Specifications

A Principled Technologies test report 14
Hardware upgrades to improve database, SharePoint, Exchange, and
file server performance with the Intel processor-powered Dell
PowerEdge T630
2. Use Hyper-V Manager to create the appropriate number of virtual machines. We assigned 2 vCPUs and 16 GB of
memory to the SharePoint and file server VMs, and 4 vCPUs and 24GB of memory to the Exchange and SQL
Server VMs. Give the OS VHD 40 GB, and place it on the OS HDDs.
3. Create the appropriate volumes for each VM as indicated below
Exchange Server 2010
- Exchange Data – 150GB
- Exchange Log – 10GB
SQL Server 2012
- SQL Data – 50GB
- SQL Log – 30GB
SQL Server 2012 instance for SharePoint Server 2010
- SharePoint Data – 200GB
File Server
- Iometer Data – 110GB
4. Create a virtual switch connected to the client network, and attach it to the VM.
5. Attach the OS installation media to the VM, and install the guest OS.
We then configured each solution to run applications in VMs (SQL Server, Exchange Server, file server, and
SharePoint Server). For our benchmark test clients and domain controller, we configured virtual machines on a separate
Dell PowerEdge R910 server, ensuring that each virtual machine had ample hardware resources. For each solution, we
had a single domain controller VM, and up to five DVD store client VMs, a WSSDW client VM, a file server client, and five
LoadGen client VMs distributing the user workload evenly.
Installing the operating system on the application VMs
1. Insert the installation DVD for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise into the DVD drive.
2. At the Language Selection Screen, click Next.
3. Click Install Now.
4. Select Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (Full Installation), and click Next.
5. Click the I accept the license terms checkbox, and click Next.
6. Click Custom.
7. Click Next.
8. At the User’s password must be changed before logging on warning screen, click OK.
9. Enter the desired password for the administrator in both fields, and click the arrow to continue.
10. At the Your password has been changed screen, click OK.
11. Connect the machine to the Internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
12. Enable remote desktop access.
13. Change the hostname and reboot when prompted.
14. Set up networking:
a. Click StartControl Panel, right-click Network Connections, and choose Open.