KB out yesterday ( KB.921181 ) covers the introduction and details about the new “File Share Witness” quorum model. This is an improvement to the original MNS design that allows a read/write file share to serve as the “voter” for quorum status, eliminating the need for a third...

Looking for KB.867624? It’s been replaced and retired (and removed)... I had previously blogged about the “ Upgrading to E2k3 SP2 on a cluster ” process, and in that posting I had referenced the KB.867624 article about how to upgrade to E2k3 SP1 (pointing out that the process is...

A Step-by-step guide for using MSCS clusters to host Virtual Server guests was just released: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=09cc042b-154f-4eba-a548-89282d6eb1b3&displaylang=en Here’s the overview: Overview This document provides an introduction to the methods and...

There are a couple of important things I wanted to point out about the upgrade to E2k3 Sp2 on a cluster: Same process as the upgrade to E2k3 Sp1 Fixes broken virtual directories and other upgrade snafus IMF still not supported for use on cluster Ok, more detail on these three, as I’m sure...

KB.906906 talks about another problem you may run into while creating a system attendant resource for Exchange 2003 cluster, relating to Remote Registry access/permissions. This is really just pulling out the “Symptom #4” part of KB.329229 as its own KB article, but it’s still worth pointing out in...

Techweb reports that there’s an exploit out for the MSDTC security fix in MS05–051 . So, if you’re running an Exchange cluster on Windows 2000 server, you’ll want to get this patch applied ASAP! See the security bulletin for more details, and for info on the status of other Windows versions.

Great news! The long-awaited ability to use “standby” Exchange clusters is finally completed testing and documentation with its addition to the Disaster Recovery Operations Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/guides/DROpsGuide/2493c2d6-618c-4c49-9cb1-fff556926707.mspx This...

This question came up yesterday on a list I read, so I figured it might be of interest out here. Do you remember the “Setup Shall Install the Clustered Version of Exchange” pop-up in Exchange 2000? This was the pop-up you’d get when installing the binaries for Exchange 2000 onto a server that was...

Jim McBee recounts a recent experience with this , and how forgetting to do a “setup /reinstall” on the cluster node led to Exchange thinking it was a beta/evaluation version of Exchange. Excellent point to make: if you ever evict one of the (Exchange binary) nodes from the Exchange cluster, make...

Big revision recently to KB.810489 . This is the KB that talks about the MTA function and how it can or can’t be disabled in various scenarios. The core change is that if you’ve got super-large Exchange clusters (>4 nodes) in a native-mode administrative group (and do don’t have MTA-dependent foreign...

This is a bit of a specific topic, as it only affects people who are trying to use the MTA in their cluster (for mail delivery back to 5.5 in mixed-mode, or to foreign systems not connected with SMTP, etc) * AND * have >4 nodes in their cluster. There’s a new KB out that will help you with some...

Rod posts today about the strange (and sometimes frustrating) behavior where outbound SMTP connections from an Exchange cluster originate from the host IP address rather than from the virtualized IP resource associated with the Exchange Virtual Server. Great post and this is a common question on the...

KB article came out the other day on this sort of obscure scenario, but interesting to know about in any case: KB.896617 : “ The Exchange Information Store service stops responding when the Exchange Information Store service is shutting down or the Exchange Cluster server is performing a failover process...

I blogged about KB.898364 briefly when it was created , but over this past weekend there was a flurry of newsgroup posts about putting clustered Exchange onto cluster nodes that are also domain controllers. Several responses referenced KB.281662 (how to cluster AD domain controllers), which didn’t very...

Still catching up on my queue of blog posts, I think that all of the documentation around MSDTC and Exchange clusters has now been updated (see earlier posts for details). Here’s what I’ve got: KB.301600 has been updated to detail Exchange 2003 not requiring a dedicated group for MSDTC and that...

Better late than never, here is a partial list of the cool new things in Windows 2003 SP1 clustering (yeah yeah, I know Windows 2003 SP1 has been out for quite a while now… just shows you how far behind I am in my blog posting ) Quorum replication algorithm redone so it’s more robust. Cluster...

A newly released “flash” with a collection of information about Multi-site Data Replication and Exchange: Introduction The Exchange Product Group has received numerous queries regarding deploying Exchange in a Multi-site/data replication environment. In order to respond to those queries, we...

The Exchange 2003 Deployment Guide has just been updated (at this link ) to reflect the best practice recommendations for MSDTC that were revealed in this posting (also here on the EHLO blog ). Also, the related articles KB.312316 (“Setup does not install Exchange on a cluster if the MSDTC resource...

Recently the oft-referenced KB.810986 that talks about the support policy for clustering was refocused to encompass only the support policy for 3rd party cluster software (hence the updated title: “ Microsoft support policy for Exchange Server installations that are running with a third-party Cluster...

Scott Schnoll, longtime MVP and now a Technical Writer with Microsoft, gave an “Exchange Server 2003 Cluster Deployments: Best Practices” talk at ITForum 2004. The presentation is available online in full! Here’s the link: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/itsshowtime/sessionh.aspx...

Russ Kaufmann has posted a useful set of common Exchange clustering questions/answers over at his blog.

Gerod points out in this blog post that if you install Windows 2003 SP1 onto your Exchange 2003 cluster nodes, you’ll need to install the hotfix in KB.841561 . If you don’t apply this hotfix, users will not be able to access OWA (they will receive 500 – internal server error), although Administrator...

I wrote a long time ago about the IsAlive behavior in Exchange 200x clusters , but one interesting scenario was brought to my attention recently. Remember that the IsAlive check for the SMTP resource requires the cluster node actively running the SMTP resource to be able to connect into port 25 on...

Here are a couple of interesting KBs that have come out or been updated recently: KB.884863 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884863 ) – “Update to Exchange 2000 Server adds application event logging for deletion of public folders” An additional feature that is related to public...

Ever notice how when you move an Exchange Virtual Server from one node to another in an Exchange cluster, any other IIS websites you have created on the Exchange cluster are stopped during the move and not restarted? The easiest way to experience this is to start up the “Default Website”...