Earlier versions of Exchange did not scale well enough, at a low enough cost per mailbox (because of expensive hardware and recovery options) to allow IT administrators the ability to match the ever increasing mailbox sizes of personal e-mail accounts. Exchange 2007 offers dramatic performance and scalability improvements when compared to prior versions of Exchange. Long recovery times have been a significant impediment to the adoption of larger mailbox sizes. The introduction of cluster continuous replication (CCR) offers the ability to rapidly recover from outages at a low cost. These performance and rapid recovery improvements enable IT departments to deploy large mailboxes easily and at a low cost. Increased mailbox sizes improve end-user productivity and satisfaction, reduce IT administrative costs, improve security, and help meet business and regulatory compliance requirements. For more information on the end user and IT benefits that are available by deploying large mailboxes in Exchange 2007, please see the whitepaper, Planning for Large Mailboxes with Exchange 2007.
In order to move forward with various designs like large mailboxes, IT departments need to understand one of the chief costs associated with Exchange mailbox servers, namely storage. To that end, the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Cost Calculator is designed to help you determine a portion of the mailbox server cost, namely the disk cost (purchase price and lifecycle power and cooling costs). The calculator helps in two ways:
1. The calculator takes a series compares a series of storage design configurations and determines their respective costs. The underlying goal here is two-fold:
a. To show that you can achieve the same capacity and I/O requirements utilizing Small Form Factor SAS disks for relatively the same cost as Large Form Factor FC disks.
b. To show that there are other disk solutions (e.g., SATA) that can be viable and reduce the disk footprint cost.
2. In the situation where you are unsure whether you want to deploy Single Copy Clusters (SCC) or Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR), the calculator can compare SCC+SAN disk configurations against CCR+DAS disk configurations from a cost perspective.
Hopefully these measurements will show the value from a cost perspective in considering other disk designs, coupled with large mailboxes and continuous replication.
In order to utilize the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Cost Calculator, you need to understand the solution you are planning to deploy. In particular, you need to know:
In addition, you should also keep in mind that by default this calculator model only focuses on the associated disk costs. For a complete end-to-end cost/mailbox these items will also need to be considered, just to name a few:
When you launch the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Cost Calculator, you are presented with the Input worksheet. This worksheet is broken down into 7 key areas.
Important: The example configuration provided within this calculator is just that, an example, and as such, each input option needs to be evaluated as to how it will affect your design.
The Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Cost Calculator can work hand-in-hand with the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Storage Requirements Calculator. You should first scope out your mailbox server storage design using the Requirements Calculator as its output can be inputted into this calculator.
In this section you are asked to fill in the necessary information about your mailbox server solution:
Solution Information Settings
Value
Number of Mailbox Servers
6
Number of Mailboxes / Server
4000
Large Mailbox Size Deployment (1GB+)
Yes
High Availability Model
CCR
Number of Database Copies / Mailbox Server via Continuous Replication
2
VSS Backup Solution
Snapshot
Number of VSS Clone Copies
1
Third-Party Data Replication Solution
No
VSS Copy Support in Geographically Dispersed SCC
In this section you are asked to determine how you would like the cost analysis performed. You can utilize the default model, which bases the cost analysis on individual component pricing, or you can select to perform the cost analysis based on a complete storage solution cost.
For the first table, you can select as to whether you want to perform the cost analysis per individual component cost by selecting Yes, or you can choose to enter into the second table the entire solution's cost by selecting No.
Storage Solution Cost Settings
Perform Cost Analysis Based on Individual Component Prices
If you selected No in the prior table, then you may enter into this table the storage solution cost per storage configuration. In addition, you can also enter into this section any additional costs (e.g. software licensing costs) you would like included in the cost analysis.
Storage Solution Cost
Additional Costs
Configuration 1
$0.00
Configuration 2
Configuration 3
In this section you are asked to enter in the power and cooling operational costs and how many years you expect this solution to remain in production. For determining your power and cooling costs, please consult your data center management staff.
Category
Power Cost ($/kwh)
$0.12
Cooling Cost ($/kwh)
Production Lifecycle (years)
3
In this section you are asked to enter in the various disk design configurations you wish to analyze from a cost perspective. For comparative analysis, you should enter at least 2 different disk configurations. This data can be obtained from the Requirements Calculator Storage Design worksheet's Storage Design Input Factors - Disk Selection section.
Database Disk Type
Log Disk Type
Restore LUN Disk Type
146GB 10K 2.5" SAS
500GB 7.2K 3.5" SATA
300GB 10K 3.5" FC
In the second table, you are asked to enter in the various disk design configurations you wish to analyze from a cost perspective that will be used as part of the VSS backup infrastructure. Note that if you are performing snapshot copies and storing all the data on the same disks, you can select "-" for the Log Copy Disk Type.
