Best Architecture for Single Site, Single Domain?

Hi- I work for a small business. We have approximately 100 users. Currently, we are running Exchange Server 2010 on a dedicated physical server. My boss wants me to upgrade to Exchange Server 2013, suggesting we use a distributed architecture on virtual machines, placing different Exchange services on different VMs.

After thinking a bit about this, my opinion is that with such a relatively small deployment, we should just use another physical server for this install and keep everything on the same box.

My thoughts are that by distributing Exchange services, we create a scenario where there are multiple points of failure. And by using virtual machines, we double the potential for problems on every Hyper-V guest/host.

Our current DB is only 88GB.

So can someone please weigh in on this? Are there compelling reasons to design this using a distributed environment and NOT on a single box?

Thanx

August 24th, 2015 2:06pm

With only 100 users, you could consider Office 365. However, if that is not on the table, personally, I would create a cluster ( Database avail group) of multi-role servers ( CAS/MBX). Have at least 2 multi-role servers and a virtual or hardware load balancer. They can be virtual or physical. 

That to me is the minimum you should consider with Exchange 2013/2016. I don't see the value of a single server anymore. The benefits of clustering and load balancing are well worth the additional cost.

Be sure to use the calculator:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Exchange-2013-Server-Role-f8a61780

and follow the Preferred Architecture as closely as possible:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2014/04/21/the-preferred-architecture.aspx

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August 24th, 2015 3:04pm

Agree with Andy, in your case DAG cluster should be more than enough. If you want it on physical or as virtual machine is up to you.

Office365 is another consideration,but be aware of Exchange online limits: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchange-online-limits.aspx

Is your physical server within warrenty?

August 24th, 2015 5:32pm

I work for a non-profit so we get our MS products/licenses on the cheap. And we would rather take care of our own installations rather than farm them out (via O-365). Yes, we have a new server about 6 months old so no worries there...

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August 24th, 2015 5:36pm

Why do you want to separate the roles out?
That isn't considered best practises any longer. If you are going to put them in to VMs then you aren't going to gain anything other than unnecessary complexity.

For 100 users I would do a two server DAG, possibly with a third in second location. All roles on all servers. Very simple configuration which would be easy to maintain. The only thing I would want on top is a load balancer. That could also be virtual. Whether any of the load balancers do NFP pricing I wouldn't know.

Simon.

August 24th, 2015 6:32pm

Agreed that the recommendation is to use multi-role Exchange servers but if you're finding that the load balancer licensing is a lot more expensive than two Exchange licenses then you could look at setting up two Client Access servers configured with Network Load Balancing so you'd have two CAS servers and two MBX servers. There are some limitations with NLB, see here https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj898588(v=exchg.150).aspx.

A DAG is also recommended for high availability. 

Thanks.

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August 25th, 2015 9:49am

Hi. Hyper-V cluster of two nodes with a connection to an external storage for fastethernet.

 All server infrastructure placed in the cluster.

Two Exchange 2013 Hyper-V with DAG. External FW Applaince (chackpoint or other) for publication and spamfilter.

Balancing through DNS. Exchange 2013 is very well balanced through DNS, it is not sip. DNS and SMTP chereh two MX records.

Understanding SMTP Failover and Load Balancing in Transport

And all the latest appliance good at balancing HTTPS.

August 25th, 2015 10:16am

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