Re: Opinions on Exhange server hardware/design

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If more mailboxes we're needed in the future, could another server with
exchange be placed on the network? How does this work exactly? For instance,
licensing the software. Is this considered a cluster or a member server?



"Asher_N" <ashernat@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns983DEA6A776141203214562@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Ryan M" <unrespected@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
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I don't think we will go larger than 250 meg mailboxes. Even at 200
users that would only be 2/3 of the standard edition store. This
should work fine now. Does standard edition allow splitting the
message store on to multiple volumes?



No split on standard. I'd go with enterprise.


There isn't currently a Blackberry server in place. I have heard/read
we could get this functionality with windows mobile 5.0 devices (Push
email/calendar/contacts). If we did decide on BES however, where
should this go. I'm a little confused as far as what a design would
look like and what should be seperated onto different servers.

Should there be a backend server with exchange on it that is basically
just for the mailboxes? And then another server that handles the
active directory/domain controller functions and other services, maybe
BES? How does the GCs work in this.


Exchange on it's own. I'd have 2 DCs. I personnally like having DCs only
as DCs. You also load DNS, DHCP and WINS services on them. If budget is
an issue, you can use a DC for file services.

Install BES on it's own machine. A low power server will do. 3GHZ Xeon,
2-4 Gig will do. Mirrorred 200GB SATA drives and you're fine. You could
get away with running DC on it.

My personal design would be:
1) DC, DNS, DHCP, WINS, GC
2) DC, DNS, WINS, GC
3) Exchange
4) BES
5) file and print

The only thing to make absolutely sure of is that Exchange is all alone
on it's server.



So what I'm thinking now for exchange is a dual processor system with
4 gigs of ram, with the system files raid1, the transactions logs
raid1 and the message store on 3 75 gig hard drives raid5. And then
another server, which I'm not sure on configuration hardware and
software wise. WOuld this require another server2003 license?



I'd go raid1 on the store as well.


DCs could be single P4/Xeon with 2 GB
BES could be P4 with 2GB




Are there any suggested configurations or white papers that chart what
a design would like visually even if it doesn't match completely our
size/needs?





-Ryan





"Bharat Suneja [MVP]" <bharatsuneja@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:#tq7RTe1GHA.4388@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Responses inline.

--
Bharat Suneja
MVP - Exchange
www.zenprise.com
NEW blog location:
www.exchangepedia.com/blog
----------------------------------------------


"Ryan M" <unrespected@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eax$S$c1GHA.772@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm at a company that wants to move over to exchange from a linux
pop server. We don't have anyone currently with Exchange
experience. Do you think it would be possible to get an
installation going without hiring someone on and learn as we go?
I'm interested in learning but admittedly have no server
experience.

Microsoft.com/exchange has plenty of info for getting started.

Introduction to Exchange Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/ex2003intro.mspx
Getting Started section on TechCenter

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/gettingstart
ed.ms px
Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/mess
syst. mspx

Books:
- MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-284): Implementing and
Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 - geared for the Exchange
2003 MCP test but a good hands-on getting started book, imo.
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Distilled - Schott Schnoll
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24seven - Jim McBee

You could also take the 2400 course at a Microsoft CPLS
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/syllabi/en-us/2400cfinal.mspx

Setup a test lab - Virtual Server 2005 is free. You can setup a
decent lab on a single box with adequate RAM.





Currently we are around 60 people. Calendaring, email, and possibly
a Blackberry enterprise server are the goals. Most of the employees
are on windows machines, but there are a number of Mac users that
the engineers and
designers use.

Do you already have Blackberry devices deployed? If not, I would
recommend testing Windows Mobile devices as well. WM5.0 devices
(check for MSFP/AKU 2.0 availability for devices) will let you use
Exchange Server 2003 DirectPush, and may lower your costs compared to
a Blackberry deployment which requires a separate server.


I'm curious if we could get away with Server/exhange standard
edition, keeping in mind that we are expanding. Will we be able to
pass the 100, 150
or even get up to the 200 user mark with this version.

Exchange Server 2003 Std. Edition doesn't limit you to number of
users.
The
Store (post-SP2) can grow to 75 Gigs. It'll depend on how large you
want
the
mailboxes to grow. Enterprise Edition gives you Stores with no
hard-coded limit on size, as well as multiple Storage Groups &
Stores.


If we did get too big
later on, then move to enterprise?

You can always upgrade from Std Edition to Enterprise. It's a
seamless/no pain upgrade. You can create additional Storage Groups so
Store can be "split" into multiple mailbox Stores and distributed
over different
volumes.
This lets you maintain the disk I/O required for more users. A single
server
can scale up to thousands of users provided you have correctly sized
storage, which is perhaps the most critical component of Exchange as
far
as
performance goes.


Could we get away with one domain
controller?
At least 2 GCs are recommended. Virtual Machines can be considered
for
DC/GC
roles, particularly additional ones for redundancy.

What would be a good practice as far as back ups or redundancy?
The Disaster Recovery Ops Guide provides plenty of guidance.
Recommended.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/disr
ecopg de.mspx



And then as far as hardware, what would be some suggestions that
would scale
well. I know we would be maxed at 4gigs of ram, I have recieved a
suggestion
for a motherboard that supports dual processors. I got another
suggestion
for 1 hard drive to install all the server/exhange files on in raid
1 configuration. Then three 75 gig hard drives in raid 5
configuration for the
echange mail boxes. Does this sound about right? Any suggestions
for hardware or better ideas?

To scale, you need to determine what component(s) is becoming a
bottleneck.
With 2-4 processors and 4 Gigs (max allowed), Storage will be your
moving target.
To start with, you need another volume - preferably RAID1, to locate
transaction logs.

Further scale can be achieved by adding more spindles (drives). In
many cases this means multiple Storage Groups - databases from
different
Storage
Groups are located on separate volumes, increasing available disk
I/O.

Performance and Scalability Guide for Exchange Server 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/E2k3Perf_S
calGu ide/e2279cc7-9e38-49e7-a8f1-bfcb03ea4f55.mspx?mfr=true












.

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