Where is the problem? HBA? Host cache? Queue Depth? Execution Throttle?
Dear MS-Exchange Expert, I have found the Dell ESRP running Windows 2008 x64 and Exchange 2007 SP1. DELL ESRP was made with 1GB mbx, 1iops/mbx, 5,000 users.
I am assisting on a situation where a customer is setting up from scratch (no migration) something similar: - 7,000 users, - single Tier 250MB/mbx, - 0.21 iops/mbx, - HBA Q-Logic 4Gbits QMH2462, - Queue Depth 256, - Execution Throttle 65,000.
It seems Windows 2008 x64 server NTIO code can not push I/Os hard enough when we use the Q-Logic 4Gbits HBA and/or if Execution Throttle is anything less of 65,000. Emails start to be delayed (huge latency "somewhere") when we are at 1,200 mbx. It seems to work a lot better with Emulex... Dell is using a HBA I never ear of. PERC 6/E (RAID controller) Firmware 6.1.1-0047. See doc at that URL: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/5000_mailbox_md1120_esrp.pdf They seem to make an important point to have ESE.dll file version 8.1.240.5
We use Q-Logic QMH2462 and can not recommend Emulex. Costly change. Q-Logic specs are at QLOGIC QMH 2462_datasheet.pdf
Questions: 1. Can you tell me x64 needs a special HBA handshake to push as many IO through? 2. Could this mean Q-Logic firwamre for Windows 2008 x64 does not exist yet? 3. Why do we havce to set Execution Throttle so high? 4. Do you know of any config running Windows 2008 x64 and Exchange 2007 SP1 and 7,000 users?
Thank you. JL DiDomenico. Email: j.didomenico@hds.com Tel: +33-6.12.46.07.18
Software/Hardware used:
Windows 2008 x64 Exchange 2007 SP1 Q-Logic QMH2462
I am assisting on a situation where a customer is setting up from scratch (no migration) something similar: - 7,000 users, - single Tier 250MB/mbx, - 0.21 iops/mbx, - HBA Q-Logic 4Gbits QMH2462, - Queue Depth 256, - Execution Throttle 65,000.
It seems Windows 2008 x64 server NTIO code can not push I/Os hard enough when we use the Q-Logic 4Gbits HBA and/or if Execution Throttle is anything less of 65,000. Emails start to be delayed (huge latency "somewhere") when we are at 1,200 mbx. It seems to work a lot better with Emulex... Dell is using a HBA I never ear of. PERC 6/E (RAID controller) Firmware 6.1.1-0047. See doc at that URL: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/5000_mailbox_md1120_esrp.pdf They seem to make an important point to have ESE.dll file version 8.1.240.5
We use Q-Logic QMH2462 and can not recommend Emulex. Costly change. Q-Logic specs are at QLOGIC QMH 2462_datasheet.pdf
Questions: 1. Can you tell me x64 needs a special HBA handshake to push as many IO through? 2. Could this mean Q-Logic firwamre for Windows 2008 x64 does not exist yet? 3. Why do we havce to set Execution Throttle so high? 4. Do you know of any config running Windows 2008 x64 and Exchange 2007 SP1 and 7,000 users?
Thank you. JL DiDomenico. Email: j.didomenico@hds.com Tel: +33-6.12.46.07.18
Software/Hardware used:
Windows 2008 x64 Exchange 2007 SP1 Q-Logic QMH2462
ASKED:
January 15, 2010 2:08 PM
UPDATED:
January 19, 2010 11:26 AM
Answer Wiki:
How many physical servers in your Exchange farm and have you run any perfmon?
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.
Thank you for responding Hater.
We have only 1 Exchange-2K7 in a cluster, Active-Passive.
We are running TMEA, which is an HDS tool that collect, continuously, PerfMon data, aggreg them in a MS-SQL analyzer server, and we can graphs many many graphs as well as making ScoreCards. In Dell testing they say they used ESE.dll file version 8.1.240.5.
I do not know the version at that customer. Is this something I need to check for the most recent version for QMH2462 in a W2K8-x64 and Exchange 2K7-SP1? Because it seems the host is “reluctant” to push I/Os… only when we set Execution Throttle to 65,000!!! Weird.
I understand you mention Emulex working better in your case than QLogic, but what is the disk configuration like?
Do you have a value from perfmon for parameters like:
Logical/Physical Disk: Avg. Disk sec/Transfer
Logical/Physical Disk: Avg. Disk Queue Length
Per haps you have a disk bottleneck that not even the Emulex card can resolve…