NetApp Storage Arrays — A Viable Option for Exchange Server Deployments?

By Patrick Cimprich, Chief Solutions Architect
Additional contribution: Jeffrey Chen, Solutions Engineer

As a Microsoft®-focused systems integrator, Avanade designs and implements a wide variety of storage solutions, from file servers to Exchange Server to SQL Server. Our implementations range from simple to extremely complex, driving high transaction rates as well as relying on advanced features and functionality available in the storage platforms.

Most of Avanade’s large messaging installations involve Microsoft Exchange Server and enterprise-class hardware from leading storage vendors. Our customers and consultants have expressed growing interest in the potential use of Network Appliance® (NetApp) storage solutions in these configurations.

In order to provide the best guidance to our customers, Avanade’s infrastructure experts have performed an in-depth laboratory study of NetApp’s products to validate their suitability as storage platforms for Exchange Server deployments. We devised a series of benchmarks based on the typical storage scenarios we see, focusing primarily on Microsoft Exchange Server configurations but also touching on general file-server scenarios.

This white paper describes the tests we performed on NetApp’s mid-range storage array, along with the results and our conclusions. As part of this Exchange Server test suite, we also assessed iSCSI connectivity options for storage transport, and compared blade servers to traditional servers.