Microsoft 1 Choosing the Correct Maintenance Strategy

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Operations — Version 1.028

It is critical that the backup time for any database within a storage group does not conflict

with the maintenance times of any database within the same storage group. If it does, backup

will terminate the online defragmentation portion of the store online maintenance and the

database might never finish defragmenting.

Choosing the Correct Maintenance Strategy

The correct online maintenance strategy can be devised by examining the typical behavior

of the user community; by knowing how many users, databases, and servers are in the site;

and by coordinating this information with the online backup strategy.

On the next page is an example of an online store maintenance schedule for a corporate

Exchange 2000 mailbox server that hosts users who are in a single time zone.

First Storage Group

◆Database One

Online maintenance runs between 9:00 P.M. and 1:00 A.M.

◆Database Two

Online maintenance runs between 9:30 P.M. and 1:30 A.M.

◆Database Three

Online maintenance runs between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M.

Online Backup begins at 2:00 A.M.—it backs up all databases in the first storage group

when all of them have finished online maintenance.

Second Storage Group

◆Database Four

Online maintenance runs between 10:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M.

◆Database Five

Online maintenance runs between 11:00 P.M. and 3:00 A.M.

◆Database Six

Online maintenance runs between 11:30 P.M. and 3:30 A.M.

Online Backup begins at 3:30 A.M and backs up all databases in the second storage

group when all databases have finished online maintenance. This configuration staggers

the Active Directory LDAP queries generated by online maintenance, which are performed

in the first minutes of the procedure, and ensures that online backup does not interfere

with online defragmentation.

Contents

Main ii Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Capacity and Availability Management 11 Change and Configuration Management 37 Chapter 4 Enterprise Monitoring 53 Chapter 5 Protection 71 Chapter 6 Glossary 97 Support 89 Page Page Page Introduction Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) Page How to Use This Guide Efficiency, Continuity, and Security Figure 1.2 Efficiency Continuity Security Chapter Outlines Planning and Deployment Service Level Agreements Features Performance Recovery Support Related Topics Page Capacity and Availability Management Capacity Management Page Page Availability Management Service Hours Service Availability Minimizing System Failures Decreasing Single Points of Failure Increasing the Reliability of Exchange 2000 Minimizing System Recovery Time Performance Tuning Making Changes to the Registry No Performance Optimizer Optimizable Features Tuning Considerations Upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Tuning the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) Tuning SMTP Transport Mailroot Directory Location SMTP File Handles Page Store and ESE Tuning Online Store Maintenance Online Backups Choosing the Correct Maintenance Strategy Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) Heaps Store-Database Cache Size Page Log Buffers Tuning Active Directory Integration Page Tuning Outlook Web Access (OWA) Page Hardware Upgrades Page Change and Configuration Management Prerequisites Change Management Defining Change Type Step 1 Request for Change Is Submitted to Change Manager Step 2 Change Manager Assesses the RFC Step 3 Change Is Passed to IT Executive Committee for Approval Step 4 Change Is Passed to the Change Advisory Board for Scheduling Step 5 Change Is Passed to the Change Owner Step 6 Change Process Evaluation Minor and Standard Changes Scripting Minor and Standard Changes Security Software Control and Distribution Documentation Configuration Management Tools for Configuration Management Configuration Management and Change Management Configuration Items Page Page Page Defining Configuration Items Configuration Management and Exchange Maintaining the Configuration Management Database Change Management Ownership Security Backup Exchange System Policies Administering System Policies Page Enterprise Monitoring Prerequisites Performance Monitoring System Monitor Exchange 2000 Objects and Counters to Monitor Service or Resource Performance Object Information Store Counters SMTP Server MSExchangeMTA and MSExchangeMTAConnections MSExchangeIM Virtual Servers MSExchangeAL Windows 2000 Objects and Counters to Monitor Table 4.2 Subjects and Associated Objects and Counters Subsystem Object Counter Exchange Comments Subsystem Object Counter Exchange Comments Centralized Monitoring Event Monitoring Event Viewer Log Files Centralized Event Monitoring Availability Monitoring Monitoring and Status Tool Adding Services to the Default Configuration Monitoring Resources Notifications Status Disabling Server Monitoring Centralized Availability Monitoring Client Monitoring Page Page Protection Chapter Start Point Chapter End Point Protection Against Hacking Firewall Operations Maintaining Firewall Availability Ensuring That Only the Correct Traffic Passes Through the Firewall Monitoring Against Hacker Intrusion Dealing With Security Breaches Anti-Virus Measures Staying Current Dealing With Virus Infection Blocking Attachments at the Client Page Disaster Recovery Procedures Backing Up Page Offline Backup Disk Imaging Restoring Recovering Individual Messages Recovering Lost Mailboxes Recovering Exchange Stores and Storage Groups Full Exchange Server Recovery Recovering Exchange After Active Directory Failure Alternate Server Recovery Recovery Testing Page Page Support Providing Support for End Users Reducing End User Support Costs Page Problem Reporting Dealing with User Problems Notifying Users Exchange Problem Management Page Page Glossary