enhancements. Next, you learn about the enhanced file server and infrastructure availability enhancements that are part of the new SMB 3.0 file sharing protocol and the new DHCP failover features. You’ll learn how you can provide disaster recovery protection for your VMs using the new Hyper-V Replica feature. Finally, you will learn how to extend your infrastructure investments to simplify backup and data protection across your virtualized Microsoft applications and private cloud environments—and confidently address increasing SLA requirements.

Speakers

Sean Deuby

Technical Director – Sean Deuby, Technical Director for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine, has over 25 years’ experience in enterprise IT. He began his IT career running Texas Instruments’ IBM VM systems, then helped design, deploy, and support TI’s first Windows NT 3.5 worldwide infrastructure. He spent 10 years with Intel Corporation, where he was one of the architects of Intel’s corporate Active Directory forest and the design engineer of the directory services team. A longtime Contributing Editor before joining the magazine, Sean has written many articles and a book on Windows Server and Active Directory, and speaks on these topics at conferences around the world. Microsoft has awarded Sean the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) distinction for directory services every year since 2004.

Adrian Simays

Global Microsoft Presales Director
Adrian Simays manages a community of global Microsoft Specialists at EMC, working with customers and partners on designing and deploying EMC technologies with Microsoft. As part of his role, Adrian has a primary focus on leading EMC’s Microsoft virtualization business including the acceleration of EMC’s support, differentiation, integration and Go to Market around Microsoft Virtualization and Mission Critical Applications. Adrian works closely with engineering, sales, customers and with Microsoft establishing and building deep technical relationships and evangelizing technical solutions. Adrian has specialized on data storage and Microsoft technologies for the past 15 years and has presented at several conferences and web seminars.

Brian Walsh

Americas Lead – Microsoft Solutions – EMC Corporation
With over 15 years specializing in Microsoft architecture and design, Bryan Walsh came to EMC as part of its acquisition of Internosis in January, 2006. Over the years, Bryan has served in multiple roles including national competency lead as well as a global resource focusing primarily on the benefits and value of leveraging EMC technologies with the deployment of Microsoft applications.