What you need to know when you setup Cluster Continous Replication (CCR) in Exchange 2007.
April 30th, 2007 by ShajiFiroz
Below is the diagram for cluster continuous replication (CCR) & Local Continuous Replication in my Exchange 2007 virtual lab.
I have the following setup:
- A Windows 2003 Active Directory forest with a Domain Controller (raised to 2000 or 2003 forest functional level).
- Two Windows 2003 Server R2 Enterprise Editions with SP2 installed (Node names are MX2K7NodeA & MX2K7NodeB as per the Diagram).
- One Windows File share Witness (as per MS recommendation, I configured FSW in Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Server which also exists in myExchange 2007 organization - refer diagram, the server name is CASHUB).
I applied the update as per MS KB article 921181 in MX2K7NodeA & MX2K7NodeB that acting as nodes in my Exchange Server 2007 Clustered Mailbox setup. This update added a new file share witness feature to the current Majority Node Set (MNS) quorum model. This file share witness feature use a file share that is external to the cluster as an additional “vote” to determine the status of the cluster in a two-node MNS quorum cluster deployment, which is a requirement in order to make use of the cluster continuous replication (or CCR in short) functionality in Exchange Server 2007.
In the two cluster nodes, I named the two network connections as Public and Heartbeat for the external and the internal network respectively on both nodes. Then ensured Public network connection is listed first on the binding order list, then HeartBeat and lastly Remote Access Connections. Unticked File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks for the Heartbeat network connection. Configured the Heartbeat network (private) with an IP address and a subnet mask. No additional configuration is required since this private network is only used for heartbeat communication between the nodes in the cluster.
At this stage, I created the first cluster node in MX2K7NodeA using “Cluster Administrator” tool which installed as part of windows 2003 server. While configuring, we provide the name for cluster - here I gave Cluster name “E2007CLUS” and the IP is “10.1.10.32″.
Also, one of the steps to provide the credentials of the cluster service account. Since this is demo, I used “administrator” as cluster service account and selected Majority Node Set as the resource for Quorum entity. Once I am done with full working Windows 2003 cluster node, I added the second Windows 2003 server as the second node. I consider this stage is the first phase of my lab setup for CCR.
Now I turned to my Hub server - CASHUB.firoz.com: I installed the Windows components required by Exchange Server 2007 as well as configure the Majority Node Set (MNS) Quorum with File Share Witness. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 component must be installed in all type of Exchange server 2007 installation. I then finished the config by enabling and configuring the transport dumpster on the HT server.
the following components are needed which will be installed as part of IIS -
Enable network COM+ access
Internet Information Services
World Wide Web Service
I created the file share on the Hub Transport server (as per MS best practise recommendation). In my setup, the share name is MNS_FSQ_E2007CLUS on the C: drive; Since I used Administrator account as Cluster service account, I gave full permission to this account for this share folder and security as well. Then from the node MX2K7NodeA, I fired the following command:
Cluster res “Majority Node Set” /priv MNSFileShare=\\CASHUB\MNS_FSQ_E2007CLUS
You should get a warning, something like this:
“You will get a warning that all properties were stored but not all changes will take effect until the next time the resource is brought online”
Once you move the Cluster Group to the node MX2K7NodeB using the following command, all these changes should take effect.
Cluster Group “Cluster Group” /Move
Then to verify the Majority Node Set is properly pointed to the right server by typing the below command:
Cluster Res “Majority Node Set” /Priv
Then set Transport Dumpster. Now another major phase is over in this Lab.
Its time to setup Exchange 2007 Server in both nodes. I ensured all the prerequisites are installed, custom install option is selected so I can have clustered mailbox setup. While configuring, I gave the mailbox server name & IP - in this scenario, its E2K7CCR & 10.1.10.33 respectively. I repeated the same for Passive Clustered mailbox setup and verified using CLuster administrator console. Done!
I used the below command to verify the cluster setup:
“Get-ClusteredMailboxServerStatus –Identity E2K7CCR“
So how did I simulate the failover? Its simple! I used the below powershell command to move the Exchange mailbox server to other node:
Move-ClusteredMailboxServer -Identity:E2K7CCR -TargetMachine:MX2k7Node2 -MoveComment:”This is a test!”
Let me stop here.
