Exchange Setup - 3 sites

Hi,

We need to achieve the following goals : -

1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
one Public Domain Name.

2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.

What would be the best solution to achieve this?

Thanks

Kishor

Paul
Thu Apr 06 04:45:39 CDT 2006

Kishor,

The first one you could do one of two ways. Have a server in one site
recieve all the email and then distribute it to the other servers, or you
could have each server be listed on the MX records for the domain. They
could either have the same MX costing although this doesnot do true load
balancing or they could have staggered costings so 1 server recieves all
email unless it is down and then another server will recieve the emails.

On the load balancing side, what exactly are you trying to do ?

Regards

Paul Ford
Edge IT Ltd


"Kishor" <Kishor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:283AD1A1-BF3D-46A3-8FAF-72FE292037D2@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> We need to achieve the following goals : -
>
> 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> one Public Domain Name.
>
> 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
>
> What would be the best solution to achieve this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Kishor

AlaaAlAnkar
Thu Apr 06 08:57:02 CDT 2006

Dear Kishor,

1. Regarding to question # 1, you can not make sure that each region or site
will recieve onle the emails which belongs to the users under this particular
site, it depends on the MX record registered worldwide for thid public
domain, even if you assign the MX record for all your exchange front-end
servers or the server who will recieve the internet emails, the First Server
who respond to the external email will recieve the emails, then this First
Server will deliver the email to the internal user regardless of his physical
location, the first server who recieves the email will query the Global
Catalog of your Active Directory Domain searching for the Exchange Home
Server of this user and delivers the email to it. for example , if you have 3
Geographical Sites , Site A , Site B, and Site C, and under each Site you
have its own Exchange Server, Back-End and Front-End, or Back-End only, and
you registered the MX records to point to Exchange Server in Site A, then
Exchange Server in Site B, then Exchange Server in Site C, then all the
emails sent to your domain will be connected to Exchange Server in Site A, if
this Server was down or didn't accept the connection from the Internet Email
Server who is trying to send mail to you, then that Internet Email Server
will try to connect to Exchange Server in Site B, if this server was down
also, it will try to connect to Exchange Server in Stie C. if none of the MX
records Servers respond to the external connection, the email will not be
delivered and will return NDR to the sender.

i hope that i cleared the Idea of MX records for Exchange.

2. Regarding to Question # 2: your question was not clear, which servers you
want them Load Balanced ? and do you mean the Technology for Network Load
Balanced ? or Clustering ?

Exchange Server 2003 Supports Windows Clustering Technology, and can be
clustered in singel site or two seperated sites.
if you are searching to Cluster your Exchange Servers , i recommend you to
read the Exchange Server 2003 - Deployment Guide from microsoft site on this
link:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/depguide.mspx

this guide will explain all your needs about deploying Exchange Server 2003.

if you want to implement Exchange Servers in two geographically separated
places, i advise you to read the following links for Windows Clustering:
â?¢ Technical Overview of Clustering Services at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows.netserver/techinfo/overview/clustering.mspx
â?¢ Whatâ??s New in Clustering Technologies at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows.netserver/evaluation/overview/technologies/clustering.mspx
â?¢ Clustering Technologies at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/clustering/default.asp
â?¢ Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.microsoft.com/hcl

please feel free to contact me for more information about Windows / Exchange
Clsutering.

Regards

Alaa Alian A-Ankar
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Arabesque Group
alaa@arabesque.com.kw



"Paul Ford" wrote:

> Kishor,
>
> The first one you could do one of two ways. Have a server in one site
> recieve all the email and then distribute it to the other servers, or you
> could have each server be listed on the MX records for the domain. They
> could either have the same MX costing although this doesnot do true load
> balancing or they could have staggered costings so 1 server recieves all
> email unless it is down and then another server will recieve the emails.
>
> On the load balancing side, what exactly are you trying to do ?
>
> Regards
>
> Paul Ford
> Edge IT Ltd
>
>
> "Kishor" <Kishor@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:283AD1A1-BF3D-46A3-8FAF-72FE292037D2@microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > We need to achieve the following goals : -
> >
> > 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> > one Public Domain Name.
> >
> > 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
> >
> > What would be the best solution to achieve this?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Kishor
>
>
>

AlaaAlAnkar
Wed Apr 12 18:15:02 CDT 2006

Dear Kishor,

i didn't hear from you since i post a reply to your question. did my post
helped your or not yet ?

please let me know if my post helped you in resovling your issue. please
rate the post if yes, otherwise, let me know if you need more help.

