0989711

Module 11: Managing
Data Storage and

Hardware Resources
Contents
Overview 1
Lesson: Managing Data Storage 2
Lesson: Managing Disk Space 16
Lesson: Managing Hardware Upgrades 27
Discussion: Managing Data Storage and
Hardware Resources 46
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Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources iii
Instructor Notes
Presentation: This module explains how Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 stores data and
55 minutes describes the storage technologies that Exchange can use. The module also
explains what effects hardware components have on Exchange performance and
Practices: provides students with the steps that they can take to improve performance.
40 minutes
After completing this module, students will be able to:
! Manage data storage.
! Manage disk space.
! Manage hardware upgrades.
Required materials To teach this module, you need the following materials:
! Microsoft PowerPoint® file 2400B_11.ppt
! Module 11 video file 2400B_11_v05.wmv
! Module 11 animation, How and Where Exchange Stores Data,
2400B_11A_05.html
! The job aid titled RAID Cost, Performance, and Fault Tolerance
Comparison, which is printed at the back of the instructor Delivery Guide
and the student workbook and included on the Trainer Materials DVD and
the Student Materials compact disc.
Important It is recommended that you use PowerPoint 2002 or later to display

the slides for this course. If you use PowerPoint Viewer or an earlier version of
PowerPoint, all the features of the slides may not be displayed correctly.
Preparation tasks To prepare for this module:

! Read all of the materials for this module.
! Complete the practices.
! Review the animation.
! Complete the demonstration regarding how to use Connectix Virtual PC,
which is in the Introduction module of this course. All students must watch
you perform this demonstration. It is crucial that students become familiar
with the virtual environment that is used in the practices before they attempt
to complete the first practice in this module on their own.
! Review the links and suggested additional readings for this module.
Document your own suggested additional readings to share with the class.
Classroom setup The classroom should be set up to use Connectix Virtual PC software, as
discussed in the Manual Classroom Setup Guide. No additional classroom setup
is needed.
iv Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources
How to Teach This Module

This section contains information that will help you to teach this module.
Instructor notes have been written only for the topics that required them.
If no student practice is included in a How-to topic, consider demonstrating the
task for students.
How to start Start this module by telling students that there are three tasks discussed in this
module:
1. Managing data storage.
2. Managing disk space.
3. Managing hardware upgrades.
The three lessons in this module map to these tasks.

After you have discussed the tasks on the module overview slide, show the brief
video from a Northwind Trader’s employee before you continue with the
module. To start the video, click the video button on the overview slide, or open
the Web page on the Student Materials compact disc, click Multimedia, and
then click the title of the video. In this video, students will be given overall
instructions for tasks from their team lead or co-worker at Northwind Traders.
You can play this video again at the beginning of the first practice in the
module if you think it will help motivate students.
Time to teach this We anticipate that your total presentation time will be about 55 minutes. In
module addition, the total time for students to complete hands-on practice activities,
view multimedia presentation, and participate in class discussions will be about
40 minutes.
Tip When this symbol appears on the lower-right corner of a slide, it indicates
that there is an inline practice for students to complete before you move on to
the next slide:
Practices Some practices in this module require initial startup time. Consider having
students perform the initial step in these practices before you begin the lecture
on the related content. If a practice begins with a procedure titled “To prepare
for this practice,” then it requires initial startup time.
Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources v
Lesson: Managing Data Storage

