Configure Cluster and Exchange 2003
Cluster and Exchange 2003 Configuration Consulting Services
Clustering your Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000
Server systems can provide the high availability that's so important
for a business-critical email application. If you're considering
clustering Exchange, you can take several steps to improve your
deployment, such as getting cluster-specific
training, planning ahead, building extra redundancy into the
cluster, and deploying a solid Windows
infrastructure before building the cluster. Avidware can provide
Exchange 2003 Cluster Configuration and Training to help get your
business up and running.
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Configuring Cluster and Exchange 2003
Exchange 2003 Clustering
Clusters are more
complex than single-server Exchange 2003 deployments, so you need
training that focuses on clustering concepts and operations such as the
quorum, failover/failback operations, and using Cluster Administrator.
You also need to understand the requirements of clustering-hardware
configurations. For example, shared storage must be accessible to all
nodes, so you must correctly configure any hardware that manages storage
connections (e.g., array controllers, Storage Area Network—SAN—switches)
to avoid contention or corruption of databases. Attention to detail is
necessary to ensure that you correctly install Windows before installing
Exchange and that you install and configure Exchange in the correct
sequence to work on a cluster—a process that differs significantly from
installing Exchange on one server.
For the latest information about
Exchange 2003 Clustering
Exchange 2003 Clustering Setup
To install a two-node, active/passive cluster, you need to perform
the following tasks in sequence:
- Run Exchange Setup on node 1.
- Run Exchange Setup on node 2.
- Create a cluster group for the Exchange Virtual Server (EVS).
- Move disk resources that the EVS will use to the Exchange
cluster group.
- Create the resources that the EVS requires (e.g., Microsoft
Distributed Transaction Coordinator—MSDTC—an IP Address resource, a
Network Name resource).
- Create a System Attendant resource for the EVS. As part of this
step, you must supply the name of the EVS, the administrative group
and routing group in which the EVS will reside, and a shared-storage
folder in which Exchange will create and store its databases,
transaction logs, and SMTP folders at installation.
- Cluster Administrator automatically creates Exchange cluster
resources for the EVS (e.g., the Information Store—IS; HTTP and IMAP
servers for the virtual server; the required dependencies for the IP
Address and Network Name resources).
- Use Exchange System Manager (ESM) to relocate the Exchange
components (i.e., databases, transaction logs, and SMTP folders) to
shared-storage drives or folders, according to established best
practices. Exchange needs to be able to access these resources from
each node as the EVS fails over.
For the latest information about
Exchange 2003 Clustering Setup
