| Author |
Message |
schse01
Guest
|
 Posted:
Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:58 am Post subject:
Determining least cost route. |
|
|
Hi,
I have 3 Exchange 2003 servers in 3 different physical locations. These 3
servers are also in a single routing group. Within that routing group, there
are 3 SMTP connectors, each with a cost of 1. So when I look at the routing
table (using WinRoute) I see multiple routes all with a cost of 1. It appears
that messages are taking the local connector (which is good), but I'm not
sure why.
Does Exchange have its own built in conflict resolution? IE, if there are 2
equally costed routes, and 1 of them resides on the same server as the
senders mailbox, then it uses that conector?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks
Sebastian
|
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| Back to top |
|
 |
Mark Arnold [MVP]
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:58 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:28:01 -0800, "schse01"
<schse01@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Hi,
I have 3 Exchange 2003 servers in 3 different physical locations. These 3
servers are also in a single routing group. Within that routing group, there
are 3 SMTP connectors, each with a cost of 1. So when I look at the routing
table (using WinRoute) I see multiple routes all with a cost of 1. It appears
that messages are taking the local connector (which is good), but I'm not
sure why.
Does Exchange have its own built in conflict resolution? IE, if there are 2
equally costed routes, and 1 of them resides on the same server as the
senders mailbox, then it uses that conector?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks
Sebastian
Here: |
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/WinRoute-Routing-status-Exchange-organization.html
Gives you a little bit more of a background on how the LinkState
determines the available routes. All the connections can be costed 1
and if the link is up, it will be used. If the link goes down then the
server will use the next link, broadly along the lines of OSPF. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nathan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Dec 21, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject:
RE: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
"schse01" wrote:
| Quote: | Hi,
I have 3 Exchange 2003 servers in 3 different physical locations. These 3
servers are also in a single routing group. Within that routing group, there
are 3 SMTP connectors, each with a cost of 1. So when I look at the routing
table (using WinRoute) I see multiple routes all with a cost of 1. It appears
that messages are taking the local connector (which is good), but I'm not
sure why.
Does Exchange have its own built in conflict resolution? IE, if there are 2
equally costed routes, and 1 of them resides on the same server as the
senders mailbox, then it uses that conector?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks
Sebastian |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Arnold [MVP]
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:57 pm Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
<Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
| Quote: | The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
|
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nathan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:32 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
| Quote: | On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
schse01
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:58 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
| Quote: | I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nathan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:17 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
How does it know which SMTP Connector to use? Are you talking about when
they're sending stuff to the Internet, or when they're sending stuff between
each other. No offense, but do you know the difference between an SMTP
Connector and an SMTP Virtual Server? I'm wondering if that's causing some
confusion in my ability to understand your issue.
Mail that goes between each server uses the SMTP Virtual Server that is on
each server (by default). So if I'm on ServerA and I send a message to
someone on ServerB, ServerA will connect to the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerB and deliver the message.
If I send a message to an SMTP address who's domain is not marked as being
owned by my Exchange Org (this is set in your recipient update policies as a
check mark that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all mail
delivery to this address"), then ServerA will do whatever it is configured to
do on the Delivery tab (Advanced button) of the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerA. By default, if ServerA (and its SMTP server) is configured to use
public DNS, then it will lookup the MX record for the recipient's domain, and
connect directly to it and deliver the message to their system.
I feel that I'm just explaining basic Exchange stuff here that you may
already know... Like I said, I'm having a hard time understanding what the
problem is so I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Oh, by the way, the fact that your three Exchange servers are in different
physical locations makes no difference to Exchange in the way you have it
setup. Sites in Active Directory have no impact on Exchange whatsoever, to
my knowledge. Sites define borders for AD replication, and Routing groups do
the same thing (relatively speaking) for Exchange.
Tell me, why is it that you have three SMTP Connectors created? What are
they configured to do? Are they handing off mail through different
connections to the Internet?
Here's what I understand from your explanations thus far...
You have 1 Routing Group, 3 Exchange Servers (and therefore 3 SMTP Virtual
Servers - one per server) in different locations (and I am assuming that they
are all connected to each other by dedicated network connections), and 1 SMTP
Connector on each server (which I don't know the purpose of yet).