This section describes the instructional methods for teaching this lesson.
Multimedia: How and Use this interactive multimedia piece to show students the answers to these
Where Exchange Stores questions:
Data
! What technology is Exchange data storage based on and how does it work?
! Where does Exchange store data?
! What is the overall process of data storage in Exchange?
To show the How and Where Exchange Stores Data interactive multimedia
piece, click the projector button on the slide or open the Web page on the
Student Materials compact disc, click Multimedia, and then click the title of
the presentation. Use the three buttons to step through each part of the
multimedia piece: discuss what happened and answer student questions after
each part. Also, show students where the multimedia piece is on the Student
Materials compact disc so that they can explore the piece on their own further if
they choose.
Also mention to the students that:
! Although the multimedia piece discusses how MAPI clients access mailbox
stores, students should also understand that public folder replication is a
MAPI process and that when public folders are replicated between two
servers, regardless of what format the data was stored in on the originating
server, the data will be saved into the rich text database.
! Back-up and restore are covered later in this course, but they should at least
understand that during a successful online backup of their Exchange server,
the transaction logs are removed. This means that if they have successful
nightly backups of their Exchange databases and they have scaled their
transaction log drives properly, they should never have a case where there is
not enough room for their log files. Also, they should never manually delete
log files.
! In the multimedia piece, five storage groups are shown. Explain to the
students that only four of the storage groups are used to store user data and
that the fifth storage group is used only for disaster recovery.
When you are finished showing the multimedia piece, facilitate a discussion
about how and where Exchange stores data. Several discussion questions have
been provided in the text. If you use these discussion questions, give students a
few minutes to read the discussion questions and explore the multimedia piece
on their own before you begin the discussion.
Naming Conventions for Use the animated slide to show an example of the naming conventions that
Stores and Storage Exchange uses for mailbox stores, public folder stores, and storage groups.
Groups
Guidelines for Deleting The slide provides all the guidelines for deleting mailbox stores, public folder
Stores and Storage stores, and storage groups. You can also use this slide to point out any
Groups differences. If you have students who have deleted stores and storage groups on
the job, ask them if they have any additional guidelines to add.
vi Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources
How to Delete Stores Consider demonstrating to the students how to delete a store and a storage
and Storage Groups group. The students are not asked to practice this task because it is so
straightforward and they will be familiar with the user interface (UI) from the
other tasks that they have performed.
Students were taught how to add stores and storage groups in Module 2,
“Configuring and Managing Exchange Server 2003,” in Course 2400,
Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
What Is Circular Use the animated slide to show an example of how circular logging works and
Logging? discuss the most important things to remember about circular logging. Then
have the students complete the practice in the topic to enable circular logging
on a storage group and answer any questions that they have.
How to Move Stores, Consider demonstrating to the students how to do these tasks. The students are
Mount and Dismount not asked to practice these tasks because they are so straightforward and
Stores, and Move students will be familiar with the UI from the other tasks that they have
Transaction Log Files performed.
Why Implement Mailbox This topic provides several reasons for why mailbox limits should be
Limits? implemented. Students may have additional ideas about why mailbox limits
should be implemented.
Lesson: Managing Disk Space

Where Exchange Stores Use the animated slide to show how Exchange stores client resources in a non-
Client Resources clustered environment and then in a clustered environment.
Storage Technologies Use the animated slide to show the three types of storage technologies and how
That Exchange Can Use they work, and then answer any questions that students have. You can also use
the slides that follow to answer further questions that students have.
Be prepared for some discussion around network-attached storage, one of the
technologies that Exchange can use. Students must understand that network-
attached storage is only supported by Microsoft when implemented as a block
storage device or direct attached storage and not as a device connected directly
to their Ethernet network. Stress that they should review the knowledge base
article listed in the note in the topic.
Guidelines and In addition to the slide, you can direct students to the table in their workbook to
Recommendations for see more information about why these recommendations are made. If you have
Hard Disk Configuration students who have configured a hard disk on the job, ask if they have any
additional guidelines to add.
Mention to students that there is a white paper on the Student Materials
compact disc that is listed in the note for this topic. They should be encouraged
to look at the white paper, because it answers many questions that may come up
in this topic.
Be prepared to discuss versions of RAID and especially RAID-0+1 (sometimes
referred to as RAID-10, RAID-1+0). Explain to the students that different
manufacturers have different meanings, so one manufacturer’s RAID-1+0 will
be another manufacturer’s RAID-0+1, and they are both more reliable than
RAID-5 and provide good performance.
Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources vii
Some additional items to mention to students are that transaction logs should
always be put on a mirrored drives, because they will never grow above 10
gigabytes (GB) on a healthy system. Also, configuring Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol (SMTP) queues on separate drives is only necessary if they have a
large volume of message traffic. For instance, they would want this for large-
scale servers or for bridgehead servers and inbound and outbound Internet
gateways.
How to Choose the Best It is important that students understand that appropriate RAID levels vary from
RAID Levels for Your company to company. This topic was designed to emphasize that point.
Environment
Show students where the job aid RAID Cost, Performance, and Fault Tolerance
Comparison resides—printed at the back of the student workbook. Mention that
a copy of the job aid is also included on the Student Materials compact disc.
Have students complete the practice in the topic, and then facilitate a discussion
and answer any questions that they have. This practice will teach students to
make decisions, so the answers that they devise may be different from the
answers that are provided. This difference is acceptable, but make sure that
students can defend their answers.
During this discussion, be prepared to explain to the students that they should
always try to make performance and reliability the controlling factors in
selecting a storage solution for Exchange. Budget is always an issue, but when
possible, budget should not be the controlling factor in selecting a storage
solution for Exchange.
Again, students must understand what we mean by RAID-0+1. This topic is
discussing striped mirrors. However, for mirrored stripes, if any two drives fail
(as long as one is on each of the stripes), it will bring down the server, and
many RAID vendors do this exact configuration. Emphasize to your students
that RAID-1 is more reliable than mirrored stripes and that they must make sure
they understand what their hardware vendor is selling them.
Explain to your students that when deciding on a RAID solution, they must
understand how reads and writes are performed for each RAID type. For every
RAID configuration, a read requested by the operating system does one read on
the disk system. However, for writes, this is not the case:
! For RAID-0, each write requested by the operating system performs one
physical write in the disk subsystem.
! For RAID-0+1, each write requested by the operating system performs two
physical writes in the disk subsystem.
! For RAID-5, each write requested by the operating system performs two
writes and two reads.
Therefore, writes are twice as expensive with RAID-5 as with RAID-0+1.

