2.6 The Final Step: Architecting mission-critical Exchange servers


We have now covered the preliminaries needed to develop an understanding of how downtime is defined. In addition, we discussed the importance of determining the cost of downtime for your organization and how this will determine your tolerance for and ability to counteract the potential for downtime. We have looked at the anatomy of downtime and have opened the black box in order to point out that downtime is not just a simple event that takes place beyond the control of system operators. Downtime is a series of events and points at which there are opportunities for process improvement. Armed with thorough knowledge of the components that make up an outage, we can better prepare for downtime and can ensure that it is minimized. Also, it is important that we first understand how our organization will measure downtime, as there are several techniques available and your method should be whichever method most closely meets your business requirements.

We have also discussed and categorized the causes of downtime into four areas: software, hardware, operator, and environment. Finally, we can set realistic SLAs that will allow us, as system managers, operators, and planners, to provide the level of service that the business requires. In the following chapters, I will discuss technologies. I will discuss not only technology for Exchange Server, but also the hardware and software solutions and technologies that allow us to plan, build, and operate Exchange deployments that are more tolerant to failure and that achieve high levels of availability. So now, let us set off on the most challenging part of our task—designing mission-critical Exchange servers.




Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2003. Designing and Building Reliable Exchange Servers
Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2003: Designing and Building Reliable Exchange Servers (HP Technologies)
ISBN: 155558294X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 91
Authors: Jerry Cochran

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