I look forward to your response.
"schse01" wrote:
| Quote: | Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
schse01
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:58 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
Hi Nathan,
I'll start by trying to confirm a few things. As you say, we have 1 routing
group, 3 Exchange servers (and 1 smtp virtual server on each server), and 1
smtp connector per server. 2 out of 3 smtp connectors forward all outbound
mail to another smarthost (relay server). The other smtp connector uses dns
to deliver mail. The 3 physical sites are connected via VPN only. There are
no dedicated (WAN) connections between the sites.
I guess I really want to understand "costs" better. As I understand it, each
smtp connector has an address space (in our case *), and an associated cost
for that address space. As there are 3 smtp connectors within the one routing
group, and they all have the same address space (*) and cost (1) configured,
there are 3 posible routes for a "SMTP" type message. i.e. for a cost of 1, a
message can go through any one of the 3 connectors to reach its destination
(say hotmail.com).
So, i want to know, how does it decide to use 1 connector over another when
they all "cost" the same?
Hope this makes sense.
Furthermore, the reason each site has its own smtp connector is because each
site has its own internet connection, and from a business perspective, the 3
sites are different (individually administered) companies. Each site has (and
acepts mail for) its own domain.
"Nathan" wrote:
| Quote: | How does it know which SMTP Connector to use? Are you talking about when
they're sending stuff to the Internet, or when they're sending stuff between
each other. No offense, but do you know the difference between an SMTP
Connector and an SMTP Virtual Server? I'm wondering if that's causing some
confusion in my ability to understand your issue.
Mail that goes between each server uses the SMTP Virtual Server that is on
each server (by default). So if I'm on ServerA and I send a message to
someone on ServerB, ServerA will connect to the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerB and deliver the message.
If I send a message to an SMTP address who's domain is not marked as being
owned by my Exchange Org (this is set in your recipient update policies as a
check mark that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all mail
delivery to this address"), then ServerA will do whatever it is configured to
do on the Delivery tab (Advanced button) of the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerA. By default, if ServerA (and its SMTP server) is configured to use
public DNS, then it will lookup the MX record for the recipient's domain, and
connect directly to it and deliver the message to their system.
I feel that I'm just explaining basic Exchange stuff here that you may
already know... Like I said, I'm having a hard time understanding what the
problem is so I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Oh, by the way, the fact that your three Exchange servers are in different
physical locations makes no difference to Exchange in the way you have it
setup. Sites in Active Directory have no impact on Exchange whatsoever, to
my knowledge. Sites define borders for AD replication, and Routing groups do
the same thing (relatively speaking) for Exchange.
Tell me, why is it that you have three SMTP Connectors created? What are
they configured to do? Are they handing off mail through different
connections to the Internet?
Here's what I understand from your explanations thus far...
You have 1 Routing Group, 3 Exchange Servers (and therefore 3 SMTP Virtual
Servers - one per server) in different locations (and I am assuming that they
are all connected to each other by dedicated network connections), and 1 SMTP
Connector on each server (which I don't know the purpose of yet).
I look forward to your response.
"schse01" wrote:
Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
schse01
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:58 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
OK. I think I am getting there. Your comment about using "the SMTP connector
that runs off of the SMTP Virutal Server on ServerA" explains a bit. I didn't
realise that this occured by default.
So, what if there was no SMTP connector on server A? For example, there are
2 other servers in the routing group with equal costs that have an SMTP
Connector. If I send an internet email from Server A, and the SMTP connectors
are on servers B and C, which one will it use? Is it load balanced between
the 2?
Merry Christmas.
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
| Quote: | OK, I think I get the picture now. So is your environment doing things that
you don't expect it to?
From what I understand of your environment, I would expect that the mail
from users/mailboxes on ServerA would *always* go out of the SMTP Connector
that runs off of the SMTP Virutal Server on ServerA...
Since you're asking the question though, I'm guessing that you're seeing
something different... So as an example, are the messages from a user on
ServerA being delivered to the outside via the SMTP Connector on ServerB? or
ServerC?
