Hoster Boosts Performance of Collaboration Software and Greatly Reduces Costs

Microsoft Virtualization: Data Center to Desktop Customer Solution Case Study

Overview “With Hyper-V, we are seeing as good, if not better, Country or Region: United States Industry: Hosting performance than our physical environment, but at significantly reduced costs.” Customer Profile Fpweb.net specializes in hosting Tom Brauch, SharePoint Hosting Pioneer and President, Fpweb.net Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. The Fenton, Missouri– based company serves more than 1 Fpweb.net is one of the world’s first and premier hosting million end users and employs 50 people. providers of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. Business Situation To stay competitive and meet ever-higher customer service Fpweb.net wanted to reduce high server and management costs and gain more demands, Fpweb.net embraced server virtualization as a way to agility and high availability in deploying achieve greater business agility and lower costs. Fpweb.net SharePoint Products and Technologies, without sacrificing performance. deployed the Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter operating system with Hyper-V technology and today runs more than 250 Solution Fpweb.net deployed Windows Server virtual machines on 25 host servers. With Hyper-V virtualization, 2008 R2 Datacenter with Hyper-V and Fpweb.net has achieved unprecedented scalability and improved Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to create a dynamic performance and business agility at greatly reduced costs. Using SharePoint hosting environment. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, the IT

Benefits staff is 30 percent more productive and 60 percent faster in  Reduced hardware costs setting up new customers. Fpweb.net avoided an increase in  Higher staff productivity data center rental fees of U.S.$180,000 a year and a hardware  Increased performance  Increased availability cost avoidance of $378,000. “With VMware, we would Situation machines would diminish our revenue Fpweb.net was the first company in the growth.” face an up-front world to offer hosted Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies back in 1999. In early 2008, Fpweb.net deployed a low- licensing cost of Today, Fpweb.net provides more than 1 cost version of VMware virtualization $100,800, which would million users access to their SharePoint software to test the concept of data center sites. Fpweb.net has about 5,000 enterprise virtualization. While the company was force us to increase our customers that include the New York indeed able to achieve impressive server Yankees, Dow Chemical, and the U.S. Air consolidation ratios, VMware provided no pricing. By comparison, Force. FPweb.net also hosts Microsoft centralized management tools for when we licensed Exchange Server and Microsoft Dynamics managing a mixed physical and virtual CRM solutions. Fpweb.net is based in environment. “We wanted to virtualize up Windows Server 2008 Fenton, Missouri, and employs 50 people. to 99 percent of our data centers, so it was important to proceed with a vendor that we Enterprise, Hyper-V was To succeed in the competitive hosting felt could be a long-term partner, and a included for free.” business, Fpweb.net has to provide the solution that worked well with our latest technologies and outstanding infrastructure to deliver maximum benefits Steve Laux, IT Director, Fpweb.net customer service. “Most customers want over time,” says Brauch. their solutions up and running yesterday,” says Tom Brauch, SharePoint Hosting Solution Pioneer and President of Fpweb.net. Fpweb.net decided to expand with Microsoft software, specifically, the As the company’s business grew, so did its Windows Server 2008 operating system data centers. Fpweb.net provided agile with Hyper-V virtualization technology. “We response to customers by stockpiling reasoned that a solution built on Windows servers so that it could quickly meet Server would be the best solution to customer demands, which increased virtualize Microsoft workloads,” says Steve inventory costs. High data center costs Laux, IT Director for Fpweb.net. In addition, eventually threatened to swamp the the FPweb.net IT staff was more familiar company’s bottom line and hurt its ability with Windows technologies, obviating the to provide great customer service. “Our big need to recruit a server administration staff costs are our data centers, our servers, and able to administer a VMware solution. “We our staff,” Brauch says. “Managing a had been watching the Microsoft growing number of physical servers takes virtualization product mature,” Laux says. time and requires more labor. For “With the release of Hyper-V, we had customers, this translates into slower access to all the virtualization technologies service and increased fees. For us, it we needed, built to interoperate with the translates into a reduced competitive edge solutions we host.” and a lower profit margin. We faced an impending data center expansion to Hyper-V also offered a far more cost- accommodate servers for new clients, yet effective virtualization solution. paying for more space and more physical “Virtualization was intended to reduce costs, which we could pass onto customers data center, we will migrate our VMware virtual machines to the Hyper-V environment and retire the VMware solution completely.”

