CCR in Combination with SCR

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for your feedback on this!

We are planning to setup CCR in Combination with SCR

Production site (Site A): IP Subnet A  AD Site A

"       Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 CCR Active Node
"       Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 CCR Passive Node
"       Win2003 Enterprise/Exch07 SP1 HUB/CAS Server Roles
"       FWS located in HUB/CAS Server
"       Win2003/DC1-GC-DNS


DR Site (Site B): IP Subnet B  AD Site B


"       Win2003/DC2-GC-DNS
"       Win2008 running VMWare VSphere ESX 4.0:
§       VM1: Will be use for SCR Target Machine running Win2003 Enterprise
§        VM2: Will be used for Exchange 2007 SP1 running HUB/CAS Server Roles. Win2008 Standard


QUESTIONS:

ABOUT HUB/CAS in DR Site

1. As shown above we are planning to setup in DR site a server with the HUB and CAS roles on a computer running Win2008 Standard. Would be this an issue considering that the other HUB/CAS server in the production site is running on Win2003 Enterprise?

2. What are the considerations for the HUB/CAS server setup at DR site?

3. Would this new HUB/CAS server conflict with the HUB/CAS server currently running in the Production datacenter even though the Production datacenter is on a different AD Site?

4. Any particular/important aspect I need to take into account configuring the new HUB/CAS server to avoid problems with users currently present in DR AD site? DR is not a datacenter but one of our offices

5. If there is any particular configuration to be done with new HUB/CAS server, could someone point me to the right direction?


SEEDING

Because the large size of the databases, we wont be able to perform the seeding to DR site over the WAN. In this blog: http://www.mombu.com/microsoft/exchange-server-clustering/t-scr-seeding-3045693.html Scott Schnoll indicated that it is possible to perform the seeding without taking the databases offline using Update-StorageGroupCopy to perform the seed, include the -TargetPath parameter, and then specify an alternate path for the seed (for example, another drive that is local to the source machine). Then, using whatever means you like (e.g., file copy with or without compression, shipping a USB
disk, etc.), copy or move the data from the TargetPath you specified to the
proper folder on the SCR target  

Do you see any problem with this? Has anyone done this before?



STANDBY CLUSTER vs. STANDALONE SERVER AS TARGET SCR

According to this KB: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691321.aspx

If the SCR source is a clustered mailbox server, the optimal target configuration would be a standby cluster. I have also read that the activation process is easier then setting up a single standalone mailbox server as SCR target. According to the info out there, using a standalone mailbox server would require uninstalling Exchange during the activation process as the standalone mailbox server has its own identity and the only way to activate the single standalone mailbox server would be using Database Portability

1.      If I want to go with the Standby Cluster option&Does this imply that I will have to setup another CCR environment in the DR site?
2.      Would that be possible to activate target SCR and bring up the email system using the single standby passive node without forming a new CCR in DR site?
3.      In most places they talk about a single Standby Cluster Node but I have not seen anyone going into the details of SCR activation

Im afraid I dont have enough storage in DR site to setup another CCR over there!

3. Does anyone know any documentation out there detailing the process of using a single standalone mailbox server and using Database Portability


Thanks to all for the feedback!