Brown University
Exchange 2003
Molly Baird
Manager, Windows-Novell Services
Brown definitions
 CIS: Computing and Information services
Provides central IT services, central helpdesk,
SMTP + email services, file + print, DNS,
networking
 DCC: Departmental Computing Coordinator
Primary IT support person in Administrative and
Academic departments. Focus on desktop
and other client-side support issues
Exchange: current statistics
 Mailboxes:
 12,000 mailboxes migrated/added over 12
months
 83% migrated (95% students migrated)
 Hardware:
 Two 2-node clustered Exchange mailbox
servers
 Four load-balanced Exchange front-end
servers (Outlook Web Access, IMAP, POP)
 250 Gig total storage across both clusters
Brown’s central Active Directory
AD.brown.edu
Departments
CIS
Groups/Lists
Human Resources
Workstations
Engineering
People
Shared Accounts
Faculty/Staff
Students
Systems & Services
Exchange: internal routing
Server 1
Clients
Server 2
Two kinds of databases comprise an
Exchange “information store”
MAPI Store
 Stores content
available to MAPI
clients
Internet Content
Store
 Direct access by IMAP,
POP, Outlook Web
Access clients
On-the-fly conversion of content when accessed
by alternate client
MAPI: Messaging Application
Protocol Interface
 2-way communication with Exchange
information stores
 Changes in calendar, tasks, contacts,
message folders
 Communicates with Global Catalog servers to
retrieve Global Address List (GAL)
 Communicate with free/busy public folder to
update calendar free/busy time
Exchange collaboration: calendaring
 Shared auto-schedulable conference rooms
and other resources
 View free/busy time of colleagues
 Configure permissions on calendar folder to
permit others to see your personal calendar
 Delegate access to manage calendars
Exchange collaboration: public folders
 Public Folders misnomer
 Departmental public folders
 Not replacement for file storage
 Vacation calendars
 Shared vendor contacts
 Shared lists
 Collections of project files
Exchange collaboration: shared IDs
 Old model: shared password to access email
in shared mailbox
 New model: managed by group access to
shared mailbox
 Elimination of shared-password access
 Group access *can* be managed by DCCs if
acceptable by shared mailbox sponsor
 CIS not needed to update access to shared
mailbox
Brown’s central Active Directory
AD.brown.edu
Departments
CIS
Groups/Lists
Human Resources
Workstations
Engineering
People
Shared Accounts
Faculty/Staff
Students
Systems & Services
Exchange: SMTP mail routing
Worldwide
SMTP
servers
Exchange servers
Other departmental
Email servers
Brown
SMTP servers
Brown legacy: “spraying” email
SMTP from
outside world
Legacy
Postoffce
server
Brown SMTP
servers
Yahoo
Mail
Hotmail
Exchange: sizing
 Database size based on SLAs
to recover single database
based on current backup
practices
 Many small databases on
each Exchange server
 Corruption in single database
affects only


300 – 400 faculty/staff --or--500 – 600 student mailboxes
Exchange: maintenance
 Need for maintenance indicated in server
syslogs
 Offline maintenance scheduled as needed
 Test maintenance outcome on test/recovery
Exchange server
Exchange: recovery
 Exchange is a transactional database
 Database activity logged in transaction logs in
real-time
 Transactions later committed to database at a
lower processor priority.
 Single database recovery


Recover last full backup copy of
online
database
Recovery and replay of successive
incremental transaction-log backups
offline
Exchange: costs
 Permanent Staff costs
FTE hired for migration and maintenance (me!)
 One-time Costs:
 Migration: 1 ½ FTE staff split between administrative and
technical duties for 6 months
 License: Microsoft Core Campus CAL required
 License: OS and Exchange software: $11,000
 HW: four front-end servers: $30,000
 HW: Staff cluster: $60,000
 HW: Student cluster: $60,000
 HW: SAN/storage for clusters: $70,000
 Provisioning changes: coincided with Provisioning overhaul
 Total one-time cost: $231,000
 Total recurring cost: 1 FTE + MS Core CAL

Exchange: 2000 – 2003 upgrade
 Outage of less than 60 minutes across all
servers over a span of four weeks
 Performed by one full-time staff member
 Additional “functionality testing” by full-time
desktop services staff
 Benefits:



improved Outlook Web Access client
improved recovery options
increased IIS security
Exchange: growth
 Add new back-end clusters and distribute
mailboxes across new server(s)
 Increase mailbox quota size
Exchange: what limits growth
 Current database sizes limited by aggressive
SLAs
 Backup methods aren’t sufficient for growing
enterprise data needs
 Eliminating “backup to tape” component will
enable faster restores
 “why can’t I have a 1 Gig mailbox like Gmail?”

Recovery of an entire server of 1-Gig
mailboxes using today’s methods would take a
month.
Exchange @ Brown: questions?
Molly_Baird@brown.edu
401-863-7218
http://cis.brown.edu/doc/email/