Installing, Configuring and Testing an Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) Based Mail

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2010-01-14, 04:30 PM
patris1

Installing, Configuring and Testing an Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) Based Mail

[LEFT][CODE]http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Installing-Configuring-Testing-Exchange-2007-Cluster-Continuous-Replication-Based-Mailbox-Server-Part1.html[/CODE]
[SIZE=3][B]
PART-1[/B][/SIZE]

[B]Introduction[/B]

Exchange Server 2007 introduces several new high availability features, one of them is the Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) feature. This feature takes the new Exchange Server 2007 Log file shipping and replay features and combines them with the features that are available in a more traditional 2 node Windows 2003 active/passive cluster setup. A traditional 2 node active/passive cluster certainly has its benefits, but it also has one major drawback and that is you still have a single point of failure when it comes to Exchange databases.
[B]Prerequisites[/B]

In order to follow the steps throughout this article series, you need the following:

[LIST][*] A Windows 2003 Active Directory forest with at least one Domain Controller (raised to 2000 or 2003 forest functional level). [*] Two Windows 2003 Server R2 Enterprise Editions or Windows 2003 Server SP1 Enterprise Editions.[*] One Windows File share Witness (MS recommends this to be an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Server in the existing Exchange 2007 organization)

[/LIST]
[B]Note
[/B]Remember to apply the update mentioned in [URL="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921181"]MS KB article 921181[/URL] to both servers that will act as nodes in the Exchange Server 2007 Clustered Mailbox setup. The update adds a new file share witness feature to the current Majority Node Set (MNS) quorum model. The file share witness feature lets you use a file share that is external to the cluster as an additional "vote" to determine the status of the cluster in a two-node MNS quorum cluster deployment, which is a requirement in order to make use of the cluster continuous replication (or CCR in short) functionality in Exchange Server 2007.

In addition to the above prerequisites you should be aware of the following general requirements as well:

[LIST][*] When dealing with CCR environments you must use/can only use one database per storage group.[*] You cannot create a public folder database in a CCR environment if you already have more than one public folder database in your organization.[*]You can create up to 50 storage groups and 50 databases on a CCR cluster. Bear in mind though, that you should create only one database per storage group.[*]The cluster in which Exchange 2007 is installed cannot contain Exchange Server 200x, or any version of Microsoft SQL Server. Running Exchange 2007 in a cluster with any of these other applications is not supported.[/LIST]
[B]Warning
[/B]Since Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2 isn’t supported in a production environment, unless you’re participating in the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) or Technology Adopter Program (TAP), you should install the mailbox cluster in a test domain.

[B]Configuring the Network Settings for the Cluster nodes[/B]

When you start the servers that are to be the nodes in the cluster, start by naming the machines [B]E2K7Node1[/B] and [B]E2K7Node2[/B] or whatever naming scheme you want to use (these names have nothing to do with the Exchange server name which your clients will be configured to connect to later on). Now name the two network connections [B]Public[/B] and [B]Private[/B] for the external and the internal network respectively (remember to do this on both nodes).
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0011159957429765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 1:[/B] Network Connections
Click [B]Advanced[/B] > [B]Advanced Settings[/B], if it’s not already the case, make sure Public is listed first on the binding order list, then [B]Private[/B] and lastly [B]Remote Access Connections[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0021159957429765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 2:[/B] Binding order
Before Exchange 2007 SP1 released, it was also recommended to disable File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks for the private network as shown in Figure 3. However, when SP1 released this guidance changed, since Exchange 2007 SP1 introduced a new cmdlet named Enable-ContinuousReplicationHostName. This cmdlet makes it possible to specify over which network log files should be ship and seeded. So no matter whether you deploy CCR on Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 based servers, please don’t disable File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks for the private network.

[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0031159957429765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 3: [/B]Disabling File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
Configure the [B]Public network[/B] with the respective network settings you use in your test environment.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0041159957542093.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 4:[/B] Configuring the Public network
Configure the [B]Private network[/B] with an IP address and a subnet mask. Nothing else is required since this network is only used for communication (heartbeats) between the nodes in the cluster.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0051159957542109.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 5:[/B] Configuring the Private network
Now click[B] Advanced[/B] then select the [B]DNS[/B] tab. Here you should untick both [B]Register this connection's addresses in DNS [/B]and [B]Use this connection's DNS suffix[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0061159957542109.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 6:[/B] Configuring DNS settings for the Private network
Click the [B]WINS[/B] tab. Untick [B]Enable LMHOSTS lookup[/B] and select [B]Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0071159957677953.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 7:[/B] Configuring WINS settings for the Private network
Click [B]OK[/B] three times and close the network connections window.
Now add both Windows 2003 Servers as member servers in your Active Directory test domain.

