Exchange 2007

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Is anyone running Exchange 2007 yet?

I'm just beginning to look into migrating my company from it's current hosted Exchange/Blackerry service to an internally managed service, and would appreciate any feedback on my design.

We have approx 80 users, but I'd like to design a solution that will scale to at least around 250 to allow for growth over the next 2-3 years.

We have 3 offices in separate locations (Single AD domain with 3 sites) all connected via VPN over 2Mb circuits.

Ideally I'd like replicated servers in at least two locations to allow for any outages, but due to budget constraints that might not be possible at least initally.

Option 1 - Single Exchange Server at Site A

Single server running Exchange Enterprise (Hub Transport, Client Access and Mailbox roles) and Blackberry Enterprise Server
Dell Poweredge 2950
2 x Dual Core Xeon 5130 2Ghz 4MB Cache
8Gb RAM
OS Partition - 2 x 73Gb Hard Drived Raid 1
Data Partition - 3 x 146Gb HDD Raid 5

Option 2 - Redundant Server (Budget permitting)

Option 1 plus Second Server (similar spec) at Site B running Exchange, Blackberry and either WANSyncHA or Neverfail for Blackberry and Exchange

I'm not fully up to speed yet with 2007, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers

Brian

 

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Make sure you're running a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003.

I'm not using Exchange '07, so I'm not well-qualified to spec out what's required. That said, it looks like the server you spec'ed out should handle it.

 

Your spec sounds more than adequate. As already mentioned I think microsoft are pushing towards the font end / back end configuration with the edge transport server. I have installed three exchange 2007 servers now and all have been single exchange servers with the hub transport role running the anti-spam roles that would normally run on the edge transport server. I think it look potentialy a good product but feels as though it was rushed out a bit with a few features missing. The management shell provides a fast way to make bulk changes to mailboxes etc. I think they are planning a few new features in Service pack 1. Let us know how you get on with it.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ideally I would have the front/backend, but for now if I get the money I'd rather have redundancy (any Internet or server problems at our main site would mean no mail for anyone - and lots of grief for me)

Am I right in thinking that OWA can still be configured in a single server installation by opening the relevant firewall ports?

Meltin I had thought that I could only use the Antispam roles on the Edge Transport server - I was planning on pricing an outsourced solution like Mailsweeper. Does it work well on the single Exchange server?

 

Can anyone suggest a load distribution software for MS SQL?

 

It doesn't do load balancing but we just came across a program called XLink that handles SQL replication and failover, much cheaper than the likes of XOSoft and Neverfail and does the basics just as well.

 

How many of your users have blackberries? RIM normally recommends that BES be installed on its own server. I have installed it on the mailbox server, but that is in small environments ex. < 25 users and only three with blackberries.

 

The Exchange project has been put on hold for a bit, but I'm hoping to resurrect it in the next couple of months. We're looking at approx 25 blackberries currently.

I would like to have redundant servers, but doubt I'll get the budget for 4 servers to run Exchange and BES on individual servers with failovers. When I get time I might look into two physical servers and run Exchange and BES on each as virtual servers

 

BES with the attachment service running is very memory intensive, but if it is installed on a 64-bit system with a lot of memory, you may be able to get away with it. You would want to test it out first.

For redudancy look into the different spam services. Frontbridge (aka Microsoft Hosted Exchange) has an option where if you server goes down, the email will pull up at the frontbridge servers and the users can check it from there. This will only help with external email.