RE: Exchange over a SAN

[Lefkovics, William]

Title: Message

I know I'll never forget it.

 

NAS = No Applicable Setup.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnold, Jamie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 4:07 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

That's been established.

 

Thanks

 

J

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 6:43 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

I believe it's NAS that MS won't support for Exchange.

 

-Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Jamison, Chris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 10:04 AM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

You are correct!!  I too have an Exchange 2K server clustered on a SAN. (Compaq - StorageWorks)  It is not a requirement to implement a SAN for your cluster.  It give you the ability to work with your storage more effectively.   With the Compaq SAN and several tools you do have the option to grow your storage on the fly!!  NOTE: Microsoft does support SAN's with Exchange

 

 

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnold, Jamie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 11:47 AM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

Why is the SAN a *must* for cluster?  You could easily do a cluster with a standard Powervault and SCSI.

 

J

-----Original Message-----
From: Violette, Kevin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2001 11:28 AM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

Sorry for the delay on the elaboration.  Got pulled away.

 

Here is our story:

 

At the University of North Carolina at Wilmington we are moving from VMS based (pop/imap) mail system to Exchange and Outlook.  We are running a Dell SAN over Fibre Channel and Dell PV servers.  The SAN adds an extra level of complexity but is a must for clustered environment.  Depending on the SAN you are implementing and its "ability" to have lun and or partition sizes changed on the fly, the "virtual" disk size planning plays a major role.  With our SAN we cannot grow the partition on the fly.  Any growth will require: downing of E2K, a GOOD backup, rebuilding of the LUN and partitions used, re-presentation of the luns, getting W2K to ID the proper LUNs, data restore, much prayer, bring E2K up.

 

In short leave yourself plenty of room.  I am currently allotting only .25 of available space to the mailboxes.  The system default mailbox size is 20MB.  There is a separate partition/lun for each of the 2 nodes in the cluster and another for the public store.

 

The HBA's to connect to the SAN had issues with W2K SP2 and fail over would not work, this has been fixed (about mid year).  A thorough understanding of the SAN and its fabrics is very necessary, Don't just have and outsourced implementation team come in and set it up, this will kill you if you need to troubleshoot.

 

I can give more info to the list later if needed or offline.

 

The quick synopsis:

E2K on active-active cluster

Quorum, logsx2,priv.edbx2, & pub.edb are on SAN partitions

NLB Front-End/OWA 2 node "cluster"

 

Hope this a start for any questions, I can give a more "formal" elaboration after the weekend (taking some time off)

 

--Kevin

UNCW

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnold, Jamie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 7:22 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

Care to elaborate?  You sound like you have much to tell.

 

 

J

-----Original Message-----
From: Violette, Kevin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 6:10 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Exchange over a SAN

We are running Exchange 2000  on a SAN.  Words of wisdom....Do your homework and plan your SAN luns/parts to be used with exchange carefully.

 

Kevin

UNCW

-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Palmer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 4:20 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: Exchange over a SAN

William's message woke me right up.  Our new Exchange server will be on a SAN.  (gulp)  Does anyone on the list have an Exchange/SAN setup and, if so, any words of wisdom?

 

Karen Palmer

SCJD

-----Original Message-----
From: Lefkovics, William [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 3:39 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)

Wait.  I missed that.

 

Microsoft does not support Exchange over a SAN.  I realize that may not be your issue here, but it might be difficult to get good help otherwise.

 

William

 

-----Original Message-----
From: HOLLIDAY, Eric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 12:34 PM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)

Diane,

See my answers in context below: 

 

 1. Is this a new Exchange setup? --Not really.  The server's been up for over a year, but we just hooked up a SAN array & ran perf optimizer to redirect the store.

     We have seven servers total, & this is the only one with a problem.

 

 2. Has this ever worked? --No, not on this server.  We normally use ArcServe, which worked fine until recently. (before you ask, the error was around _before_ 

     the SAN switchover)

 

3. This is a dumb question, but....does this exchange server possibly still have circular logging turned on?  --No. (I just checked).  Good question, tho.