[B]Creating and Configuring the Windows 2003 Server Cluster[/B]

Now that the two servers are ready to act as nodes in a Windows 2003 cluster, it’s time to create the actual Windows 2003 Server Cluster. In order to do so logon to [B]E2K7Node1[/B] with a Domain admin account, then click [B]Start [/B]> [B]Administrative Tools[/B] > [B]Cluster Administrator[/B], and select[B] Create new cluster [/B]in the drop-down box. Now click[B] OK[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0081159957677968.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 8:[/B] Creating a new cluster
[B]Note[/B]
You can also open a command prompt and type [B]Cluster.exe /create /wizard[/B] in order to start the cluster wizard.
Click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0091159957677968.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 9:[/B] Cluster Wizard
Specify the domain name as well as the cluster name (name for the Windows 2003 cluster [B]NOT[/B] the Exchange cluster name which the clients will connect to), then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0101159957825734.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 10: [/B]Cluster Name and Domain
Type the name of the Windows 2003 server that is to be the first node in the cluster, in this case[B] E2K7Node1[/B], then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0111159957825765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 11: [/B]Adding the First Cluster Node
Let the cluster wizard determine the cluster configuration and click [B]Next[/B].
[B]Note
[/B]You can ignore the two warnings in Figure 12, since the nodes in a cluster continuous replication based mailbox server setup aren’t going to share the same disk subsystem.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0121159957825765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 12:[/B] Analyzing Cluster Configuration
Now enter the IP address that the cluster management tools should use to connect to the cluster, in this case [B]10.10.1.216[/B], then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0131159957931343.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 13:[/B] Specifying the IP address the Cluster Management Tools should connect to
Enter the credentials of the cluster service account (When speaking test environments I’m often too lazy to create a specific cluster service account and instead tend to use the Administrator account which will have the appropriate permissions) and click [B]Next.[/B]
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0141159957931343.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 14:[/B] Entering the credentials of the Cluster Service Account
Now click [B]Quorum[/B] and select [B]Majority Node Set[/B] as the resource type, then click [B]Ok[/B] and [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0151159957931343.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 15:[/B] Proposed Cluster Configuration
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0161159958047390.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 16:[/B] Setting Majority Node Set as the Resource Type
Now wait for the cluster to be configured, then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0171159958047406.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 17:[/B] Creating the Cluster
When the cluster has been completed successfully you can click [B]Finish. [/B]
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0181159958047406.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 18:[/B] Cluster Wizard Successfully Completed
We now have a full working Windows 2003 cluster running, but since there’s only one node it’s not very fault tolerant. So let’s add the second Windows 2003 server too. We can do this by right-clicking [B]E2K7Node1[/B] in the left pane of the Cluster Administrator, then selecting [B]New[/B] > [B]Node[/B] as shown in [B]Figure 19[/B] below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image020a1159958276703.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 19:[/B] Adding a second node to the Cluster
The [B]Add Nodes Wizard[/B] will launch and you can click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0211159958276703.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 20:[/B] Add Nodes Wizard
Enter the name of the server that is going to be the second node (in this case [B]E2K7Node2[/B]), then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0221159958276703.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 21:[/B] Entering the name of the second node
Again let the [B]Add Notes Wizard[/B] determine the cluster configuration, then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0231159958390359.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 22:[/B] Analyzing Cluster Configuration
Enter the password for the cluster service account (in this case the Administrator account), then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0241159958390359.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 23:[/B] Entering the password for the Cluster Service Account
When you are verified, you want to add the second node to the cluster with the configuration shown in [B]Figure 24[/B], click[B] Next.[/B]
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0251159958390375.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 24: [/B]Proposed Cluster Configuration for node 2
When the cluster has been configured properly without any errors or warnings, click [B]Next.[/B]
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0261159958510625.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 25:[/B] Cluster is configured for the second node
When the[B] Add Notes [/B]Wizard has completed successfully, click[B] Finish[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0271159958510625.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 26:[/B] Completing the Add Nodes Wizard
The second Windows server is now part of the cluster as can be seen in [B]Figure 27[/B] below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image029a1159958510640.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 27:[/B] Cluster Administrator with two nodes
Alright we have reached the end of part one, but you can look forward to part two of this article series in the near future. Until then have a nice one!

