Two Site and One Exchange Server

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Belron - 13 Feb 2006 14:53 GMT

Hi

I hopw i explain this right, currently we have two separate office sites, at
the moment both sites run there own domains and Exchange 5.5 servers on NT4
indepenently.
What i was wondering was we are now talking about upgrading both sites to
Win 2003 servers and Exchange 2003, could i take this opportunity to just use
one Exchange server at the main site and make use of AD for that Exchange
server to send and receive all email for the companys both sites.
My worry is that the sites are connected via a broadband VPN link at the
moment and i am afraid that the comms infrastrucuture would not be able to
handle the mail flow and the remote site would be very slow to get email.

Does anybody have any advice on this.

Cheers

Signature

goodit

Reply to this Message

Al Mulnick - 16 Feb 2006 02:11 GMT

I think I understand what you're saying. Let me play it back just to be
sure.

You have two sites that are each currently running NT4/Exchange 5.5
self-contained.
You may want to host just one active directory forest (same security
context) and one Exchange organization for both but you're concerned about
the reliability of the VPN broadband link. Is that correct?

If so, then I think the following might be worth your time to investigate:

1) create a single AD forest and migrate the domain(s) to it. It's possible
that one office is larger than the other and you'll want to upgrade in place
for one and migrate the other. Deploy at least two domain controllers, one
for each site. Make both a GC.
2) Deploy a single Exchange 2003 infrastructure with a mailbox server at
both sites OR one server at one site with all users using that server.
Investigate using RPC/HTTP and route all mailbox traffic via the public
internet vs the VPN tunnel. I think the latter is much more appealing.

-ajm

> Hi
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Cheers

Reply to this Message

Belron - 16 Feb 2006 20:49 GMT

Thanks Al,

That clears some things up, I wonder if you dont mind if you could elaborate
on a mailbox server at each site, does this mean i need exchange 2003 at each
site?
And in your experience does the RPC/HTTP links work well.

Cheers

Signature

goodit

> I think I understand what you're saying. Let me play it back just to be
> sure.
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
> >
> > Cheers

Reply to this Message

Al Mulnick - 18 Feb 2006 13:29 GMT

RPC/HTTP works far better than I'd like to admit to ;)
Especially in situations like this, RPC/HTTP can be quite useful.

I don't know that you do need a mailbox server in both sites, but it's
possible that you do. If you have network problems, such as the vpn being
unusable, routers going down, etc that might affect their ability to get
mail, or you have large email attachments then you might want to consider
putting the mail server local with respect to the client. Nice thing about
RPC/HTTP is that it can be used from anywhere via the internet, so you can
avoid most of the issues above and save money and increase manageability by
having the server in one location only. Mostly depends on your needs.

Al

> Thanks Al,
>
[quoted text clipped - 60 lines]
>> >
>> > Cheers

Reply to this Message

Belron - 20 Feb 2006 23:11 GMT

thanks Al, all great stuff

Signature

goodit

> RPC/HTTP works far better than I'd like to admit to ;)
> Especially in situations like this, RPC/HTTP can be quite useful.
[quoted text clipped - 74 lines]
> >> >
> >> > Cheers

Reply to this Message