Johann's Unified Communications : dr

OCS R2 Site Resiliency

jkruse — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:55:00 GMT

Using backup and restoration procedures for site disaster recovery as described in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation library topic Backup and Restoration, can entail some downtime for users.

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

The Solution section provides an overview of the tested and supported site resiliency solution described in this paper.
The Test Methodology section describes the testing topology, expected behavior, and test results.
The Findings and Recommendations section provides practical guidance for deploying your own failover solution.

To successfully follow this paper, you should have a thorough understanding of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering.

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c930febb-3a44-4bf3-969d-1c52675a7063

Video Series: Exchange 2007 SP1 Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)

jkruse — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:43:06 GMT

From You Had Me At EHLO...

Beta 2 of Service Pack 1 Exchange Server 2007 is available for public download and preview for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. As I wrote in my blog entry, Standby Continuous Replication in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1, SCR extends the continuous replication technology in Exchange 2007, enabling new data availability scenarios for Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers. You can find product documentation for SCR in the recently refreshed TechCenter update at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676502.aspx.

To demonstrate one of those scenarios, I have created a 5-part blogcast that takes you through the process of enabling SCR, monitoring SCR, and activating an SCR storage group copy using the Exchange Management Shell and other features, such as database portability. This scenario is based on the scenario detailed in the Help topic Standby Continuous Replication: Database Portability.

An example of using SCR with a standby cluster is detailed in the Help topic Standby Continuous Replication: Site Resilience with Standby Clustering.

Download the videos at http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/09/13/447006.aspx

Technorati Tags: scr, sp1, exchange 2007, dr, video

Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) in Exchange 2007 SP1

jkruse — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:50:36 GMT

One of the best, and most talked about, capabilities coming in Exchange 2007 SP1 is Standby Continuous Replication or SCR.

This features allows you to have a standby Exchange server for DR/BCP purposes, in addition to your CCR cluster for HA - in different datacentres of course :)

So by having three servers - with no specialised/expensive replication or storage requirements - you can now have a full high-availability (CCR) and disaster recovery (SCR) plan for your Exchange messaging and voicemail platform.

A great post on SCR has just been published at http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/06/28/445538.aspx

Technorati Tags: exchange 2007, sp1, ha, dr, bcp, scr, ccr