Microsoft Exchange 2007 Installation
Mailbox Role configuration
Replication type: CCR (Cluster Continuous Replication)
1. How CCR operates:
(CCR) is a high availability Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 solution that adds the new log file shipping and replay features to eliminate the single point of failure. With a Clustered Continuous Replication setup, transaction logs generated on the active node are replicated to the information store on the passive node. In the event of a database corruption, this allows both Exchange 2007 services and databases to fail over to the passive node. CCR can only be deployed in a two-node active/passive cluster.
CCR uses Windows Clustering Services to provide virtual servers (which, in Exchange 2007, are called clustered mailbox servers) and failover capabilities. CCR has one big difference from traditional clusters, though, and that is that functionality doesn't require any kind of shared storage subsystem, because each node contains a local copy of the information stores. This eliminates the dependency on SAN technology in the cluster design, which makes CCR a more cost-efficient solution because you can use a storage option such as Direct Attached Storage (DAS) or Serial Attached SCSI.
Another worth mentioning feature of exchange 2007 CCR is geo clustering; CCR supports Geo Graphical Dispersed clusters.
Consideration Factors:
• When dealing with CCR environments, you must and can only use one database per storage group.
• You cannot create a public folder database in a CCR environment if you already have more than one public folder database in your organization.
• In a CCR environment, Microsoft recommends that you create no more than 30 storage groups and databases (one database per storage group) on the clustered mailbox server.
• The cluster on which Exchange 2007 is installed cannot contain Exchange Server 2000/2003 or any version of Microsoft SQL Server. Running Exchange 2007 in a cluster with any of these other applications is simply not supported.
2. Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication requirements.
Step 1: Configuring the Network Interface for Each Node:
When you start the servers that are to be the nodes in the cluster, begin by naming the machines EDFS07 and EDFS08 (Mailbox 07 & 08) or whatever naming scheme you want to use. (NOTE: These are just the machine names.)
To avoid any confusion in this phase Name your network cards as Public and Private.
Public: This NIC used for the Mailbox server configuration for Active Directory registration and DB replication.
Private: This NIC is used for Heart Beat between the nodes used by cluster to monitor the active node.
Click Advanced -> Advanced Settings. If it's not already the case, make sure Public is listed first on the binding order list, then Private, and Remote Access Connections last. Also make sure that you clear the File and Printer Sharing check box for Microsoft Networks for the Private network connection, as shown
1. Now configure the Public network with the TCP/IP settings that should be used in your environment.
We also need to configure the Private network with an IP address and a subnet mask, since this network is used only for communication (heartbeats) between the nodes in the cluster.
Click Advanced, then select the DNS tab. Here you should clear both the Register this connection's addresses in DNS and Use this connection's DNS suffix check boxes.
Click the WINS tab. Clear the Enable LMHOSTS lookup option and select Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP
Click OK three times and close the Network Connections window.
Adding the Servers to the Active Directory Domain
Since a CCR setup requires both nodes to be part of the same Active Directory domain, You can add the nodes to the domain by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties in the context menu. Now click the Computer Name tab then the Change button, and specify the domain.
When you have added both servers to the domain as well as rebooted each, we can move on to creating the necessary cluster service account.
Step 2: Create a Cluster Service Account:
A: Cluster service account must be member of local admin on each node.
B: Cluster Service account should be member of Exchange Administrator.
C: A Windows 2003 Active Directory forest with at least one domain controller (raised to 2000 or 2003 forest functional level)
D: Two Windows 2003 Server R2 Enterprise Editions or Windows 2003 Server SP1 Enterprise Editions
E: One Windows File Share Witness, which is recommended to be an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Server in the existing Exchange 2007 organization, (Note : CCR-based clusters don't use a shared quorum as traditional clusters)
1. Log onto a domain controller in the respective Active Directory domain, then click Start -> Run and type DSA.msc to open the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in. Now right-click the Organizational Unit (OU) in which you want the service account to be created, then choose New -> User in the context menu. Give the account a meaningful name and user logon name (such as Cluster Service Account and svc-cluster),Now click Next.
2. Give the service account a complex password and uncheck User Must change password at next logon, then check Password never expires, Click Next.
On the New User object completion page click Finish.
3. Now we need to give the new cluster service account the appropriate permissions. To do so, open the Properties page for the user object and select the Member Of tab. Make sure it's the respective Active Directory domain that's shown in the From this location field, then click the Add button and type Exchange Organization Administrators, Click OK.
4. Now switch over to the server that will be the first node in the cluster and click Start -> Run. Type compmgmt.msc. Expand Local Users and Groups and select the Groups container. Open the Properties page for the Administrators group object in the right pane, then click the Add button. Make sure that the Active Directory domain is shown in the From this location field, and type Cluster Service Account (or whatever name you gave the account in your setup), click Check Names to verify that it resolves successfully. Click OK and close the Computer Management MMC snap-in.
Step 3: Add MNS (Majority Node Set) cluster capability to Mailbox servers.
Install this update on both Mailbox nodes MS KB article 921181 to add MNS capability.
Step 4: create the actual Windows 2003 Server Cluster.
4.1 Log onto EDFS07 with a domain admin account, then click Start -> Administrative Tools -> Cluster Administrator, and select Create new cluster in the drop-down box. Click OK and then click Next, as shown in Figure 8.41.
Now specify the domain name as well as the cluster name (the name for the Windows 2003 cluster, not the Exchange cluster name to which the clients will connect) as shown then click Next.
1. If it's not already entered, type the name of the Windows 2003 server that is to be the first node in the cluster (in this case, EDFS07), then click Next .
