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ENVIRONMENT
The U. S. Navy Engineering Field Activity Chesapeake (EFA-CHES)
is a 420 node network with eleven (11) sites around the Washington DC Metropolitan
area. The field sites are connected the headquarters with high speed lines.
EFA-CHES is a single Windows NT 4.0 Domain with a Primary Domain Controller
(PDC) at the headquarters and a Backup Domain Controller (BDC) at each site.
The servers run Windows NT 4.0 Server, while the workstations mostly run
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and some Windows 9x.
CHALLENGE
In preparation for the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) single seat management
contract, EFA-CHES wanted to upgrade its MS Exchange 5.5 Server to MS
Exchange 2000 Server. The new mail system would better integrate with
Windows 2000, provide enhanced security, reduce administrative overhead,
provide more mailbox control and management features. EFA-CHES engaged
3H Technology (3H) to migrate them to Exchange 2000 while adhering to
the following requirements:
- Provide database fault tolerance
- Maintain user's existing Exchange 5.5 mailboxes
- Increase user functionality via mail web access
- Reduce the number of current mail servers supporting Exchange 5.5
- Enhance security
SOLUTION
The Exchange 2000 migration was closely linked with the Windows 2000 migration
and expanded the Windows 2000 deployment to enable EFA-CHES to take advantage
of better disk management and fault tolerance. Upon completion of the Windows
2000 migration the Windows Scheme was expanded to include mail enabling
the Active Directory objects. The previous mail environment included two
Legato mail clusters and a mail bridgehead. The new Exchange 2000 environment
would be a single Microsoft Cluster with a front-end mail server for remote
mail management. This solution freed two servers, enhanced the fault tolerance
of the mail databases, provided more granular security while maintaining
users existing mail data. 3H performed the following steps to accomplish
the objectives of this project:
- The Exchange 2000 configuration consists of two mail servers with
Microsoft Clustering services providing redundant access to a virtual
Exchange server. The database was installed on a Dell 650F shared disk
array with a RAID 5 setup. The two mail servers gained access to the
shared disk via two Dell 50F fiber switches. This solution provides
redundant servers providing access to a shared database.
- Once the new cluster solution was installed and configured the individual
mailboxes were moved from the Exchange 5.5 servers to the new Exchange
2000 database. Additionally, each mailbox was exported to a PST file
to ensure disaster recovery. These solutions enable EFA-CHES users to
retain their existing mailboxes and provided a seamless solution without
user interruption.
- The Exchange cluster was set to an "Active - Active" mode with EFA-CHES
users split across two storage groups. This enables simultaneous backups
(and restores) of the two databases and reduces the number of affected
user in the event of a database disaster.
- Exchange 2000 with Service Pack 2 Outlook Web Access (OWA) provides
greater functionality for remote user that greatly resembles the MAPI
(Messaging Application Programming Interface) Outlook client. OWA was
installed on the cluster nodes and the front-end server.
- Client access to the mail server was restricted to the Outlook for
local user and OWA for remote users to reduce the number of access points
to the mail server. All mail clients are authenticated from the Windows
2000 domain providing no duplication of authentication and reducing
erroneous access accounts. Because of the Windows 2000 authentication
process, Access Control List (ACL) can be created to manage granular
access to mail enabled objects.
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Exchange
Migration