7.7.1 Storage Design Is the Key

One of the most challenging but most important parts of deploying Exchange 2000 clusters is storage planning. With Exchange Server 5.5 clusters, only one virtual server technically existed in the cluster, and storage allocation from the shared cluster storage was simplified. With Exchange 2000 Server, the support of multiple virtual servers and storage groups per node significantly complicates cluster deployment and management. Regardless of this challenge, storage design must be done right the first time for a successful implementation. The success and popularity of storage area network (SAN) technology as a shared storage mechanism for Windows 2000 Cluster Server will facilitate more learning and a faster progression on the learning curve of storage design and allocation in a clustered environment. When planning your deployment of Exchange 2000 in a cluster, ensure that you are familiar with the setup and configuration of SAN technology in a cluster as well as SAN features and options such as data replication and business continuance volumes.

When configuring Exchange 2000 in a clustered environment, you need to carefully plan the volumes you want to share between the member nodes in the cluster. In fact, "share" is not the most appropriate word because Microsoft clustering for Windows 2000 works in a shared-nothing model. This simply means that a volume can be owned, and therefore accessed, by only one member of the cluster at any point in time. The first step is to take a "backwards"...