Virtualizing Microsoft Skype for Business Server on VMware vSphere® Skype for Business 2015 / vSphere 6.0 BEST PRACTICES GUIDE Virtualizing Microsoft Skype for Business Server on VMware vSphere Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Target Audience .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Scope ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 External References .................................................................................................................... 5 2. ESXi Host Best Practices for Skype for Business Server 2015 ........................................................... 6 2.1 CPU Configuration Guidelines ..................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Physical and Virtual CPUs ...................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Skype for Business Server 2015 Capacity Sizing Guidelines ................................................. 6 2.1.3 VMware vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing ............................................................. 7 2.1.4 CPU Reservations ................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.5 Virtual Cores and Virtual Sockets............................................................................................ 8 2.1.5.1. Skype for Business Roles and Certain Microsoft SQL Server Editions Limitations: .......... 9 2.1.6 Hyper-Threading.................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.7 Non-Uniform Memory Access ............................................................................................... 11 2.1.8 Virtual NUMA ......................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.9 vNUMA, vSphere vMotion and Dissimilar ESXi Hosts in a vSphere Cluster ........................ 12 2.1.10 vNUMA and CPU Hot Plug ............................................................................................... 13 2.2 Memory Configuration Guidelines ............................................................................................. 13 2.2.1 ESXi Memory Management Concepts .................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Virtual Machine Memory Concepts ....................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Allocating Memory to Skype for Business Server 2015 Virtual Machines ............................ 14 2.2.4 Memory Hot Add, Oversubscription, and Dynamic Memory ................................................. 16 2.3 Storage Virtualization ................................................................................................................. 17 2.3.1 Raw Device Mapping ............................................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 In-Guest iSCSI and Network-Attached Storage .................................................................... 21 2.3.3 Virtual SCSI Adapters ........................................................................................................... 21 2.3.4 Virtual SCSI Queue Depth .................................................................................................... 22 2.3.5 Skype for Business Server 2015 on All-Flash Storage Array ............................................... 23 2.4 Networking Configuration Guidelines ........................................................................................ 24 2.4.1 Virtual Networking Concepts ................................................................................................. 24 2.4.2 Virtual Networking Best Practices ......................................................................................... 26 2.4.3 Sample Skype for Business Server 2015 Virtual Network Configuration.............................. 27 2.5 Power Management ................................................................................................................... 28 2.5.1 Server Hardware BIOS Settings ............................................................................................ 29 2.5.2 ESXi Host Power Settings ..................................................................................................... 30 VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com Copyright © VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. BEST PRACTICES GUIDE / P A G E 1 O F 5 6 Virtualizing Microsoft Skype for Business Server on VMware vSphere 2.5.3 Windows Guest Power Settings ............................................................................................ 31 3. Using vSphere Technologies with Skype for Business Server 2015 ................................................. 33 3.1 Overview of vSphere Technologies ........................................................................................... 33 3.1.1 vSphere HA ........................................................................................................................... 33 3.1.2 vSphere vMotion.................................................................................................................... 34 3.1.3 DRS ....................................................................................................................................... 34 3.2 vSphere High Availability ........................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 Admission Control ................................................................................................................. 35 3.2.2 Virtual Machine Monitoring .................................................................................................... 36 3.2.3 Using vSphere HA with Skype for Business Pools ............................................................... 36 3.3 vSphere vMotion and Skype for Business ................................................................................. 38 3.3.1 vSphere vMotion Failure Scenarios ...................................................................................... 38 3.3.2 Optimizing vSphere vMotion Operations for Skype for Business ......................................... 39 3.4 vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler ................................................................................. 40 3.4.1 Enable DRS in Partially Automated Mode ............................................................................ 40 3.4.2 Use Anti-Affinity Rules for Skype for Business Server 2015 Virtual Machines ..................... 42 3.4.3 DRS Groups and Group-Based Rules .................................................................................. 43 3.4.4 DRS Anti-Affinity Rules ......................................................................................................... 45 4. Skype for Business Performance on vSphere.................................................................................... 47 4.1 Key Performance Considerations .............................................................................................. 47 4.2 Key Health Indicators ................................................................................................................. 48 4.2.1 System KHIs .......................................................................................................................... 49 4.3 Performance Testing ................................................................................................................. 49 5. Summary of VMware Recommended Settings for a Virtualized Skype for Business Infrastructure .. 50 Notes ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com Copyright © VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. BEST PRACTICES GUIDE / P A G E 2 O F 5 6 Virtualizing Microsoft Skype for Business Server on VMware vSphere List of Figures Figure 1. New Virtual Machine CPU Configuration