me
Guest
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 Posted:
Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:58 pm Post subject:
Exchange and MS clustering on the BE. |
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Currently our environment consists of Windows 2000 clusters running
Exchange 5.5, these clusters are SAN attached. We have experienced
several database corruptions which has lead the operational guys to be
paranoid about MS Exchange running on clusters.
Our future plans are to move to Exchange 2003 with the BE being a 2 node
cluster, I have read whitepapers on clustering and have found several
things the operational guys have not done with the current environment (
updating the HBA drivers ).
They are paranoid that the exchange database structure, jet based, has
not changed and that clustering in 2003 is not vastly different to 2000
so we will experience more corruptions in the future resulting in the BE
servers requiring more support. They want to move to single mailbox
servers, however this results in a single point of failure, but in there
mind will be more stable.
I appreciate that I am not presenting the full facts but was after
peoples views on clustering vs non clustering and what can be done to
ensure clusters are as stable as possible.
regards
P
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Bharat Suneja
Guest
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| Posted:
Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:31 am Post subject:
Re: Exchange and MS clustering on the BE. |
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- Yet to hear about clustering by itself being source of Store corruption!
- Properly set-up clusters significantly boost Exchange uptime and
capabilities for performing maintenance tasks without impacting users - in
the middle of the day if you will. (With Exchange Server 2003 on server side
and Outlook 2003 Cached Mode on client side, most users never realize a
failover occurred).
- Windows Server 2003 = better SAN support, including iSCSI
- Windows Server 2003 + Exchange Server 2003 = major improvements in
clustering that have probably increased number of cluster deployments
significantly compared to 2000, and certainly compared to 5.5, imo.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/WhatNewE2k3/feced74a-2eb3-40a7-842f-f7129b2ab3cc.mspx
- Store HAS changed from 5.5 to 2003, has many improvements, some listed
here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/WhatNewE2k3/e14c6028-9f8d-41a7-b981-4b1e7e867b3a.mspx
- Sidenote: Store on shared disks is still a single point of failure unless
replicated. Solutions available from 3rd parties (NSI DoubleTake, EMC,
NetApp SnapMirror, etc.). Exchange 12 is reported to include log shipping.
--
Bharat Suneja
MCSE, MCT
www.zenprise.com
blog: www.suneja.com/blog |
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