VMware Sets Capacity Record Running Microsoft Exchange on IBM System x3850 M2 Servers

VMware Sets Capacity Record Running Microsoft Exchange on IBM System x3850 M2
Servers
Microsoft Exchange Virtualized by VMware More than Doubles Native Capacity of
Mailboxes Running on 16-core Physical Servers

CANNES, France, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW)
the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the
datacenter, has set a record in system capacity and resource utilization for
running Microsoft Exchange. VMware deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on
VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and successfully supported 16,000 heavy-user*
Exchange mailboxes on a single 16-way multi-core IBM System x3850 M2 server.
Running Microsoft Exchange on VMware software increased by more than 100% the
number of supportable Exchange users as compared to Microsoft Exchange's
prescribed recommendations for running natively in a non-virtualized
environment.** VMware virtualization software enables enterprises to take full
advantage of multi-core hardware servers to run the most demanding enterprise
applications much more efficiently.
VMware software allows enterprise applications to overcome scalability
limitations associated with non-virtualized environments. Microsoft Exchange
Server 2007 is one of the most widely-used messaging applications deployed in
production datacenters worldwide. Historically, however, the design of
operating systems and applications has imposed limits on the number of
recommended CPUs and memory per physical server. As a result, under-utilized
physical servers have proliferated in today's datacenters, which are costly to
manage, maintain, power, and cool.
By running VMware software on powerful multi-core servers, customers can
consolidate larger workloads on fewer physical servers -- while at the same
time actually improve capacity. As a result, customers reduce the capital
expenses of hardware maintenance, and the environmental impact of unnecessary
power consumption. Customers can also benefit from VMware management tools,
which enable solutions never possible before virtualization, including moving
workloads from one physical server to another without interruption, automating
resource scheduling, and ensuring high availability.
VMware benefits are not just being demonstrated in labs, they're being
realized by organizations in production environments using a variety of server
platforms. For example, Adrian Jane, Infrastructure & Operations Manager at
The University of Plymouth, who is responsible for running approximately
50,000 Microsoft Exchange mailboxes across four virtual machines running
VMware Infrastructure 3, said, "Our entire Microsoft Exchange deployment is
virtualized on VMware Infrastructure 3, and we are extremely pleased with the
performance we've seen. Furthermore, VMware also provides us with a high
availability solution that has advantages over traditional clustering options.
When it comes to managing production applications, VMware is a strategy, not
just a product."
At the inaugural VMworld Europe user conference here in Cannes, VMware
President and CEO Diane Greene said to a keynote audience of over 4,500,
"Today's results published on our website support what our customers have been
telling us from day one -- Microsoft applications run best on VMware.
Multi-core hardware advancements complement VMware virtualization software,
and vice versa. Customers are able to 'refresh' their datacenters with more
powerful hardware, and they can continue to reduce their space, power and
manageability requirements."
Testing Methodology
The demonstration included Microsoft Exchange 2007, running on VMware ESX
Server 3.5 on an IBM System x3850 M2 physical server, which features four of
the four-core Intel Xeon 7350 processors on the Caneland platform. The test
followed Microsoft's guidelines for configuring Exchange (see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123895(EXCHG.80).aspx ) which
recommends 1000 mailboxes per core and a maximum of 32G of memory per
operating system instance. Using VMware's software, the test lab created and
ran multiple installations of these "recommended configurations" within
virtual machines. Further details of the testing methodology and results can
be found here: http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/.
For customers and partners interested in learning more about deploying
Exchange on VMware please visit:
http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/exchange_solution.html
About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from
the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to
reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen
security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000
customers and more than 10,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing
public software companies. VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California
and on the web at http://www.vmware.com.
* The test utilized a "heavy user" with each mailbox sized to 250MB, and
500GB of exchange data per virtual machine.
** This data is based on tests conducted by VMware using Microsoft's
Exchange 2007 Load Generator (LoadGen) tool and recommended methodology. These
tests demonstrate the ability to drive greater CPU and memory capacity by
running Exchange 2007 in virtual machines on VMware Infrastructure 3 than on
the native system, while still respecting Microsoft's recommended
configuration maximums and 1,000 mailboxes per core guidance.
VMware is a registered 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.
Contact:
Greg Eden
VMware Public Relations
eden@vmware.com
650-427-1095

Andrew Schmitt
OutCast Communications for VMware
andrew@outcastpr.com
415-392-8282 ext 706

SOURCE VMware, Inc.

Greg Eden of VMware Public Relations, +1-650-427-1095; or Andrew Schmitt of
OutCast Communications, +1-415-392-8282 ext 706, andrew@outcastpr.com, for
VMware, Inc.