Database Copy Disk Type
Log Copy Disk Type
VSS Backup Solution for Configuration 1
--
VSS Backup Solution for Configuration 2
VSS Backup Solution for Configuration 3
1024GB 7.2K 3.5" SATA
In this section you are asked to enter in the number of disks required for each disk design configuration you wish to analyze. This data can be obtained from the Requirements Calculator Storage Design worksheet's RAID Configurations / Server table (Note: when populating this table, only focus on the primary database copy and ignore the disk requirements for the continuous replication replica of disks).
Number of Database Disks
Number of Log Disks
Number of Restore LUN Disks
125
24
10
60
12
70
8
In the second table, you are asked to enter in the number of disks required for each VSS backup disk design configuration you wish to analyze.
Number of Database Copy Disks
Number of Log Copy Disks
162
0
84
In this section you are asked to enter in the disk cost for each type of disk you entered into Step 4. You can obtain this data from your storage vendor or from whatever purchase vehicle you utilize.
Database Disk Type Cost
Log Disk Type Cost
Restore LUN Disk Type Cost
$298.00
$130.00
$595.00
In the second table, you are asked to enter in the disk cost for each type of disk you entered into the VSS backup disk type table. You can obtain this data from your storage vendor or from whatever purchase vehicle you utilize.
Database Copy Disk Type Cost
Log Copy Disk Type Cost
$275.00
In this section you are asked to enter in the active power consumption for each type of disk you entered into Step 4. You can obtain this data from your storage vendor or from the disk manufacturer's product literature.
Database Disk Active Power Consumption (w)
Log Disk Active Power Consumption (w)
Restore LUN Disk Active Power Consumption (w)
8.0
10.6
18.0
In the second table, you are asked to enter in the active power consumption for each type of disk you entered into the VSS backup disk type table. You can obtain this data from your storage vendor or from the disk manufacturer's product literature.
Database Copy Disk Active Power Consumption (w)
Log Copy Disk Active Power Consumption (w)
11.6
In this section, you can choose to enter in details regarding your storage controllers and storage enclosures. Specifically you can define the total number of enclosures and controllers used in each configuration, the cost per device, and the active power consumption per device.
For the first table, you can select as to whether you want to include the storage enclosure and/or storage controller configuration into the cost analysis.
Storage Configuration Settings
Include Enclosure Configuration in Cost Analysis
Include Controller Configuration in Cost Analysis
For the second table, you can enter in the details of the storage enclosure configuration per storage configuration. Please note that you should enter in the total number of enclosures used in the environment for each configuration.
Enclosure Configuration
Total Number of Enclosures / Environment
Cost / Enclosure
Active Power Consumption / Enclosure
0.0
For the third table, you can enter in the details of the storage controller configuration per storage configuration. Please note that you should enter in the total number of controllers used in the environment for each configuration.
Controller Configuration
Total Number of Controllers / Environment
Cost / Controller
Active Power Consumption / Controller
After entering in the required information on the Input Worksheet, you can access the Storage Costs Results Worksheet.
For each disk configuration entered into the Input Worksheet, the calculator will derive the following information:
This information is then utilized in the results section.
Based on the information provided in the Input Worksheet, the calculator will generate three tables.
The first table displays the capital expenses for each configuration. Specifically, the table outlines the total number of disks required for each disk configuration, the disk (or solution) cost, and the disk (or solution) cost per mailbox.
Capital Expenses
Total Number of Disks
Disk Cost
Disk Cost / Mailbox
Configuration 1 with VSS Backup Solution
2880
$838,080.00
$34.92
Configuration 2 with VSS Backup Solution
1488
$829,560.00
$34.57
Configuration 3 with VSS Backup Solution
1200
$176,880.00
$7.37
The second table displays the operational expenses for each configuration. Specifically, the table outlines the yearly power and cooling costs for the disks (or solution), the production lifecycle power and cooling cost, and the production lifecycle power and cooling cost per mailbox.
Operational Expenses
Yearly Total Power-Cooling Cost
Production Lifecycle Power-Cooling Cost
Production Lifecycle Power-Cooling Cost / Mailbox
$49,095.24
$147,285.73
$6.14
$54,443.75
$163,331.25
$6.81
$27,045.27
$81,135.82
$3.38
The third table displays the total expenses for each configuration. Specifically, the table outlines the total disk (or solution) cost and production lifecycle power and cooling cost and those costs per mailbox. The calculator will also visually show how the costs compare with one another: green indicates the most affordable solution, yellow indicates the second affordable solution, and red indicates the most expensive solution.
Total Expenses
Total Disk & Power-Cooling Cost
Total Disk & Power-Cooling Cost / Mailbox
$985,365.73
$41.06
$992,891.25
$41.37
$258,015.82
$10.75
The Storage Cost Charts worksheet simply takes the data that is provided in the Storage Cost Results section and provides it in a graphical form which can then be used in presentations, or delivered to business decision makers, etc.
