Sunday, October 25, 2009

Configuring LCR – Local Continuous Replication:

Hi friends,

This article briefs the configuring LCR in the exchange 2007 server. As it name implies, the local continuous replication is the new feature in the exchange 2007 and it has the local copy of the database just like a mirror. Either you can do either in GUI or powershell, here I have explained in the powershell

Design the structure first, for example will have the below for our configuration,

SG1 – storage group name, SG1DB1 – database

Source system path (disk1): c:\SG1

Source log path (disk1): c:\SG1\log

Source edb path (disk1): c:\SG1\DB

Destination system path (disk2): D:\SG1LCR

Destination system path (disk2): D:\SG1LCR\log

Destination system path (disk2): D:\SG1LCR\DB

1. Enabling Database copy,

#Enable-DatabaseCopy –identity ‘servername\sg1\sg1db1’ –CopyEdbFilePath ‘D:\SG1LCR\DB\SG1DB1.edb’

2. Enabling Storage group copy,

#Enable-StorageGroupCopy –identity sg1 –CopyLogFolderPath ‘D:\SG1LCR\log’ -CopySystemFolderPath ‘D:\SG1LCR\DB’

3. To check the status of the replication,

#Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus

The LCR Configuration has been completed now; you can check the logs which are copied from the source to the destination and also any new generated logs will automatically seed to the destination location as we defined above.

Restore from the LCR copy:

Let us assume that if something goes wrong with the source database, we are in a position to restore from the replica. So, let’s see how to do the restore,

1. Dismount the database - #dismount-database sg1db1

2. Restore from replica - #Restore-StorageGroupCopy –identity ‘servername\sg1’

3. Mount the database back - #mount-database sg1db1

4. Now, the point to be noted is old LCR configuration of SG1DB1 is no more enabled. Please enable the LCR for this Storage group again and also clear the old logs so that it will start seeding from the source from the first.

Hope the above is useful.

Thanks

Logan

971-552596187 logu_microsoft@hotmail.com

Difference types of Mailbox in Exchange 2007:

Unlike previous version of exchange, the general mailbox has been classified into four types. But there are few difference b/w each type.

1. User Mailbox – for traditional user mailbox.

2. Room Mailbox – for meeting rooms

3. Equipment Mailbox – for equipments like projector, TV, etc. It is just like creating AD accounts for such objects.

4. Linked Mailbox – Hosting mailbox for users in separate forest.

In the above, the core mailbox attributes are same except few are different.

1. Basic notification GUI symbol is different for each object.

2. Resource mailbox (i.e., both room and equipment mailbox) are by default will be in the disabled state.

3. In OWA à Options, we have the “resource setting” only for the resource mailbox.

4. In creating a calendar meeting either in outlook or OWA, we have the scheduling assistant for configuring the meeting in which, “Select room” option will there and will list the entire room mailbox available in the organisation.

5. Also while adding attendees in the address bar, in the address book window; we will have the classified option as “default global address list” and “All rooms”. The latter is specifically designed to list the room mailbox alone.

6. On the attribute side, Isresource attribute of a mailbox will be set as “True” for the resource mailbox and “False ” for the user mailbox. The attribute resourcetype attribute will be set as “room” and “equipment” respectively.

Useful Powershell command:

To get the resource mailbox,

#get-mailbox where-object { $_.isresource –eq ‘true’ }

To get the resource mailbox related attribute,

#get-mailbox where-object { $_.isresource –eq ‘true’ } fl res*

To convert user mailbox to resource mailbox

#set-mailbox mailboxname –type room

Hope the above is useful.

Thanks

Logan

971-552596187 logu_microsoft@hotmail.com

Exchange server 2007 Services.

This article explains the different type of services, its description. Since exchange 2007 has so many new features, changes and different mailing architecture when compared to earlier exchange versions. We know that exchange server 2007 has five different server roles which has its specific services. In this article, I am going to concentrate only on the exchange specific services, though there are many dependent services like WWW, RPC, WMI and etc.

Common Services on all Server roles:

The below services are present in all five server roles,

1. Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service: This is the core exchange services which communicate with AD often. This service uses DSACCESS component for accessing the active directory. Since, AD tightly integrated with Exchange, all server roles will have this service up running.
2. Microsoft Exchange Monitoring Service: This service is responsible for collecting all kind of diagnostic logs from the exchange application.

Services in Mailbox server role:

1. Microsoft Exchange information store: This is the service related to core exchange databases. It is the main services in the Mailbox server role and this is services is not dependent to other exchange services.
2. Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission: This service maintains the mail queue for transferring mails from mailbox server to hub transport server. Used to notify a Hub Transport server located in the Mailbox server's Active Directory site that messages are ready for retrieval from a sender's outbox. This service is also responsible for relaying and other tasks like Transport rules, Message Records Management etc.
3. Microsoft Exchange mailbox assistants: Provides functionality for Calendar Attendant, Resource Booking Attendant, Out of Office Assistant, and Managed Folder Mailbox Assistant.
4. Microsoft Exchange Replication Service: This service responsible for the replication of database information in the LCR and SCR cluster environment. This does the log shipping/seeding b/w the cluster peers.
5. Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer: This service is responsible for indexing the mail content in the database which in turn helps in improving the faster access/searching of the mail contents.
6. Microsoft Exchange Service Host: Configures the RPC virtual directory in Internet Information Services (IIS), and registry data for Valid Ports, NSPI Interface Protocol Sequences, and Allow Anonymous for Outlook Anywhere. It basically acts as a host for holding exchange related services like IIS.
7. Microsoft Exchange System Attendant: This service is responsible for following components. It provides maintaining, monitoring and directory lookup services functionality.
• DSAccess (DSAccess.dll) – Provides Exchange Active Directory Access
• DSProxy (DSProxy.dll) – Provides Directory Service Lookup for older Outlook clients
• Server Monitor Component - Monitoring server resources
• Mailbox Manager Component - Managing mailboxes
• Metabase update service - Replicating settings from Active Directory to the IIS metabase
• System Attendant Component - Verifies computer account configuration
8. Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search: Provides message tracking and transport log searching. It is basically used for querying of transport log remotely.
9. Microsoft Search (Exchange): Provides full-text indexing of mailbox data content. This is a Microsoft Exchange-customized version of Microsoft Search.

