Successfully deploy Project Server

on VMware with shared

infrastructure
Sacha Cohn, CTO of CPS
29th September 2011
A Project Server and SharePoint
Architect for over 10 years, Sacha
has architected many global scale
Project Server and SharePoint
solutions. As a Microsoft Certified
Scalability tester for the past 5
years, Sacha has focused on
pioneering load and performance
testing of Project Server and
SharePoint solutions, to achieve the
best value from VMware, Hyper-V
and physical infrastructure.

Contents
About CPS

Business process considerations

Technological considerations

Example Architecture Process

Summary

Who are we?

Experts in Microsoft Project Server, SharePoint, Resourcing, P3M
Consulting and training
Established 1995
Microsoft Gold Competency Partner
Client list of over 700 organisations
The only UK APMG accredited consulting organisation that can provide
Microsoft Project Server solutions & P3M consulting.
Over 11,000 delegates trained

Project Server Architecture

Methodology
The aim of CPSs architecture methodology is to produce an Project
Server architecture which fits the clients business requirements as well
as their infrastructure capabilities:
Technical Workshop
Business Architecture Questionnaire (Sizing, usage etc..)
Infrastructure Questionnaire (Security, Infrastructure etc..)

A Living Architecture Review Document, addressing the clients:

Architecture requirements, both business and IT
Security, Logical, Network, Physical, Virtual and Specification designs
Key concerns driving the architecture design

Why is Virtualisation different ?

You have to
Share
Its Virtual, its
Simple

Its good for us

Our approach is to understand:

Organisation
People
Process
Technology

Organisation
Why have you deployed VMware?
Disaster Recovery
Failover
Simplification
Cost savings
Standardisation
How will the use of Project Server work with the above goals?

People and Process

Who will own Project Server?
Business Owner?
Infrastructure (IT) Owner?
Is there more than one?
What is your technology experience with Project Server?
How is a new system deployed on VMware?
How is the new system maintained?
What is your VMware resource allocation model?

Different Teams

artm
Different Dep

ents

People and Process

Technology

VMware can
scale
Change resource
requirements quickly

Project Server is
not just a Web
application
Project Server is not
just single Planning
tool

Project Server is an online toolset encompassing: demand

management, scheduling, resourcing, time sheeting, project
management its living, its dynamic

Technology
Project Server has a heart, a Queue, if you constrict it, everything slows .. it stops.
It is a resource intensive application
When a Project Manager updates their plan

A plan is stored in 4 Main Databases

Its referenced in circa 10 databases
Every time you publish it; it triplicates it

The databases are used for very different purposes, e.g. from Published to
Reporting is a ETL process, very CPU and Disk IO intensive, Microsoft know this
so they use memory to Cache these transactions.

Technology
What is VMware sitting on?
Storage SANs
Have they got space?
How are they designed?
Fault redundancy
Performance

Is it over-utilised?
Is bandwidth constrained?

Network
Too many hops?
Bandwidth

Hosts
Over allocated?
Old or poor hardware specification (low CPU core speed)?

Technology
Processor

Data centre

Memory

Storage

Technology
Processor

Processor

Resource
Allocation

No. of Cores

Technology
Processor

Memory

Data centre

Storage

Memory

Resource
Allocation

Windows
Memory Size
and Ballooning

Technology
Processor

Data centre

Memory

Storage

Storage
SAN performance is fundamental to how Project Server will perform. There are 2
main reasons:
Project Server relies heavily on SQL server, as discussed

Project Server its self is continually writing to the ULS log, which can rapidly
grow in size.
The correct SAN driver, sounds minor, but in our experience in deploying the
manufacturers SAN Driver can significantly improve Disk IO performance
Dell EqualLogic SAN, went from 45mbs to 90mbs per second

Technology
Processor

Memory

Data centre

Storage

Cluster
When purchasing or calculating the Physical host specification, it is important to
take into account the requirements for the Host overhead of running a Virtual
Machine. The scale is not linear, below are some examples

Technology

Example Architecture
Process

More information
There are many great resources out there to help you scale correctly your deployment
for the Virtual infrastructure you are deploying on.

VMware

Microsoft

Setting the number of Cores per Processor (need to

be used when going over 4 CPU, with Windows
Server 2008 R2 standard edition)

Microsoft Project Server best practise when

virtualising, a great source of links to other MS articles
in relation to virtualisation

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=dis
playKC&externalId=1010184

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/04/14/microsoftproject-server-2010-virtualization.aspx

Guide to VMware resource management, special

interest are:
Page 18 Virtualisation overhead of CPU
virtualisation
Page 30 Host memory overhead

Guide to SharePoint virtualisation

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195021)
PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195022)
XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=195023)

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_resource_mgmt.pdf

Disabling the Balloon driver

Quick reminder checklist

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=disp
layKC&externalId=1002586

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2011/06/21/projectserver-best-practices-for-virtualization.aspx

Summary
Conduct an Architecture Review to ensure:
Business and IT are fully engaged
An appropriate architecture is recommended
Underlying infrastructure investment is highlighted
VMware infrastructure investment is highlighted
Do not over commit hosts
Do not limit Processor or Memory, to less than has been allocated to the Guest
If your Project Server deployment is of a medium to large size, you will need to
invest in dedicated hosts
Appoint the appropriate system owners

Contact me at:

sacha.cohn@cps.co.uk