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EV setup

Reginald_D_Souz
Level 4
I am going to setup a MSCS clustered EV environment with EV7 SP1. Had a few questions regarding the setup. The environment is 5 node Exchange SP2 backend clusters with 4 virtual nodes, 4 front-end Exchange SP2 servers, 2 ISA servers, 3 node EV cluster with 2 virtual servers. My question is
Q1. DNS aliases. I will create DNS aliases as EVserver1 pointing to virtual server 1. EVserver2 pointing to virtual server 2. Where to i pointing the Vaulsite alias to? evserver1 or evserver2.
2. Directory service and site. Should i join the second server to the site where the first server is? What is pro and con... Also what about the directory service on the second server. Do i need to create a separate directory service after installation of second server by using update service locations or does it get installed as part of installation of second server.
3. The 4 virtual Exchange backend servers will be distributed across the 2 virtual EV servers. I will put the /Enterprisevault url in the site properties. Will the users distributed across the EV servers have to manually search which is their vault servers or just typing http://Enterprisevault will take them to their respective vault server.
3 REPLIES 3

Alan_M
Level 6
Answers to your questions.

1. Point the vaultsite alias to the first EV server in your environment which logically would be evserver1.

2.You should join the second server to the same site unless there is a good reason not to and since an EV site is just a logical group of settings the only good reason is if your EV servers need different settings at the site level. You second EV server will have a Directory Server started automatically at install.

3. Your users will have to use a URL in the form: http://evserver1/enterprisevault or http://evserver2/enterprisevault but of course unless they are using the webapp this will not be relevant as Outlook or OWA will take care of this automatically.

Reginald_D_Souz
Level 4
Q1.Since vaultsite alias is pointed to evserver1, what would happen if evserver1 is down. Would evserver2 function normally or is there any dependency..
Q3. How will the users know which url to use since there are two servers. I reckon using the /Enterprisevault in the site properties should take care of it.. Just wanted to confirm if anyone have done this.

Alan_M
Level 6
There are some dependencies on the site alias so in a standard configuration if evserver1 went down you would have issues. However in your clustered environment the site alias is going to point a clustered virtual name so it should never be an issue for you.

You are mistaken (slightly) about the use of /enterprisevault. First you must separate usage. In scenario 1 all the user does is access EV through Outlook or OWA so this is a non issue. In scenario 2 they use the EV web app from a browser. The user can access either server and it should work however because of how WIndows Integrated Auth works if they go to evserver2 when they are being archived by evserver1 they will be prompted for logon credentials.