[/LEFT]
2010-01-14, 04:31 PM
patris1

[LEFT][CODE]http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Installing-Configuring-Testing-Exchange-2007-Cluster-Continuous-Replication-Based-Mailbox-Server-Part2.html[/CODE]

[SIZE=3][B]PART-2[/B][/SIZE]

[B]Introduction[/B]

In part one of this article series we went through the installation of the Windows 2003 cluster. In this second article we’ll install the Windows components required by Exchange Server 2007 as well as configure the Majority Node Set (MNS) Quorum with File Share Witness. Finally we’ll finish off by enabling and configuring the transport dumpster on the Hub Transport server in the Active Directory site.
[B]Installing the necessary Windows Components[/B]

Before we move on and try to install the Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2 bits, we need to make sure the required Windows components have been installed. All types of Exchange Server 2007 installations (no matter what server role we're talking about) needs the [B]Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 component[/B] installed.
[B]Note[/B]
If you have installed Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 on the nodes, you need to download the [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en"]Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)[/URL], since it’s only a standard Windows component when speaking Windows Server 2003 R2.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0011162220767765.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 27:[/B] Installing the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Component
Since we’re installing the Mailbox Server role in the cluster, we also need to install the below IIS 6.0 components:

[LIST][*][B]Enable network COM+ access [/B][*][B]Internet Info[/B][B]rmation Services [/B][*][B]World Wide Web Service [/B][/LIST]
[B]Note[/B]
Remember to install these components on both cluster nodes.

[B]Configuring the Majority Node Set (MNS) Quorum with File Share Witness[/B]

I bet some of you are thinking: [I]What the heck is a Majority Node Set (MNS) Quorum with File Share Witness?[/I] And I understand why as this is a completely new type of quorum model, which is made available by installing the update ([URL="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921181"]MS KB article 921181[/URL]) mentioned in the beginning of this article series. The update makes it possible to make use of a file share witness that is external to the cluster as an additional "vote" to determine the status of the cluster in a two-node MNS quorum cluster deployment, which is a requirement in order to make use of the cluster continuous replication (or CCR in short) functionality in Exchange Server 2007.
The file share for this file share witness can be located on any type of Windows Server in your environment, but best practice is to use an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Server in the Active Directory server site containing the nodes in the respective cluster. We’ll also use a Hub Transport Server in this article series.
The first thing you need to do is to create the file share on the Hub Transport server. You can do this either via the CLI or by using the GUI. In this article we’ll do so using the GUI. So log on to the Hub Transport server with a domain admin account, then open Windows Explorer and create a new folder called [B]MNS_FSQ_E2K7CLUSTER[/B] on the [B]C:[/B] drive or wherever you want it to be created.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image002a1162220767796.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 28:[/B] Majority Node Set File Share Quorum folder
Now take [B]Properties[/B] for the newly created folder, and click [B]Sharing[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0031162220767796.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 29:[/B] Majority Node Set File Share Quorum Folder Share
Click [B]Permissions[/B] and configure the share permissions so only the [B]Administrator[/B] (or the Cluster Service Account if created) are allowed access to the share.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0041162220968718.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 30: [/B]Share Permissions for Majority Node Set File Share Quorum folder
Click [B]OK[/B] then select the [B]Security[/B] tab.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0051162220968718.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 31: [/B]Security permissions to the Majority Node Set File Share Quorum folder
Here you should give [B]Full Control[/B] to the local administrator and the domain administrator account or cluster service account. Make sure you untick [B]Allow inheritable permissions from the parent to propagate to this object and all child objects [/B]when doing so, then click [B]OK[/B] twice and log off the server.
Back on [B]E2K7Node1 [/B]you should set the Majority Node Set Private Property attribute to point to the file share we just created, we do so by opening a command prompt then issuing the following command:
[B][I]Cluster res “Majority Node Set” /priv MNSFileShare=\\EDFS03\MNS_FSQ_E2K7CLUSTER
[/I][/B]
[B]Note
[/B]Make sure to replace server name so it matches the name of the Hub Transport Server in your environment.
You will get a warning that all properties were stored but not all changes will take effect until the next time the resource is brought online, just like it’s shown in [B]Figure 32[/B] below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image007a1162220968718.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 32: [/B]Configuring the Majority Node Set on E2K7Node1

