Creating a Virtual Exchange Server for

Exchange 2003 Clustering

This article goes beyond my first article about clustering in which I gave you only the basic
steps that were necessary to create an Exchange 2003 Cluster.

configure Cluster
windows 2003.doc

Let’s begin
This article begins by creating the Exchange Virtual Server which is the heart of the Exchange
Cluster because this object represents the Exchange Server for all users and other resources.

You must first have the following steps completed:

 Installing and configuring Windows Server 2003 Enterprise

 Implementing the Shared Storage (SAN, NAS) for the Quorum and the Exchange
Databases
 Creating a Cluster with Cluster Administrator
 Installing Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise and Service Pack 2 on each Cluster Node

After installing Exchange Server 2003 on the Cluster Nodes you will see several Cluster
Resources in Cluster Administrator which were installed during the Exchange Server Setup.

Figure 1: Exchange Cluster Resources

Create a new Cluster Group
The first step is the creation of a new Cluster Group. A cluster Group will be used to group
resources which are necessary for the Exchange Cluster creation. If a failover occurs the whole
Cluster Group will move to another Cluster Node.

You must give the Cluster Group a name and an optional description.

Figure 2: New Cluster Group Wizard

In the next step you must select the preferred owners of the Resource Group. A failover can only
be initiated between Preferred Owners.
Figure 3: Preferred Owners

Create a Cluster IP
After successfully creating the Cluster Group you must create a Cluster IP resource. The Cluster
IP resource is used to give the Exchange Virtual Server an IP Address. The Network for the
Cluster IP address is the LAN network.
Figure 4: Create a Cluster IP

Create a Cluster Name

Now, create a Cluster Name. The Cluster Name will be used as the logical Cluster Name. The
Cluster Name Resource must be created in the Cluster Group for Exchange.
Figure 5: Create a Cluster Name

Possible Owners are NODE1 and NODE2.

The Cluster Name is dependant on the Cluster IP.

Figure 6: Resource Dependency

The name of the Cluster is DECCLUS. The Cluster setup will create the necessary DNS records
in the DNS console. New with Exchange Server 2003 is the support for Kerberos Authentication
when you enable the Checkbox Enable Kerberos Authentication.
Figure 7: Cluster Name Properties

Cluster Disk
Now it is time to create the Cluster Disk Resource. The Cluster Disk is from the Physical Disk
Resource Type.
Figure 8: Cluster Disk

The Cluster Disk is dependant on the Cluster IP and Cluster Name Resource.

Figure 9: Cluster Disk

The Cluster Disk for the Cluster in this Article is Disk E:

Figure 10: Select Cluster Disk for Exchange

Create the Exchange Virtual Server

Now it is time to create the Exchange Virtual Server. Right click the Cluster Group and click –
New – Resource and select Microsoft Exchange System Attendant as the Resource Type. This
will create the Exchange Virtual Server.
Figure 11: Create the EVS

Possible Owners of the Exchange Virtual Server are NODE1 and NODE2.

Figure 12: Possible Owners

The Exchange Virtual Server is dependant on the Cluster IP, Cluster Name and Physical Disk
Resource.

Figure 13: EVS Dependencies

Select the Exchange Administrative Group, where the Virtual Exchange Server should be
installed. If your Exchange Organization has only one Administrative Group you are not given a
choice of selecting the administrative Group.
Figure 14: Select the Administrative Group for the EVS

Select the Routing Group

Install the Exchange Virtual Server in the Exchange Routing Group where the Cluster Nodes are
physically located.

The Default path for the Exchange Databases is the Cluster Disk Resource that you previously
created and the Path \EXCHSRVR like a normal Exchange Server installation.
Figure 15: Select the Routing Group for the EVS

Read the summary carefully and after reviewing the configuration, click Finish.

Figure 16: EVS Summary

After successfully creating the Cluster Group and the Exchange Virtual Server, right click the
new Cluster Group and select Bring Online. This will bring all resources - based on their
Dependencies - in the Cluster Group Online.

Figure 17: Bring the Cluster Group Online

The process of taking the Resources Online takes a while.

