Hi,I wonder if it is feasible and useful to use LCR (Local Copy Replication) on my Exchange Server 2007 which has got:4x SATA HDD RAID-5All in One role (HT, CAS and MBX)as I've already back up this server the whole lot using Symantec BESRO 8.5.3 ?is there any best practice to follow in using LCR and RSG eventhough there is a backup took place ?thanks,Albert/* Support Engineer */

Hey Albert,Basically LCR provides the disk or database level availability in Exchange 2007, if one disk/LUN fails or database becomes corrupted, you can quickly activate the LCR copy into production and backup restoration time is null but of course the process is manual.Some points to keep in mind and to follow best practice.~ It requires 20% of more processor & 1GB of Memory as far as resources are concerned..~ It doesn't provide service level availability of whole server. If server goes down then no use of LCR and you need to recover the server.~ Plus point is, you can grow your database uptomaximum200GB recommended size (this is not hard limit, just a recommendation and without LCR/CCRit is 100GB)since you have a replicated copy of DB on another disk so in case of DB/Disk failure your restoration time is very small or null compare to backup restoration.Amit Tank | MVP - Exchange | MCITP:EMA MCSA:M | http://ExchangeShare.WordPress.com

Yes, Local Continuous Replication (LCR) can significantly reduce the RTO on mailbox store level, an excellent choice for standalone exchange 2007 server, even though backup is ready in place Reducing the number of regular full backups that are required for data protection. Data backups are critical to have when a disaster strikes. Although LCR does not eliminate the need to take backups, it does significantly reduce the need to take regular, daily full backups ----------Refer to<Local Continuous Replication> Theres no official document for the best practice on LCR, but we can follow the instructions in Planning for Local Continuous Replication For the best practice on Recovery Storage Group (RSG) of exchange 2007, we can start from here Other references: Demystifying the Local Continuous Replication (LCR) feature

OK, from my understanding is that all email goes to my First Storage Groups will also be replicated to LCR, and If I'd like restore LCR --> RSG --> First Storage Group so in this case if one of my user mailbox got deleted accidentally, then it is no use to restore the mailbox from LCR. Thanks for your reply Amit and James. your explanation and guide is really helpful to me. anyway, I'd like to try this LCR solution on my 1 TB Maxtor USB HDD to give it a try./* Support Engineer */

Glad to help J

Alberta, I'll be implementing LCR on our Exchange soon. Can you please share your experience with implementing LCR. Anything I should watch our for? Thanks.

Jose, are you sure you want to go with Exchange 2007 LCR? If you are, please feel free to ignore this but I would suggest you take a look at Exchange 2010 and the features DAG gives you. LCR was first step in "HA" (no I know it's shouldn't even be called HA) with very limited protection. You only protect your data against disk failures with LCT. Magnus Bjrk www.mailmaster.se/blog

Magnus, I'm aware of Exchange 2010 and DAG. The issue is we're not going to Exchange 2010 anytime soon. It's an available solution for what we have. So we might as well utilize it. Thanks for the input though.