Regards

Alaa Al-Ankar


"Kishor" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> We need to achieve the following goals : -
>
> 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> one Public Domain Name.
>
> 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
>
> What would be the best solution to achieve this?
>
> Thanks
>
> Kishor

Kishor
Thu Apr 13 03:29:01 CDT 2006

I need to clarify the exact requirements, to see if clustering is needed, If
it is, would I only need enterprise editions of Windows and Exchange 2003 for
the Exchange Boxes at all three sites and have standard editions of Windows
for the DC's at the three sites?

Thanks

Kishor

"Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:

> Dear Kishor,
>
> i didn't hear from you since i post a reply to your question. did my post
> helped your or not yet ?
>
> please let me know if my post helped you in resovling your issue. please
> rate the post if yes, otherwise, let me know if you need more help.
>
> Regards
>
> Alaa Al-Ankar
>
>
> "Kishor" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > We need to achieve the following goals : -
> >
> > 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> > one Public Domain Name.
> >
> > 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
> >
> > What would be the best solution to achieve this?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Kishor

AlaaAlAnkar
Thu Apr 13 08:30:02 CDT 2006

Yes indeed, to cluster Exchange Server 2003 on Windows 2003, you need the
Enterprise Edition for both Exchange and Windows 2003. for Domain Controllers
you need only Windows Server 2003 - Standard Edition.

i hope that this post helped you in answering yoru questin.

please rate this post if you are satisfied.

regards

Alaa Al-Ankar


"Kishor" wrote:

> I need to clarify the exact requirements, to see if clustering is needed, If
> it is, would I only need enterprise editions of Windows and Exchange 2003 for
> the Exchange Boxes at all three sites and have standard editions of Windows
> for the DC's at the three sites?
>
> Thanks
>
> Kishor
>
> "Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:
>
> > Dear Kishor,
> >
> > i didn't hear from you since i post a reply to your question. did my post
> > helped your or not yet ?
> >
> > please let me know if my post helped you in resovling your issue. please
> > rate the post if yes, otherwise, let me know if you need more help.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Alaa Al-Ankar
> >
> >
> > "Kishor" wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > We need to achieve the following goals : -
> > >
> > > 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> > > one Public Domain Name.
> > >
> > > 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
> > >
> > > What would be the best solution to achieve this?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Kishor

Kishor
Wed Apr 19 04:41:03 CDT 2006

Going back to the MX records,

If site 1 has some mailboxes, site 2 has some mailboxes and site 3 has some
and the primary mx records are pointing site 1, secondary to site 2, etc.

Am I coorect in thinking, if all Exchange servers at all sites are working
fine, emails would first go to site 1 and the local exchange server and any
emails for users with mailboxes on the exchange server at the other two sites
would be redirected to them.

Also what happens to mail for a mailbox on say site 2, if the exchange
server is down. The mail I presume would reach site 1 then would not be able
to redirect to site 2, would it bounce back or retry, what exactly happens?

Thanks

Kishor


"Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:

