Dougs Blog... Exchange Server (rarely) daily

Support for Virtualising Exchange Server 2010 SP1 has changed..?

Doug Gowans — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:08:22 GMT

The support stance for virtualising Exchange Server 2010 SP1 has changed significantly over the last few days and seems pretty unambiguous. However you need to be a bit careful about what actually is and isn’t supported. The statement from Kevin Allinson on the Exchange Team blog yesterday reads: “Combining Exchange 2010 high availability solutions (database availability groups (DAGs)) with hypervisor-based clustering, high availability, or migration solutions that will move or automatically failover mailbox servers that are members of a DAG between clustered root servers, is now supported.” But I don’t believe it’s quite as straightforward as that statement makes it sound. To quote the ‘ Best Practices for Virtualizing Exchange Server 2010 with Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper V™ ’ whitepaper: “Exchange server virtual machines, including Exchange Mailbox virtual machines that are part of a Database Availability Group (DAG), can be combined with host-based failover clustering and migration technology as long as the virtual machines are configured such that they will not save and restore state on disk when moved or taken offline . All failover activity must result in a cold start when the virtual machine is activated on the target node. All planned migration must either result in shut down and a cold start or an online migration that utilizes a technology such as Hyper-V live migration.” In a nutshell it means that something like Hyper-V ‘Live Migration’ is supported but something like Hyper-V ‘Quick Migration’ is not, since ‘Quick Migration’ saves, moves and restores the virtual machine; ‘Live Migration’ does not. To quote the ‘ Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ Live Migration ’ whitepaper: “Live migration and Quick Migration both move running VMs from one Hyper-V™ physical computer to another, the primary difference is that Quick Migration saves, moves and restores a VM which results in some downtime. The live migration process uses a different mechanism for moving the running VM to the new physical computer. This process will be explained in greater detail in the Live Migration Architecture section of this document. Below is a summary of the live migration process: 1. All VM memory pages are transferred from the source Hyper-V™ physical host to the destination Hyper-V™ physical host. While this is occurring, any VM modifications to its memory pages are tracked. 2. ™Pages that were modified while step 1 was occurring are transferred to the destination physical computer. 3. The storage handle for the VM’s VHD files are moved to the destination physical computer. 4. The destination VM is brought online on the destination Hyper-V™ server. Live migration produces significantly less downtime for the VM being migrated.” Since VMware VMotion technology is broadly similar in terms of application as ‘ Hyper-V Live Migration ’ that too would be supported. This change in the support stance is significant for two reasons in my opinion. Firstly it will mean more Exchange deployments on Hyper-V where previously the choice appeared to be virtualise Exchange Server on a VMWare solution or don’t virtualise at all; and secondly it means a lot more choice for deploying Exchange 2010, which I think is a good thing. What it doesn’t mean is that virtualising Exchange will always make sense. The most successful Exchange Server 2010 solutions in the enterprise that I have been involved in have not as yet featured Exchange running on hardware virtualisation software since it has not made sense to do so.. However the case for virtualising Exchange Server specifically is increasingly compelling. As always check vendor participation in the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program and continue to keep up with the ‘ Exchange 2010 System Requirements ’ specific to ‘Hardware Virtualization’....(read more)

Want to work for Microsoft UK?

Doug Gowans — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:24:24 GMT

Microsoft Services in the UK are actively recruiting.. “ You have unique experiences, skills and passions—and we believe you can bring them all to Microsoft for a rich, rewarding career and lifestyle that will surprise you with its breadth and potential. Just imagine the excitement and satisfaction of what you can do, where you can go, and the difference you can make with the resources of Microsoft behind you. Here at Microsoft U.K., we help change the way the world lives, works and plays. Explore our job opportunities and, if you like what you see, consider joining us—our people are some of the most extraordinary people you’ll ever meet. ” I’ve been at Microsoft for about 6 years now and can’t recommend it highly enough. Please let me know if you are interested.. (..or take a look at Careers at Microsoft )...(read more)

