Is this thing on? : High Availability

Windows Server Cluster Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:17:00 GMT

The Windows Server Failover Cluster Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of your Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 cluster deployments. It monitors Cluster services components—such as nodes, networks, resources, and resource groups—to report issues that can cause downtime or poor performance.

Feature Summary
Some of the conditions monitored by this management pack are as follows:

Configuration or hardware issues that interfere with starting the Cluster service
Connectivity problems that affect communication between cluster nodes or between a node and a domain controller
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) settings that affect the cluster; for example, permissions needed by the computer account that is used by the cluster
Configuration issues with the network infrastructure needed by the cluster; for example, issues with Domain Name System (DNS)
Issues with the availability of a cluster resource, such as a clustered file share
Issues with the cluster storage

Enjoy!

Video: HP Direct Attach Storage and Exchange 2007 CCR

Scott Schnoll — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:27:00 GMT

Check out this new video HP, featuring Systems Engineers Evan Morris and Karl Robinson. Evan and Karl show how show how an HP Proliant DL385 server with direct attach(ed) storage (DAS) - using StorageWorks MSA70 storage and SmartArray P800 controller - provides a simple and economical solution for large mailboxes with great Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for Exchange 2007.

Teaching an Old Dog a New Trick: Exchange 2003 and the File Share Witness

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:12:00 GMT

About two-and-a-half years ago, I blogged about about a new feature in Exchange Server 2007 called Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR). In that blog, I explained that because CCR does not use shared storage for the Exchange data, we wanted to make sure we didn't need shared storage anywhere in the cluster. The Exchange team worked very closely with the Windows Cluster team to create a new type of quorum device based on the Majority Node Set (MNS) quorum model called an MNS quorum with File Share Witness (FSW). The Windows Cluster team originally delivered the MNS+FSW quorum model in the form of QFE (hotfix) 921181 back in July 2006, several years after the release of Exchange Server 2003.

From time to time, we get questions from customers asking if the MNS+FSW quorum model can be used for clustered mailbox servers running Exchange 2003 on Windows 2003. The answer is Yes, you can! And yesterday, we updated our Exchange 2003 content to reflect this.

Specifically, we now state:

When deployed in a multi-node cluster, Exchange Server 2003 requires one of the following quorum models:

Single quorum device (shared disk quorum)

Majority Node Set (MNS)

Majority Node Set with File Share Witness (MNS+FSW)

So, even though Exchange 2003 came out well before the MNS+FSW quorum model, you can still use that quorum model for your multi-node clusters running Exchange 2003 on Windows 2003.

TechNet Webcast: High Availability in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Part 2 of 2): Disaster Recovery and SCR Deep Dive Recording Available

Scott Schnoll — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:15:00 GMT

Thanks to the nearly 150 folks who attended my Webcast last week. A recording of the Webcast is now available at https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mseventsbmo/view?id=1032381322&role=attend&pw=27903285. I recommend that you download or view the High Fidelity Live Meeting Replay, as that version will also show the animations that were used on several slides. The WMV version does not include the animations.

As an aside, part 1 of this 2-part Webcast (which is presented by Ayla Kol, a PM on the Exchange high availability team) had some initial audio problems and is being re-recorded. The recording is expected to be available on August 26. I'll post a link here when it's ready.

Enjoy!

TechNet Webcast: High Availability in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Part 2 of 2): Disaster Recovery and SCR Deep Dive

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:47:00 GMT

Are you prepared for outages that affect e-mail service or data availability? Have you defined recovery strategies and procedures for disasters big and small? In this webcast, I'll cover the recommended strategies for protecting Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 messaging service and data, with an emphasis on the ultimate disaster: a full site failure. Join me this Friday (August 15, 2008) from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM PST as I also dive deep into standby continuous replication (SCR), which was designed with these disasters in mind. This is a 300-400 level Webcast that covers disaster recovery options and strategies for Exchange 2007 SP1, standby continuous replication, and site resilience.

You can register for this free Webcast at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032381322&Culture=en-US.

New White Paper: Continuous Replication Deep Dive

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:20:00 GMT

As part of our monthly content refresh today, we released a new White Paper - Continuous Replication Deep Dive. This comprehensive deep dive white paper includes technical details about the replication components, the replication service, log shipping and replay, scheduled and unscheduled outages, lost log resilience, transport dumpster, database re-seed scenarios and incremental reseed, log truncation, and more!

You can read the White Paper at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc535020(EXCHG.80).aspx, and a Printer Friendly version can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc535020(EXCHG.80,printer).aspx.

We also release some other good stuff, too:

White Paper: Planning for Large Mailboxes with Exchange 2007: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/07/01/449112.aspx
Performance Counter and Thresholds: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/07/01/449113.aspx

Enjoy!