Exchange 2003 Enterprise Server future Planning

[rogerpatel]

Exchange Planning.

Looking for some advice on planning an
Currently the client has a Single Exchange 2000 Server and it’s more or less reached it’s 16gb capacity. As the Hardware is 4 years old we are about to replace the server with the following :

HP Proliant ML350
Dual P4
4gb RAM
Smart Array 6i with 128 Battery cache
6 X 145 Scsi Drives (Raid 5 with 1 drive as Hot Spare) giving around 580gb Live
2 x 1GB Network Cards

The boot drive will be 25gb as the C driver and the remainder will be for exchange on the D drive, around 555GB.

The current mailboxes all add up to around 14gb and they have around 2gb of Public Folders.

Currently 90 Users, will grow to around 150 by the end of next year, and maybe more after that.

One of the key objectives is that all of the bosses don’t want mailbox limits, I know, this is extremely bad but its what they want, currently the biggest mailbox is around 1.5 gb.

All the existing mailboxes will be moved over by installing this Exchange Ent Server into the existing org. (Using AD to move mailboxes over)

My problem is I can’t figure out what is the best method for Storage Groups and Mailbox Stores, how many etc etc.

I have seen Ms Article 890699, but I still can’t figure out what I should do. I think by using more storage groups we might get better performance etc but I really don’t understand what method I should use.

Thank you very much in advance for any advice you can shed on this one.

Roger

 

[N0ktar]

You should plan to install Exchange 2003 Enterprise, you should also create two or three storage groups. Multiple storage groups are easier to manage and recover if necessary. Are there storage limits currently in place for your existing users? If so than you may have a fairly good discipline for email management already in place, 90 users on 14GB database is not too bad. I think with your current setup you will be fine for the next three or four years, even if mailboxes go over 1GB. Currently most of your users use less than 100MB for email and with your new server you've got plenty of room to grow. Make sure you plan for data recovery though as your databases grow, capable backup hardware will be critical.

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

NOktar makes a great point. In you environment multiple storage groups will have the benefit of faster data recovery not performance, because all of your databases will be on the same volume (Drive).

"One of the key objectives is that all of the bosses don’t want mailbox limits, I know, this is extremely bad but its what they want, currently the biggest mailbox is around 1.5 gb."

This request is not uncommon for Exchange Admins. You could create an Exec Storage Group with multiple stores, each store containing the execs mailboxes. Your stores could be sorted by Last name, Department, or whatever critiria you determine. Apply your storage group policy (limiting mailbox sizes) to the other storage groups in your org, were the regular users mailboxes reside.

An important point - make sure always have more freespace on the disk than the size of your biggest database so that you can always run a recovery. If not you will be scrambling to add disks to your server.

 

[rliebsch]

I'll warn against the SmartArray 6i.

I have one, I had to move off of it. I got a Smart Array 6400 with the expansion module so it has 4 channels.

You could probably scimp on RAM and go with just 3GB.

Avoid RAID5, RAID1+0 is supported on the 6i and the 6404. Much faster. Reliable and recoverable.

MS recommends having each store deal with 50GB of mail and a single DB per store. Currently, I'd put your higher ups in their own store together (quicker backup, restore, and maintenance). Put everyone else in another store. This is 2DBs, will get you to 100GB.

Make sure to have C (system and exchange binaries) on its own spindle(s). The same holds true for logs. Separate partitions is not enough. I am also not 100% that having this stuff on the same RAID controller is good enough. (but i have my own demons - almost all mac users with blackberry enterprise)



Robert Liebsch
Stone Yamashita Partners

http://www.stoneyamashita.com/

 

[CorbinMyMan]

I've been administrator of my first Exchange 2003 server for a year now (learned alot thus far thanks to the problems set in place by the guy I replaced).

I've never heard of using more than one storage group before now. It seems logical though. Is there more documentation about it I can read? I'd love to research it!

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

Read on microsoft site.
There are 5 stores per storage group, 4 that you can use - the 5th is for recovery.

If you are running Exchange 2003 Standard, this is why you have not herd of multiple storage gourps; available in Enterprise edition.