Office 365 and Exchange Online

Doug Gowans — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:10:00 GMT

A very quick summary of Office 365 blogs, wiki’s and articles… Exchange Online – the first place to start (includes some useful screenshots)… Office 365 Beta BLOG and WIKI … An RSS feed off the blog is a useful source of Office 365 news. ( Take a look at the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog also…) If you’re interested in the coexistence between Exchange Server ‘On-Premise’ and Office 365 then use the Exchange Server Deployment Assistant – this is updated for Exchange 2003, Office 365 coexistence only at the moment – Exchange Server 2007 and 2010 to follow… (You need some Exchange 2010 infrastructure on-premise for coexistence with Exchange Server 2003 and Office 365 by the way.) Check out the ‘Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for Microsoft Online Services’ ; in particular the ‘IPD Guide for Exchange Online – Evaluating Software-Plus-Services’ (The download includes a spreadsheet, presentation and document - go for the Word doc. to start with.) The ‘Office 365 Beta Service Descriptions’ are available on the Microsoft Download Center. I would definitely recommend a read of these. They’re not a difficult read and even if you skim read them they’ll give you more than a feel for what you can and can’t do with Office 365 before you get there. A couple of articles it is worth reading: Office 365 Beta: Completing provisioning of archive in the cloud from your on-premises Exchange 2010 server Office 365 Sneak Peak Content and Code event on the 8th February.. A couple of non-Microsoft resources: ‘Office365Answers.com’ and ‘ Office365Rocks’ Fond of a tweet? @office365 @msonline ( @me ) (#office365 #exchangeonline #bpos #cloud) Or even Facebook Can also recommend a couple of books about cloud computing in general which I’ve enjoyed: ‘Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution: How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Can't Afford to Be Left Behind’ by Charles Babcock ‘The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from "Edison" to "Google"’ by Nicholas Carr And if you happen to live in the UK and need to purchase some stationery …!@?!...(read more)

Strange Jetstress 2010 results..?

Doug Gowans — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:33:21 GMT

Are you running the latest version of Jetstress 2010 against data created using the beta ? If so then you may see some very strange results because there are some minor updates from the beta version which mean that you cannot mix databases created using the beta version with tests run using the released version. Either stick to the beta or download the RTM version and recreate the databases from scratch. Have a look on TechNet for more information about Jetstress 2010 …...(read more)

Cmdlet Extension Agents

Doug Gowans — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:07:01 GMT

This is one of those blogs that it’s worth absorbing.. Using Cmdlet Extension Agents to cause automatic events to occur in Exchange 2010 - life just got simpler! by Pat Richard . Cmdlet Extension Agents are something that will be very new to most Exchange administrators but is something that could make life a lot easier.. To quote TechNet: “Cmdlet extension agents are components in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 called by Exchange 2010 cmdlets when the cmdlets run. As the name implies, cmdlet extension agents extend the capabilities of the cmdlets that call them by assisting in processing data or performing additional actions based on the requirements of the cmdlet.” In other words use extension agents to trigger a cmdlet to run every time another cmdlet runs; either before or after it.. At one of my customers these will be used to enable single item recovery for every mailbox each time a new one is created using the new-mailbox cmdlet. The only other way to do it is to schedule a regular task to set this for every mailbox where it is not currently set – still works but not nearly so neat. Have a look here for information about Cmdlet Extension Agents on TechNet: Understanding Cmdlet Extension Agents...(read more)

July ‘Microsoft Messaging and Mobility User Group’ meeting…

Doug Gowans — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:55:59 GMT

MMMUG are getting physical meetings going again. To kick off their first meeting after re-launch, they’re going to have an evening discussing Exchange 2010 SP1 on Thursday July 15th 2010 . The event will take place at the BSG Offices at BSG House, 226-236 City Road, London, EC1V 2TT. As some of you will be aware they recently held a LiveMeeting on the subject, however this will be a chance to dive deeper into the new changes and to bring questions along to discuss in person. The event is being sponsored by Redgate Software . Alongside their software products they run the Simple-Talk sysadmin website which Jaap Wesselius and Nathan Winters have both written for. Jaap will be the guest speaker for the evening and between Jaap and Nathan, they will cover both the new elements of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 and also answer questions about the process of upgrading from previous Exchange versions. For more information and to sign up please use the following link: http://www.mmmug.co.uk/3-15th_July_2010_-_Exchange_2010_SP1_26_Migration Also have a look at the MMMUG Facebook site ......(read more)

3 into 4 can go…

Doug Gowans — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:01:45 GMT

Once you’ve determined the number of Exchange Server 2010 mailbox database copies you’re going to use it makes sense to deploy a complimentary number of mailbox servers in the DAG . If you decide to go with an odd number of database copies go with an odd number of nodes; if you use an even number of copies aim to deploy an even number of nodes - it’ll make your life easier in the long run. ..but that could well mean you need to make a decision over ease of management versus cost. Surely there will be cases where it makes more financial sense to deploy 4 servers to host your 3 copies rather than 6 for example? …but what are the implications? Well it’s not a problem to get it to work. It just means you’re likely compelled to introduce a layer of complexity into the solution. To illustrate this I’ll use an example where there are 4 nodes of a single DAG with 3 copies of every mailbox database and to make it simple I’ll be deploying a single database on each disk ( JBOD ), using volume mount points. What’s the problem? On every DAG member you create a directory structure; c:\data\mbxdb01, c:\data\mbxdb02…up to c:\data\mbxdb06 (since you have 6 disks). You deploy mbxdb01on nodes 1, 2 and 3 since but now on node 4 you have c:\data\mbxdb01 which you can’t use because each database has to have the same path – so c:\data\mbxdb01 can only be used by mbxdb01. Disk01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb01 At first glance you have 2 choices – don’t use the disk (!$@&?!) or change your design to 4 copies (equally unpalatable). One Solution ..but there is a way around this with this particular example and that is to deploy a directory structure which is different on each node. Disk01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb01 c:\data\mbxdb02 Disk02 c:\data\mbxdb03 c:\data\mbxdb02 c:\data\mbxdb02 c:\data\mbxdb03 Disk03 c:\data\mbxdb04 c:\data\mbxdb03 c:\data\mbxdb04 c:\data\mbxdb04 Disk04 c:\data\mbxdb05 c:\data\mbxdb05 c:\data\mbxdb05 c:\data\mbxdb06 Disk05 c:\data\mbxdb07 c:\data\mbxdb06 c:\data\mbxdb06 c:\data\mbxdb07 Disk06 c:\data\mbxdb08 c:\data\mbxdb07 c:\data\mbxdb08 c:\data\mbxdb08 The above design works very nicely I think (..and of course the creation of this directory structure can be scripted using diskpart for example) but it does mean that you need to be careful when you lose a disk for example or when you are rebuilding a failed server (again both scriptable with the right skills). Or perhaps more importantly when you decide to add a node to the design at some point in the future. It could mean quite a lot of rejigging and downtime – the worst case might be changing the directory structure across all servers in the DAG. (…ouch?!) Managing a large DAG is easy? I’m of the opinion that one of the areas of Exchange Server 2010 which needs time and effort to get right is managing large DAG’s with swarms of databases housing multitudes of big mailboxes. You’re going to have to get good at scripting to make things run smoothly. Scripts like the Exchange 2010 Database Redundancy Check Script will make or break a big deployment and should prevent a beautiful design descending into chaos. ..and the more straightforward the design the more straightforward its management will be in most cases. So 3 into 4 can go …but proceed with caution....(read more)