Today, the company’s Hyper-V environment consists of 35 Dell PowerEdge R610 host servers running a total of 250 virtual machines (about seven virtual machines on each host). Each Dell PowerEdge R610 has two quad-core Intel Xeon 5540 processors and up to 96 gigabytes (GB) of RAM. One Hyper-V host server is deployed in the company’s IT lab and used to test software for customized customer solutions.

Fpweb.net uses Dell PowerEdge 1950 and Dell PowerEdge R610 servers as front-end Web query servers. It has two Microsoft Figure 1. Fpweb.net has moved its most Office SharePoint Server logical unit demanding Microsoft Office numbers (LUNs) provisioned on a NetApp as reduced fees,” Laux says. “With VMware, SharePoint Server workloads to a storage area network (SAN). These are we would face an up-front licensing cost of virtual environment using Windows Cluster Shared Volumes that allow for $100,800, which would force us to increase Server 2008 with Hyper-V highly available virtual machines in the our pricing. By comparison, when we technology. Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V licensed Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, environments. Figure 1 shows a 360-GB Hyper-V was included for free.” volume for the WFE Hyper-V cluster. The MOSS_LUN1 within that volume is 300 GB, which is consumed by the virtual machines. The remaining 20 percent (60 GB) is for Effective Implementation growth. In late 2008, Fpweb.net deployed Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Hyper-V. MOSS_LUN2 is the LUN allocated for the Initially, the IT staff focused on virtualizing back-end Hyper-V cluster and is 240 GB. its aging Windows SharePoint Services– The 200-GB LUN within that volume is based Web servers. “We started with 35 consumed by the virtual machines. The Web servers, utilizing a cookie-cutter remaining 20 percent (40 GB) is for growth. approach, because every time a client orders a SharePoint solution, they need a “Every one of our Hyper-V hosts runs Web front end,” Laux says. “These servers Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 on don’t consume a lot of input/output or take at least one virtual machine,” Laux says. much processing power. Once we finish “However, they run Exchange Server and moving end-of-life hardware out of the “We can easily ratchet other applications, too. We want to abstract server license, so Fpweb.net can scale its our virtualized environment so that virtual virtualized infrastructure without hitting up performance by machines are not tied to particular physical cost boundaries. Because Windows Server servers. That said, we wouldn’t put 2008 R2 with Hyper-V also supports 64 assigning more CPU production and failover virtual machines on cores on a physical server, Fpweb.net gains horsepower to a specific the same host.” greater consolidation density. Using the Live Migration feature in Windows Server virtual machine or scale For about 95 percent of customers, the 2008 R2, the IT staff can transparently move SharePoint deployment hosted by running virtual machines from one node of up by provisioning Fpweb.net is a production (rather than the failover cluster to another node in the additional virtual development or test) application. Smaller same cluster. customer deployments share Microsoft SQL machines for any Server database server services on a Fpweb.net also deployed Microsoft System physical cluster; for larger customers, Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SharePoint tier.” Fpweb.net deploys a dedicated SQL Server and Microsoft System Center Operations Steve Laux, IT Director, Fpweb.net database running on a virtual machine. The Manager 2007 to better monitor and remaining SharePoint site roles—Web manage its mixed physical and virtual data server, query, application, and index—are centers. “We are using System Center all virtualized. Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to provision virtual servers quickly by building When the IT staff deploys Windows Server a library of templates that contain all the 2008 R2 Datacenter servers into specs,” Laux says. “We hope to automate production, it takes advantage of built-in this process even more using Windows tools and technologies designed to simplify PowerShell view script controls, to failover clustering, such as the Cluster configure a server as much as we can in Validation tool and one-step cluster preparation for loading SharePoint installation. Administrators also benefit technologies for a customer.” The company from the interoperation of Window Server uses System Center Operations Manager to 2008 R2 and System Center Virtual Machine monitor the performance of physical and Manager 2008 to simplify server virtual servers and to dynamically tune the management. “We are looking forward to performance of virtual machines. using the Failover Cluster Management Console in System Center Virtual Machine Fpweb.net allocates two logical processors Manager 2008 to streamline cluster-related for each virtual machine, although one CPU tasks such as designation and management per virtual machine is generally sufficient of cluster reserves, letterless disk drives, for Web and index servers. “We use System and guest clusters,” says Laux. Center Virtual Machine Manager to allocate processor speed for virtual machines as Dynamic Scalability applications need it,” Brauch says. ”In the In early 2009, Fpweb.net upgraded to last two months, we have architected Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter. The SharePoint solutions that are crawling Datacenter edition provides unlimited terabytes of data with thousands of users, virtual-machine licensing in each host- and we’re able to dynamically pump in “Already we have more processing power as needed. All the I was unable to tell when the virtual customer knows is that performance is machine changed hosts. Very impressive!” consolidated enough amazing.” On one four-node cluster, Fpweb.net runs servers that we can Laux adds, “Customers often don’t know large Office SharePoint Server and postpone plans to what their SharePoint adoption rate will be Exchange Server packages for customers, so they start out small. We can easily with excess capacity designed in to ensure expand our data center, ratchet up performance by assigning more that applications will continue to run even if CPU horsepower to a specific virtual a host server fails. For smaller customers on eliminating rental fee machine or scale out by provisioning less expensive hosting plans, without increases of $180,000 a additional virtual machines for any dedicated Microsoft SQL Server and Web SharePoint tier. For example, we might add front ends, Fpweb.net has created a large year.” another 4 GB of RAM to the front-end SQL Server cluster, running multiple server. With Hyper-V and System Center instances of SQL Server 2008, which acts as Tom Brauch, SharePoint Hosting Pioneer and President, Fpweb.net Virtual Machine Manager 2008, we have a shared back-end for SharePoint solutions. unbelievable flexibility.” “We virtualize the front-end role, and if a customer needs additional front ends, we Of course, Fpweb.net could also increase fire up another virtual machine and use the number of host servers as well as virtual Network Load Balancing in Windows Server machines to boost performance. However, to balance them,” Laux says. “We keep the “We’ve never run into an instance where we SQL Server tier on a physical server and had to add more physical servers because virtualize the query and front-end roles.” the virtual machines couldn’t take it,” Laux says. “We virtualize everything. Only on an For larger customers or those with their exception basis, where a customer might own on-premises SQL Server databases for present us with extreme scalability reporting, Fpweb.net has created a demands, do we add more physical dedicated SQL Server host server with servers.” multiple virtual machines, which run isolated database servers for different High Availability customers. Fpweb.net can allocate CPU and Fpweb.net has taken advantage of the memory resources to each virtual machine clustering capabilities of Windows Server as needed. 2008 R2 Datacenter to create several clusters. Using Live Migration, the staff can Benefits dynamically move live virtual machines Fpweb.net feels that with Windows Server from node to node without interrupting 2008 R2 Datacenter and Hyper-V, it has the application operation. “In a pilot, we best possible environment for hosting migrated a Web server from one node to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in another,” Laux says. “I opened a window a virtualized environment. The company and pinged while watching the workload has reduced operating costs, improved move. All connections to the Web server performance, and gained new flexibility in continued on with the loss of just one ping. delivering hosted SharePoint solutions. “Even without increasing Reduced Hardware Costs Recouping time for our engineers to do By virtualizing SharePoint workloads with what they do best and optimize our their server Hyper-V and managing them with System customers’ solutions is an immeasurable Center software, Fpweb.net has reduced benefit.” specifications, both hardware outlays and IT staff costs. performance improved “Already we have consolidated enough In the lab, Fpweb.net is using Hyper-V and servers that we can postpone plans to System Center Virtual Machine Manager by moving workloads to expand our data centers, eliminating rental 2008 to quickly provision test environments fee increases of $180,000 a year,” Brauch when developing customized solutions for virtual machines.” says. “The cost of cooling and power has customers. Developers can also use the Steve Laux, IT Director, Fpweb.net gone down by several percentage points, Microsoft virtualization software in the lab and this expense will just keep decreasing to efficiently evaluate new solutions and as we continue to virtualize more servers.” bring them to market before other hosting providers. The company also achieved hardware cost savings of U.S.