Hello, We are looking to implement Exchange 2007 CCR and I have a design question. I understand you can't install the Hub transport or Client Acess role on the cluster database servers. I'm trying to minimize point of failures and HW resources for our implementation. Can I install the Hub Transport and Client access role on the same server? Will these roles allow me to have an SMTP connector or will I need an Edge server as well? I really don't want an Edge server if it isn't required. This would give me 4 servers total, the c lustered database servers and two Client Access/Hub servers. We are only about 250 users, but would like as much redundancy as possible for both HW and Database recovery. If anyone has any other solutions, I'd like to know them for 2007. My primary goal is a quick and easy recovery from a database corruption without losing emails. Thanks, Dave derisman@yahoo.com

Hi, You can install the CAS and HUB roles on the same server. There is something to remember here. HUB server will be automatically load balanced by the MB servers. You will need to NLB the CAS server if you want to loadbalance this. There is no need to an Edge server - you can create receive and send connectors on the HUB servers. You can also add the anti-spam features to the HUB servers if needed: http://www.exchangepedia.com/blog/2006/09/how-to-install-anti-spam-agents-on-hub.html Leif

Yes, this is the way I am doing it. We have 2 servers that host the CAS and HT roles and we have NLB enabled between them. This works pretty good. We use a 3rd party anti-spam system, so the 3rd party antispam system sends mail directly to our HT servers and we send outbound SMTP mail (using a "Send Connector") to the 3rd party anti-spam system and it relays to mail on to the Internet for us. That step is not really necessary, but that was the way we were doing it before we moved to E2K7.

Did one server have the CAS & the other server the HT roles? Or both roles were installed on both servers with NLB between them. In all you have 4 server - 2 mailbox servers in cluster modes and 2 with HT & CAS roles. Pls clarify.

total of 4 servers, 2 with Mailbox role only, set up in a CCR cluster 2 with both HUB and CAS role installed

Hi, As mentioned in previous answers from other persons. HUB/CAS you can install on to the one server itself, What you can do take 2 servers configure NLB and install EX2k7 with HUB/CAS role. With another 2 servers you can go for Either SCC or CCR depending on your requirement. From my personal experience EXchange 2k7 with SCC has no problems at all, but with CCR obviously you will have some good advantages, but there is always headache in CCR with replication issues. Cheers Nikhil Kalra

Well if you are considering Cost, then SCC ( Single copy Cluster) requires a shared storage ( SAN , NAS ) , therefore it will be a bit more costly, and again the shared storage can still be a single point of failure. however you can use CCR( Cluster Continuous replication ) for your Mailbox Servers and use NLB for HUB and CAS aswell. Two servers= Clustered Mailboxusing CCRTwo Servers = Each having both HUB and CAS and NLB for High Avialability,Configuring HUB as NLB can be found in the link below :http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/planning-architecture/load-balancing-exchange-2007-sp1-hub-transport-servers-windows-network-load-balancing-technology-part1.html

I am also looking to implement Exch07 in a CCR configuration in the near future. One thing I would like to clarify with this group is this - In the HUB/CAS combined server config is NLB required if the HUB/CAS server will be configured in a VMware environment. More simply put, with VMWare's Vmotion capabilities will I need two HUB/CAS combined servers? I would like to minimize licensing costs and thought that one HUB/CAS server configured on VMWare would provide the redundancy and HA I need. I will not be using an Edge Transport server as I have a load balanced IronPort implementation to handle Spam/Virus and External SMTP. My 07 Mailbox servers will be clustered running on 2008 standard in AD 2008. thanks!

Hello Dave,What you have proposed is very similar to what we have in our environment. We are also about 300 user company. Only difference is that we opted originally (about a year ago now) to go with SCC rather than CCR which I, now, regret. Only reason why I regret it now is as we are due to put our DR server in place and with Exchange 2007 SP1 you can have geographicaly dispursed CCR, in other words you can later on add your third mailbox server at your DR site and configure it for CCR.In respect to setup...somebody already have mentioned that for the front end servers (HUB, CAS) you will need to leverage MS NLB. Also, remember that for both front end and backend(your mailbox servers) you want to have extra network cards on separate network for your heartbeat. Regards,Vic