Installation and configuration of Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) on Windows Server 2008 (Part 1)

After the release of Exchange 2007 we are benefitted with lots of several advanced features, flexibility and stability in the Exchange era. As compare to Exchange 2003, this exchange 2007 cluster configuration has become much easier and wide open option for bringing the second server online with the upmost data available reducing the downtime into several seconds over the LAN\WAN by mode of continuous replication (Log Shipping Technology).

In this article I am going to show you how to configure cluster continuous replication where exchange 2007 sp1 is installed on Windows Server 2008. The process & concept of deploying the cluster continuous replication on windows server 2008 remain the same as like CCR configuration on Windows Server 2003 but still there are certain changes in the configuration part which we will see later in this article, would recommend to read my previous article to know what is CCR and how to configure CCR on Windows Server 2003 before you could go through this article.

Cluster Continuous Replication is supported only in Exchange 2007 enterprise edition. It is almost same like Local Continuous Replication however instead of shipping the log file from one disk to another disk, it will ship the log from one server to another server. In earlier version i.e exchange 2003 what we had is active\passive cluster where we will have one shared disk in which the exchange database is stored. By having this CCR technology we are eliminating the shared disk fundamentals what we had in exchange 2003. Responsible for log shipping between the nodes is Microsoft Exchange Replication Service.

How this Cluster Continuous Work?

• It will work same as like LCR where we will seed the database and then the log shipping process will take into effect to update the database of passive server storage group from the active server storage group
• One major cause which might come into the picture is, Node A and Node B will communicate with each other via heartbeat. Let say node B is not able to get response from node A due to some network issue but Node A is still alive so it might goof up with the database so here third party referee will  come into the picture . This third party referee is nothing but a QUORUM who will give an update to Node B i.e. Majority Node. The way it work is by the mode called as “Majority Node witness”. This Majority Node witness typically hold the role of referee i.e, nothing but you will share one folder which will be created on another server which is not going to be your node A or node B server, it will act as referee. The recommended server where you will set Majority File Share Witness is your Hub Server.
•  In CCR also there is potential to data loss. But it won't get loss of much data as compare to LCR, what happen here is we have a transport dumpster which will store the mail comes from hub transport in the hub transport server and then it will pass it to active node. so incase if active node failed to mount then passive node storage group will first check with hub transport server by sending a request to give the information whatever hub server have in the hub transport dumpster and if it is the same data then it will ignore and if it is new then it will write it into the passive server storage group so that is how we have very less chance of loss of data as compare to LCR.

Advantage of CCR:

• Has no single point of failure.
• Has no special hardware requirements.
• Has no shared storage requirements.
• Can be deployed in one or two datacenter configurations.
• Can reduce full backup frequency, reduce total backed up data volume, and shorten the service level agreement (SLA) for recovery time from first failure.

What is the advantage of CCR on Windows Server 2008:
Windows Server 2008 failover clusters introduce support for multiple subnets, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), and IPv6.

• Improved cluster setup
• Simplified management interfaces
• Improvement in the stability and security
• Better performance on your storage.
• Support to IPv4 & IPv6
• Supporting the cluster environment on multiple subnets with good performance

What's New in Failover Clusters in Windows Server 2008

My Current Environment:
1) WinDC
a. Operating System : windows server 2003 R2 with Sp2
b. Role – DC\GC and DNS Server
c. Ip Address : 192.168.1.1

2) HUB-CAS
a. Operating System : Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
b. Role : Exchange 2007 Server
c. Ip Address : 192.168.1.2

3) MBX-1
a. Operating System : Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
b. Role : Mailbox Server (Node 1)
c. Two Nic Card
i. Public : 192.168.1.3
ii. Private : 10.10.10.10

4) MBX-2
a. Operating System : Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
b. Role : Mailbox Server (Node 2)
c. Two Nic Card
i. Public : 192.168.1.4
ii. Private : 10.10.10.20

Note : I have just installed and configured WinDC and Hub-cas Server. For rest of the 2 servers just installed the OS, joined those servers to a domain and configured the network card.