         (There are no "dumb" questions, only dumb answers.)

 

4. How many log mdbdata log files do you have?   --A whole bunch.  Since I haven't been able to get a good backup, they're still there.

 

5. If you can't get it backed up, you probably have many many days worth and a very full partion.  --The SAN _greatly_ increased my storage capacity, it's

      only about 50% full.  The problem has been around since it was 25-30% full, however.

Diane (picking at straws here.....) 

 

Eric 

-----Original Message-----
From: HOLLIDAY, Eric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 6:59 AM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)

Diane,
Yes, I have.  It makes _no_ diff when the job runs.  At the present time, I am only running the job manually and it still fails.  Sorry, should've told you, the OS is Win2Kserver.  I run the same job on two other, identical, servers with no problems.  Now, I wouldn't even be using NTBackup, except that ArcSmurf choked on the backup.  After reading about similar problems from other folks on this list, I thought I'd try using NTBackup to a file & then have ArcSmurf back that up to tape.  Works like a champ on the other two servers, just not this one!  Any other ideas?  Should I try running some diags on the store?

Eric

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Diane Beckham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 2:39 PM
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)
>
>
> Eric, have you tried changing the time it does the backup to
> see if it works
> at a different time?  Have you tried backing it up manually? 
> Have you tried
> backing it up with a NTBackup in a Win2K computer? 
>
> Diane
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HOLLIDAY, Eric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 11:24 AM
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)
>
>
> Forgive me for being dense, but what does the AT command have
> to do with
> this error?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Scot Parsons [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 2:13 PM
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: RE: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)
>
>
> Try this:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q152313
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HOLLIDAY, Eric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 1:53 PM
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)
>
>
> OK, in light of recent comments about the looong questions not being
> answered, let me restate my question:
> Is this the right place to get a question answered about
> problems using
> Windows backup and Exchange 5.5 (sp4)?  If so, could someone
> kindly refer me
> to another forum?
> Thank you,
> Eric Holliday
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HOLLIDAY, Eric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 9:23 AM
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: Error when backing up Exch. 5.5 (using MS backup)
>
>
> Hello all,
> First, a little background info:
> Environment:
> Exchange 5.5 sp4, Enterprise
> Compaq Proliant ML530, dual Xeon 866 proc., 1Gb RAM, 69Gb SAN
> (whoohoo!)
> OK. I am temporarily using MS's Windows Backup (ver. 5), until we have
> Veritas' NetBackup in place.
> On two of my three servers, it works fine. On the third one,
> I consistently
> get the following error:
> -----------------------------------------
> Backup Status
> Operation: Backup
> Active backup destination: File
> Media name: "Media created 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM"
> Backup of "LMI\LMIMAIL\LMIMAIL1\Directory"
> Backup set #1 on media #1
> Backup description: "Set created 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM"
> Backup Type: Normal
> Backup started on 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM.
> The selected Microsoft Exchange service is currently
> being backed up by another process.
> Backup completed on 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM.
> Skipped: 1
> Bytes: 0
> Time:  1 second
> Media name: "Media created 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM"
> Backup of "LMI\LMIMAIL\LMIMAIL1\Information Store"
> Backup set #2 on media #1
> Backup description: "Set created 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM"
> Backup Type: Normal
> Backup started on 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM.
> The selected Microsoft Exchange service is currently
> being backed up by another process.
> Backup completed on 12/5/2001 at 9:10 AM.
> Skipped: 1
> Bytes: 0
> Time:  1 second
> ----------------------
> The kicker is, there is no other backup process running!  I
> have rebooted
> the server, to no avail.
> Any ideas?
> TIA,
> Eric
>
>
> Eric Holliday
> Exchange Administrator
> Corporate Information Systems
> Logistics Management Institute
> PH:    703.917.7117
> mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> List Charter and FAQ at:
> http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
>
> List Charter and FAQ at:
> http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
>

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List Charter and FAQ at:
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List Charter and FAQ at:
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List Charter and FAQ at:
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List Charter and FAQ at:
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