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Today I was cleaning up my mailbox when I came across some BLASPHEMY about Exchange! Okay, not blasphemy per se, but I continually hear from folks who are being incorrectly told “Exchange cannot be virtualized”. I’m not exactly sure who started this ‘trend’ but that’s neither here nor there! So I did a little digging [and you know, digging for me tends to turn into a blog post ;)] And I came across not only some AMAZING Material! But I also want to make sure you’re following up on regularly posted updates from a Rockstar who’s clear focus is on Exchange!
These are two very SHORT and to the point, giving you the high-lights letting you know what is required to kick things off and something you can hand up to mgmt! So it’s great to not spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it’s saying!
One thing I’d like to bring particular attention on these papers is that these are not EMC Papers, but are in fact co-branded collaborations by Microsoft, EMC and others (the one below was Microsoft, Cisco and EMC, and some of the others involve Dell and Brocade) but either way, Microsoft was directly involved in their creation as opposed to ‘slap a tag on it’
STOP THE PRESS!(vicki vale!) – Check out this paper though! It is definitely longer! 84 pages! Filled with raw technical example, use cases, all that jazz! Great must read paper and not just words! Lots of pretty pictures! Yes it is Hyper-V but that cmon, this was co-branded Microsoft.. :) And note: Published October 2010! So Vicki Vale did get one thing right!
Okay fine! Here is another paper! This one is a little older but I know you wouldn’t let me get away without giving you some VMware love! So here is one, with less pretty pictures!
Alright, one more then! This one was from August – not a whitepaper only a basic Reference Architecture, but I found it to be pretty damn cool looking!
Okay, enough of these (albeit amazing papers!) With no further adieu I’d like to introduce you to Dustin Smith! I’d tell you all about him, but Brian interviewed him here so you can find out all about how he’s an MVP, MCM and so many other things!
So, Dustin has his own blog where he talks almost exclusively about Exchange (okay, I think it’s all about Exchange, but whatever! this is MY BLOG! ;))
Exchange In the Private Cloud is definitely a must check out blog if you care anything about Exchange, or have to deal with it!
I’d like to highlight a few of his blog posts here for you to check out:
Within EMC, our entire 40,000+ user infrastructure is virtualized on Exchange Server and the organization as a whole is moving towards virtualization of most all applications. Most all of the infrastructures we design and showcase within our Proven Solutions are geared toward virtualization, either with VMWare vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. See my previous blog post on what we recently did with the Tested Exchange Solutions Program case with Cisco and Microsoft where we showcased 34,000 users on Microsoft Hyper-V with Cisco UCS blade servers and EMC Unified Storage.
What we are showcasing in this whitepaper is a result of our joint solution development with Microsoft and Cisco that was deployed and tested in Microsoft EEC labs in Redmond. In the whitepaper you will find the reference architecture for 32,400 users across a three site Exchange DAG scenario leveraging Microsoft Hyper-V, EMC NS480 Unified Storage, and Cisco UCS B-series blade servers along with analysis of testing results and key best practices on virtualizing Exchange Server 2010 on Hyper -V on EMC Unified storage and Cisco Unified Computing System.
I think overall, the backupless/Exchange Native Data Protection option certainly brings a new element to the Exchange 2010 architecture discussions and different options for providing recovery when bad things happen. VSS based options (hardware and software based) are still heavily used options to protect Exchange data that have been popular since the Exchange 2003 days and have increased with features and functionality into Exchange 2010.
So, there are some teasers there of just some of the content that Dustin is putting out (There is obviously more.. but I’ll let you do the reading up on it! It’s definitely worth reading! – How so though, I just discovered Dustin TODAY and I’m sharing him with you a few hours after that point, So, yea I consider that to be pretty compelling :))
I want to leave you with links to all of the resources I mentioned above, so you can forth to gain access to the WP’s I mentioned and others I didn’t include pictures for!