1 AD Site, 1 DAG = no DAC

Doug Gowans — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:52:32 GMT

So as the TechNet article ( Understanding Datacenter Activation Coordination Mode ) explains you can’t enable DAC mode in Exchange Server 2010 for a DAG where all members are in the same AD site… So what happens if you lose your primary data centre where your Witness Server is located and you do have a single DAG spanning 2 data centres with all members in the same AD site? First – work out if the loss is permanent. If it’s not it might be worth waiting until the data centre is back – that way you can probably avoid the risk of split brain since you can shutdown the remaining DAG members and wait for a managed recovery. If it is permanent then you have to do a bit of work – nothing that is going to take you too long but it’s not as simple as running a couple of PowerShell commandlets; and you have to consider what happens if you cannot manage the recovery of the lost DAG members – it is likely that you will have to do a full seed as opposed to an incremental reseed as at a minimum there is likely to be divergence which the store may not be able to recover from. The steps that worked for me in our test rig are as follows: Bring the cluster online - “net start clussvc /forcequorum” Evict the lost cluster nodes (I used cluster manager) Update the DAG membership by removing the failed servers - “Remove-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer –id <DAG> -mailboxserver <server> -configurationonly>” Create a new Witness Directory - “Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup –id <DAG> -witnesserver <server>” Reboot the remaining DAG members (might get away with restarting the cluster service and\or the information store and mounting the database) Databases should mount automatically according to AutoDatabaseMountDial The better news is that Exchange Server 2010 SP1 is hopefully going to change the game. As Scott Schnoll writes… “DAC mode has been extended to support DAGs that have all members deployed in a single Active Directory site, including Active Directory sites that have been extended to multiple locations.” ( http://blogs.technet.com/scottschnoll/archive/2010/04/10/new-high-availability-features-in-exchange-2010-sp1.aspx ) Take notice of the note that accompanies the blog though: “But a quick note: everything in this post is based on pre-release software and preliminary information that is subject to change. These are things we are working on or are about to work on. The feature names, behaviors and descriptions used below might not be the final names, behaviors and descriptions. The behvaiors described may or may not make it into the final shipping version of SP1 or a future version of the product. Standard disclaimers apply regarding pre-Beta software and content.” The other idea that was given to me to avoid split brain and the need for a full seed in the event of failback is to mark the databases not to mount at startup. This means that where you cannot manage the startup of the lost DAG members the databases will not mount. Unfortunately this prevents automated failover where there is data loss but where the lost logs are within AutoDatabaseMountDial since the replicas will not be activated and get left in a failed state. Nice idea but didn’t work in my testing.....(read more)

Next year’s got to be better…

Doug Gowans — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:38:51 GMT

So it’s been a poor second half of the year as far as blogging goes…. First half wasn’t too bad though. Must endeavour to do better next year. I’ll think about it over Christmas. Happy Christmas to all…...(read more)

MCM Exchange Server 2007

Doug Gowans — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:39:27 GMT

At last funding and time permitted me to attend the Microsoft Certified Master program last month in Redmond. Fantastic and intense 3 weeks. Certainly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to get there to do so… It’s a big investment in time and money but for anyone working regularly on Exchange Server I think everyone who has attended would say that it’s certainly worth it. Also a quick note to congratulate all those who passed the qualification this time around – and good luck to those who still have a few more bits to do… Have a read of this blog for an insight into the program.. “ Microsoft Certified Master : Exchange 2007 - A survivors guide… ” ..and if you want more information about the program see the MCM blog and TechNet: The Master Blog Microsoft Certified Master Program...(read more)

Exchange Server 2010 News & Reviews..

Doug Gowans — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:34:47 GMT

Exchange Server 2010 Reviews Microsoft Exchange 2010 Beta Looks Solid from Core to Cloud (and related slideshow Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Includes Welcome Improvements ) – eWeek First look: Exchange 2010 beta shines – InfoWorld Exchange Server 2010 News Broader Office 14 testing coming by fall - CNet Next Exchange features e-mail 'mute' button - CNet Microsoft Brands Office 2010, Releases Exchange Beta – PC World / IDG Microsoft fends off Google with Web browser-friendly Exchange 2010 - Computerworld Microsoft to release Exchange 2010 beta on April 15 – ZDNet Microsoft Exchange 2010 to address annoyances & mobility – Seattle PI Next version of Microsoft Office coming in 2010 - AP It's Office 2010: First technical previews due in Q3 - BetaNews...(read more)

www.TestExchangeConnectivity.com

Doug Gowans — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:46:30 GMT

Nice tool to help you sort out problems accessing Exchange from out on the Internet. For more information see the blog on You Had Me At EHLO.. here and there is a quick presentation on Edge.TechNet.com here . Test EAS with Windows Mobile 5, EAS with Windows Mobile 6 (& autodiscover), OutlookAnywhere via Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 (& autodiscover) and inbound SMTP… The tool will give you a pretty detailed report of where any failure might be and also links to TechNet in the way ExBPA does with some likely troubleshooting steps and\or fixes. If you have any comments email: exrcafb@microsoft.com...(read more)

What are all these changes to Active Directory?

