mhussain
asked on
Exchange2000 Cluster
How do I Configure Exchange 2000 Cluster?
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/deployment/2000/E2KCluster.asp
ASKER
I wanted to make a Backup exchange2000 server but i didn't get the proper answer for it. Somebody said u have to make exchange cluster, so my question is How do I Configure Exchange 2000 Cluster?
Regards
Hussain
Regards
Hussain
Did you read the word doc at the link I posted? It covers
* Exchange 2000 Clusters
* Planning Exchange 2000 Clusters
* Set up a Two-Node Exchange 2000 Cluster
* Set up a Four-Node Exchange 2000 Server Cluster
* Removing Exchange 2000 from a Cluster
* Reliability
* Performance and Monitoring
* Disaster Recovery
* Additional Resources
It discusses the hardware requirements, the software requirements, the possible configuration options, et al.
Let me try a differnet track. Microsoft Clustering and most other high availability solutions related to Exchange are:
a. complicated.
b. expensive (either relatively or extremely depending on the path chosen)
c. best planned during the intial phases of a deployment (e.g. before hardware is purchased)
d. failing c, with a substantial budget available
e. capable of reducing overall reliability and availability when not managed by someone well versed in the technologies involved.
If the above whitepaper link doesn't provide sufficient information, please reject my answer and seriously consider hiring a qualified consultant to do the planning and implementation.
If at this point you think I'm a jackass based on my answer, you have my sincerest apologies, but sugar coating the complexity of the task at hand is not in my best interest unless I'm on retainer and know you have a large budget. Since neither of those is true, I opted to go with the truth.
* Exchange 2000 Clusters
* Planning Exchange 2000 Clusters
* Set up a Two-Node Exchange 2000 Cluster
* Set up a Four-Node Exchange 2000 Server Cluster
* Removing Exchange 2000 from a Cluster
* Reliability
* Performance and Monitoring
* Disaster Recovery
* Additional Resources
It discusses the hardware requirements, the software requirements, the possible configuration options, et al.
Let me try a differnet track. Microsoft Clustering and most other high availability solutions related to Exchange are:
a. complicated.
b. expensive (either relatively or extremely depending on the path chosen)
c. best planned during the intial phases of a deployment (e.g. before hardware is purchased)
d. failing c, with a substantial budget available
e. capable of reducing overall reliability and availability when not managed by someone well versed in the technologies involved.
If the above whitepaper link doesn't provide sufficient information, please reject my answer and seriously consider hiring a qualified consultant to do the planning and implementation.
If at this point you think I'm a jackass based on my answer, you have my sincerest apologies, but sugar coating the complexity of the task at hand is not in my best interest unless I'm on retainer and know you have a large budget. Since neither of those is true, I opted to go with the truth.
Bravo cscharff,...Bravo!!!!
I TOTALLY agree with every single aspect of that educated and thoroughly thought-out answer. I, everyday assist admins and consultants on the phone troubleshooting their Exchange servers running on Clusters. Not being prepared and educated to implement a cluster setup is very bad.
It makes it twice as hard to troubleshoot, twice as hard to implement, and twice as hard to manage...if not three times.
The simple fact of the matter is, if you cannot afford and manage a cluster, and you are not educated on clustering, you might consider going a different route for uptime.
Like maybe, spending a little less money and asking yourself - "Do i have faith in my good old fashioned backups?" "How fast can i backup" - "How fast can i restore". If i have a hardware failure, would i rather remove one of the drives, pop another one in, reset the RAID and restore from backup, or spend two or three times longer working on this cluster i'm not quite sure what to do with? If you have a problem with Exchange on a cluster, i don't care of you have datacenter with A/A/A/A/A/A/A/P (8 Nodes) running....you still have to fix Exchange whatever node it's on.
I often see admins loose sight of these things, when in fact, half of the time i am on the phone recovering an Exchange server on a cluster, the customer seriously would have been up and running alot faster if they would have either;
A. Been more educated and prepared for clustering,
or
B. Just simply put up a nice little RAID on a solid machine, and had a good backup strategy.
Just for the record, i am not against clustering at all, i am in fact rather impressed by some of the technology, and enjoy working with them.
Just be prepared and know what you are getting yourself into.
Very insightful cscharff, truly one of the best answers/posts i have ever read.
My two cents.
-=Kevala=-
I TOTALLY agree with every single aspect of that educated and thoroughly thought-out answer. I, everyday assist admins and consultants on the phone troubleshooting their Exchange servers running on Clusters. Not being prepared and educated to implement a cluster setup is very bad.
It makes it twice as hard to troubleshoot, twice as hard to implement, and twice as hard to manage...if not three times.
The simple fact of the matter is, if you cannot afford and manage a cluster, and you are not educated on clustering, you might consider going a different route for uptime.
Like maybe, spending a little less money and asking yourself - "Do i have faith in my good old fashioned backups?" "How fast can i backup" - "How fast can i restore". If i have a hardware failure, would i rather remove one of the drives, pop another one in, reset the RAID and restore from backup, or spend two or three times longer working on this cluster i'm not quite sure what to do with? If you have a problem with Exchange on a cluster, i don't care of you have datacenter with A/A/A/A/A/A/A/P (8 Nodes) running....you still have to fix Exchange whatever node it's on.
I often see admins loose sight of these things, when in fact, half of the time i am on the phone recovering an Exchange server on a cluster, the customer seriously would have been up and running alot faster if they would have either;
A. Been more educated and prepared for clustering,
or
B. Just simply put up a nice little RAID on a solid machine, and had a good backup strategy.
Just for the record, i am not against clustering at all, i am in fact rather impressed by some of the technology, and enjoy working with them.
Just be prepared and know what you are getting yourself into.
Very insightful cscharff, truly one of the best answers/posts i have ever read.
My two cents.
-=Kevala=-
kevala
Dude, you support clusters daily? I feel so sorry for you.
On a note which might seem like I'm pimping (since I work for them) and might make one think my clustering answer is biased (it's not, I like them if there is a compelling need and a lot of experience to support them) we launched a new product today which provides messaging continuity (not complete replication or cluster type hardware failover) called EMS. www.messageone.com
The main reason for developing this product was, as kevala can attest, clustering is relatively difficult and expensive, and doesn't protect against things like the data center where the cluster lives being under 3 feet of water.
Anyway, not really pimping, as much as mentioning there are other possible solutions out there depending on what your needs are.
Now, if I could just convince Dell to loan me some cluster hardware for my lab at home.. lol.
Dude, you support clusters daily? I feel so sorry for you.
On a note which might seem like I'm pimping (since I work for them) and might make one think my clustering answer is biased (it's not, I like them if there is a compelling need and a lot of experience to support them) we launched a new product today which provides messaging continuity (not complete replication or cluster type hardware failover) called EMS. www.messageone.com
The main reason for developing this product was, as kevala can attest, clustering is relatively difficult and expensive, and doesn't protect against things like the data center where the cluster lives being under 3 feet of water.
Anyway, not really pimping, as much as mentioning there are other possible solutions out there depending on what your needs are.
Now, if I could just convince Dell to loan me some cluster hardware for my lab at home.. lol.
ASKER
Now My exchange server 2000 running over Windows2000 server. IS clustering possible in windows2000 server?
and
How we make a back up exchange2000 in such environment.
and
How we make a back up exchange2000 in such environment.
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Unless it is clear to me that the question has been answered I will recommend that it be deleted. It is possible that a Grade less than A will be given if no expert makes a case for an A grade. It is assumed that any participant not responding to this request is no longer interested in its final disposition.
If the author does not know how to close the question, the options are here:
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