Figure 18: Bring the Resources Online

The Exchange Virtual Server in the Exchange System

Manager
The Exchange Virtual Server (EVS) is listed as a normal object in the Exchange System
Manager (ESM).
Figure 19: The EVS in ESM

The Exchange Virtual Server looks like a normal computer object like every other physical
computer object. The Exchange Virtual Server is also listed in the Active Directory Users and
Computers console.

Congrats. You have successfully created the Virtual Exchange Server and you are now Cluster
Ready. Depending on the number of Cluster Nodes, you can create additional Virtual Exchange
Server objects in the Cluster Administrator console.

Remove the Exchange Virtual Server

If you want to remove the Exchange Virtual Server from Exchange you can use Cluster
Administrator to do that but keep in mind that this will remove the entire Exchange Server from
your Exchange Organization. If you would only like to remove one Cluster node from the
Exchange Cluster you must evict the Node from the Cluster.

The high level steps to remove the Exchange Virtual Server are the following:

 Backup critical Exchange Data

 Move all Mailboxes and Public Folder from the Exchange Virtual Server to another
Exchange Server
 Take the Exchange System Attendant Resource in the Exchange Cluster Group offline
 Remove the Exchange Virtual Server
 Delete remaining Cluster Resources

The deletion of the Exchange Virtual Server also deletes all Exchange Resources in the Cluster
Administrator.

Conclusion
In my first article I showed you how to implement a Two Node Exchange Cluster with the
Windows Server 2003 Cluster Services. In this article I tried to explain how to create the
Exchange Virtual Server. It is really simple to create an Exchange Virtual Server which can be
used as a clustered Exchange Server.

Implementing a Two Node Cluster with

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In this article I will give you a high level overview about the
installation of Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2003 two node Cluster.
This article doesn’t explain every necessary step for clustering
Exchange, but it should give you an overview about the installation
process and some basic handling.

What is a cluster – a definition!

A cluster is a group of computers, called nodes that function as a single computer/system to
provide high availability and high fault tolerance for applications or services.  Windows 2003
Servers can participate in a cluster configuration through the use of Cluster Services. If one
member of the cluster (the node) is unavailable, the other computers carry the load so that
applications or services are always (with a small interruption) available.
All nodes of the cluster use a Shared Disk – an external disk or disk subsystem which is
accessible for all nodes through SCSI (2 Nodes) or Fibre Channel (more than 2 nodes). All data
will be stored on the shared disk or an external disk subsystem (for example Exchange
databases).

Every node has a local Exchange 2003 installation with a unique configuration for every cluster
node. Each Cluster with Exchange 2003 has at a minimum one Exchange Virtual Server (EVS).
An EVS is the logical node that will be used for all cluster operations. An EVS contains an IP
address, network name, physical disk and an application.

A cluster can be …

 Active/Active or
 Active/Passive

Microsoft recommends only Active/Passive clusters – I will give you the reason later.

The number of cluster nodes supported by Windows 2003 Enterprise and Datacenter is 8 nodes.
Windows Server 2003 Standard and Web Editon doesn’t support a Cluster.

In an Active/Passive cluster - If one node in the cluster fails, the active cluster failover to another
node which becomes Active. This is called Failover. If the failed node is back online, a Failback
can be manually initiated or automatically configured in the Cluster Group properties.

Every cluster node must have two network interfaces. One network interface for the cluster
communication called the private LAN and one network interface called the public LAN. You
can link a cluster with two nodes with a simple cross link cable. If more than two nodes exist in
the cluster you have to use a dedicated switch / hub.

The private NIC is used for the Heartbeat communication (Cluster communication). A Heartbeat
is much like a ping which can be used to test if the other cluster node is still available. If the
heartbeat fails, the Failover process occurs.

Clustering changes with Exchange 2003 SP1

In versions before Exchange 2003 SP1, regardless of the number of cluster nodes you could only
have one instance of a Public Folder store that is associated with the MAPI folder tree.

In Exchange 2003 SP1, the Exchange development team added the ability to have multiple
MAPI Public Folder databases on a single multi node cluster.