Let the Cluster Wizard determine the cluster configuration and click Next.
2. Now enter the IP address that the cluster management tools should use to connect to the cluster (in this case, 10.10.1.218) and click Next.
3. Enter the credentials of the cluster service account and click Next
4. Now click Quorum and select Majority Node Set as the resource type, then click OK and Next
5. Now wait for the cluster to be configured, then click Next .
6. When the cluster has been completed successfully, you can click Finish.
We now have a full working Windows 2003 cluster running, but since there's only one node, it's not very fault tolerant. So let's add the second Windows 2003 server too. Do the following:
1. Right-click EDFS07 in the left pane of the Cluster Administrator, then selecting New -> Node, as shown in Figure 8.50.
2. The Add Nodes Wizard will launch and you can click Next. Enter the name of the server that is going to be the second node (for the purpose of this example, EDFS08).
3. Again, let the Add Notes Wizard determine the cluster configuration, then click Next
4. Enter the password for the cluster service account (in this case, svc-cluster, which we created earlier in the chapter), then click Next
5. When you are verified, you'll want to add the second node to the cluster with the configuration
6. When the cluster has been configured properly without any errors or warnings click Next.
7. When the Add Notes Wizard has completed successfully, click Finish.
The second Windows server is now part of the cluster
3: Installing the Necessary Windows Components
• Install latest .NET Frame Work.
• MMC 3.0
4: Configure “MNS” Majority Node Set.
NOTE: Must Install this update first (MS KB article 921181).
NOTE: MNS Must created on Hub Transport.
• Log on to the Hub Transport server with a domain admin account, then open Windows Explorer and create a new folder called MNS_FSQ_E2KTCCR on the C: drive or wherever you want it to be created, as shown in Figure 8.58.
Note: It's recommended that you use the MNS_FSQ_clustername naming convention when you create this folder.
1. Now open the Properties page for the newly created folder and click the Sharing tab
Click Permissions and configure the share permissions so that only the Cluster Service Account is allowed access to this share (see Figure 8.60).
Click OK, then select the Security tab. Here you should give Full Control to the local administrator and the cluster service account, as shown in Figure 8.61. Make sure you clear Allow inheritable permissions from the parent to propagate to this object and all child objects when doing so, then click OK twice and log off the server.
Back on EDFS07 or EDFS08, we now need to set the Majority Node Set Private Property attribute to point to the file share we just created. We do so by opening a command prompt, then issuing the command Cluster res "Majority Node Set" / p r i v MNSFileShare=\\EDFS03\MNS_FSQ_E2K7CCR.
Note: Make sure to replace the server name so that it matches the name of the Hub Transport server in your environment.
You will get a warning that all properties were stored but not all changes will take effect until the next time the resource is brought online
Configuring the Majority Node Set on EDFS07.
Some Independent Advice: In a couple of the CCR-based cluster deployments I've done, I have gotten an error message similar to the following when running the command Cluster res "Majority Node Set" /priv MNSFileShare=\\EDFS03\ MNS_FSQ_E2K7CCR:
Too many command line parameters have been specified for this option.
See "CLUSTER RESOURCE/?" for correct syntax
Should you experience this error, too, you should be able to get going using the following command syntax instead:
Cluster res "Majority Node Set" /priv MNSFileShare=UNCPath
2. To force all changes to take effect, we will move the cluster group from one node to the other (taking the cluster group offline and online again). Do this using the command Cluster Group "Cluster Group"/Move. When you have done so, you will see that the cluster group is now online on E2K7Node2.
3. Now let's verify that the 7Priv property is set correctly. This can be done by issuing the command Cluster Res "Majority Node Set"/Priv.
this property has been set correctly for the purposes of our example.
5: Install Exchange 2007 on the active node and passive node
Installing Exchange 2007 on the Active Node.
Double-click Setup.exe on the network share or the DVD media containing the Exchange 2007 setup files.
Choose Custom option.
Check Active Clustered Mailbox Role as shown in Figure
1. Now select Cluster Continuous Replication, then specify a name for the mailbox server (the name you want your Outlook clients to connect to) and a unique IP address on your public network. Finally, specify the path for the clustered mailbox server database files (which in the example is E:)
If you're installing CCR in a production environment, you should keep the transaction log files and database on separate disks.Let the readiness check complete, and if no issues are found, click Next to begin the installation.
Selecting to Install a Cluster Continuous Replication Cluster and Specifying the Name and IP Address of the Clustered Mailbox Server.
The Exchange Server 2007 Installation Wizard will now copy the needed Exchange files, install and configure the Mailbox Role, and finally create and configure the clustered mailbox server resources locally and create the object in Active Directory. After all steps have been completed, untick Exit Setup and open Exchange System Manager (yes, this will be corrected in a later build), then click Finish. We don't want to open the EMC just yet; we'll install Exchange on the second node first.
Installing Exchange 2007 on the Passive Node
Log on to EDFS08 with a domain admin account and do the same steps as we did when installing Exchange Server 2007 on EDFS07. The only difference is that you should select Passive Clustered Mailbox Role instead of Active Clustered Mailbox Role,
Testing clustered mailbox server.
1: Simply shut down the Active Node, monitor Cluster Administrator on Second node, all resources will be moved on the passive node and the passive node will be active in a while.
Users Impact:
When resources are moved to other node all MAPI client find and Alert message on desktop.
“Your Mail admin made some changes so restart Outlook is Required”
Cluster Administartor Settings:
Must verify your resource settings in cluster administrator.
