Exchange 2000- the real requirements? 2

[smiles8045]

Hello all.

I was wondering if those of you who have installed, configured, and are running Exchange 2000 could help me out. We are attempting to change our current Exchange 5.5 email to E2K. Not a migration, since our current 5.5 DB's are corrupt (users will end up losing some mail). I am looking for the best plan of attack in setting this up from people who have done this before, not just MS instructions, which we are currently reading. We have approx 5500 users, 2000 of which use the Outlook client, the remaining use OWA.

1. How many servers should we use for Exchange, 1 or 2?

2. How is W2K about talking to NT4 and Linux DNS servers?

3. Should we run our DC and our GC on the same server or should they be seperate?

4. If we run our DC and GC on the same server how hard would it be to recover from a crash?

I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this.

Megan

 

[Xybertron]

I would use 2. How big are they?

DNS MUST be BIND 8.1.2 (or higher) or Windows 2000 DNS.

You need at least 2 DC's. I would make both GC's or you have to do special stuff with FSMO roles.

So 5 boxes would be great. Make one a Front-End.

It all depends on the power of the boxes and the way you choose to configure it all depending on load. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[smiles8045]

THANK YOU!!!! I really appreciate your help, it was just the answer we needed. Thank you again!

 

[mmaxx]

Hi Xybertron,

Pls. clarify the best configuration for 5500 users, 2000 of which use Outlook, the remaining use OWA... Is it:

1 Linux DNS Server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 512Mb RAM
2 DC/GC Servers PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
1 Ex2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 512Mb RAM
1 Ex2K Back End server PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
----------------------------------------------------------
5 Total Servers

OR:
2 DC/GC/AD Integ. DNS Servers PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
1 Exch2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 512Mb RAM
2 Exch2K Back End server PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
----------------------------------------------------------
5 Total Servers

OR:

Some other combination; we might have to buy EXTRA equipment??


Thanks a lot!

 

[Xybertron]

2 DC/GC/AD Integ. DNS Servers PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
1 Exch2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 512Mb RAM
2 Exch2K Back End server PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID

Make sure you use Advanced Server on the Back End Exchange Servers. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[The2ndOmen]

What are the benefits of using Advanced Server

 

[Xybertron]

Exchange 2000 Requires /3GB Switch with More Than 1 GB RAM
ID: Q266096

This means you really need Advanced Server. Rumor is that all Versions of .NET have support for the /3GB switch. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[mmaxx]

TO: ALL

Thanks Dan for your answer...

We're just trying to justify E2K but our Boss was SHOCKED(to put it mildly - now he's looking into GroupWise!!!) to learn about the E2K requirements because our current E5.5 installation for the same amount of usage (5500 users in a small University Campus) does not even ave. beyond 10% CPU utilization.

Current setup at less 10% CPU:
1 Exch5.5/Win2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 1Gb RAM
2 Exch5.5/NT4/DC BackEnd PII 500Mhz 1Gb RAM
----------------------------------------------------------
3 Total Servers

If we install E2K based on your recommendation, we'll be needing 3 E2K Enterprise license (2 BackEnd + 1 OWA???) and if we cluster later on for full redundancy, we'll be buying 5 or 6 E2K licensing at almost quarter MILL!!!

Is it really true what people are telling me that E2K is ten-fold resource intensive than E5.5?

I initially plan to optimize our server count now by using:

1 DC/GC/AD Integ. DNS Servers PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
1 Exch2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 1Gb RAM
1 Exch2K Back End server PIII Xeon 700Mhz 2Gb RAM HW.RAID
-------------------------------------------------
3 Total Servers

I will then install another GC and possibly cluster later on but we will buying only 2 E2K licenses. (Do we have to buy extra E2K license for the OWA?). I'm afraid now our servers might get hammered with the above config...

Sorry for my rambling...but thanks a lot for any info/help you guys can xtend...

 

[smiles8045]

As an aside.....MMaxx and I work for the same university. Currently our 2 e55 servers are not replicating and one of the servers is providing smtp services as well. Many users are currently complaining about how slow mail services are. Mail sent from one internal address to another can take up to 1hr to be received. External mail can take up to 3 hours to be received.

We are primarily a Novell shop, running an nt4 domain for both exchange and another program that requires nt4 shares and authentication for those shares. Just some background information about this situation.

 

[Xybertron]

You said 5500 users so I assumed all at the same time.

Exchange 2000 is roughly 30% better than 5.5 so you can keep the same hardware. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[MortimeR]

Just for the records:

A Unix/Linux-based DNS server even for very large cooperations needs not more than 128MB memory.

 

[Xybertron]

Just keep in mind it has to be Bind 8.1.2 to support AD and your going to have DC's anyway so just make them DNS. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[smiles8045]

Dan,
in one of your posts you said:

"You said 5500 users so I assumed all at the same time.
Exchange 2000 is roughly 30% better than 5.5 so you can keep the same hardware."

Are you telling us that we can run all of our users on our current hardware? When you say roughly 30% better do you mean it functions with less utilization?

We keeping all the mail on the server, nothing is offloaded to the client. Would that make a difference? Also, currently we are having problems with mail delivery being very slow, taking 45min to 3 hours to be delivered. (internal mb to internal mb)

Current setup
1 Exch5.5/Win2K Front End server (OWA) PII 500Mhz 1Gb RAM
2 Exch5.5/NT4/DC BackEnd PII 500Mhz 1Gb RAM
----------------------------------------------------------
3 Total Servers

Thanks again.

 

[Xybertron]

You have serious issues if mail internally takes that long.

I have never seen anything over 1 minute delays and that alone is a big problem. You need to get this issue resolved! Anything in the App logs?

Yes you can keep the same hardware as the store is 30% faster.

I was able to support 1500 users on a Dual P200 (Ex5.5) and it stayed at 100% CPU utilization all day and mail delay was seconds at most.

Between servers should be almost as fast.

You really need to download the evalutaion copy of Exchange 2000 and try it. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft