Why Cluster? What is a Cluster? What’s New? Planning. Administrative / Operational Practices.

1. MSG348
Best Practices For
Exchange Server Cluster
Deployments
Karl Robinson
Senior Systems Engineer
ISS Solutions Engineering
Hewlett-Packard Corporation

2. Agenda
Why Cluster
What is a Cluster
What’s New
Planning
Administrative / Operational Practices

3. Why Cluster
High Availability
What is it?
Availability versus Reliability
Benefits
Reduce single points of failure
Maintenance and upgrade
Doesn’t protect against
Shared storage failures
Network failures
Operational or procedural failures

4. What Is A Cluster?
Collection of physical servers that can
act as a single logical server
Requirements
Shared Storage
Same IP subnet

5. What Is A Cluster?
Collection of Resources
Physical Disk
IP Address
Network Name
Exchange Specific Resources
System Attendant
Information Store
Search
HTTP, IMAP4, POP3, SMTP Virtual Servers
Routing Service
MTA Instance

6. Cluster Resources
Cluster Support for Exchange 2000
Resources
Exchange 2000 Component Cluster Functionality Comments
System Attendant Active/Active Each Exchange Virtual Server is
created by the SA resource is
configured
Information Store Active/Active Each cluster node is limited to 4
storage groups
Message Transfer Agent Active/Passive The MTA will be in only one
cluster group. One MTA instance
per cluster
POP3, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP Active/Active Multiple virtual servers per node
DAV, NNTP
Connectors: MSMail, CC Active/Passive Not Supported in a Cluster
Mail, Profs, etc
Site Replication Service Active/Passive Not Supported in a Cluster
MS Search Server Active/Active One instance per virtual server
Key Management, Video, Active/Passive Not Supported in a Cluster
Chat, Conference, ADC

7. What Is A Cluster?

8. What’s New ?
Eight Node Support
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise and
Datacenter Editions
Active/Active only supported with 2 nodes
N Active Servers with Y passive Servers
(N+1, etc.)
Better economics
1+1 – 50% Standby
3+1 – 25% Standby
7+1 – 12.5% Standby
6+2 – 25% Standby

9. What’s New ?
Cluster Service Installation
Cluster Administrator installed by default
in Admin Tools
No need to install additional components
from disk for cluster service
New Server Cluster Wizard
Simplifies cluster installation
Analyses environment to determine
cluster feasibility

10. demo
New Server
Cluster Wizard

11. What’s New
Security
No longer need to make the cluster
service account an Exchange full admin
Support for Kerberos
Support for IPSEC (FE -> BE clustered
Exchange server)
Secure by default (POP and IMAP
resources will not longer be created
by default)

12. What’s New?
Faster Failover
Flattened dependency tree
Exchange 2000 Exchange 2003

13. What’s New?
Faster failover
Anti-affinity API
Strong anti-affinity means that groups will be
kept apart if possible
Find available nodes faster than in
Windows 2000
Quorum types
Local
Majority Node Set
Disk Resource (traditional)

14. What’s New?
File System Mount Points
Relief from drive letter limitation

15. What’s New?
Volume Shadow Copy Service
(VSS) support
Windows Server 2003
Supported snap/clone of
Exchange Databases
Supported by storage vendors

16. Active/Active and N+I
Active / Active
All nodes can have an active virtual server
A single node can have multiple active
virtual servers at the same time
Supported up to 2 nodes only
A single node cluster is considered A/A
N+I
At least 1 free node at any time
No more than 1 active virtual server per
node (enforced with 3 or more nodes)

17. demo
Exchange Server
2003 Virtual
Server Creation

18. Planning Clusters
Cluster Hardware
Storage Planning
Windows 2003 infrastructure
Naming Conventions
Service Account

19. Cluster Hardware
Ensure HCL compliance
Servers, Storage, HBAs, Drivers
Other high availability components
Redundant power supplies, flash ROM,
hot plug fans
Hot Plug PCI
Redundant HBAs, NICs, SCSI controllers
Advanced memory protection
Hot add RAM
Advanced ECC
Online Spare Memory

