Sorry for the laxity in answering. We run 5 Marathons with roughly 800 mailboxes per. This is w/ 1 gig ram each w/ double 700 processors. Some more, some less. Two others server as Public Folder and relay servers. This is NT4 w/ XCH 5.5. SP3 plus a few post SP3 hotfixes. We also have Trend AV and Veritas Backups on these boxes and that is all.
There is NO time between failovers as in reality, Marathon runs like a mirrored-duplex on steroids, if you will. There are also some techniques that have been developed that allows you to shut down 1/2 of the server while you run utilities or what have you on one copy of the IS while the absolute copy of the original is left intact. If what you are doing on the live array fails, you can over-write it over from the "stored" IS on the side that is shut down. If on the otherhand, whatever you are doing on the active side is successful, you can bring up the second side you were using as a backup of sorts, and let it over-write it. But during normal operation, the Marathon writes simintaneously to both at once. It "sees" itself as one server, but in reality, it is 2 CEs (I/O) and 2 IOPs (arrays). Our experiences have been good, but know this: XCH is a resource hog, Marathon is as well. You have to run powerfull boxes so that both are confortable or else you will get hammered. We are going over to NT2000/XCH2000 this year's end and will reduce our email servers down to 4, all Marathon. Any issue we have had with Marathons, and these have been minor, have been handled promptly by their support. And as you mentioned, it is expensive. My feeling, from 1000-1200 mailboxes max on a 2 gig ram machine, with 2 times 1 gig mhz processors, 36 gig raid 1 for log files and 90 gig raid 5 for IS, you'll be hard put to find a better configuration. Sorry I do not have personal info on NT2000 yet but, alas, budget constraints. David Kopec* Electronic Messaging Specialist Technology Services & Solutions 500 Boylston Street * Boston, MA 02116-3741 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Bendall, Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 4:40 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Clustering Exchange Funny you should mention Marathon Technologies, I went to a briefing this week about their kit, it looks very interesting if expensive. I have two main complaints about Windows Clustering one, the length of time it takes to dismount and remount the store between nodes is likely to cause time outs with Outlook so effecting the user. Secondly, MS clustering only protects the OS, if you get a corruption of the IS then clustering will not help you. In my experience a clustered solution can just introduce more problems and be more complex to administer then it gives in return. I would be interested to hear more about your experiences of Marathon, how many users do you have on the setup? How long does the failover take from original machine to new machine? Are their any gotchas with running this setup? Regards, Paul -----Original Message----- From: Kopec, David [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 17 January 2002 19:06 To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Clustering Exchange We run www.marathontechnologies.com. Better than clustered. -----Original Message----- From: Milton R Dogg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 12:37 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Clustering Exchange Didn't we just go over this, this morning?? Oh that was on the other list. There is no good cluster other then the single node. DO NOT built a cluster server period. Milton R Dogg Of The Dogg Foundation.. -----Original Message----- From: Callan, Chris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 9:33 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Clustering Exchange My immediate supervisor mentioned that when we finally get new Exchange Servers that we should have them clustered. Now I have never clustered servers before and wouldn't know how to start, but I just wanted to get everyone's opinions on the subject to begin with. How hard is it to do, and how is it to maintain. What are the pro's and con's. Any help would be appreciated. List Charter and FAQ at: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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