In order to force all changes to take effect, we will move the cluster group from one node to the other (will take the cluster group offline and online again). Do this using the below command:
[B][I]Cluster Group “Cluster Group” /Move[/I][/B]

When you have done so you will see that the cluster group is now online on [B]E2K7Node2[/B], as is the case in [B]Figure 33[/B] below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image009a1162222152265.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 33:[/B] Moving the cluster group from one node to the other
Now let’s verify the 7Priv property is set correctly, this can be done by issuing the below command:
[B][I]Cluster Res “Majority Node Set” /Priv[/I][/B]
As you can see in Figure 34 below, this property has been set correctly for the purpose of this article series.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image011a1162222152265.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 34: [/B]Verifying the property of /Priv is set correctly
[B]Configuring the Transport Dumpster[/B]

When using a CCR in your environment you should consider to configure the transport dumpster on the Hub Transport Server. Microsoft recommends that you configure the [B][I]MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup[/I][/B] parameter, which specifies the maximum size of the transport dumpster queue for each storage group, to a size that is 1.25 times the size of the maximum message that can be sent. For example, if the maximum size for messages is 10 megabytes (MB), you should configure the [B][I]MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup[/I][/B] parameter with a value of 12.5 MB. In addition they recommend you configure the [B][I]MaxDumpsterTime[/I][/B] parameter, which specifies how long an e-mail message should remain in the transport dumpster queue, to a value of 07.00:00:00, which is 7 days. This amount of time is sufficient to allow for an extended outage to occur without loss of e-mail. When using the transport dumpster feature, additional disk space is needed on the Hub Transport server to host the transport dumpster queues. The amount of storage space required is roughly equal to the value of [B][I]MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup[/I][/B] multiplied by the number of storage groups.
You use the [B]Set-TransportConfig[/B] CMDlet to enable and configure the Transport Dumpster. So in order to, for example, configure the maximum size of the dumpster per storage group to 25 MB with a dumpster life of 10 days, you would need to run the following command:
[B][I]Set-TransportConfig -MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup 25MB -MaxDumpsterTime 10.00:00:00[/I][/B] In order to see the [B][I]MaxDumpsterSizePerStorageGroup [/I][/B]and [B][I]MaxDumpsterTime [/I][/B]configuration settings, you can type [B][I]Get-TransportConfig [/I][/B]as I did in the figure below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image012a1162222152265.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 35:[/B] Transport Configuration Settings
Alright we have reached the end of part two in this article series, but fear not you can look forward to seeing part three being published here on MSExchange.org in the very near future.

[/LEFT]
2010-01-14, 04:32 PM
patris1

[LEFT][CODE]http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Installing-Configuring-Testing-Exchange-2007-Cluster-Continuous-Replication-Based-Mailbox-Server-Part3.html[/CODE]

[SIZE=3][B]PART-3[/B][/SIZE]

[B]Introduction[/B]

In part two of this articles series we installed the necessary Windows components, enabled and configured the Majority Node Set (MNS) Quorum with File Share Witness as well as the transport dumpster on the Hub Transport Server. In this part three we’ll install Exchange Server 2007 on both nodes in the Windows 2003 cluster. We’ll then finish off by verifying that the CCR functionality works as expected.
[B]Installing the Active Clustered Mailbox Role on E2K7Node1[/B]

