MX failover and load-balancing on Exch2k3

[ilpadrino]

What is the best way to setup a system of exchange servers to provide MX failovers and load-balancing in different geographical locations (several hundred miles apart)?

- Are mailboxes duplicated including contacts, calendar, public folders?

- When the primary fails or loses power, will the failover deliver messages back to primary when it has recovered?

- In these scenarios, does the FE/BE terminology apply?

- Could OSA or RPC-over-HTTP be used on failover servers to provide access in the event of failure?

- Are Windows-based DNS servers ok to manage MX failover and load-balancing records?

- Does local domain membership matter for internal messaging?

Thanks. Looking for any comments, even non-Exch ideas. We currently have Exch5.5, looking to upgrade and provide redundancy.

 

[luisrato]

ilpadrino, trying to implement that type of Redundancy/Load-Balancing, will have some higher costs for you, but if you really want to implement it, so what a hell.

Check in the sunbelt-software web site, they have a lot of solutions for that type of implementions.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/index.cfm

Best regards,
Luís Rato
MCP;MCSA;MCSA Messaging;MCSE;CIWA;CIWP;CIWSA;MCIWA

 

[ilpadrino]

thanks for the suggestion. I understand after much research that this type of failover is difficult if even possible. Here's a general qustion: With the size of attachments and limitless attitudes of today's users regarding email storage, is it better to have the exchange server on the local corporate network to maximize speed? Or is there a way to use a remote system? Any suggestions?