Since Exchange 2010 CAS servers now handle all internal and external client traffic to Exchange mailbox servers including Outlook MAPI traffic, the need for a highly available CAS array is critical to your design.
So how do you load balance MAPI traffic? I found a some useful bits of information to help out:
New-ClientAccessArray –Name “School CAS Array” –Fqdn “outlook.school.edu” –Site “Boulder”
More here.
5. You need to revisit any Exchange databases that were created before the CAS array was created and set the rpcclientaccessserver property to match the newly created CAS array. Such as:
Set-MailboxDatabase DB1 -RpcClientAccessServer “outlook.school.edu”
For more on Exchange Server 2010 CAS visit here.
I know that Mark posted this previously but wanted to ensure it had it’s own post as this is very important for our customers.
Blackberry is now supported with RIM.
Requirements:
All three of these updates are available to customers of Exchange Server 2010 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server v.5.0 with Service Pack 1 at no cost. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 Service Pack 1 and Maintenance Release 1 can be found here: http://www.blackberry.com/support/downloads
Additional information on the solution requirements, preparing the BlackBerry environment for Microsoft Exchange Server2010, can be found on the BlackBerry site here.
Important: Before you deploy Exchange Server 2010 please validate if you require Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 in your environment as you cannot install these previous versions of Exchange unless you have installed them PRIOR to installing Exchange 2010. Once Exchange 2010 is installed, any previous versions of Exchange that have not already been installed cannot be installed after the fact.
What are scenarios that I would need to install previous versions of Exchange Server prior to Exchange Server 2010?
There are certain cases where our tools or 3rd party tools/software does not yet or will not work with Exchange Server 2010. In these scenarios, you may need to install a previous version of Exchange Server such and 2003 or 2007 to coincide with Exchange Server 2010.
What are some Microsoft tools that do not work with Exchange Server 2010?
If you need to migrate from Lotus Domino and want to leverage our Transporter Suite Migration Tools you’ll need an Exchange 2007 server installed since there will be no version for Exchange Server 2010. Grab the tool here. There are 3rd party migration tools that work with Exchange 2010 as well.
Another scenario would be if you want to migrate from GroupWise and want to leverage our GroupWise migration tools you need an Exchange 2003 server installed first to get the Exchange Migration Wizard which allows you migrate from Novell GroupWise 6.5 or lower to Exchange. Read about it here. There are 3rd party migration tools that work with Exchange 2010 as well.
The last scenario you may need an earlier version of Exchange would be if you want to have Interorg free/busy calendar and public folder replication information shared between multiple Exchange organizations. You can use the IOREPL tool for this. Grab it here or read about it here.
What if I need to install Exchange 2007 server, can I do that after I install Exchange 2010?
Answer: Yes, but only if you had installed Exchange 2007 prior to Exchange 2010.
What if I need to install Exchange 2003 server, can I do that after I install Exchange 2010?
Answer: Yes, but only if you had installed Exchange 2003 prior to Exchange 2010.
What if I need to install Exchange 2007, can I do that if I have upgraded from Exchange 2003 directly to Exchange 2010?
Answer: No, you must have installed 2003, 2007 and then Exchange 2010 in that order.
Is there a tool I can use to help me with my Exchange 2010 installation?
Answer: Yes, check out this Exchange 2010 deployment assistant before you upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 here.
Does Blackberry Enterprise Server work with Exchange 2010?
Answer: Yes, Be sure to install the brand new Exchange Server 2010 RollUp1 here in conjunction with the new BES 5.0.1 MR1 update along with MAPI 6.5.8147 – it has a patch to allow for BlackBerry Enterprise Server to fully support Exchange 2010. Rollup 1 has a few CAS and OWA patches as well.
Answering Questions on Licensing and Virtualization:
First Licensing in OCS R2 has improved.
For OCS Enterprise Edition Servers Microsoft has made all roles EXCEPT Front End and Edge Servers "Additional Software"
The impact for this simplifies the Enterprise Edition Servers so they can be purchased without the concern about roles and reduces the customer cost. Customers will decide on High Availability and number of seats covered.
http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/pricing-licensing.aspx
For Virtualization
Presence, IM, and Group Chat roles are now fully supported in a Hyper-V environment.
The virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64 bits. Archiving Server and Monitoring Server can be connected to a virtualized Enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server
Virtualization of the other workloads is not supported because of possible quality issues with real-time media.
If any one of these workloads is required, a new pool with physical servers must be deployed for those users. For more information about support for client virtualization technologies, please refer to the official support statement at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951152
In order to plan both their physical and virtualized topologies, customers can use Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool, which can simulate user load for the available workloads. This will help customers validating the hypervisor load and scalability before going to production.
Along with this announcement, a whitepaper detailing the tested architecture, performance, use of the Capacity Planning Tool, and a methodology to select a successful architecture can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a45d921-3b48-44e4-b42b-19704a2b81b0