It’s time to install the Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2 bits on each node, we’ll start with [B]E2K7Node1[/B]. First, if you haven’t already done so, I recommend you copy the Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2 binaries to a drive locally on each node. When you have done so double-click [B]Setup.com.[/B]
[B][IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image001a1164035002859.JPG[/IMG]
Figure 36:[/B] Launching Exchange Setup
The Exchange Server 2007 Installation Wizard will start, and as you can see [B]Step 1: Install .NET Framework 2.0[/B] and [B]Step 2: Install Microsoft Management Console (MMC)[/B] have already been completed.
[B]Note[/B]
If you have installed Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 on each node, you need to download Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 and install it manually (by following the link in [B]Step 2[/B]). But since I’m using Windows 2003 R2 Servers in my test environment, the MMC 3.0 is installed by default.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image002a1164035002859.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 37:[/B] Exchange Server 2007 Installation Menu
As you can see we still need to complete [B]Step 3: Install Microsoft Command Shell (MSH)[/B], before we can start installing Exchange. Therefore click the link to download MSH then unzip and install it.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0031164035002859.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 38:[/B] Installing Microsoft Command Shell (MSH)

The Exchange Server 2007 Installation Wizard should refresh automatically, so now click [B]Install Microsoft Exchange[/B]. Click [B]Next[/B] then accept the [B]License Agreement[/B] and [B]Next[/B] once again. Decide whether you want to enable Error Reporting or not (a good idea to enable this functionality since the Exchange Product Group will receive any obscure errors you should experience in your cluster setup) then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image004a1164035232859.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 39:[/B] Enabling Error Reporting
Now select [B]Custom Exchange Server Installation[/B] then click [B]Next.[/B]
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image005a1164035232859.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 40:[/B] Selecting a custom Exchange Server installation
Tick [B]Active Clustered Mailbox Role[/B] and click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image006a1164035232875.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 41: [/B]Selecting to install an Active Clustered Mailbox Role
Now select [B]Cluster Continuous Replication[/B] then specify a name for the mailbox server (the name you want your Outlook clients to connect to) and a unique IP address on your public network. Finally specify the path for the clustered mailbox server database files or use the defaults (as is the case in this article series) then click [B]Next[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image007a1164035409406.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 42: [/B]Selecting to install a Cluster Continuous Replication cluster and specifying name and IP address of the clustered mailbox server
Let the readiness check complete, and if no issues are found click [B]Next[/B] to begin the installation.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image008a1164035409437.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 43: [/B]Exchange Server 2007 Clustered Mailbox Role Readiness Check
The Exchange Server 2007 installation wizard will now copy the needed Exchange files, install and configure the Mailbox Role then finally create and configure the clustered mailbox server resources locally and create the object in Active Directory. When each step has been completed untick [B]Exit Setup and open Exchange System Manager [/B](yes this will be corrected in a later build), then click [B]Finish[/B]. We don’t want to open the Exchange Management Console just yet, we’ll install Exchange on the second node first.
[B]Installing the Passive Clustered Mailbox Role on E2K7Node2[/B]

Log on to [B]E2K7Node2[/B] with a domain admin account and do the exact same steps as we did when installing Exchange Server 2007 on [B]E2K7Node1[/B]. Only difference is you should tick Passive Clustered Mailbox Role instead of [B]Active Clustered Mailbox Role[/B] as shown in [B]Figure 44[/B] below.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image009a1164035409453.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 44:[/B] Installing the passive clustered mailbox role on the second node
[B]Verifying the functionality of the Cluster Continuous Replication based Mailbox Server[/B]