20. Cluster Hardware
Choose standard configurations
Keep cluster nodes at same patch level
Service Packs
Hot Fixes
Security Updates
Driver versions

21. Redundancy, Redundancy
Redundancy at all levels
Power
Network
Hardware
AD – Multiple GCs/DCs
DNS – Multiple DNS servers
Bridgehead servers

22. Storage Planning
Estimate storage requirements
#users? #quota required?
Use HP Storage Planning Calculator
Not to be taken lightly, especially
in a cluster
Use consistent naming for folders
and databases

23. Storage Planning
Component Folder Name
Exchange Binaries D:exchsrvrbin
Message Transfer Agent R:exchsrvrMTADATA
MTA Work Directory R:exchsrvrMTADATA
SMTP Mailroot R:exchsrvrmailroot
SG1 Transaction Logs S:exchsrvrSG1_TransLogs
Database folder T:exchsrvrSG1_MBDData
SG1 Mailstore1 T:exchsrvrSG1_MBDDataSG1Mailstore1.edb
T:exchsrvrSG1_MBDDataSG1Mailstore1.stm
SG1 Mailstore2 T:exchsrvrSG1_MBDDataSG1Mailstore2.edb
T:exchsrvrSG1_MBDDataSG1Mailstore2.stm

24. Storage Planning
Distribute components!
Use Q for quorum drive
Do not use Drive M: (hidden in Ex2003)
Use RAID 0+1 for databases
Use RAID 1 for transaction logs
Use RAID 1 for SMTP drop area,
Tracking Logs, and MTA

25. Storage Planning
Make sure the
System
Attendant is
dependent on
all disk
resources for
that virtual
server.

26. Windows Infrastructure
Infrastructure must understand
existence of Virtual Servers
Critical to success of any cluster
Redundancy, Redundancy
Implement multiple DC’s/GCs in same
site as cluster
Implement multiple DNS servers

27. Node Configuration
Deploy latest SP on each node
Correct network configuration on cluster
NIC’s
2 NICs
One set for Private, one set for Public and Private
Name your network connections
Do not configure a default gateway, DNS or WINS
on private NICs
Use Static IP addresses
Remove “Client for Microsoft Networks” and
“File and Printer Sharing” from private NICs

28. Node Configuration
NIC autodetect KB
174812
Do not use
Autodetect. Set media
type, duplex, speed &
flow control manually.
Set/Verify binding
order on NICs

29. Node Configuration
Set staggered boot delays on
each node
/3gb modification
/3gb /USERVA = 3030 for Windows
Server 2003
IP addresses
2 for each node – Public & Private NICs
1 for the cluster network name
1 for each Exchange Virtual Server

30. Naming Conventions

31. Service Account
Used by Windows Cluster Service
Do not logon with this account
unnecessarily
Use one service account per cluster
Use a consistent naming scheme
Delegate permissions to the cluster
account prior to installation
(Exchange 2000)

32. Other Practices
Test, Test, Test
Document
Train
Monitor
Third Party Products – ensure cluster
compatibility
Disaster Recovery

33. Summary
Clusters are not for everyone, but with new
versions of Windows and Exchange, you
may want to re-evaluate their use in your
organization.
The additional complexity must
be understood
Provide flexibility in administration
Contribute to HA if operated properly
http://www.hp.com/solutions/activeanswers
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/solutions/enterp
rise/highavailability/index.html

34. Exchange Community Resources
Exchange Community Web Page
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/community
Exchange Newsgroups
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/community/newsgroups
Attend A Free Chat Or Webcast
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/community/webcasts.asp
Some recent Exchange webcasts still available for viewing
Exchange 2003 Overview: http://www.microsoft.com/usa/Webcasts/
ondemand/1589.asp
Decide between Exchange 2000 & Exchange 2003:
http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/content/0,290959,
sid1_gci875523,00.html
Locate A Local User Group
http://microsoft.com/communities/usergroups/default.mspx

35. Suggested Reading And Resources
The tools you need to put technology to work!
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2003 Technical Reference: 0-
7356-1577-2
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36. © 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.