Exchange 2010 - HA

Hi all,

I have inherited a network with the following exchange 2010 setup:

2 exchange servers, each hosting the following roles: mailbox, cas, hub

2 mailbox databases, both mounted on exchange server A and copied to exchange server B

Both servers are located in different data centres and also in different AD sites, from what I can see the databases would need to be manually activated on exchange server B (passive server) if exchange server A was offline. Also I have noticed that there is no load balancer. Therefore I would expect in a DR situation if exchange server A was offline or the whole site was down the databases would manually need to be activated on exchange server B. Furthermore I would also expect without a load balancer this scenario would require a DNS change, for instance exchange_server_A = 10.0.0.10 and exchange_server_B = 192.0.0.10 the "A" and "prt" records for exchange_server_A would need to be changed so they use ip address 192.0.0.10. This would then allow outlook users connect to the exchange server OR I could go to each users outlook profile and re-run the discovery.

Also if I add a load balancer and have the 2 exchange server sit behind a VIP, I assume in a DR I could manually failover to the passive server, would other steps be required other then just activating the databases?

Also how would this affect OWA or active sync?

March 5th, 2015 3:28pm

Also if I add a load balancer and have the 2 exchange server sit behind a VIP, I assume in a DR I could manually failover to the passive server, would other steps be required other then just activating the databases?

Yes you would just manually do it and CAS/HUB will be taken care by Load Balancer.

In case there is no load balancer then you would nee to manually point all the A Records and CNAME to the Server and also for the HUB for mail flow.

You can plan this test on a off-peak hours to make sure it work when you need it

it has some good conceptual info

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/05/31/exchange-2010-high-availability-misconceptions-addressed.aspx

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March 5th, 2015 9:50pm

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