This worksheet is designed to help you when you want to understand the differences between deploying in an SCC configuration or a CCR configuration; differences like:
Step 1 - Many of the data points used to perform the SCC and CCR comparison are taken from the Input worksheet:
However the Input worksheet does not include all the data points necessary to make this comparison. Those differences can be entered into this section's table:
Number of SCR Copies
Step 2 - In this section you are asked to determine how you would like the cost analysis performed. You can utilize the default model, which bases the cost analysis on individual component pricing, or you can select to perform the cost analysis based on a complete storage solution cost.
If you selected No in the prior table, then you may enter into this table the storage solution cost for the SCC storage configuration and the CCR storage configuration. In addition, you can also enter into this section any additional costs (e.g. software licensing costs) you would like included in the cost analysis.
SCC Storage Configuration (SAN)
CCR Storage Configuration (DAS)
Step 3 - For this table, you can enter in various pieces of information regarding the Single Copy Cluster environment:
SCC Configuration Settings
Clone
Geographically Dispersed SCC (3rd Party Data Replication)
Step 4 - For this table, you can enter in the desired storage configuration you wish to use in your SCC environment. Select the appropriate disk type and enter in the number of required disk spindles per mailbox server, as well as, the disk cost and the disk power consumption.
SCC Disk Configuration (SAN)
Database
Log
Restore LUN
Disk Type
Number of Disks / Mailbox Server
Disk Cost ($)
Disk Active Power Consumption ($)
Step 5 - For this table, you can enter in the design VSS backup storage configuration you wish to use with your SCC environment. Select the appropriate disk type and enter in the number of required disk spindles per mailbox server, as well as, the disk cost and the disk power consumption. Note that if you are performing snapshot copies and storing all the data on the same disks, you can select "-" for the Log Copy Disk Type.
SCC VSS Backup Configuration (SAN)
Database Copy
Log Copy
Step 6 - For this section, you can choose to enter in details regarding your storage controllers and storage enclosures. Specifically you can define the total number of enclosures and controllers used in each configuration, the cost per device, and the active power consumption per device. For the first table, you can select as to whether you want to include the storage enclosure and/or storage controller configuration into the cost analysis.
For the second table, you can enter in the details of the storage enclosure and storage controller configuration. Please note that you should enter in the total number of devices used in the environment for each configuration.
SCC Storage Configuration
Total Number of Devices / Environment
Cost / Device
Active Power Consumption / Device
Storage Enclosure
Storage Controller
Step 7 - For this table, you can enter in various pieces of information regarding the Cluster Continuous Replication environment:
CCR Configuration Settings
Step 8 - For this table, you can enter in the desired storage configuration you wish to use in your CCR environment. Select the appropriate disk type and enter in the number of required disk spindles per node, as well as, the disk cost and the disk power consumption.
CCR Disk Configuration (DAS)
Number of Disks / Node
Step 9 - For this table, you can enter in the design VSS backup storage configuration you wish to use with your CCR environment. Select the appropriate disk type and enter in the number of required disk spindles per mailbox server, as well as, the disk cost and the disk power consumption. Note that if you are performing snapshot copies and storing all the data on the same disks, you can select "-" for the Log Copy Disk Type.
CCR VSS Backup Configuration (DAS)
Step 10 - For this section, you can choose to enter in details regarding your storage controllers and storage enclosures. Specifically you can define the total number of enclosures and controllers used in each configuration, the cost per device, and the active power consumption per device. For the first table, you can select as to whether you want to include the storage enclosure and/or storage controller configuration into the cost analysis.
CCR Storage Configuration
The first table outlines the total number of disks required for the SCC and CCR configurations, as well as, the number of data copies that exist for each solution. If you enabled VSS clones for your SCC solution, this will be reflected in the total copy count. If you also select to deploy a third-party data replication solution for SCC, this will increase the copy count by one.
Total Number of Data Copies / Server
Types of Data Copies / Server
SCC Configuration (SAN) with VSS Backup Solution
1,356
1 + 2 VSS Clones
CCR Configuration (DAS) with VSS Backup Solution
1,200
2 + Snapshot Copies
The second table displays the capital expenses for the SCC and CCR configurations. Specifically, the table outlines the total number of disks required for each disk configuration, the disk (or solution) cost, and the disk (or solution) cost per mailbox. The calculator will also visually show how the costs compare with one another: green indicates the most affordable solution, yellow indicates the second affordable solution, and red indicates the most expensive solution
1356
$778,920.00
$32.46
The third table displays the operational expenses for the SCC and CCR configurations. Specifically, the table outlines the yearly power and cooling costs for the disks (or solution), the production lifecycle power and cooling cost, and the production lifecycle power and cooling cost per mailbox.
$50,381.91
$151,145.74
$6.30
The fourth table displays the total expenses for the SCC and CCR configurations. Specifically, the table outlines the total disk (or solution) cost and production lifecycle power and cooling cost and those costs per mailbox.
$930,065.74
$38.75
Download: Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server Storage Cost Calculator
Hopefully you will find this calculator invaluable in helping to analyze various disk configuration costs for Exchange 2007 mailbox servers. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email strgcalc@microsoft.com.
Ross Smith IV