Specifications

A Principled Technologies test report 22
Hardware upgrades to improve database, SharePoint, Exchange, and
file server performance with the Intel processor-powered Dell
PowerEdge T630
2. Drop all databases from the test servers.
3. Restore all databases on all test servers.
4. Reboot the server and all client systems.
5. Let the test server idle until the power utilization settled.
6. Start the DVD Store driver on all respective clients.
We used the following DVD Store parameters for testing the servers in this study:
ds2sqlserverdriver.exe --target=<target_IP> --ramp_rate=10 –
warmup_time=15 --run_time=45 --n_threads=32 --db_size=40GB --
think_time=0.1
Installing and configuring the Exchange 2010 mail test clients (LoadGen)
For our testing, we used 5 virtual client machines to distribute the LoadGen workload evenly for each of the
solutions. To create the mail clients, we installed several software components. First, we made sure to statically assign
an IP address for each client. We followed this process for each installation:
Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition
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. Click Start, type change power-saving settings and press Enter.
12. Click Change plan settings.
13. Change the Turn off the display drop-down menu to Never.
14. Click Save changes, and close the Power Options, Screen Saver Settings, and Personalization screens.
To set up this server, we had to install several additional software components. The following subsections detail
the necessary installation processes.
Joining the domain
1. Select StartControl PanelNetwork ConnectionsLocal Area Connection.
2. Click Properties.
3. Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and click Properties.
4. Select the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button, and enter the IP of the DNS server in the
Preferred DNS server field. Click OK.
5. Right-click My Computer, and select Properties.