"schse01" wrote:
Hi Nathan,
I'll start by trying to confirm a few things. As you say, we have 1 routing
group, 3 Exchange servers (and 1 smtp virtual server on each server), and 1
smtp connector per server. 2 out of 3 smtp connectors forward all outbound
mail to another smarthost (relay server). The other smtp connector uses dns
to deliver mail. The 3 physical sites are connected via VPN only. There are
no dedicated (WAN) connections between the sites.
I guess I really want to understand "costs" better. As I understand it, each
smtp connector has an address space (in our case *), and an associated cost
for that address space. As there are 3 smtp connectors within the one routing
group, and they all have the same address space (*) and cost (1) configured,
there are 3 posible routes for a "SMTP" type message. i.e. for a cost of 1, a
message can go through any one of the 3 connectors to reach its destination
(say hotmail.com).
So, i want to know, how does it decide to use 1 connector over another when
they all "cost" the same?
Hope this makes sense.
Furthermore, the reason each site has its own smtp connector is because each
site has its own internet connection, and from a business perspective, the 3
sites are different (individually administered) companies. Each site has (and
acepts mail for) its own domain.
"Nathan" wrote:
How does it know which SMTP Connector to use? Are you talking about when
they're sending stuff to the Internet, or when they're sending stuff between
each other. No offense, but do you know the difference between an SMTP
Connector and an SMTP Virtual Server? I'm wondering if that's causing some
confusion in my ability to understand your issue.
Mail that goes between each server uses the SMTP Virtual Server that is on
each server (by default). So if I'm on ServerA and I send a message to
someone on ServerB, ServerA will connect to the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerB and deliver the message.
If I send a message to an SMTP address who's domain is not marked as being
owned by my Exchange Org (this is set in your recipient update policies as a
check mark that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all mail
delivery to this address"), then ServerA will do whatever it is configured to
do on the Delivery tab (Advanced button) of the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerA. By default, if ServerA (and its SMTP server) is configured to use
public DNS, then it will lookup the MX record for the recipient's domain, and
connect directly to it and deliver the message to their system.
I feel that I'm just explaining basic Exchange stuff here that you may
already know... Like I said, I'm having a hard time understanding what the
problem is so I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Oh, by the way, the fact that your three Exchange servers are in different
physical locations makes no difference to Exchange in the way you have it
setup. Sites in Active Directory have no impact on Exchange whatsoever, to
my knowledge. Sites define borders for AD replication, and Routing groups do
the same thing (relatively speaking) for Exchange.
Tell me, why is it that you have three SMTP Connectors created? What are
they configured to do? Are they handing off mail through different
connections to the Internet?
Here's what I understand from your explanations thus far...
You have 1 Routing Group, 3 Exchange Servers (and therefore 3 SMTP Virtual
Servers - one per server) in different locations (and I am assuming that they
are all connected to each other by dedicated network connections), and 1 SMTP
Connector on each server (which I don't know the purpose of yet).
I look forward to your response.
"schse01" wrote:
Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nathan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:58 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
|
|
OK, I think I get the picture now. So is your environment doing things that
you don't expect it to?
From what I understand of your environment, I would expect that the mail
from users/mailboxes on ServerA would *always* go out of the SMTP Connector
that runs off of the SMTP Virutal Server on ServerA...
Since you're asking the question though, I'm guessing that you're seeing
something different... So as an example, are the messages from a user on
ServerA being delivered to the outside via the SMTP Connector on ServerB? or
ServerC?
"schse01" wrote:
| Quote: | Hi Nathan,
I'll start by trying to confirm a few things. As you say, we have 1 routing
group, 3 Exchange servers (and 1 smtp virtual server on each server), and 1
smtp connector per server. 2 out of 3 smtp connectors forward all outbound
mail to another smarthost (relay server). The other smtp connector uses dns
to deliver mail. The 3 physical sites are connected via VPN only. There are
no dedicated (WAN) connections between the sites.
I guess I really want to understand "costs" better. As I understand it, each
smtp connector has an address space (in our case *), and an associated cost
for that address space. As there are 3 smtp connectors within the one routing
group, and they all have the same address space (*) and cost (1) configured,
there are 3 posible routes for a "SMTP" type message. i.e. for a cost of 1, a
message can go through any one of the 3 connectors to reach its destination
(say hotmail.com).
