Hi All,

I've been tasked with the following:

Deploy 2 new Exchange servers in our LIVE site (These will be virtual)

Deploy 2 new Exchange servers in our DR site (These wil be virtual)

Mailboxes will be no more than 45

Primary reason is for our Fax server to send fax by email across the internet

Mailboxes should be replicated between the LIVE & DR site

My thoughts:

I only need one Server in my LIVE site?

I only need one Server in my DR site?

Configure a DAG with both servers in (This will meet replication requirement for mailboxes?)

Weekly full backups with daily incrementals for Databases and Transaction logs

Three volumes for each server, each volume will contain both database and transaction files and no more than 15 mailboxes on each volume

Do I need a sperate backup volume?

Am I missing anything fundamental?

Kind Regards,

45 mailbox and mainly for fax. It does not justify the cost of setting up an Exchange system. A fax server + O365 looks much more reasonable.

If you do need Exchange (for whatever reason), I see 1 or 2 server in single site is good enough. You only have 45 users anyway.

If you do need DR capability (for whatever reason), you can have 1 Exchange server per site. But take note that if the LIVE server goes down, you need manual process to activate the DR server. I.e. your user will experience some down time.

Do I need a backup volume? Yes. To be more accurate, you need a restoration volume not backup volume. I.e. you need it during restoration.

Am I missing anything? Hard to say. Normally a mail hygiene gateway (anti-spam/antivirus/etc) is fundamental. But again, you only have 45 mailboxes which make it not so important.

• Edited by Li Zhen 17 hours 33 minutes ago

45 mailbox and mainly for fax. It does not justify the cost of setting up an Exchange system. A fax server + O365 looks much more reasonable.

If you do need Exchange (for whatever reason), I see 1 or 2 server in single site is good enough. You only have 45 users anyway.

If you do need DR capability (for whatever reason), you can have 1 Exchange server per site. But take note that if the LIVE server goes down, you need manual process to activate the DR server. I.e. your user will experience some down time.

Do I need a backup volume? Yes. To be more accurate, you need a restoration volume not backup volume. I.e. you need it during restoration.

Am I missing anything? Hard to say. Normally a mail hygiene gateway (anti-spam/antivirus/etc) is fundamental. But again, you only have 45 mailboxes which make it not so important.

• Edited by Li Zhen Friday, July 24, 2015 1:56 PM

45 mailbox and mainly for fax. It does not justify the cost of setting up an Exchange system. A fax server + O365 looks much more reasonable.

If you do need Exchange (for whatever reason), I see 1 or 2 server in single site is good enough. You only have 45 users anyway.

If you do need DR capability (for whatever reason), you can have 1 Exchange server per site. But take note that if the LIVE server goes down, you need manual process to activate the DR server. I.e. your user will experience some down time.

Do I need a backup volume? Yes. To be more accurate, you need a restoration volume not backup volume. I.e. you need it during restoration.

Am I missing anything? Hard to say. Normally a mail hygiene gateway (anti-spam/antivirus/etc) is fundamental. But again, you only have 45 mailboxes which make it not so important.

• Edited by Li Zhen Friday, July 24, 2015 1:56 PM
• Proposed as answer by Niko.ChengMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 5 hours 47 minutes ago