asked on

Multiple exchange 2010 servers in a single domain?

We currently have 1 single domain abc.com and 1 single exchange server 2010 standard. We are investigating the possibility of adding a second exchange server. The new server would have the mailboxes for the new "branch/division" office. Our current setup is abc.com. We would like to add abcd.com and have all mail for abcd.com go to the new server. We would like to separate the mailboxes to the new server. We don't really want to add the new mailboxes to the existing server setup.

My questions are:

1. Is this a possible/feasible setup? We don't want to use the existing server to hold the new branch office mailboxes.

2. Will the GAL show both users on each exchange server? We would like one list. We won't be using public folders or any real shared resources between the two servers other than the GAL.

3. Any other possible ideas to achieve the same solution? A new server with all mailboxes on one server?

4. Scalability? Our current server has 100 mailboxes on it. The new server would be an additional 150 mailboxes. 250 for a new server will all mailboxes on one server.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Manpreet SIngh Khatra

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

TNRD

ASKER

We have a Xeon E5-2640 2.0Ghz. (2 processors). 32GB ram and 1tb HDD space. We were thinking of a new server possibly to "separate" the two organizations for backups etc. Probably not as important as you pointed out we could create a new database for those specific users.

Another factor to add (this may not be relevant) almost all of the users in the new office would be Outlook Web Access users.

Manpreet SIngh Khatra

If i was mgmt person and a bit technical believe me not impressed as all this still can be done with a single Server

I am more than happy to try and address your concerns :)

- Rancy

TNRD

ASKER

Thanks Rancy.

The reason I was considering having the second server for disaster recovery purposes. If the main server should have e.g. a catastrophic hardware failure. We could retrieve the information store database from backup and mount it on the other sever.

I believe I can mount the database on the other server from the backup and restore mailboxes to the server? (database portability for disaster recovery).

Thanks

Manpreet SIngh Khatra

Yes its verymuch in and will work until they are in the same exchange forest

- Rancy

TNRD

ASKER

Thanks, Rancy for all the help...

Manpreet SIngh Khatra

Your most welcome and glad i was of some assistance :)

- Rancy