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
-
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
-
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
Visitor Locations