Doug Gowans — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:50:07 GMT

This is a great blog if you are wondering about some unusual behaviour in Active Directory – specifically the following: “- Why has my AD database size increased by 500MB in the last three weeks? - I see lots of AD replication in Domain Controller monitoring. What are all these changes?” Go to the Ask the Directory Services blog on Technet; How do I find out what changes are going on in my Active Directory? “In order to find the cause for the problems, you should find what has changed in the AD database recently. Now Active Directory assigns an "Update Sequence Number" (USN) to each change. These USNs are 64 Bit Integers and are specific to a Domain Controller. The DC GUID and USN together uniquely identify a database change. A USN is both assigned to originating changes and replicated changes. So even for read-only GC content, you see local USNs getting written. You can use these USNs to identify recent changes in the database of each DC. ….” “Based on this number, you can query for the most recently changed Objects using an LDAP query.” Great blog!...(read more)

CCR or SCC?

Doug Gowans — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:31:41 GMT

Have had this discussion on many occasions and this 3Sharp whitepaper by Missy Koslosky would have proved very useful as an external reference point… High Availability Choices for Exchange Server 2007: Continuous Cluster Replication or Single Copy Clustering In conclusion… (this isn’t the only bit I read) “Exchange Server 2007 is a mission critical application. Organizations rely on the services and data Exchange provides, and keeping these highly available is of the utmost importance. Native, application-specific data replication functionality is the proper solution to meet the needs of these organizations. There are several options within Exchange Server 2007 that provide failover and high availability services, and among these, CCR provides the most highly available, cost-effective solution to achieve low RTO and RPO while reducing costs and complexity. SCC offers an incomplete solution; its fatal flaw is the lack of multiple database copies. Although multiple servers may be involved in an SCC cluster, if a problem occurs with a mailbox database, there is no alternate copy of the database without the use of costly and complicated additional products, requiring disaster recovery operations to be performed to restore service to users, and resulting in an unacceptable RTO/RPO. CCR is a robust clustering solution that provides true high availability services for organizations. CCR is easier to implement, easier to manage and maintain, and provides better availability all at a lower cost, while allowing organizations to satisfy the needs of their users by deploying large mailbox quotas.” If you’re considering SAN , synchronous replication and SCC over DAS , asynchronous replication and CCR I’d recommend reading this whitepaper…...(read more)

DPM in Paperback…

Doug Gowans — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:48:14 GMT

Just found this DPM book: ‘ Mastering System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 ’ by Devin L. Ganger (Author), Ryan Femling (Author) [..both 3Sharp, LLC] Has anyone read it? Is it any good for Exchange?...(read more)

Microsoft and Google in the Education Cloud

Doug Gowans — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:19:52 GMT

This is worth a quick read if you are interested in what’s happening with Exchange in the cloud at Live@Edu and Google Apps … “Both Queensland University for Technology (QUT) and Ohio State University (OSU) have now signed up to Live@edu, Microsoft’s online cloud suite designed for students, including Hotmail, SkyDrive and Workspaces. Over 100,000 students from these two universities are now using Live@edu, after extensive testing resulted in Microsoft getting the deal and Google being pushed our of the picture.” **UPDATE: forgot to reference the original source http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/?p=1289 . Very sorry Zack!...(read more)

Want more Virtualisation?

Doug Gowans — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:19:03 GMT

Go to VirtualizationFeed.com and get the latest on virtualisation in Microsoft and in the wider world. Also worth keeping track of what’s happening in the #virtualization community on Twitter at the same place ....(read more)

To my fellow bloggers..

