The configuration of an Exchange 2016 DAG is almost identical to the configuration of a DAG with Exchange 2013. In principle, it is even somewhat simpler, because the question of whether the roles should be separated or whether all roles can be installed on one server no longer arises with Exchange 2016. There is now only the mailbox role. However, load balancing between the CAS service using the Windows load balancing feature still does not work, as fail-over clusters and Windows load balancing on the same server are mutually exclusive. It is therefore still advisable to connect a load balancer upstream, as the requirements of Exchange 2016 for a load balancer are low (layer 4 is completely sufficient), there are good open source solutions. But now to the DAG. I have created a test network consisting of 4 VMs:
All VMs are running Windows Server 2012 R2. FWDC1 is the domain controller with a network card in the production VLAN, FWFS1 is a member server, so far without special configuration with a network card in the production VLAN. FWEX1 and FWEX2 are to become the DAG members, the two servers each have 2 network cards, one in the production VLAN and a dedicated network card for the replication of the DAG.
The Active Directory is already installed and configured, so let's start with the configuration of the two Exchange servers.
The network card for the replication network is configured as follows:
Only a fixed IP address from a different subnet than the production network is assigned, all protocols except TCP/IPv4 are deactivated.
Zusätzlich wird der Haken bei „Adressen dieser Verbindung in DNS registrieren“ entfernt. Für die Datenbanken wird ein zusätzliches Laufwerk erstellt, in meinem Fall Laufwerk D: (muss auf beiden Servern identisch sein)
The drive for the databases and log files is formatted with ReFS:
That was all the preparations for the Exchange servers. Exchange can now be installed on the first server. The Exchange installation is identical to my instructions which can be found here:
https://www.frankysweb.de/exchange-2016-installation-auf-windows-server-2012-r2/
Nachdem Exchange 2016 auf beiden Servern installiert ist, kann der FileServer (FWFS1) vorbereitet werden. Die Gruppe „Exchange Trusted Subsystem“ muss zur lokalen Gruppe „Administratoren“ hinzugefügt werden
In addition, the following firewall rules must be activated, if not already done:
- File and printer sharing (SMB incoming)
- Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI in-depth)
- Windows management instrumentation (DCOM incoming)
- Windows management instrumentation (ASync incoming)
Now the computer account for the DAG can be prepared by creating a computer account in the Active Directory with the name of the DAG. In my case this is FWDAG1, the computer account must be deactivated after creation.
Note: Wer den Reiter Sicherheit nicht sieht, muss unter Ansicht die „erweiterten Features“ aktivieren.
Before the DAG can be configured, the databases must be moved to their destination and the name can be changed at the same time:
Get-MailboxDatabase -Server FWEX1 | Set-MailboxDatabase -Name MBDB01 Get-MailboxDatabase -Server FWEX2 | Set-MailboxDatabase -Name MBDB02
The database can then be moved. Moving only works on the Exchange server that is currently hosting the database, so the following command must be executed on the respective Exchange server:
Get-MailboxDatabase -Server FWEX1 | Move-DatabasePath -EdbFilePath d:\MBDB01\MBDB01.edb -LogFolderPath d:\MBDB01 Get-MailboxDatabase -Server FWEX2 | Move-DatabasePath -EdbFilePath d:\MBDB02\MBDB02.edb -LogFolderPath d:\MBDB02
Now it should look something like this in the EAC:
Each Exchange server hosts its own database, MBDB01 is active on FWEX1 and MBDB02 on FWEX2. The DAG can now be created:
The Database Availability Group Name is specified as the name of the computer account just created, the witness server is FWFS1 and the witness directory should be under C:\Wittness (or wherever). With Exchange 2016 it should be possible to run the DAG without a cluster IP, but I assume this will refer to Server 2016, I had to specify it.
The Exchange servers must now be assigned to the newly created DAG:
Select and add both Exchange servers:
Adding the servers takes some time
In the EAC it should now look like this, FWEX1 and FWEX2 are members of the DAG.
Finally, the database copies must be configured:
Note: Wer den Menüpunt „Datenbankkopie hinzufügen“ nicht sieht, einmal EAC neustarten.
Add and save the other server for both databases
The DAG is now ready. The tests can begin.
The next article will then focus on load balancing.