Hello,

We are using Office 365 online and will be migrating onto an in-house Exchange Server 2013 on a new Windows Server box.

I have two questions:

1. What is the best way to migrate everything from the Office 365 to the in house server? Do I setup a hybrid environment and then move the mailboxes and then remove the hybrid environment?

2. What is the best way to setup high availability for the in-house Exchange server? I found out that in order to setup Exchange 2013 as high availability it needs to run on Windows server 2012 STD or Windows server 2008 Enterprise.

Please let me know and provide links to step by step instructions if possible.

Thank you,

1. Set up a hybrid configuration, then you can move mailboxes natively and have coexistence while you move them.  Alternatively you could use a cloud migration service like MigrationWiz and do a cutover migration.  In either case, you would be well served by hiring an experienced consultant because none of these is easy.

2. High availability means two servers with a DAG and a hardware or virtual load balancer.  You'll want to run the latest cumulative update of Exchange 2013 on Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition.

As I said, if you want step-by-step instructions, you're welcome to do your own research or hire an experienced consultant.

Hi Karel,

Thank you for your question.

In addition Eds suggestion, moving mailbox form Exchange online to Exchange on premise could be refer to the following link:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj906432(v=exchg.150).aspx

Exchange 2013 high availability could be referred by the following link:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638137(v=exchg.150).aspx

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know. 

Best Regard,

Jim

Here's an example of one vendor's offerings.

http://kemptechnologies.com/loadmaster-family-virtual-server-load-balancers-application-delivery-controllers/

I understand that there are free ones but I'm not familiar with them.

So the load balancer would replace the HyperV I gues

I have few more questions:

I have 400GB RAID5 drive. Should I create two partitions, one for C drive (Win SRV 08R2 STD) and the other where I would install the Exchange onto like Drive E?

What sizes should I use? 100GB for C and 300 GB for exchange? Or should I just create one large C partition and install everything

This exchange server will have 22GB of physical RAM and only roughly 40-50 exchange mailboxes.

I could add some hard drives to the array. The drives I have right now are 146GB, 10k, SAS and I have five of them. I can go up to 8 which would add roughly 300GB or so.

For now it will be one physical exchange server with that we might add another one down the road most likely as a HyperV machine.

So what I'm hearing is:

I'll create a RAID5 array

 Then I create a C drive partition where I would install the OS (Win SRV08 R2)

 then second partition E drive where I would install Exchange SRV 2010 with the databases

Then I would create a third partition F drive where I would install the logs

Correct?

What sizes would I allocate to each if I would end up with 400GB total st

Separate partitions are not separate physical volumes.

I'm not sure why we have such difficulty to communicate here. Are you bothered by my questions?

All I'm asking is to have some guidance so I can do the best setup with my options.

We could go on back and forth like this forever. Why is it so difficult to get a straight answer that will clearly tell me what I need to do to have the best setup possible with my hardware?

I'm not sure what I'm hearing now. I do understand that different partitions are not different volumes.

I can create three RAID5 arrays and create one volume on each if that's what you are suggesting but at this point it is very confusing as all the answers received do not answer my questions.

Is it not possible for you to tell me the steps to take to achieve what you are suggesting?

I said, "... I would very definitely separate the databases and transaction logs onto separate physical volumes..."

You said, "I'll create a RAID5 array [with three partitions]."

You must admit that it's fair that I interpreted that you didn't understand what physical volumes are.

Look, if you need someone to hold your hand and give you a design that's best for you, hire a consultant.  We have limited time to help you and I answer lots of questions every day.  I simply don't have two days to collect answers to all the questions I would have to in order to find out everything I would need to know to design an Exchange environment.

You're welcome to download and use the Exchange Storage Calculator to assist your analysis.

Good luck with your design.  If you have specific questions about things you're unclear on, please feel free to post.

Ed,

I understand you are busy, We all are.

I understand the difference between physical volumes and partitions.

I have a server with one array controller and can have up to 8 hard drives. I can create two arrays with RAID5 and a hot spare with 8 drives. That would give me two physical volumes.

I can then install the Win 08 R2 OS onto the first volume after creating the C partition and install the Exchange onto the second array volume after creating the E partition.

I would then place the databases onto the e drive and the logs onto the c drives. That way they will be on two different physical volumes as you recommended.

I would assume that the databases grow bigger in size than the logs.

If this is all correct, what minimum size would you recommend for the c drive and  e drive.

A basic configuration would be using two drives as RAID-1 with two partitions, one for the OS and the other for the transaction logs.  100GB is plenty for the OS.

Then configure the rest as RAID-1+0 if that gives you enough space for the databases.  If it doesn't, you could use RAID-5 but that might give you performance problems.

This is a rule of thumb analysis; you're welcome to use the Calculator to model your own requirements.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/14/released-exchange-2013-server-role-requirements-calculator.aspx

OK that makes sense.

I think I can achieve that by adding some bigger drives to the Raid 1+0.

So if I configure RAID1 for the OS and the logs and give the 100GB to the OS, how many GB would you give to the log partition? Doing RAID1 would give me total of 146GB storage for both partitions. Do you think 100GB for the OS and 46GB for the logs is sufficient?

What are your thoughts on going with Win 08 R2 and Exchange 2010 vs. Win 2012 and Exchange 2013? The client currently has Win 08 R2 servers in place.

Ed,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately your answer doesn't tell me much. I understand that the logs are generated based on the amount of email but once they get written to the database they will be purged correct. The client doesn't have any special needs, only 35 mailboxes, and they will not need any special retention other than what is default or standard.

1. Do you think that in that case the 40GB storage would be enough with some breathing room?

2. What are your thoughts on going with Win 08 R2 and Exchange 2010 vs. Win 2012 and Exchange 2013? The client currently has Win 08 R2 servers in place and honestly I do not like the 2012 design and the 2013 exchange web interface tools.

3. Would you recommend installing the exchange server OS files onto the c drive with the windows OS?

How long is a piece of string?

1.  Yes, if you handle 10GB of mail a day and you want to be able to miss backups for three days or so.

2.  I don't know what you mean by "2013 exchange web interface tools".  If you mean the Exchange 2003 Exchange Admin Console, you should be managing Exchange with the same version of the tools as the server you are running.  As to what version you should install, I would recommend the latest version.

3.  Yes, but keep in mind that there are some log files besides the transaction logs that get generated so you'll want to watch the space and keep them in check.  Scripts are available to do that for you.