Monday, September 21, 2009

Replication technology with Exchange 2010

This topic is related to log file copying and seeding between active and passive databases in Exchange Server 2010. Will Exchange Server 2010 offer changes or improvements in the way log file copying and seeding occurs with Local Continuous Replication (LCR), Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) and Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) in Exchange Server 2007?

Although the asynchronous replication technology used in Exchange 2007 works quite well, that doesn't mean it can't be improved, right? Exchange Product Group has made several interesting changes and improvements to the asynchronous replication technology with Exchange 2010.

In Exchange 2007, the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service copies log files to the passive database copy (LCR), passive cluster node (CCR) or SCR target over Server Message Block (SMB), which means you need to open port 445 in any firewalls between the CCR cluster nodes (typically when deploying multisite CCR clusters) and/or SCR source and targets. Those of you who work for or with a large enterprise organization know that convincing network administrators to open port 445/TCP between two datacenters a far from a trivial exercise. With the Exchange 2010 DAG feature, the asynchronous replication technology no longer relies on SMB. Exchange 2010 uses TCP/IP for log file copying and seeding and, even better, it provides the option of specifying which port you want to use for log file replication. By default, DAG uses port 64327, but you can specify another port if required. For this, use the following command:

Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -identity -ReplicationPort

In addition, the Exchange 2010 DAG feature supports the use of encryption whereas log files in Exchange 2007 are copied over an unencrypted channel unless IPsec has been configured. More specifically, DAG leverages the encryption capabilities of Windows Server 2008—that is, DAG uses Kerberos authentication between each Mailbox server member of the respective DAG. Network encryption is a property of the DAG itself, not the DAG network. Settings for a DAG's network encryption property are: Disabled (network encryption not in use), Enabled (network encryption enabled for seeding and replication on all networks existing in a DAG), InterSubnetOnly (the default setting meaning network encryption in use on DAG networks on the same subnet), and SeedOnly (network encryption in use for seeding on all networks in a DAG). You can enable network encryption using the Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet. For instance, if you wanted to enable encryption for log copying and seeding, you would execute the command:

Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -identity -NetworkEncryption Enabled

Finally, with Exchange 2010 DAGs you can enable compression for seeding and replication over one or more networks in a DAG. This is a property of the DAG itself, not a DAG network. The default setting is InterSubnetOnly and has the same settings available as those of the network encryption property. To enable network compression for log file copying and seeding on all networks in a DAG, use the command: Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup –Identity -NetworkCompression Enabled. To find the status of the port, encryption and compression settings for a DAG, use the Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup –status command.
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1 comment:

Continuous Replication said...

This blog nicely explain local continuous replication and its importance. Thanks for sharing.