There are so many more than just these links alone – I actually was surprised on how much content there was at www.emc.com/exchange ! – So check it out, and as always let me know if I can help you in a particular way :)
Registration begins: November 20, 2009 – Beta exam period runs: December 1, 2009– December 21, 2009
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: EPROJ
Well, this is a pretty straight forward breakdown of the exams! If you encounter any of the exams closed (from the codes being over used, be sure to let us know! :))
Good luck, and good testing! (I’m scheduled for the Exchange exam, but my post mortem won’t come until Dec 21st – so too late for the rest of you :))
Who know this exam would be so popular! (Okay, I knew it would, but I still missed the window.. but we’ll see… :) Worst case I’ll pay to take the beta! Here are the details of the exam.
You are invited to take beta exam 71-662: TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration. By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.
71-662: TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring counts as credit towards the following certification(s).
· MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuration
Availability
Public Registration begins: August 24, 2009
Beta exam period runs: August 31, 2009– September 14, 2009
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.
Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.
Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China
Registration Information
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam. Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: E14J Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.
The time is finally here! With Exchange 2010 on the horizon (Oh, and that I’m back from being out for three weeks… ) the time is finally here to finally be able to begin re-embracing Exchange
Incase you missed it, I’m a hardcore Exchange guy. I first got into Exchange as a means to do certain functions which the mail systems at the time were unable to support, so I adopted the Exchange model in the Exchange 4.0 Timeframe (Oh, and MSMail but I won’t go there ;))
And for everyone who was ever involved in Exchange, you’ll know that like Star Trek Movies, there are good movies “Wow, that was amazing!” and there are bad ones “Wtf?! That was terrible! Oh, it’ must be an odd/even thing!” We all experienced that with Windows versions too. NT3.1 rocked, 3.5 sucked, 3.51 was decent, 4.0 was great, and in the Desktop Space.. Win95 was ‘eh’ win98 great, winME, WTF?! (And albeit I personally liked Vista, enough people seemed to have enough issues that it didn’t make it too technically feasible)
Well, these same rules did apply in star trek movie terms to Exchange (Yes, my very own beloved Exchange) whereby Exchange 4.0 was great (first…?) 5.0 was horrible. 5.5 was SOLID! Exchange 2000 was a nice intro, but Exchange 2003 was immaculate (for its needs) and Exchange 2007. Well, lets just say, you’ll notice I haven’t talked about Exchange 2007 for the most part in the past 6 years.. Ever wonder if there was a reason for that?
So, it brings me great honor to say Exchange 2010 (E14) is going to be the rock which we all know it to be. So like you, I will look forward to all the great solid things, like a management interface, configuration management.. things not being done as a SEVERE afterthought. Pretty solid usability (Oh, and at no point have I ever disagreed with the UI/UX Experience, so my good friends in E2K7 UI/UX, none of this is a knock against you, you just had to ride the bad movie train ;))
Look out.. this blog may start to cover more Exchange related things again, considering most of my most frequently visited hits tend to be around messaging, an area I was forced out of by a terrible movie ;)
No, I’m actually not talking about the crazy SNL skit and follow-up with Mark Walhberg!
No, I’m talking about Exchange and its IO going through the roof when you use Entourage for the Mac in a typical Exchange environment.
Microsoft has a KB329067 Article which relates to this issue with some ‘guidance’ on how to correct it, but exactly how far you take it is another matter.
Enter the results of this calculation in the Value data field. In this example, you would enter 524288000 (Decimal) or1F400000 (Hexadecimal). Remember that the configurable range for this registry key is 1 MB to 1 gigabyte (GB). Better results occur if customers set it to a value of 500 MB or a higher value, such as 800 MB. NoteWe recommend that you set the value back to the default value or to a lower value after the content conversion issue subsides in your organization. The default value of this registry key is 128 MB. We also recommend that you set correct messages limits and mailbox size limits on your Exchange server to prevent performance issues.
4. Exit Registry Editor.
I can only read this particular KB article so much before I say “Hmm, but what actually works?”
Here is a solution which is tried, true, and used and tends to work most of the time.
What this does is set it to 800MB, as opposed to the ‘referenced’ 500MB example.
In a majority of all circumstances this will take considerable strain off of both your Exchange server as well as your underlying storage. The end result is, Marky Mark and the Entourage Bunch won’t cause Exchange to Spike and cause severe latency issues for your users.