Doug Gowans — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:57:12 GMT

Quick list of the blog articles that have helped me and might help you… 10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky 20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider How to Write With Confidence 7 types of blog posts which always seem to get links and traffic We need a blogging revolution What is the point of blogging? 9 benefits of twitter for bloggers 5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter...(read more)

A bit of love from Network World…

Doug Gowans — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:05:44 GMT

Exchange alternatives: Pros and cons Testing shows Microsoft's Exchange still tops for features and management hooks @ http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2009/030909-exchange-alternatives-test.html “In this Clear Choice Test, we explore how Exchange alternatives stack up against Microsoft's offer, as well as each other. Our testing focuses on products for midsized deployments of 1,000 mailboxes or less. We tested six Exchange alternatives: CommuniGate Pro ( CommuniGate Systems ), Kerio MailServer ( Kerio Technologies ), MDaemon Pro ( Alt-N Technologies ), MailSite Fusion ( MailSite ), Scalix Enterprise Edition ( Scalix , a Xandros company), and Zimbra Collaboration Suite, Professional Edition ( Zimbra , a Yahoo company).” “While there are places where our Exchange alternatives outdo Exchange -- such as in price/performance, Macintosh interoperability, and manageability for mid-sized deployments -- Exchange still beats the competition in many areas because it offers a range of features that aren't easy to find in the third-party market.” But no Notes\Domino? ..and whilst we’re on the subject: Comparing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to Other Messaging Solutions Case Studies About Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Alternatives to Microsoft Exchange Exchange Server 2007: First-Class Mail...(read more)

Deploying Exchange 2007 on VMWare?

Doug Gowans — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:31:21 GMT

VMWare Podcasts – VMWAre Infrastructure 3 Podcast: Disaster Recovery (DR) for Exchange using VMWare @ http://www.vmware.com/resources/podcasts/server_consolidation.html by Scott Salyer, VMware Technical Solutions Architect Using VMWare infrastructure we can help increase the flexibility of your high availability solution for exchange Reduce cost Enhance availability of Exchange through VMWare and MS Exchange features Scott makes a lot of the inflexibility of a non-VMWare Exchange design – you have to stick to your design decisions – using VMWare is more flexible if your original design requirements change. ..would still argue that getting your requirements straight to begin with and sticking to an environment lifecycle is pretty key to a successful Exchange deployment regardless of platform. ..good podcast and worth a listen although I’d love to see more detail about recovery processes for different scenarios and some expectations about data loss. Secure and Consolidated 16,000 Exchange Users Solution on a VMWare/EMC Environment @ http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/resources/16000_exchange_on_vmware.pdf (published May last year) “The purpose of this white paper is to validate the building-block guidelines for virtualizing an Exchange 2007 Mailbox server role using a real-world deployment scenario. VMWare ESX 2.5 was used to host the Exchange Server 2007 virtual machines. All periperal (AD, HUB, and CAS) server roles were also hosted on VMWare virtual machines. EMC CLARiiON CX3-80 storage was used to host the Exchange database and log storage, and EMC Replication Manager software was used to test backup/restore functionality for the virtualized Mailbox servers.” 16,000 users, 0.32 IOPS per mailbox – Loadgen and Jetstress used to test the deployment. “Conclusion The solution validated the building-block approach to virtualizing an Exchange 2007 Mailbox server with VMWare and EMC CLARiiON storage”… Good results but sounds like a pretty expensive solution for Exchange 2007 which would negate a lot of the benefits of deploying Exchange 2007 on VMWare in the first place. To me it doesn’t make a good enough case against making the most of your hardware and dedicating it to Exchange with more cost effective storage. Deploy Exchange on a Dynamic Platform @ http://www.vmware.com/solutions/business-critical-apps/exchange/performance.html “Increase the Capacity of Physical Servers by 100% Double the number of mailboxes supported per physical host from 8,000 to 16,000 heavy mailbox users. Without VMware, a single Exchange mailbox running on a physical server can scale up to about 8,000 heavy user mailboxes. Using larger servers doesn’t help because the mailbox can’t leverage the additional capacity. With VMware, Exchange mailboxes can be scaled out on multiple smaller virtual machines to maximize the throughput of the physical server. Using this approach, Exchange can be scaled out on 8 Virtual Machines, each supporting 2,000 heavy mailbox users, to support 16,000 users on one physical server. This performance advantage will amplify over time with the introduction of larger multicore systems. Without VMware, Exchange will not be able to use the additional capacity of these servers. With VMware, Exchange will scale out linearly to efficiently use the additional capacity.” Virtualization Performance Basics @ http://www.vmware.com/overview/performance/overview.html “By running multiple virtual machines simultaneously, a physical server can be driven to much higher utilizations, albeit with some performance overhead.” “Virtualization does not decrease the amount of RAM required to run an application and its host operating system, and like any software, the virtualization layer requires its own portion of RAM…” When multiple virtual machines are consolidated on a single physical server, they can impact I/O performance with their combined file size and simultaneous need for rapid access to stored data. “VMware solutions help to improve I/O performance through the VMware vStorage VMFS , which provides virtual machines with simultaneous access to shared data stores. Centralized storage helps reduce latency and increase throughput, and provides the foundation for unique capabilities such as live migration and consolidated backup.” Where are the up to date performance benchmarks? They still don’t seem to exist. ..and some other links I’m sure you’ve already seen. Should You Virtualize Your Exchange 2007 SP1 Environment? Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program Exchange 2007 System Requirements Server Virtualization with Advanced Management (SVAM) Service Offering...(read more)

