Exchange 2010 design

Exchange 2010 Design

In this example, we will show you how we design our Exchange 2010.

Hardware
There are two dell R710 servers running Windows 2008 R2 with Hyper-V enabled. One server is in Data Center and another is located in DR site. Each server hosts two VMs, one VM for the mailbox roles, and a second VM for the hub transport and client access role. Both servers connect to EqualLogic SAN with 1TB spaces. At the DR site, mail server will be holding a copy of the mail databases from the data center mail server within a single DAG group. The DR CAS server will hold the client access and hub transport roles as well and exist as a member of a CAS/HT array configured with Windows Network Load Balancin

Active Directory and DNS Considerations
Active Directory Forest Functional level is set to Windows 2003 Server native level as required. Create Autodiscover record in the DNS that allows Outlook clients to automatically locate mailboxes.
Create MX record to forward the email. If you have an email/spam filter, you may point the MX to the device and route emails to the Client Access Server.

Disaster Recovery Configuration
For disaster recovery, a redundant server configuration in a physically separate site is within the scope of this project. Mailbox databases will be replicated using Database Availability Groups (DAG). This is a new replication technology introduced in Exchange 2010 that ships Exchange transaction logs to a replica target server or servers and rolls them into a remote copy of the database. A network load balanced cluster will be created to allow for high availability of the client access role.

Migration
This infrastructure is designed with the intent that it will co-exist in the short-term with the existing
Exchange 2003 system. All systems and roles can be installed without affecting the existing Exchange
production environment. Once implemented and tested, we recommends a quick migration of all
users to the new platform. The first step should be to configure Exchange 2010 hub transports as the
primary bridgeheads for inbound/outbound Exchange mail. Secondly, all public folders should be
replicated to the public folder stores on the Exchange 2010 mailbox servers. Next, a small pilot group of mailboxes should be migrated. Upon the successful migration of the pilot mail group, remaining users may be migrated and the Exchange 2003 servers can be decommissioned.

Network Configuration
Currently, we are using 6 NICs. 1 NIC is configured for management in VLAN1. 2 NICs are used for SAN. 2 NICs are configured as NIC teaming for VM in VLAN1 and 1 NIC for VM replication. Other 2 NICs are disabled. Note: 1) you should not assign IP addresses to VM NICs and you setup them on Hyper-V network. 2) Make sure you have correct configuration on Cisco switch for VLAN.

Server Roles
Four Exchange 2010 servers were added as part of the implementation for redundancy, two for the new mailbox roles, and two for hub transport and client access roles. The mailbox servers are running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Exchange 2010 SP1 Enterprise. The client access servers are Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Exchange 2010 SP1 Standard. The following sections specifically identify the function of the roles that will be placed on each server.

Mailbox Role
The Mailbox role holds the Exchange databases that contain user mailboxes and public folders. While no longer disk intensive, this role does make heavy use of CPU and memory resources and should be built with the appropriate resources allocated.

Hub Transport Role
The Hub Transport role’s primary function is the sending and receiving of email and the control of some policies such as message retention.

Client Access Role
The Client Access role acts as a front-end for all clients. This server is where clients such as Outlook, mobile devices, and users of Outlook Web Access connect.

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