So, i want to know, how does it decide to use 1 connector over another when
they all "cost" the same?
Hope this makes sense.
Furthermore, the reason each site has its own smtp connector is because each
site has its own internet connection, and from a business perspective, the 3
sites are different (individually administered) companies. Each site has (and
acepts mail for) its own domain.
"Nathan" wrote:
How does it know which SMTP Connector to use? Are you talking about when
they're sending stuff to the Internet, or when they're sending stuff between
each other. No offense, but do you know the difference between an SMTP
Connector and an SMTP Virtual Server? I'm wondering if that's causing some
confusion in my ability to understand your issue.
Mail that goes between each server uses the SMTP Virtual Server that is on
each server (by default). So if I'm on ServerA and I send a message to
someone on ServerB, ServerA will connect to the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerB and deliver the message.
If I send a message to an SMTP address who's domain is not marked as being
owned by my Exchange Org (this is set in your recipient update policies as a
check mark that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all mail
delivery to this address"), then ServerA will do whatever it is configured to
do on the Delivery tab (Advanced button) of the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerA. By default, if ServerA (and its SMTP server) is configured to use
public DNS, then it will lookup the MX record for the recipient's domain, and
connect directly to it and deliver the message to their system.
I feel that I'm just explaining basic Exchange stuff here that you may
already know... Like I said, I'm having a hard time understanding what the
problem is so I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Oh, by the way, the fact that your three Exchange servers are in different
physical locations makes no difference to Exchange in the way you have it
setup. Sites in Active Directory have no impact on Exchange whatsoever, to
my knowledge. Sites define borders for AD replication, and Routing groups do
the same thing (relatively speaking) for Exchange.
Tell me, why is it that you have three SMTP Connectors created? What are
they configured to do? Are they handing off mail through different
connections to the Internet?
Here's what I understand from your explanations thus far...
You have 1 Routing Group, 3 Exchange Servers (and therefore 3 SMTP Virtual
Servers - one per server) in different locations (and I am assuming that they
are all connected to each other by dedicated network connections), and 1 SMTP
Connector on each server (which I don't know the purpose of yet).
I look forward to your response.
"schse01" wrote:
Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
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Nathan
Guest
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Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am Post subject:
Re: Determining least cost route. |
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Well, technically, it's not that way by default... when you create an SMTP
Connector in ESM you have to specify the "bridgeheads" (ie: SMTP Virtual
Servers) that it will use.
Anyway...
As for your example. I believe it would choose whichever one it reads from
the routing tables first. I doubt there would be any load balancing going on
in a situation like that. Fault-tolerance, yes, but definitely not load
balancing.
Keep asking questions though... keeps my brain working. :)
"schse01" wrote:
| Quote: | OK. I think I am getting there. Your comment about using "the SMTP connector
that runs off of the SMTP Virutal Server on ServerA" explains a bit. I didn't
realise that this occured by default.
So, what if there was no SMTP connector on server A? For example, there are
2 other servers in the routing group with equal costs that have an SMTP
Connector. If I send an internet email from Server A, and the SMTP connectors
are on servers B and C, which one will it use? Is it load balanced between
the 2?
Merry Christmas.
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
OK, I think I get the picture now. So is your environment doing things that
you don't expect it to?
From what I understand of your environment, I would expect that the mail
from users/mailboxes on ServerA would *always* go out of the SMTP Connector
that runs off of the SMTP Virutal Server on ServerA...
Since you're asking the question though, I'm guessing that you're seeing
something different... So as an example, are the messages from a user on
ServerA being delivered to the outside via the SMTP Connector on ServerB? or
ServerC?
"schse01" wrote:
Hi Nathan,
I'll start by trying to confirm a few things. As you say, we have 1 routing
group, 3 Exchange servers (and 1 smtp virtual server on each server), and 1
smtp connector per server. 2 out of 3 smtp connectors forward all outbound
mail to another smarthost (relay server). The other smtp connector uses dns
to deliver mail. The 3 physical sites are connected via VPN only. There are
no dedicated (WAN) connections between the sites.
