Running Exchange Production Servers in Microsoft Azure.Introduction. Back on February, 1st 2.Microsoft announced the general availability of the Windows Azure Platform in 2.Since then the Windows Azure cloud journey has continued at a rapid pace.As those of you following the official Windows Azure team blog already know, Microsoft is constantly improving the service by introducing new features, flexibility and support while at the same time reducing the prices for compute power making the service even more attractive compared to the competitors in this space.At least for specific scenarios as we will talk about later.Exchange Servers in Microsoft Azure Iaa.Advertisements on this site do not constitute a guarantee or endorsement by the journal, Association, or publisher of the quality or value of such product or of the.IBMPCD/help/IBMPcdGuiManual_files/0228359001478767216_wsp-ibm%20pcd%20gui%20user%20manual_html_4a4743c8.png' alt='Microsoft Access Yes No Not Applicable Image' title='Microsoft Access Yes No Not Applicable Image' />S The Past.Microsoft Azure delivers a 9.SLA and can be used for many different purposes and scenarios.From the What is Windows Azure site Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft managed datacenters.You can build applications using any language, tool or framework.And you can integrate your public cloud applications with your existing IT environment.While the Microsoft Azure platform is truly production ready for most servers, applications and products see this KB article for Microsoft servers and roles that currently are supported, there are certain products that were not supported on Microsoft Azure Iaa.S based virtual machines from the beginning.One of them was Exchange Server.So while it is supported to run Exchange Servers on Hyper V and Server Virtualization Validation Program SVVP validated products such as VMware, this did not apply to virtual machines running in Microsoft Azure Iaa.S. At the same time competitors to Microsoft Azure such as Amazon allow customers to run Exchange production servers in their AWS environment despite AWS is not SVVP validated.The reason for being able to do this is that the SVVP validation is not applicable to SPLA providers.When it comes to support, support for SPLA customers is provided under the SPLA agreement by AWS.And as Amazon explains, they are fully committed to supporting their customers running Microsoft workloads including Exchange Server on AWS.Note In the above, you see me use both Windows Azure and Microsoft Azure.These refer to the same thing.Originally Azure was named Windows Azure but was rebranded to Microsoft Azure back on April, 3rd 2.It All Started with Exchange 2.DAG Witness Server Support.Although Exchange Server was unsupported in Microsoft Azure, the intention was of course to change this support stance once the necessary things had been validated and Microsoft Azure was capable of providing the proper virtual machines instances and storage.Back on January 9th, 2.Microsoft Azure virtual machine as an Exchange 2.Database Availability Group DAG witness server.The idea behind this was to help customers with their automatic datacenter failover Exchange 2.DAGs only have two physical sites deployed today.By enabling the use of Microsoft Azure as a third physical site, this would provide many customers with a cost effective method for improving the overall availability and resiliency of their Exchange deployment.Figure 1 Hosting Exchange 2.Database Availability Group DAG witness server in Microsoft Azure Image courtesy of Microsoft and taken from Tech.NetAlthough it sounds simple, theres of course more to it than just deploying the DAG Witness Server in Microsoft Azure.Since the idea is to introduce a third site, it also involves deploying a Domain Controller and creating a Microsoft Azure Virtual network as well as configuring a multi site VPN.This is all explained in detail on Microsoft Tech.Net. As you can see, its not a simple task unless you already utilizing Microsoft Azure and have a multi site VPN created for other purposes.Then Came Support for Running Exchange 2.Microsoft Azure. But it wasnt until back at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in May 2.At this conference Jeff Mealiffe Principal Program Manager on the Office 3.Exchange 2. 01. 3 servers as virtual machines in Microsoft Azure.Note Jeff Mealiffe actually did a complete session on concerns, tradeoffs, and best practices of running Exchange in an Iaa.S environment. Not specific to Microsoft Azure but Iaa.S in general. You can watch the session here.So since May 2. 01.Exchange 2. 01. 3 and later on a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure and third party Iaa.S environments. From the Exchange 2.Tech. Net documentation Deployment of Exchange 2.Infrastructure as a Service Iaa.S providers is supported if all supportability requirements are met.In the case of providers who are provisioning virtual machines, these requirements include ensuring that the hypervisor being used for Exchange virtual machines is fully supported, and that the infrastructure to be utilized by Exchange meets the performance requirements that were determined during the sizing process.Deployment on Microsoft Azure virtual machines is supported if all storage volumes used for Exchange databases and database transaction logs including transport databases are configured for Azure Premium Storage.As you can see, the Exchange Server must use Microsoft Azure Premium storage for Exchange databases and database transaction logs including transport databases.Digging Deeper into the Storage Requirements.Microsoft Azure Premium Storage is specifically designed for Azure Virtual Machine workloads requiring consistent high performance and low latency.This makes them highly suitable for IO sensitive such as Exchange 2.Although the IO requirements for Exchange has been drastically reduced from version to version, its still sensitive in that the IO requirements calculated for the anticipated workload must be guaranteed by the underlying storagedisks.Premium Storage stores data on the latest technology Solid State Drives SSDs whereas Standard Storage stores data on Hard Disk Drives HDDs.As most of us know, in the on premises world, when you design the storage for Exchange 2.Enterprise SATA Disks in a JBOD model to keeps costs down.So to me, the requirement of using SSD based storage seems a little aggressive.My take is, it has to do with the Standard Storage disks which cannot guarantee the required IOPS at all times as dedicated SATA disks attached to on premises Exchange 2.However, thats just my own theory as I havent been involved in the storage validation for Exchange 2.Microsoft Azure Iaa.S. Note More information about Microsoft Azure Premium storage can be found here.In order to use Microsoft Azure Premium Storage, it is currently required to use the DS series virtual machines, which are special VMs that enhance the performance of Premium Storage disks further.Below you can see the current prices for the respective DS VMs in US dollars.Yes they are expensive Figure 2 Prices for the respective DS Virtual Machines available in Microsoft Azure.Does it Make Sense from a Scenario and Cost PerspectiveScenario 1 Hosting Your Exchange Solution in Microsoft Azure Iaa.SSo the idea of running all your Exchange servers in Microsoft Azure Iaa.S does not make any sense for small organizations with few mailboxes nor large organizations with many thousands of mailboxes.There are several reasons behind my conclusion You would need to extend your on premises network infrastructure into a Microsoft Azure virtual network and configure a site to site VPN between the virtual network in Microsoft Azure and your on premises network infrastructure.Unless you have already done this for other purposes, it is a project that will add additional complexity to your overall infrastructure just for the reason of hosting your Exchange servers in Microsoft Azure Iaa.S. When you host your Exchange servers in Microsoft Azure Iaa.S, you must also deploy a number of Domain Controllers as Exchange requires Domain Controllers to be located in the same sitephysical location in order to deliver the best performance and to be supported.Rule of thumb is a 1 8 CPU ratio between Domain Controller and the Mailbox Server role.So for 8 Mailbox server v. South Park Espanol Latino Torrent . CPUs, 1 Domain Controller v.CPUs. Since only Microsoft Azure Premium Storage is supported, you need to use virtual machines from the DS series.Both the Premium Storage and the DS VMs have a very heavy price tag associated with them.
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