AlexC77
asked on
Exchange server redundancy
I have Exchange server in my network. Is it possible to install second Exchange server in Network and synchronize databases, so incase if first server failed second server will take care of all users ?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
It is possible to have a computer on standby which will limit your downtime to a few hours rather than a few days. It is necessary to follow the procedures for setting up such a system, and to make sure that you have proper backups.
There are several placed you can check to find information on how to do this, as you will want to be concerned with hardware specifications, ensuring that a server with a duplicate name is not joined to the network, etc. I recommend starting with the groups and work your way up from there.
There are several placed you can check to find information on how to do this, as you will want to be concerned with hardware specifications, ensuring that a server with a duplicate name is not joined to the network, etc. I recommend starting with the groups and work your way up from there.
There is actually a third party software that does the job pretty well. www.xosoft.com wansync exchange. It uses delta replication which is pretty much file replication in the MTA directory.
We are using it in a live environment with a 13 GB Information store, performances are pretty good.
The failover process is pretty well explained in their white papers, basically it requires to run scripts that monitor if your main email server goes down, if it does, active directory gets updated so that all email users tie to the failover mail server instead of the main one, and using a script as well the failover server gets the main server IP assigned.
Drawback : the product is pretty expensive ( I think around $2000 per server ).
We are using it in a live environment with a 13 GB Information store, performances are pretty good.
The failover process is pretty well explained in their white papers, basically it requires to run scripts that monitor if your main email server goes down, if it does, active directory gets updated so that all email users tie to the failover mail server instead of the main one, and using a script as well the failover server gets the main server IP assigned.
Drawback : the product is pretty expensive ( I think around $2000 per server ).
Trust me... 2000$ is not THAT expensive, given other solutions out there. I only took a quick look at the product, but didn't see anywhere where it says that it manages failover for the client-side outlook. Do you have to manually change their pointing every time a server goes down?
I don't think so. I think the DNS information is changed via script so that the Exchange server name points to the currently active server's IP.
That's correct, the change in the DNS server as well as the change in Active directory allows you not to have to redirect outlook clients.
However, by experience, you would have to restart your outlook client. A simple script such as:
net send * "PLEASE RESTART OUTLOOK"
Would do the trick.
However, by experience, you would have to restart your outlook client. A simple script such as:
net send * "PLEASE RESTART OUTLOOK"
Would do the trick.
Let me know if you want more info.