Exchange 2010 DAG Implementation
I was seriously considering writing a cool Exchange 2010 DAG implementation series but I just can’t justify the effort when a very good one already exists over at Shudnow’s Blog. Please see his 4 part series called “Exchange 2010 RTM DAG using Server 2008 R2″. You won’t regret it. I will update this post as I find issues with DAG that is not addressed in Shudnow’s post.
Upgrade Exchange 2003 Default Address Policy & Address Lists to Exchange 2010
So here’s the kicker. What are you doing with these commands and WHY? One of my pet peeves is to read information on the Internet and nobody can tell me why I need to do something in order to make it work. I don’t have the exact answer but I have a firm idea. Exchange 2007 and later uses OPATH filtering syntax as opposed to LDAP filtering syntax. This is not clearly explained here but it is a good reference and the code can be copied directly from this Technet page. These commands are for the DEFAULT address lists. Here is another link that explains custom Address Lsit conversion. I suspect that this is why the Office Filter Pack is required on Exchange 2010 servers.
I got most the guidance I need off Andy Grogan’s post over at TelnetPort25.
In order toedit an email address policy created by Exchange 2003 after installing Exchange 2010, a powershell command must be used to enable Exchange 2010 to manipulate this policy. In actuality, the Email Policies and Address Lists are converted.
[PS] C:\>Set-EmailAddressPolicy “Default Policy” -IncludedRecipients AllRecipients
In the command above, I am CONVERTING the Default Policy to Exchange 2010. It would be best to change this policy once the Exchange 2003 servers have been decommissioned or all the mail objects have been moved to Exchange 2010. Read more »
External HA failover in multiple Internet facing Exchange 2010 sites
[Updated: 03/27/2010]
SCENARIO
Here’s the scenario faced at a client site. They wanted the configuration below (it was simplified to discuss failover options).
NOTE: This is a discussion around external connectivity without any form of VPN or other secure connection to the corporate network. It is purely an external client connection.
Configuring IE Enhanced Security Configuration on Windows 2008 R2
What’s the most annoying “feature” that is enabled by default on a server? IE security. of course it’s Best Practice not to allow servers to acceess the Internet where possible. However, where servers need to access the Internet, a well – htought out strategy should be employed. I just deployed a few Windows 2008 R2 servers in my lab and thought I need to blog this as it was annoying me. Here’s a quick way to turn it off: Read more »
Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 3
NOTE: Before configuring anything after the deployment of the CAS server roles, remember that if any send or receive connectors are configured, these would supersede the configured Exchange 2003 connectors or they would take precedence over the default SMTP virtual server in Exchange 2003 if no connectors are configured at all. My recommendation would be to install the mailbox server roles and create mail databases before performing any CAS configuration tasks.
The following steps should be performed to specify the CAS Array. All this does is specify the connection point to the client. The virtual IP address of the NLB servers will be used as a connection point for MAPI clients.
The CAS Array can be set by opening the Exchange Management Shell and typing the following command:
New-ClientAccessArray –Name “MAPI Client Connection Point” –Fqdn “Outlook.Morecoffeeany1.com” –Site “Default-First-Site-Name” Read more »
Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 2
Before using the NLB cluster for Exchange, the NICs should be able to forward requests between each other. This is achieved by running the following command on the cluster NICs on each node of the cluster:
netsh interface ipv4 set int “Cluster Only LAN” forwarding=enabled
The reason for this configuration is as clear as mud at this stage. However, I assume that it has to do with the fact that the cluster only interface does not have a gateway configured for the connection. This connection functions on a broadcast anyway. According to the Microsoft Enterprise Networking Team, the packet will be dropped since IP forwarding is not enabled by default in Windows 2008 and the inbound packet comes in without a subnet mask.
Now we’re ready to install Exchange 2010. First I’ll run the ExPDA to check the environment for the Exchange 2010 prerequisites. If you’re not sure how download and use the ExPDA, check my earlier blog post on how to do this.
Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 1
UPDATE: 07/12/2011
Since this has been a topic of debate, I’ve added an additional network diagram (not one generated in my lab) so that it may become a little clearer as to how NLB works. The understanding for this network configuration comes directly from Michael Platts’ blog post: Balancing Act: Dual-NIC Configuration with Windows Server 2008 NLB Clusters.
I know I’ve been pretty offline regarding this blog but I fully intend to jump start it soon.
This post was created using Joe Hoegler’s post as a guide. All Exchange 2010 client access to mailboxes and other resources go through the CAS server. Clients no longer connect to the Exchange server directly for anything. With this said, it makes sense to build CAS servers in an HA configuration. This article was created to detail the steps required to create a load balanced CAS / HT server using Windows Network Load Balancing.
