Chapter 6: Scaling Upward and Outward

Overview

Under what circumstances should you add an Exchange server? How do you know whether you need an additional Active Directory global catalog server? When should you add mailbox servers to a remote Active Directory site? When should you create more storage groups? Or mailbox databases? How many mailboxes should be located on a single mailbox database?

These are all questions that affect your Exchange 2007 design, deployment, and even day-to-day operations. If you don't provide sufficient resources, then the Exchange organization will not operate as effectively as it should. Sometimes the decision points for adding more servers or creating new databases are clearly defined based on your organization's requirements. Other times, however, the decision matrix for expanding your Exchange Server environment is not always cut-and-dried.

This a good topic to address in its own chapter so we can give you ideas and guidance on the factors that may affect your decision to scale upward and outward.

Topics in this chapter include the following:

• Deciding when to grow

• Performance monitoring basics

• Adding more mailbox storage

• Enabling local continuous replication