Free Powershell eBook

Doug Gowans — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:59:06 GMT

‘Effective PowerShell: The Free eBook’ from Keith Hill available on Keith Hills’ blog here . Definitely worth a look…...(read more)

Friday Dilbert

Doug Gowans — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:27:44 GMT

You gotta laugh…...(read more)

I used to do it this way…

Doug Gowans — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:54:39 GMT

Just found some useful stuff on a colleagues blog - Gerod Serafin ; a field engineer in the US. It’s a series of blogs showing the difference in administering Exchange Server 2007 from Exchange Server 2003… Part 1 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Delegating Server Administration Part 2 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Synchronizing Public Folder hierarchy replication in 2003 vs. 2007 Part 3 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Stop or stop Public Folder replication in 2003 vs. 2007 Part 4 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Anti-spam tasks Part 5 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 More Anti-spam tasks Part 6 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Message size restrictions Part 7 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Setting Connector Limits in Exchange 2007 Part 8 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Setting Recipient Policies in Exchange 2003 Part 9 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks - Address Lists Part 10 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks – Mailbox Manager vs. Messaging Records Management Part 11 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks – MBConn.exe and Offline Address Books Part 12 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks – Public Folder Management and Public Folder Permissions Part 13 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks: Recovery Storage Groups Part 14 - I used to do it this way… Now how do I do it? Administering Exchange 2003 vs. Exchange 2007 Administrative Tasks: Creating Mailboxes and Exmerge...(read more)

Software plus Services Guide & Business Advisor Podcast

Doug Gowans — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:39:19 GMT

Not something I would normally blog about but will be interesting to any of our partners who operate in this space. Guide to Opportunity: Software-plus-Services https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/productssolutions/40099765 This 16-page guide explains how partners can exploit our Software-plus-Services strategy. Microsoft executives and partners explain how Software-plus-Services can create major revenue opportunities for partners; and cost savings for customers, especially in the current economic climate. Business Advisor Podcast series www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/businessadvisor The Business Advisor series is a set of podcasts featuring commentary from Microsoft executives, independent experts and partners discussing topical business issues. Available are podcasts dedicated to providing advice on: how to make cost savings; cost-effective marketing; sales; and business planning....(read more)

Offline defrag a replica database…

Doug Gowans — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:01:09 GMT

Let’s leave the “ why would you? ” to one side for the moment but is it actually possible or supported to defrag a continuous replication target database? Well not surprisingly er ‘No’. An offline defrag creates a new database with a new signature (“When defragmentation is complete, the original database is deleted or saved to a user-specified location, and the new version is renamed as the original.”) and therefore whilst it will be possible to defrag the database you’ll break replication. So if you know that you have a large amount of whitespace that it is possible to claw back (maybe you have just reorganised your mailboxes across a larger set of mailbox databases?) and you want to run an offline defrag then you need to defrag the active database and reseed a replica… In my experience there aren’t many reasons to perform an offline defrag and so the relative pain of this process should not be one that many administrators have to follow. And of course if your LUNs and disk set up allows it might be preferable to create a new database, seed it and then move all the mailboxes from the original database to this new one. Try this article on Technet for the steps to see a CCR database; How to Seed a Cluster Continuous Replication Copy...(read more)