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oztrodamusFlag for Australia

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Exchange 2010 DAG for HA

I'm looking for some advice on implementing an Exchange 2010 DAG (active/passive) using a physical server (mailbox role only) and a virtual server (mailbox role only). My aim is to minimize cost by leveraging my existing VMWare infrastrucure and Microsoft enterprise licensing. I'm really interested to know if anybody has any experience with this type setup and how it is going for them. Ultimately, if this is doable I would like to have a third memeber in the DAG located offsite in my DR site.

Because the concept of the DAG is new to me I'm a little lost on the disk requirements. My assumption is to keep the disks separate between each DAG member so I would have physical disks on the physical sever and would use SAN LUNs for my virtual memeber, is this the correct assumption? It's my understanding that Microsoft no longer uses shared disk for HA regarding Exchange.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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PaulNSW
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Thanks everybody for your help :)

I did not think about the FSW and the possible split-brain scenario with the DR site member. I know in the past Microsoft has recommended the transport server act as the FSW, but Googleing the topic people are using the DC as the FSW server. I actually like that approach better. I can use a virtual DC in both the primary and DR site if I decide to use an alternate FSW per Microsoft document

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd297934.aspx.

GSMartin I believe you can put your DAG in DAC mode to address your specific issue.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979790.aspx