Certain Prerequisite for CCR configuration:

• Proper DNS Configuration required having good communication between those servers and AD.
• Single Storage Group for Each database
• Cluster Administrator should be part of the local administrator group
• The servers must be listed in the Microsoft Windows Server Catalog of Tested Product for the operating system on which they are installed
• Standard Hardware requirements keeping the following supporting facts like CPU, I/O capabilities, Disk Storage & Memory
• Network bandwidth of 100 MB per Second.

Installation of Cluster Continuous Replication based on the above scenario:

As per my below screen Figure 1:
You will see that I have two additional disks for clustered mailbox, Disk1 and Disk 2 on MBX-1 & MBX-2

 

Configuration of Disk:

Inorder to have CCR working properly we need to convert this unknown disk to Basic Disk and need to give a Drive letter. Simply right click on Disk 1 and click on “On Line”
Figure 2:

 

Follow the same for Disk 2 as well. Once you click on the online option then only you can initiaze the disk configuration Figure 3:

 

Then click on Intialize Disk : Select the required disk as per the below screen Figure 4:

 

Right click Disk 1 (unallocated) and select “New Simple Volume” Figure 5:

 

It will open New Simple Volume Wizard => click on NEXT
Next wizard will show you the volume Size, click on NEXT (figure 6)

 

Assign Drive Letter to Unallocated:
Figure 7

 

Format the partition as per the below screen:
Figure 8:

 

Then click on Finish to complete the partition task
Figure 9:

 

Perform the same activity for all the disk i.e from figure 2 to figure 9 on secondary node computer
Figure 10:

 

Configuration of Network setting on both the node:

Public Card:
Figure11:

 

Private Card:
Figure 12:
 

Install Exchange 2007 sp1 prerequisite on both the node:

Open the command prompt and run the following command:

• ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS
• ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth
• ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth
• ServerManagerCmd -i Failover-Clustering

Best option would be create a batch file and execute it.

For more information on the prerequisite click here

Forming the cluster for Exchange 2007 sp1:

Click on Start => Administrative tools => Failover Cluster Management
Figure 13:

 

From Failover Cluster Management, click on “Create a cluster” to form a new cluster node as per the below screen figure 14:

 

It will display the welcome screen, click on NEXT to proceed further:
In “Selected Servers” choose the both the server name and click on NEXT, Figure 15:


 

Validation Warning: Select Yes and click on NEXT to do a validation of the cluster configuration, Figure 16:

 

Once you click on NEXT it will run the validation wizard to proceed further, click on NEXT
Under the Test Options, Choose Run all tests and click on NEXT
Figure 17:

 

Now it will start the validation process:
Figure 18:

 

Once it complete it should give out the successful output.
Figure 19:

Then give a name to your cluster node and valid public ip address, figure 20:

 

Now it shows you the cluster configuration details:
Figure 21:

 

After the confirmation it will create a cluster group and then it will display summary what you have configured, Figure 22:

 

Configuring the File Share Witness:

• On the hub-cas server create one folder called as FSW on the C root drive
• From the command prompt run the following command:NET SHARE FSW=C:\FSW /GRANT:CCR$,FULL
  Figure 23:
  

• Grant full access to administrator by executing this command: CACLS C:\FSW /G BUILTIN\Administrators:F CCR$:F
  Figure 24:
   
  •
• Go to anyone of the node and open Cluster Management Console
• Right-click the cluster node, select More Actions, and then select Configure Cluster Quorum Settings. The Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard starts.
• It will show a welcome screen, click on NEXT
• Select “Node and File Share Majority”
  Figure 25:

• Locate to the server path (HUB-CAS) where the FSW is located

        Figure 26:
         

• Then it will display the configuration setting which you have selected, click on NEXT

        Figure 27:
        
 

• Then it will configure the Majority Node Setting and will finish the task

        Figure 28:
        
 

In my next article i will show you the installation of exchange 2007 sp1 on win2k8, configuration of transport dumpster, testing & managing the ccr replication

I hope this article is being beneficial for you. Thank you for your time.

Related Link:

Exchange 2007 High Availablity

Upcoming Article:

Installation and configuration of Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) on Windows Server 2008 (Part 2)

Reference Link:

Installing Cluster Continuous Replication on Windows Server 2008

Deploying an Exchange 2007 SP1 on Window Server 2008