This support was added because the Exchange team saw that Outlook 2003 cached mode puts a
greater load on Public Folders like the Outlook Address Book (the OAB will be loaded offline at
the client). With the help of multiple Public Folder stores the load can be spread across these
folders. This allows a better client performance.
Why Active/Active cluster is not recommended
Active / Active cluster is not recommended because of Virtual memory (VM) fragmentation.
When two instances of the information store is running in one memory space, it might be
possible that sufficient VM does not exist to bring the resource online during a failover/failback.

For more information see here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;816893

There are three main concepts which reduce virtual memory fragmentation:

 Decrease the number of dynamic allocations when the system is started

 Increase the size of the virtual address space
 Allocate similar size allocations from common regions of memory

Exchange Server 2003 Cluster Requirements

 Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server (up to two nodes)
 Windows 2000 Datacenter Server (up to four nodes)
 Windows 2000 must have SP3 + 329938 hotfix or SP4
 Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (up to eight cluster nodes)
 Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (up to eight cluster nodes)
 Hardware on cluster HCL
 Windows 2000 - Check lists for cluster service installation
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=266
 Windows Server 2003 – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=17219
 Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) installed

Exchange Server 2003 Cluster Setup Changes

 Block removal of node if an EVS is running on the cluster
 The /disasterrecovery switched is blocked
 Prevent Exchange 2003 from being first non-legacy server in a Exchange 5.5 site
 By default, POP3 and IMAP4 resource not created (as part of the Trustworthy Computing
initiative from Microsoft)
 Cluster service account doesn’t requires Exchange full admin rights
 IPSEC is now supported between front-end servers and back-end clusters

Exchange Server 2003 Cluster Disk Changes

Windows 2003 clusters now support Volume Mount points to overcome the limits of traditional
drive letter assignments. This new feature is very useful for four and eight node Exchange
clusters because the traditional drive letter assignment in Exchange was very limited in cluster
environments when multiple storage groups and stores where used.

Windows 2003 Cluster Setup

I will not explain every step for installing a Windows 2003 Cluster. For detailed information
click the following link.

I will show you only a few pictures.

Figure 1: Create a new Cluster

The Windows 2003 Cluster administrator after successful installation.

Figure 2: Cluster Administrator

Exchange 2003 Cluster Setup
Before we install Exchange 2003, we must create a MS-DTC (Distribution Transaction
Coordinator) resource.

In Windows 2003, Microsoft recommends installing the DTC as a separate Cluster Group
containing a Physical Disk, Network Name and IP address resource and then adding the MSDTC
resource to the cluster group.

For more in formation how to setup the MS-DTC in a Windows 2003 Cluster, read the following
Knowledge Base article.

The second step is to install Exchange 2003 and all required hotfixes on each node. You MUST
install Exchange one after the other. After installing Exchange, you can deploy Exchange 2003
SP1 on every cluster node. For more information on how to deploy Exchange 2003 SP1 into a
cluster environment read the following article.

Once the Exchange 2003 binaries have been installed on the cluster Node we can now create an
Exchange Virtual Server.

The Exchange Virtual Server creation process is much the same as for Exchange 2003. First we
need to create a cluster group for the Exchange Virtual Server. The group must have at least one
physical disk resource, at least one IP address resource, and a network name resource. The
network name resource must have a dependency on the IP address resources in the cluster group.

When all resources are online, we must create the System Attendant resource. The System
Attendant Resource (SA) creates all the other Exchange 2003 cluster resources automatically.

To do this, right click the Exchange 2003 cluster group and choose New Resource and then
choose the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant. You must name the SA.

Figure 3: Exchange System Attendant

Add the Nodes that will be possible owners of the System Attendant Resource. A possible owner
is a node in the cluster on which the resource can be brought online. These Nodes will also be
added as a possible owner of all the other Exchange resources that are automatically created. A
Node must be specified as a possible owner of a resource in order for us to failover to that Node.

