Microsoft updates Solutions Accelerator for Windows 2008 AD DS February 27, 2008
Posted by Brenden Bryan in Active Directory, Microsoft.Tags: Active Directory, Domain Services, Microsoft, Terminal Services, Windows Deployment Services
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Microsoft recently updated their Solutions Accelerators Infrastructure Planning and Design series with information on Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services, Terminal Services and Windows Deployment Services. The Solutions Accelerators is the updated version of the Windows Server System Reference Architecture series that has been a tremendous source of information on recommended best practices in the past.
Powershell Toolbar February 5, 2008
Posted by Brenden Bryan in Powershell.add a comment
This is slick…a toolbar for IE, Firefox or any Windows Explorer window that gives you instant access to many Powershell resources.
Systems Center Capacity Planner for Exchange 2007 February 5, 2008
Posted by Brenden Bryan in Exchange.2 comments
Microsoft released a very cool utility to assist in the capacity planning for your Exchange 2007 environment, the Systems Center Capacity Planner for Exchange 2007 will allow you to input usage scenarios, redundancy and availability requirements and will output a recommended configuration.
For example, I put in the details for what the details would look like for the existing Exchange 2003 environment I manage today if we were going to deploy Exchange 2007 using the same availability assumptions we have in the current environment. This is the solution the tool recommended:
Topology
Sites with servers: 1
Sites with clients only: 100
Total number of clients: 700
Site: Lenexa
Number of users: 600
Number of servers: 8
Number of SAN connections: 1
Server: Client Access Server 1
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 4.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Client Access
Server: Client Access Server 2
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 4.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Client Access
Server: Edge Transport Server 1
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 2.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
DiskArray 1\Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Edge Transport
Server: Edge Transport Server 2
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 2.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
DiskArray 1\Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Edge Transport
Server: Hub Transport Server 1
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 2.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
DiskArray 1\Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Hub Transport
Server: Hub Transport Server 2
Processor: 2-processor, 2.13 GHz, Xeon 3000-Series (1-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 2.0 GB
Disk: DiskArray 1\Volume 1 (Data Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
DiskArray 1\Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
Roles: Hub Transport
Server: Mailbox Server
Processor: 4-processor, 2.20 GHz, Opteron (2-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 8.0 GB
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
SAN connections: 2 x 4 Gb/s
SANs: SAN Array\Volume 1 (Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 3 (Replica Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 4 (Replica Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Roles: Mailbox(Local Continuous Replication)
Server: Remote Passive Mailbox Server
Processor: 4-processor, 2.20 GHz, Opteron (2-chip x 2-core)
Minimum memory: 8.0 GB
Disk (OS Volume): Separate two-disk RAID-1 array for OS
NIC: 1 x 1,000 Mb/s
SAN connections: 2 x 4 Gb/s
SANs: SAN Array\Volume 5 (Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 6 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 7 (Replica Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
SAN Array\Volume 8 (Replica Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Roles: Passive Mailbox(Standby plus Local Continuous Replication)
SAN: SAN Array
Disk: Volume 1 (Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 2 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 3 (Replica Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 4 (Replica Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 5 (Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 6 (Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 7 (Replica Data Files), 1200 GB RAID 10 (8 x 300.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
Volume 8 (Replica Log Files), 146 GB RAID 1 (2 x 146.00 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM)