$87,000 by retiring 35 aging Increased Performance Web servers, and another $291,000 by When Fpweb.net migrated customer virtualizing 115 other servers. As it begins workloads from physical servers to virtual to roll out highly-available failover clusters, machines, it configured the virtual Fpweb.net expects to further reduce machines to match the processing power of hardware by 30 percent, generating the physical servers that customers additional savings of approximately previously had. “Even without increasing $400,000. their server specifications, performance improved by moving workloads to virtual Higher Staff Productivity machines,” Laux says. The IT staff is also more productive in setting up and managing virtual machines “The best performance metric we have is instead of physical servers. “Thanks to user feedback,” Brauch adds. “Many System Center Virtual Machine Manager, customers have commented on significant our IT staff is 30 percent more productive performance improvements. Some in managing the data center, and server customers were apprehensive about provisioning is eight times faster,” Brauch moving their SharePoint sites to virtual says. “We can provision Web and database machines, but once we made the move, servers as virtual machines in about 30 they were favorably impressed. With minutes versus the four hours it took Hyper-V, we are seeing as good, if not before. In hosting, the biggest obstacle to better, performance than our physical customer service is time: customers want us environment, but at significantly reduced to stand up their solutions and perform costs.” migrations, upgrades, and other services Fpweb.net also has found that customers right away. Using Hyper-V and System are willing to double their hosting Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to environment and add more virtual-machine automate server management, we can hit resources because it’s so easy and cost- the ground running and wow customers. effective to do so. “It is easier to scale out For More Information with virtualization and improve Microsoft Virtualization For more information about Microsoft performance,” Laux says. “It’s also easy to Microsoft virtualization is an end-to-end products and services, call the Microsoft add and adjust virtual resources. We no strategy that can profoundly affect nearly Sales Information Center at (800) 426- longer have to bill a customer for two days every aspect of the IT infrastructure 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft of work for such changes; we can charge management lifecycle. It can drive greater Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- them for 30 minutes.” efficiencies, flexibility, and cost 2495. Customers in the United States and effectiveness throughout your organization. Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing Increased Availability From accelerating application deployments; can reach Microsoft text telephone Fpweb.net can also more easily meet the to ensuring systems, applications, and data (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. high availability requirements for are always available; to taking the hassle Outside the 50 United States and enterprise-level, mission-critical SharePoint out of rebuilding and shutting down Canada, please contact your local deployments using Hyper-V. “We are servers and desktops for testing and Microsoft subsidiary. To access excited to use Hyper-V to rapidly deploy a development; to reducing risk, slashing information using the World Wide Web, load-balanced and clustered SharePoint costs, and improving the agility of your go to: infrastructure for less money and in less entire environment—virtualization has the www.microsoft.com time than we could before,” Brauch says. power to transform your infrastructure, “For disaster recovery purposes, SharePoint from the data center to the desktop. For more information about Fpweb.net virtual machines don’t get any better. You products and services, call (866) 780- can back them up to media for off-server or For more information about Microsoft 4678 or visit the Web site at: out-of-data-center storage. You can even virtualization solutions, go to: www.fpweb.net replicate to your other data center hot site. www.microsoft.com/virtualization It’s a beautiful thing.”

Software and Services Hardware  Microsoft Server Product Portfolio  Dell PowerEdge R610 servers with two − Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter four-core Intel Xeon 5540 processors − Microsoft System Center Virtual and up to 96 gigabytes of RAM Machine Manager 2008 R2 − Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 − Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007  Technologies − Hyper-V This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published April 2010