Services in CAS Servers:

1. Microsoft Exchange File Distribution: Used to distribute offline address book and custom Unified Messaging prompts.
2. Microsoft Exchange IMAP4: Responsible for Internet Message Access Protocol IMAP4 Clients connections.
3. Microsoft Exchange POP3: Responsible for Post Office Protocol POP3 Client connections.
4. Microsoft Exchange Service Host: Configures the RPC virtual directory in Internet Information Services (IIS), and registry data for Valid Ports, NSPI Interface Protocol Sequences, and Allow Anonymous for Outlook Anywhere. It basically acts as a host for holding exchange related services like IIS.

Services in Hub transport Servers:

1. Microsoft Exchange Anti-Spam Update: Used to automatically download anti-spam filter updates from Microsoft Update.
2. Microsoft Exchange Edgesync: Connects to ADAM instance on subscribed Edge Transport servers over secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) channel to synchronize data between a Hub Transport server and an Edge Transport server.
3. Microsoft Exchange Transport: This is the new SMTP service in exchange 2007, which don’t rely on Windows server SMTP services as like in previous version of the exchange. It is the core transport stacks which process the routing of messages.
4. Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search: Provides message tracking and transport log searching. It is basically used for querying of transport log remotely.

Services in Edge Transport Servers:

1. Microsoft Exchange ADAM: Connects to ADAM instance on subscribed Edge Transport servers over secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) channel to synchronize data between a Hub Transport server and an Edge Transport server.
2. Microsoft Exchange Anti-Spam Update: Used to automatically download anti-spam filter updates from Microsoft Update.
3. Microsoft Exchange Credential Service: Monitors credential changes in ADAM and installs the changes on the Edge Transport server.
4. Microsoft Exchange Transport: This is the new SMTP service in exchange 2007, which don’t rely on Windows server SMTP services as like in previous version of the exchange. It is the core transport stacks which process the routing of messages.
5. Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search: Provides message tracking and transport log searching. It is basically used for querying of transport log remotely.

Services in Unified Messaging Servers:

1. Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging: Provides Unified Messaging features, such as the storing of inbound faxes and voice mail messages in a user's mailbox, and access to that mailbox via Outlook Voice Access.
2. Microsoft Exchange Speech Engine: Provides speech processing services for Unified Messaging.

Hope the above is informative.

Thanks
Logan

971-552596187 logu_microsoft@hotmail.com

Types of clustering in exchange 2007:

This article explains the different types of clustering technology available with the exchange 2007 server. The exchange 2007 version has some new exciting features in terms of the high availability. It has four types of clustering and which has its own level of fault tolerance and availability. I have also added the diagram for better understanding.

1. Single copy clusters(SCC):

# This cluster type is similar to the one as in previous exchange versions. In fact it is exactly similar to the one in exchange 2003.

# Uses a single copy of database is shared between the nodes of the cluster.

# The database copy is stored in the SAN Storage device and also at any point of time the database will be owned by single node.

# Fault tolerance – There is chance of SOP i.e., Single point of failure. SCC environment works great if a node/server fails, but still Database failure in the SAN will cause the damage.




2. Local Continuous Replication (LCR):

# This is the new feature of exchange 2007.

# LCR is a single server solution which creates and maintains a copy of the database in the same server just like a mirroring concept.

# This cluster type provides usual log shipping, log replaying and can be switched to the mirror copy by manual action in case of any database issues.

# One prerequisite for implementing LCR is that Storage Group can contain only one database. So if you need to implement multiple databases you automatically need to implement multiple Storage Groups.

# This overcomes the drawbacks of single point of failure for database crashes, but it doesn’t help in server failure.

# Automatic failover will not happen, in case of database failure or any issue.


3.Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR):

# This is the new feature of exchange 2007. It is the best and highly improved version of clustering solution

# This cluster type is non-shared one, fault tolerant in terms of server and database front, high availability and site resilience. CCR is very different from clustering in previous exchange versions.

# CCR is a multi server solution which creates and maintains a copy of the database in the second servers in a failover cluster.

# CCR will automatically failover in case of any server related issues and also database related failures. So no need of manual switch action as in LCR.


4. Standby Continuous replication (SCR):

# This is the new feature introduced in exchange 2007 SP1.

# SCR is a clustered solution that is used to have the standby copies of the clustered server databases. As by its name, we can call as standby recovery servers.

# SCR uses the same log shipping and replay technology used by LCR and CCR. It is just getting seeded by and from either CCR or LCR cluster server.

# This is ideal for the situation like you need to recover from the complete site failure. We can call this for disaster recovery.


Hope the above is informative.

Thanks

Logan

971-552596187 logu_microsoft@hotmail.com