Ex2007 and Multiple Sites

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RdS - 05 Dec 2006 01:58 GMT

hi,

I have two data centers and 4 Exch 2007 Ent servers. The roles are:
1) Mailbox and hub transport servers at data center1
2) Client Access Server at data center1
3) Mailbox and hub transport servers at data center2
4) Client Access Server at data center2

I have 2 storage groups and 14 DBs per server and 100 mailboxes per db. The
data centers are connected via a sonet (1gb+

How do I configure log shippping, etc. between the servers so that if one
fails I can bring the other online to handle the mailboxes? During a
failure, instead of only having 14DB and 700 mailboxes per server the
operational box would have 28dbs and 1400 mailboxes. My client access
servers should then know what server the mailboxes reside on since that is
one of their purposes. Can CCR be configured to do this? I have read that
CCR is used with clustering but when both servers are in same data center.
In my case the data centers are dispersed. How do I accomplish this. Any
MS articles?

My IPs are 10.55.10.x for
one data center and 10.155.10.x at the other. Subnet is 255.255.255.0.

But can I still split workload between the data centers and have mailboxes
live on both servers, but still CCR datacenter1 to datacenter2 and then
datacenter2 to datacenter1? So when one server hosting 700 mailboxes goes
down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
700 mailboxes.

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daveberm - 05 Dec 2006 02:26 GMT

You can not accomplish this with Exchange 2007 and CCR. Effectively
CCR enables you to do standard MSCS active/passive clustering without
shared storage. Your data centers can be in different locations, but
you must bridge your subnet in order for this to work.

You could choose to set up two pairs of active/passive clusters, which
would give you the same results. However, you will need to have two
additional servers that are designated standby servers. I suppose you
could use VMWARE to virtualize the servers, if MS is supporting
Exchange 2007 in a virtual environment before they release their
Hypervisor with Longhorn.

David A. Bermingham, MCSE, MCSA:Messaging
Senior Systems Engineer
www.steeleye.com

> hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
> 700 mailboxes.

Reply to this Message

Bharat Suneja [MVP] - 05 Dec 2006 02:34 GMT

- CCR cannot be configured between 2 independent Exchange servers already
hosting mailboxes.
- You need to setup a Windows Server 2003 cluster using MNS (Majority Node
Set) quorum - consisting of 2 nodes and 1 file-share witness, and then setup
the Clustered Mailbox Server role on both the servers. Active/Active
clustering is no longer supported with Exchange Server 2007.
- CCR may be possible across WAN links, but both the nodes need to reside on
the same subnet, which requires the use of VLANs to have the subnet span
over 2 sites (afaik).
- In any case, I'm hoping you're simply testing this and not using it in
production yet. Exchange Server 2007 has not RTMed yet - as of now the only
supported way of doing this is if you are part of any of Microsoft's early
deployment programs like RDP or TAP. In that case, Microsoft provides the
required support to enable you to setup CCR.

Signature

Bharat Suneja
MVP - Exchange
www.zenprise.com
NEW blog location:
www.exchangepedia.com/blog
----------------------------------------------

> hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
> 700 mailboxes.

Reply to this Message

RdS - 05 Dec 2006 03:03 GMT

Thanks for your reply.

I only have two mailbox servers so are you saying it is better to put all
mailboxes on one server and simply ccr to dr site. If I do this then the dr
site server will just be sitting there 95% of the time doing nothing until a
failure.

Also, in event of failure, how do I switch dr site to online so that clients
know to use it? Also, I have two client access servers (CAS). one at each
site.

A question on CAS, if one of the CAS is down, how do the outlook clients
know to use the other CAS to find mailbox server? right now I have one cas
in each data center. Also, if both CAS are operational, how do clients no
to use one or the other? any q articles on this and how it is set up?

my ip scheme is 10.25.x.x. one data center is 10.25.50 and the other is
10.25.51. both have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and i use vlans.

thanks again.

>- CCR cannot be configured between 2 independent Exchange servers already
>hosting mailboxes.
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>> down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
>> 700 mailboxes.

Reply to this Message

daveberm - 05 Dec 2006 15:22 GMT

Here is a pointer on client access server.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/e2k7help/eae08282-fed8-4ae
3-8229-18a23499b53d.mspx?mfr=true

Any client other than Outlook will use the client access server. So
your OWA client, IMAP, POP3, ActiveSync will all be configured to point
at one of the two access servers. This article says to configure
network load balancing for your CAS servers...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/e2k7help/d2efb6f9-f70a-4f9
6-9f8d-f7aad6ae83d7.mspx?mfr=true

As far as bringing the DR Site online, that is handled via MCSC. The
Exchange resource is simply moved from one server to the other, the
clients do not realize a failover has occured.

David A. Bermingham, MCSE, MCSA:Messaging
Senior Systems Engineer
www.steeleye.com

> Thanks for your reply.
>
[quoted text clipped - 75 lines]
> >> down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
> >> 700 mailboxes.

Reply to this Message

daveberm - 05 Dec 2006 15:28 GMT

In addition, as Bharat has already mentioned, if you already have 2
Exchange 2007 mailbox servers configured, you will need to build a new
Exchange CCR cluster on different servers and move the mailboxes to
this clustered Exchange server. Hopefully this is a POC in your lab,
not production - right? And yes, your standby server will be sitting
there doing nothing until it is called into service.

Dave

David A. Bermingham, MCSE, MCSA:Messaging

> Here is a pointer on client access server.
>
[quoted text clipped - 94 lines]
> > >> down the other will pick up load of other server while still handling its
> > >> 700 mailboxes.

Reply to this Message