Figure 4: Possible owners of the EVS

You must set the dependencies on the System Attendant Resource. The dependencies are the
following:

 Network Name resource

 All disk resources (that Exchange 2003 should use - this includes Mount Point disks
which will contain Exchange 2003 data)

Figure 5: SA – Resource dependencies

Like a normal Exchange installation you must select the administrative group where the
Exchange virtual server is created.
Figure 6: Chose the administrative Group for the EVS

Within the chosen Administrative Group you now have to choose a Routing Group where the
Exchange Virtual Server will be located when more than one Routing Group exists at the time of
EVS creation. You can change the server location in the Routing Group after installation.

Figure 7: Select the routing group for the EVS

Please read the wizard's summary carefully.

Figure 8: Exchange 2003 Wizard summary

Click Finish to start the creation process. This may take a while because the setup process
actually creates all Exchange 2003 cluster resources. When the process is complete you will see
the following message:

Figure 9: DONE

The following picture shows the Cluster Administrator tool after EVS installation. Note that all
Exchange resources are NOT online.

Figure 10: Cluster Administrator after EVS installation

Exchange 2003 no longer creates a POP3 and IMAP cluster resource. This is part of Microsoft's
Trustworthy initiative and it is also true for a “normal” Exchange 2003 installation.

Next, we have to bring the System Attendant resource online. To do so, right click the EVS
System Attendant and click “Bring Online”.

Figure 11: You have to bring the System Attendant Online.

Exchange 2003 Resource dependencies

Microsoft has changed the Exchange 2003 resource dependencies to allow a faster
failover/failback.

In Exchange 2000 there are the following dependencies:

IP Address > Network Name > System Attendant
Physical Disk > System Attendant
Routing Engine > System Attendant
Information Store  > System Attendant
MTA > System Attendant
MS Search > Information Store
POP3 > Information Store
SMTP > Information Store
IMAP4 > Information Store

Beginning with Exchange 2003 Microsoft has changed the Resource dependencies:
IP Address > Network Name > System Attendant
Physical Disk > System Attendant
Routing Engine > System Attendant
Information Store  > System Attendant
MTA > System Attendant
MS Search > System Attendant
POP3 > System Attendant
SMTP > System Attendant
IMAP4 > System Attendant

Kerberos support
Beginning with Windows 2000 SP3 Kerberos authentication against clustered virtual servers was
added. Before Windows 2000 SP3, all authentications against clustered virtual servers were
NTLM or NTLMv2. Before Windows 2000 SP3, a clustered virtual server did not have a
corresponding Active Directory computer object.

Exchange 2003 now supports Kerberos authentication. This is done automatically by the setup
process for non-clustered servers. In a cluster environment, these properties are set during the
creation of the Exchange virtual server (EVS). This means that a computer object exists in
Active Directory for each virtual Exchange server.

Conclusion
It is relatively easy to deploy a Windows 2003 cluster with Exchange 2003. Microsoft has made
many extensions and enhancements in Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 to ease the Cluster
Administrators life.

Don’t forget to pay attention for the rest of your cluster environment. A comprehensive Cluster
solution should deal with certified hardware (at a minimum have a look in the HCL), cluster
aware applications and 24/7 support and defined SLAs (Service Level Agreements).  It is
important to ensure that the infrastructure also supports High Availability. This means that you
should have redundant networking equipments (Routers, Switches), USV support and much
more.

Related Links

Cluster Configuration Checklist from IT Showcase for Exchange 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0E9B809D-2A7A-4ADF-9FDE-
897210A461DB&displaylang=en

Windows Server 2003 Clustering Services Technology Center

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/default.mspx

Guide to Creating and Configuring a Server Cluster under Windows Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/conf
clus.mspx

Windows Clustering is not supported on front-end servers in Exchange Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837852
High Availability Guide for Exchange 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/highavailgde.mspx

Server Consolidation with Exchange 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BC3A8D76-FC58-4E3C-9152-
1CE35E9466EA&displaylang=en

How to install Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 in a clustered Exchange environment
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;867624

Support WebCast: Clustering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823894

Considerations when deploying Exchange on an Active/Active cluster

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815180
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301600

How to configure Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator on a Windows Server 2003

cluster
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301600

Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server require NetBIOS name resolution for full
functionality
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837391

Security Setting Changes and Updates That Are Introduced in Exchange Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824111

Deploying Exchange 2003 SP1 in a cluster environment

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;867624