> Yes indeed, to cluster Exchange Server 2003 on Windows 2003, you need the
> Enterprise Edition for both Exchange and Windows 2003. for Domain Controllers
> you need only Windows Server 2003 - Standard Edition.
>
> i hope that this post helped you in answering yoru questin.
>
> please rate this post if you are satisfied.
>
> regards
>
> Alaa Al-Ankar
>
>
> "Kishor" wrote:
>
> > I need to clarify the exact requirements, to see if clustering is needed, If
> > it is, would I only need enterprise editions of Windows and Exchange 2003 for
> > the Exchange Boxes at all three sites and have standard editions of Windows
> > for the DC's at the three sites?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Kishor
> >
> > "Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Kishor,
> > >
> > > i didn't hear from you since i post a reply to your question. did my post
> > > helped your or not yet ?
> > >
> > > please let me know if my post helped you in resovling your issue. please
> > > rate the post if yes, otherwise, let me know if you need more help.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > Alaa Al-Ankar
> > >
> > >
> > > "Kishor" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > We need to achieve the following goals : -
> > > >
> > > > 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> > > > one Public Domain Name.
> > > >
> > > > 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
> > > >
> > > > What would be the best solution to achieve this?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > >
> > > > Kishor

AlaaAlAnkar
Wed Apr 19 10:56:02 CDT 2006

Dear Kishor,

Answering Question 1:

Yes, you think right, All emails will be reaching the lowest MX preference
which is 5 or 10 it depends on your External DNS configuration on where y ou
added or registerted your domain. then when this mail delivered to exchange
server on site 1, then this exchagne server will query the GC Server
searching for the Exchange Home Server for the internal alias. then the GC
will reply back to exchagne with the name of the exchange server hosting the
user mailbox, then the exchange server , locally will connect to this
exchagne server, lets say in site 2, and delivers the email locally to this
server , then this server on site 2 stores the email into the user mailbox.

Anwer of Q2:

in case Exchange Server on site 2 is down, and the email recieved by server
1 should deliver the email to a user mailbox on server 2 which is down, the
email will stay under the Locally Delivery Queue, and will try to connect to
the server 2 till he delivers the email.


i hope that i helped you in clearing the idea of the MX record and Exchange
and howt the email will be delivered to your user mailbox in your multi sites
domain.

please rate this post if it was helpful to you , and if you need more help,
please let me know.

Regards

Alaa Al-Ankar

"Kishor" wrote:

> Going back to the MX records,
>
> If site 1 has some mailboxes, site 2 has some mailboxes and site 3 has some
> and the primary mx records are pointing site 1, secondary to site 2, etc.
>
> Am I coorect in thinking, if all Exchange servers at all sites are working
> fine, emails would first go to site 1 and the local exchange server and any
> emails for users with mailboxes on the exchange server at the other two sites
> would be redirected to them.
>
> Also what happens to mail for a mailbox on say site 2, if the exchange
> server is down. The mail I presume would reach site 1 then would not be able
> to redirect to site 2, would it bounce back or retry, what exactly happens?
>
> Thanks
>
> Kishor
>
>
> "Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:
>
> > Yes indeed, to cluster Exchange Server 2003 on Windows 2003, you need the
> > Enterprise Edition for both Exchange and Windows 2003. for Domain Controllers
> > you need only Windows Server 2003 - Standard Edition.
> >
> > i hope that this post helped you in answering yoru questin.
> >
> > please rate this post if you are satisfied.
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Alaa Al-Ankar
> >
> >
> > "Kishor" wrote:
> >
> > > I need to clarify the exact requirements, to see if clustering is needed, If
> > > it is, would I only need enterprise editions of Windows and Exchange 2003 for
> > > the Exchange Boxes at all three sites and have standard editions of Windows
> > > for the DC's at the three sites?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Kishor
> > >
> > > "Alaa Al-Ankar" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Dear Kishor,
> > > >
> > > > i didn't hear from you since i post a reply to your question. did my post
> > > > helped your or not yet ?
> > > >
> > > > please let me know if my post helped you in resovling your issue. please
> > > > rate the post if yes, otherwise, let me know if you need more help.
> > > >
> > > > Regards
> > > >
> > > > Alaa Al-Ankar
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "Kishor" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > We need to achieve the following goals : -
> > > > >
> > > > > 1. Setup Exchange at three geographical sites that all receive emails for
> > > > > one Public Domain Name.
> > > > >
> > > > > 2. Load balancing for the Exchange Databases across the sites.
> > > > >
> > > > > What would be the best solution to achieve this?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks
> > > > >
> > > > > Kishor