Before deploying the NLB configuration, the following should be carefully considered:
“You achieve load balancing for Hub Transport servers when you install more than one Hub Transport server in the same Active Directory site. By default, connections to Hub Transport servers are automatically load balanced if more than one Hub Transport server is deployed in an Active Directory site. If one Hub Transport server is unavailable, the operational Hub Transport servers continue to accept connections. If all Hub Transport servers in an Active Directory site are unavailable, messages are queued until a Hub Transport server becomes available or the messages expire.
Load balancing of outbound connections to remote domains is achieved by specifying more than one Hub Transport server in the same Active Directory site as a source server for the corresponding Send connector. Load balancing doesn’t occur when the source servers for a Send connector are located in different Active Directory sites.
Note:
If the Hub Transport server is installed on the same hardware as the Mailbox server role, load balancing may not occur. When the Hub Transport server role is on the same hardware as the Mailbox server role, the local server is preferred for all messages that are sent by users who have mailboxes on that server. Therefore, in this scenario, true load balancing does not occur.” Taken from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125239.aspx
Requirements
Two or more servers running Windows 2008 R2 (earlier version do have NLB built in but for this blog entry, I will be using Windows 2008 R2). Ideally each server will be configured with two NICs. One for client access and one for the cluster heartbeat. NLB requires all IPs to be on the same network.
Notes on Hyper-V
Exchange 2010 RTM: 10 things about Archiving
- Can only be accessed via Outlook 2010 and OWA 2010. (What about mobile devices?)
- Archive appears as a separate node in the Outlook interface. Items can be dragged and dropped in both directions. The import process is drag and drop through Outlook, no other way.
- There is a separate disk quota setting for the size of the email archive.
- Requires eCAL
- Drag and drop PST to archive. ExMerge is not supported.
- Only difference between main mailbox and archive is that archive cannot be accessed offline.
- Mailbox and mailbox archive has to be stored on the same mailbox server. (What about the database?)
- Mailbox search searches primary mailbox and archive mailbox node.
- No compression used on archived mailboxes.
- Archive dB can be part of a DAG.
Exchange 2010 RTM: DAG software requirements
I recently had my lab trashed. This is really a blessing in disguise. I decided to bring my lab in-house (literally). I was using space in a friend’s lab when his disk array decided to quit. Since then, I’ve acquire a shiny new Shuttle SP45H7. I’ve decided to face the challenge and build a sweet new Hyper-V lab and get on with it. I did encounter a few drawbacks so far. I purchased a really sweet video adapter card (MSI – R4350). Unfortunately there are only two PCI-E slots and the fan on the adapter card overlaps the second PCI slot. This means that I can only use the onboard NIC. Setting up Hyper-V with one NIC only will pose problems when attempting to simulate multiple subnets. I will require multiple subnets to accommodate a cool Exchange 2010 DAG setup.
Now that I’ve decided to test DAG and its features, I started doing a little research on the requirements and was surprised to learn that both Exchange 2010 Enterprise and Standard are supported for DAG.
Here are the software requirements according to Microsoft (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638104.aspx)
Exchange: Windows Mobile 6.0 Emulator Lab Configuration
Mobile Emulator
I think I spent more time than I should have on this particular test. Finally, I got it working as designed. What I’ve captured here are the general steps to be followed when configuring Windows Mobile ActiveSync tests in the lab. Before deciding to use this emulator in a test, remember that the emulator cannot simulate true Cellular connectivity. It can only test ActiveSync connectivity via the network.
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Recent
- Exchange 2010 Cross Forest Migration: The case of the missing User Account Attributes
- Exchange 2010 Cross-Forest (Cross-org) Client Migration Planning
- Vonage – Firewall
- Exchange 2010 SP1 (Beta)
- Exchange 2010 RTM: ActiveSync and the Personal Archive
- Exchange 2010 DAG Implementation
- Upgrade Exchange 2003 Default Address Policy & Address Lists to Exchange 2010
- External HA failover in multiple Internet facing Exchange 2010 sites
- Configuring IE Enhanced Security Configuration on Windows 2008 R2
- Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 3
- Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 2
- Building NLB Exchange 2010 RTM CAS / HT Servers (Hyper-V) – Part 1
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Links
- Belgium Exchange Pro's
- D Golman's Blog – Exchange Escalation Engineer
- Joe Richard's AD Site
- Eric Walter's Exchange Blog
- Harold Wong's Blog
- Exchange Server Team (You Had Me At EHLO)
- Steve Thompson – ConfigManager MVP
- My LinkedIn Profile
- Chris and Robin's Technology Blog
- Jeff Guilet's Expta Blog
- Hugh Marlor's AllUnified Blog
- Elan Shudnow's Blog
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