Exchange 2010 installation on a single server

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Jack van Deur

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Glen Knight

JP64 > These are recommended minimums not NEEDS and in my experience (I expect Akhater will also confirm this) the calculators and recommended mimimums are not particularly realistic.

ASKER

Akhater

On http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/high-availability-recovery/uncovering-exchange-2010-database-availability-groups-dags-part1.html
it is mentioned under Co-existence with other Exchange roles
"Another thing you should bear in mind is that if you go down the path where you use two Exchange 2010 servers, and you want to have a fully redundant solution, you must use an external hardware or software based load balancing solution for Client Access services."

Is he asking to load balance by having 2 servers for Client Access Services? If yes, then where do i stand with this as i want to install CAS/HT/MBX roles on one server

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JP64: You mentioned "if you run multiple roles on one server the number of mailboxes per core reduces by 20%"

I didnt understand this. I have 15 Mailboxes so "realistically" i should not have any problems? I will have 8 Cores that will give me 4 Cores for MBX Role so how many mailboxes "realistically" i can have?

Mango247 you can take my word for it, as demazter already said, the recommendation are far from being realistic.

for 15 users you have more than what you need, your server would easily host 100 users with these specs all roles included

Jack van Deur

Oops I overlooked the DUAL part. So you do have 8 cores which should be enough.

Sorry,

JP

ASKER

Thank you all for your valuable reponses. I have another question :)

Can i install Windows NLB on same server that has all 3 roles CAS/HT/MBX installed?
I dont have budget for a hardware load balancer and want to achieve complete resilience with 2 Exchange servers (Main & DR Site). I also want to implement DAG

following article made me little confused
http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2010/high-availability-recovery/load-balancing-exchange-2010-client-access-servers-using-hardware-load-balancer-solution-part1.html

If you look under Figure 7 on part-1 you will find following:
"Windows NLB can still be used in conjunction with a CAS array as long as the Mailbox server role is not installed on the same machine and that any mailbox databases on the server are not protected via a Database Availability Group (WNLB and clustering have some sharing conflicts that makes this an unsupported scenario). You can, of course, also choose to use a CAS array in conjunction with an external hardware load balancer, which is the recommended approach especially if you have more than 8 CAS nodes."

Can i install Windows NLB on same server that has all 3 roles CAS/HT/MBX installed?

provided that you are not using DAG yes. if you are using DAG no

Jack van Deur

Maybe the Exchange Deplyment Assistant can help you.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681665.aspx

It'll tell you step by step what to do given a certain configuration or installation.

Kind Regards,

JP

ASKER

Thanks Akhater.

I have setup a test environment with 4 servers.

I have HT/MBX on 2 servers with DAG and CAS array on 2 servers. They are all in same subnet. CAS array is working fine i.e. when i shutdown 1 server in CAS array Outlook/OWA clients are still operational. However when i shutdown my main MBX/HT server that has database currently mounted then Outlook is disconnected. So DAG is not working.

I was under impression that once you have DAG configured then fail over between MBX servers is automatic but its not working for me. When i tried this failover my main MBX server had database as "mounted" and its copy had database "healthy".

Could you also advice an online resource to troubleshoot this?

"I was under impression that once you have DAG configured then fail over between MBX servers is automatic but its not working for me."

your impression is right this is exactly what should happen....

when you turn off what you call your "main mbx" what is the status of your database copies ?

ASKER

Sorry for late reply

My database on the main mbx server shows up as "service down" and the database on second MBX server shows as "healthy and disconnected"

Is it because i installed mailbox and HT on 2 different servers then installed CAS on 2 different servers. They were all 2008 64 bit Enterprise servers though?

it seems you have a problem with your share witness.

what is your share witness server?

ASKER

Akhater, I used a domain controller to be my share witness then i changed that to a file server instead. But still no joy

You happy with installation sequence? i.e. I installed MBX & HT Roles on 2 Win2008 Enterprise servers then install CAS on two other Win2008 Enterprise servers. Then i configured CAS array and then DAG

Going thru Microsoft Deployment Assistant tool i found that CAS must be the first role that shoud be installed. If this is true what should be the perfect sequence to install MBX/HT & CAS roles to achieve 100% resilience.

They are in the same subnet.

the sequence has nothing to do with it.

move the share witness to your CAS server and make sure that while moving it you don't get a warning or anything

ASKER

Ok, will do and let you know.

ASKER

One thing more if you could answer? What permissions should be set on File Witness Share folder if i have one on my CAS server (s). Currently Exchange services on my mailbox server are run by the default "local System Account".

BTW in my current setup (where DAG is not working) my file witness share folder is empty.

you don't need to create the folder the system will .... just pick one of your CAS severs as share witness and in the share directory put c:\

you should NOT get any warning when you click apply

and this is surely a fsw issue

ASKER

Hopefully its just FSW. I will give it a go and let you know

ASKER

Hi, Just a recap

I have 4 Exchange Servers. 2 MBX/HT & 2 CAS (Windows 2008 Ent / Exch 2010)

DAG is working fine and i have also configured CAS array (not tested yet)

They are all in same subnet. I need to take 1 MBX/HT server and 1 CAS array to DR site that has a different subnet. My question is, Would my DAG continue working as it is now? Im hoping to remove 1 member of my CAS array and re-add with new IP in different subnet. Would this work?

IP Addresses for my servers are below

EX1: 10.237.1.44 (MBX/HT)
EX2: 10.237.1.45 (CAS)

EX3: 10.237.1.46 (MBX/HT)
EX4: 10.237.1.47 (CAS)

CAS Array: 10.237.1.40
DAG: 10.237.1.41

My new IP for
EX3: 10.238.1.46(MBX/HT)
EX4: 10.238.1.47 (CAS)

I have not installed critical updates from Exch2010 CD due to some proxy issues. I can install normal windows updates but exchange updates (from CD) are not going through for some reasons.

Please reply, Thanks

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