Windows Server

Ed · Guest

I'm ready to install Exchange 2003 in a Windows 2003 Cluster this coming
weekend. I have 2 Windows 2003 Enterprise servers connected to a Dell
PowerVault Array. I've successfully configured the cluster and failover
seems fine.

This is how I have configured the drives on the attached storage:
Q: Quorum
Y: Transaction Logs
Z: Exchange databases

By default, Cluster Administrator created 3 Groups that looks like this:
Cluster Group: contains Quorum, cluster name, cluster IP
Group 0: Disk Y
Group 1: Disk Z

Is this the optimum configuration for Exchange 2003? Should I move Disk Z
or Y into one group or just leave the default configuration? I have looked
all over and can't seem to locate any resources that tell me what the best
practice for configuring the Cluster Administrator for Exchange.

Also, I configured the MSDTC as a resource under the Cluster Group instead
of a seperate group. Thanks for any help in advance!

Shon Shah [MSFT] · Guest

Ed,

Both the disk resources will have to be in the same group. During SA
creation, you should make SA dependent on both the disks. Even though you
will be able to specify only one path (say Z:\EXCHSRVR) during SA creation,
you can use ESM to change the path for transaction files (to say
Y:\EXCHSRVR) once the SA creation is successful. Isolating transaction files
and database files on separate disks is the recommended practice.

It is recommended to have a separate group for MSDTC resource, especially
when you are building a new Exchange cluster. This might avoid you lot of
trouble in future. That being said, for cluster hosting Exchange, MSDTC is
used only during Exchange install and upgrade so it might be OK to have this
resource in "Cluster Group" if this cluster is going to be used to host only
Exchange but I would highly recommend creating a separate group.

Deployment Guide at link
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/depguide.mspx
has a chapter dedicated on how to deploy Exchange in a cluster.

Once you have successfully deployed Exchange, you can use Exchange Best
Practices Analyzer Tool from the link below to identify configuration
problems, if any.
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003/ExBPA/default.asp

Hope this helps.

--
Regards,
Shon Shah
Software Design Engineer/Test
Microsoft Cluster Server

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"Ed" <Ed@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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Ed · Guest

Thanks Shon.

What do you think of this: Currently, the Z: (for databases) is set up as
one large 280gb RAID 5 using 5 x 72gb drives. I was thinking of adding 1
more 72gb, and creating 2 seperate RAID 5 partitions of 140gb each so there
will be a Y and Z drive for databases. This would eliminate excessive IO
read and writes to one partition that will hold all the databases, no?

Would one RAID 1 mirror for my transaction logs be sufficient? I plan to
have 3 Storage groups, about 6 databases, and 1 public folder store.

Regarding the MSDTC, I read somewhere that Microsoft will be changing its
recommendation for having that as a seperate Group and it's perfectly fine to
create it as a resource group and add it to the Cluster Group. According to
Evan Dodds website, this is ok to do.

Thanks!

"Shon Shah [MSFT]" wrote:

configuration of Windows 2003 Cluster Administrator for Exch

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