It’s time to verify that our Exchange 2007 clustered mailbox server is working as expected. Let’s first open the [B]Cluster Administrator [/B]and check whether the respective Exchange Resources have been created. If you take a look at [B]Figure 45 [/B]below it looks good, we have both nodes listed in the left pane and all Exchange resources have been created and are currently owned by [B]E2K7Node2[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image011a1164035880234.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 45:[/B] Listing all Exchange cluster resources in the cluster administrator
Try to open the [B]Exchange Management Shell[/B] by clicking [B]Start[/B] > [B]All Programs[/B] > [B]Microsoft Exchange Server 2007[/B] > [B]Exchange Management Shell[/B] on one of the nodes, then type [B]Get-ClusteredMailboxServerStatus –Identity E2K7CCR[/B]. As you can see in [B]Figure 46[/B] below the status of the clustered mailbox server is Online, and [B]E2K7Node2[/B] is currently the active node.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image0121164035880234.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Figure 46:[/B] Requesting the online status of the clustered mailbox server
Now that we have verified the clustered mailbox server is online, let’s try to move the Exchange resources from node one to node two using the [B]Move-ClusteredMailboxServer[/B] CMDlet. In the test environment used in this article, we do so by issuing below CMDlet:
[B][I]Move-ClusteredMailboxServer -Identity:E2K7CCR -TargetMachine:E2K7Node1 -MoveComment:"This is a test!"[/I][/B] You’re then asked to confirm this action, type [B]Yes [/B]then hit [B]Enter[/B]. After a while the clustered mailbox resources will have been moved to the first node.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image014a1164035880234.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 47: [/B]Moving the clustered mailbox resources to the first node
[B]Note
[/B]Even though it’s possible to move the cluster resource groups between nodes using the Cluster Administrator console, you should [B][U]always[/U][/B] do so using the [B]Move-ClusteredMailboxServer[/B] CMDlet as the [B]Move Group[/B] task in the Cluster Administrator console isn’t Exchange 2007 aware.
Let's also take a look at the clustered mailbox server in the Exchange Management Console. To do so click [B]Start[/B] > [B]All Programs[/B] > [B]Microsoft Exchange Server 2007[/B] > [B]Exchange Management Console[/B], then drill down do [B]Server Configuration[/B] > [B]Mailbox[/B]. Notice the clustered mailbox server which we named [B]E2K7CCR[/B] is listed in the [B]Result pane[/B] and that it’s recognized as a cluster server.
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image016a1164036116859.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 48: [/B]Viewing the clustered mailbox server in the Exchange Management Console
Let’s try to take a look at the transaction log file replay from one node to the other. The easiest way to do that is to generate a few log files by sending a couple of test messages with an attachment or two.

[B]Note[/B]
Since the new transaction log file size in Exchange Server 2007 is 1 MB instead of 5 MB as was the case in previous versions of Exchange. It’s not required to attached files larger than 1 MB in order to generate these log files.
As you can see in [B]Figure 49[/B] below, the log files were replayed to [B]E2K7Node2[/B] within the same minute as they were generated on [B]E2K7Node1[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image018a1164036116859.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 49:[/B] Log file replay
[B]Simulating a failover from E2K7Node1 to E2K7Node2[/B]

Okay let’s try to simulate a fail over from [B]E2K7Node1[/B] (which currently is the active node) to [B]E2K7Node2[/B], so that we can see what will happen from the Outlook client perspective. In order to switch from one node to the other we’ll issue below CMDlet which we also used earlier on in this article:
[B][I]Move-ClusteredMailboxServer -Identity:E2K7CCR -TargetMachine:E2K7Node2 -MoveComment:"This is a test!"[/I][/B] When a manual move or a failover occurs, the balloon shown in [B]Figure 50[/B] will appear as all services needs to be stopped on [B]E2K7Node1[/B] before they are brought online on [B]E2K7Node2[/B].
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image020a1164036116875.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 50:[/B] Connection to the Exchange Server has been lost
Depending on the amount as well as size of the databases in your Cluster Continuous Replication setup, this will take somewhere between 10 seconds to approximately 1 minute, which shouldn’t cause panic for the end-users. When [B]E2K7Node2[/B] has taken over, the end-users will be notified that the connection to the Exchange Server has been restored ([B]Figure 51[/B]).
[IMG]http://www.msexchange.org/img/upl/image022a1164036116875.JPG[/IMG]
[B]Figure 51:[/B] Connection to the Exchange Server has been restored
[B]Conclusion[/B]

You benefit from several advantages when you choose to install the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server role in a Cluster Continuous Replication setup in your organization. The primary reason here is that you no longer have a single point of failure, when talking about the Mailbox/Public Folder databases. Should the database on one node crash, an automatic fail over to the other node containing the secondary database is completed. This also means you no longer need to use a shared storage system in the CCR setup, as is the case with Exchange 2007 Single Copy Clusters as well as cluster setup in previous versions of Exchange. In addition the two nodes in the CCR setup can even be placed in two different locations, as long as they belong to the same subnet. Not only that, the installation of the Exchange 2007 cluster has also been further simplified over previous versions. Since CCR setup makes use of log file shipping and replay to a secondary database, you also don’t have to do full online backups far as often as was the case in Exchange 200x and earlier versions. Last but certainly not least, the fail over process been improved in several areas now that the new file share witness model have been introduced.

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