I guess I really want to understand "costs" better. As I understand it, each
smtp connector has an address space (in our case *), and an associated cost
for that address space. As there are 3 smtp connectors within the one routing
group, and they all have the same address space (*) and cost (1) configured,
there are 3 posible routes for a "SMTP" type message. i.e. for a cost of 1, a
message can go through any one of the 3 connectors to reach its destination
(say hotmail.com).
So, i want to know, how does it decide to use 1 connector over another when
they all "cost" the same?
Hope this makes sense.
Furthermore, the reason each site has its own smtp connector is because each
site has its own internet connection, and from a business perspective, the 3
sites are different (individually administered) companies. Each site has (and
acepts mail for) its own domain.
"Nathan" wrote:
How does it know which SMTP Connector to use? Are you talking about when
they're sending stuff to the Internet, or when they're sending stuff between
each other. No offense, but do you know the difference between an SMTP
Connector and an SMTP Virtual Server? I'm wondering if that's causing some
confusion in my ability to understand your issue.
Mail that goes between each server uses the SMTP Virtual Server that is on
each server (by default). So if I'm on ServerA and I send a message to
someone on ServerB, ServerA will connect to the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerB and deliver the message.
If I send a message to an SMTP address who's domain is not marked as being
owned by my Exchange Org (this is set in your recipient update policies as a
check mark that says "This Exchange Organization is responsible for all mail
delivery to this address"), then ServerA will do whatever it is configured to
do on the Delivery tab (Advanced button) of the SMTP Virtual Server on
ServerA. By default, if ServerA (and its SMTP server) is configured to use
public DNS, then it will lookup the MX record for the recipient's domain, and
connect directly to it and deliver the message to their system.
I feel that I'm just explaining basic Exchange stuff here that you may
already know... Like I said, I'm having a hard time understanding what the
problem is so I want to make sure we're on the same page.
Oh, by the way, the fact that your three Exchange servers are in different
physical locations makes no difference to Exchange in the way you have it
setup. Sites in Active Directory have no impact on Exchange whatsoever, to
my knowledge. Sites define borders for AD replication, and Routing groups do
the same thing (relatively speaking) for Exchange.
Tell me, why is it that you have three SMTP Connectors created? What are
they configured to do? Are they handing off mail through different
connections to the Internet?
Here's what I understand from your explanations thus far...
You have 1 Routing Group, 3 Exchange Servers (and therefore 3 SMTP Virtual
Servers - one per server) in different locations (and I am assuming that they
are all connected to each other by dedicated network connections), and 1 SMTP
Connector on each server (which I don't know the purpose of yet).
I look forward to your response.
"schse01" wrote:
Hi!
Thanks Mark nd Nathan for your comments. I read the article you refered to.
Very interesting, although it doesn't help me understand my original problem,
which is this.
When I look at Winroute, and I can see all the address spaces (and costs)
for my (only) routing group, I have multiple entries for ADDRESS TYPE - SMTP
(3 to be exact). All 3 have a cost of 1, and an address space of 1.
So, how does my SMTP mail know which connector to use? The one in my local
site, or one of the other 2 in the remote sites??
Hope this all makes sense!
Thankyou again, in advance!
Sebastian
"Nathan" wrote:
I was only recommending it since he was curious about which server was doing
the sending... if he is, then he might want finer control over it. I built a
large 75 site environment, each having and exchange server and two
connections back to "corporate" datacenters, so I just don't feel at home
with out a few RGs around. :)
"Mark Arnold [MVP]" wrote:
On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:10:04 -0800, Nathan
Nathan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
The previous poster is referring you to good information, but I'd also
recommend setting up a routing group for each site, and then a connector (1
pointing each direction) between each site that has a physical connection to
another site. As the Exchange admin you should always take into
consideration the growth of your company, and having that infrastructure
already setup will ease the process in the future. It will also make it
pretty easy to tell where how and why e-mail is routed the way that it is
since you will completely control the routes. Just my two cents.
Has merit, but I'm not sold on the complexity. If there is a mesh
network then I wouldn't suggest this small an org has any need of the
RG's.
Personal preference I suppose.
Regards.
M
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