Split EV servers

[mayu]

This is regarding the enterprise vault load distribution

We are currently using EV 9.0 with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Version 9.00. STANDARD EDITION Service Pack 4.

EV and sql server are installed on different servers.

Three exchange mailbox servers (Exchange 2007) has been added in EV as exchange target

We decided to split ev server into 3 ev servers.

Our idea is to create 3 different EV servres on the same site e.g EV1,EV2 and EV3 and add three exchange servers like ev1 for exch1 ev2 for exch2 and ev3 for exch3 respectively

1. My question is if we add exch2 to EV2 which is previously resides on ev1 is it necessary to move archive data from ev1 to ev2 ?

2. What addition task we need to perform, like is it necessary to disable users from ev1 since we remove the exch2 from ev1 and add exch2 on ev2 what happen when we add users on ev2 provisioning group?

Can we use “ZAP” to move users from ev1 to ev2. What about the hidden message?

3. How owa will work in this scenario?

[EV_Ajay]

Hi,

1. You can Stop and Delete the Task for Exch2 on EV1 and then create new task on EV 2 for Exch2. Also You can add Exch2 as target on EV2.

Adding an Exchange Server for archiving.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO58008

2. Regardless of disabling the user and perform manual process you can go for Move Archive feature. It will move user archvie from EV1 to EV2.

Enterprise Vault Move Archive Feature Overview
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH129236

3. I think OWA will normal because the archived item is linked with EV site alias name. I think you are not changing the EV site alias name.

[Pradeep-Papnai]

1. My question is if we add exch2 to EV2 which is previously resides on ev1 is it necessary to move archive data from ev1 to ev2 ?

It's not necessary to perform move archive but it's recommended. If you don’t move archive then storage service of old archive would be use.

2. Regardless of disabling the user and perform manual process you can go for Move Archive feature. It will move user archvie from EV1 to EV2.

The hidden message message will update automatically after moving the archive to destination EV server. While moving the mailbox just make sure "synchInMigration" registry present as per TN http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH48928

No need to zap the mailbox.

3. How owa will work in this scenario?

After move archive, user mailbox would have updated EV hidden message, new exchange server must have extension installed. 

[GabeV]

1. My question is if we add exch2 to EV2 which is previously resides on ev1 is it necessary to move archive data from ev1 to ev2 ?

It depends. If you have one Vault Store with al the archives in EV1 for exch1 - 3, then you need to create a new Vault Store in EV2 and EV3 and perform a move archive for those archives in exch2 and exch3 respectively to each EV server. If not, if you separate the archives in three Vault Stores, you just need to move the Vault Stores from one EV server to another. Of course, moving the archives will distribute the load across all the EV servers. However, if you keep all the data in one EV server, it will work as well, but EV2 and EV3 will need to connect to EV1 to pull any archived data from the archives.

2. What addition task we need to perform, like is it necessary to disable users from ev1 since we remove the exch2 from ev1 and add exch2 on ev2 what happen when we add users on ev2 provisioning group?

Can we use “ZAP” to move users from ev1 to ev2. What about the hidden message?

You don't need to disable or zap the mailbox. If you move the mailbox from one exchange server to another, you just need to add a registry key called SynchInMigrationMode (http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH48928 - Part III) and run the provisioning task. Doing so, EV will update the mailbox location on the new Exchange server and it will be archived using the archiving task for that exch server.

3. How owa will work in this scenario?

Of course. EV OWA extensions will read the mailbox new settings and will pull the archived data from its respective EV server. You just need to make sure that you have the EV OWA extensions installed and configured correctly on the CAS servers. Also, in the EV servers, you need to create the ExchangeServers.txt file with the IP of each CAS/Exchange server and to create the EVAnon directory using the cscript owauser.wsf on each EV server as well.

I hope this helps.

[mayu]

Thanks all for you inputs.

My concern is if we keep the old data on ev1 and further archiving (after splitting) will continue on EV1 for EXCH1, EV2 for Exch2 and EV3 for Exch3 respectively.

Please note we are not going to modify any mailbox on exchange server. Exchange setup is intact.

Then can we enable the mailbox on EV2, which was previously reside on EV1 and will the user be able to access the old archive data which is still reside on EV1 Archives.

e.g.

Current Setup

User A, B and C having mailboxes on Exch 1, 2 and 3 respectively archived on single EV1 server

Proposed setup

User A – Exch 1 –EV1

User B - Exch 2-EV2

User C - Exch3-EV3

To enable the user B on EV2 do we need to disable it on EV1 first or it is not required? By adding the exch2 on EV2, will it take care of all the process by its own?

If we enable User B on EV2 how the user will be able to access the old archives on EV1 since we do not want to move the archive from EV1 to EV2 which was very tedious job. (for more than 1000 users)

[GabeV]

Ok ... If you keep the data in the same EV server, it will work no matter how many EV servers you have. Based on that scenario, you just need to create an archiving task for exch2 in EV2 and for exch3 in EV3. Both EV servers, EV2 and EV3 will know that the archived data is in EV1. In order to do that, both servers will use MSMQ to connect remotely and retrieve archived data from EV1. You don't need to disable the user. Just the Exchange Archiving Task needs to move 'moved' from one server to another (i.e. deleted from EV1 and created on EV2 or EV3).

[Pradeep-Papnai]

Thanks for details description of your issue.

To enable the user B on EV2 do we need to disable it on EV1 first or it is not required? By adding the exch2 on EV2, will it take care of all the process by its own?

You can create archiving task for EXCH2 from EV2 and move mailbox from Exch1, you don't need to disable mailbox (niether on exchange nor in EV) but you should have registry "synchInMigrationMode" value 1 to Makes Enterprise Vault assign new or moved mailboxes to existing archives if the legacyMbxDN values match.

Now in this situation mailbox will archive from EV2 and data will save to old archive which storage service running from EV1. 

Later on you can decide to move archive archive as to vault store which runs by storage service from EV2.

If we enable User B on EV2 how the user will be able to access the old archives on EV1 since we do not want to move the archive from EV1 to EV2 which was very tedious job. (for more than 1000 users)

Before moving archive to new server, users' will have read/write access to old archive.

After performing move archive still user can see their old archive in search/archive explorer (it would be rename with start-end date), EV does not delete the old archive but just CLOSE it to avoid modification.

I hope this will clear your doubts.

Regards

EV-C

[EV_Ajay]

To enable the user B on EV2 do we need to disable it on EV1 first or it is not required? By adding the exch2 on EV2, will it take care of all the process by its own?

Ans : You need to remove those user from Target of EV 1 of archiving and then add those user in target on EV 2 for archivng and use synchInMigrationMode key and run the synchronization.

If we enable User B on EV2 how the user will be able to access the old archives on EV1 since we do not want to move the archive from EV1 to EV2 which was very tedious job. (for more than 1000 users)

Ans : If am not wrong you are just moving Exchange archiving Task on EV2. It means your User archive / data is present on EV1 and is accessible by EV Site alias name. It means if your user archive by EV 2 still in shortcut it point to EV site alias and which will get resolved by DNS. Means you shotcut will open. Also you are not moving archive means for new archived item using EV Storage service of Ev1 and it also accessible by EV site alias name.

[Rob_Wilcox1]

You can also use third party products, like Archive Shuttle, to help balance mailboxes/archives between servers.

[EV_Ajay]

Hi,

Do you have any updates on this thread? Do you need more assistance regarding this topic? Please mark the post that best solves your problem as the answer to this thread.