Basic Requirements for Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Basic Requirements for Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007:


Basic Requirements:



 
1. Micro Processor 64 Bits. ( Cant install Microsoft Exchange on Itanium Processor)


2. 2 GB Ram plus 5 MB of Ram per Mail Box.


3. Hard Disk 1.2 GB where Exchange is installed plus 500 MB per Unified Messaging Language Pack that is to be installed on Server.


4. 200 MB free disk space on System Volume.


Software Requirements:


1. Server 2003 R2 or Server 2008.


2. MMC 3.0 Version.


3. Power Shell Version 1 in Exchange 2007 and Power Shell Version 2 in Exchange Server 2010.


4. Dotnet Framework 2.0 with Hotfix kb926776. 

Clustering

Clusters Configuration

Cluster Configuration can be done in two ways or two types:

1. Active/Active: Active/Active is Cluster type in which both Servers are working.

2. Active/Passive: Active/Passive is Cluster type in which One Server is working and other Server is   in idle condition.


What is Cluster?

A Server Cluster is a group of computers or servers running Windows Server 2003 or Server 2008 Enterprise or Data Center Edition and working together as a single system to provide high availability of services for clients.

When a Failure occurs in one Server in a Cluster, resources are redirected and work load is redistributed to other servers in a cluster.


Microsoft Server Cluster can support against three types of failures:

1. Application and Service Failure

2. System and Hardware Failure

3. Site Failure in multisite organization.


Dependencies: 

Microsoft Server Clusters use IP base protocol and Depends on Following:

1.  Active Directory

2. DNS 

Note: Cluster Service does not support use of IP adress assign from DHCP Server. 


Failover: 

It is the process having Cluster resources migrate from an unavailable node to available node.

Failback: 

When resources are restored to the node that has been offline after it is back online.


Failover is a automatically initiated by Cluster service when it detects the failure on one of the Cluster Node,because each Cluster node monitors its own process and the other node monitor its own process so that need for failover is detected without any delay. 




Types of Cluster:

1. Single Quorum device or Standard Quorum Cluster: This is most widely use Cluster type. In this type of Cluster their can be multiple nodes with one or more Cluster disk array also called the Cluster Storage and a Connection device that is bus.

Each Disk in the array is owned and managed by only one server at a time. It also contains the Quorum resources.

2. Majority Cluster Nodes sets: In Majority nodes set Cluster, each node maintains its own copy of cluster configuration data. The Quorum resource keeps configuration data consistence across the, node. For this reason this Cluster can be used for geographical dispersed location. Another advantage of Majority Cluster node set is that a Quorum Disk can be taken offline for maintenance purpose and the Cluster will continue to operate.  

• The Difference between Majority Node set Cluster and SIngle Quorum device Cluster is tha Single Quorum device Cluster can operate with just one Node but Majority Node set Cluster need to have a majority of the Clusters node available for the Cluster to operate.  

Active Directory Backup in Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 doest not support System State or Active Directory backup through GUI. In windows Server 2008 we need to take backup of Active Directory through Command line WBadmin.

Yes but if you have Windows Server 2008 R2 you can take Active Directory backup through GUI Mode.

How to take Backup of Active Directory through Command.

First of all we need to install Backup features through Server Manager to backup of Active Directory.

Enabling Windows Server Backup features through Server Manager:

1. Open Server Manager from Run through servermanager.msc command.

2. Expand Server name and Click Features.

3. Click Add features. Scroll down and select Windows Server Backup and Command line tools in Windows Server Backup Features.



   


4. Click Next and Install.


After Successful installation of Windows Backup Features, We can take backup of Active Directory

5. Open Command Prompt by typing CMD in Run.

6. Type "Wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backuptarget:E:\BackupAD".
     Where E:\BackupAD is ur backup destination folder.

 

7. Now Press Y for starting System State Backup.

8. When Backup will finish you will able to see summary of backup and Log path.