Mention that the white paper discusses many scenarios for configuring RAID
on their Exchange servers and gives better details on evaluating cost and
performance solutions.
How to Add Disk Space Remind students that before adding another store, they should contact their
to an Exchange Server hardware or storage vendor for information about their supported procedures
for performing the upgrade.
Considerations for This is an ideal topic in which to ask students what their experience has been.
Calculating Storage Students may have stories about storage calculations that failed that other
Space students can learn from.
viii Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources
Lesson: Managing Hardware Upgrades

What Is Virtual Address These three topics can be taught as a unit. Talk about what virtual address space
Space? is, provide guidelines for adjusting parameters, and then review the steps to
maximize virtual address space.
Guidelines for Adjusting Mention to students that Module 13, “Performing Preventive Maintenance,” in
Virtual Address Space Course 2400, Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003,
Parameters discusses performing daily and scheduled maintenance tasks that will help them
identify indicators of problems with virtual memory.
What Is the Store Talk about what the store database cache is, provide guidelines for changing the
Database Cache? store database cache, and then review the steps to modify the size of the cache.
Then have the students complete the practice in the topic and answer any
questions that they have.
How to Upgrade Server Use the animated slide to show the process of how to upgrade entire servers.
Hardware for Be sure to explain to students that this is not an in-place upgrade or an
Exchange 2003 Exchange 5.5 upgrade. What is being discussed is upgrading the hardware and
the process shown is moving Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 resources
(mailbox and public folder stores) to new server hardware that is running
Exchange 2003.
Guidelines for Discuss the guidelines for optimizing performance and then have students
Optimizing Performance complete the inline practice and answer any questions that they have.
on New Hardware
Discussion
The scenarios in this discussion were designed to allow students to reflect on
what they did in the module and to give them an opportunity to ask any
remaining questions that they have. Use the discussion scenarios to provide a
summary of the module content. You can also return to the module overview
slide and use it to help summarize the lessons covered in this module.
You can do this activity with the entire class. Or, if you have time, have
students work in small groups to come up with solutions to the problems in the
scenarios and then present and discuss their ideas with the class.
Before taking part in the discussion, students should have completed all of the
practices. Students who have not completed the practices may have difficulty
taking part in the discussion.
Assessment
Assessment questions for this module are located on the Student Materials
compact disc. You can use the assessment questions in whatever way you think
is best for your students. For example, you can use them as pre-assessments to
help students identify areas of difficulty. Or, you can use them as post-
assessments to validate learning. Consider using the questions to reinforce
learning at the end of the day or at the beginning of the next day. If you choose
not to use the assessment questions during class, show students where they are
so that they can use them to assess their own learning outside of class.
Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources 1
Overview
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Introduction To manage and optimize Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 data storage,
messaging administrators must understand how Exchange stores data and what
storage technologies it uses. Administrators must also understand what effects
hardware components have on Exchange performance and the steps that they
can take to improve performance.
Objectives After completing this module, you will be able to:
! Manage data storage.
! Manage disk space.
! Manage hardware upgrades.
2 Module 11: Managing Data Storage and Hardware Resources
Lesson: Managing Data Storage

Introduction This lesson introduces Exchange data storage by explaining how Exchange
stores data, data storage concepts, and the tasks that are involved in managing
data storage. If you understand how Exchange stores data and how file names
are generated, it will be easier to understand the files that Exchange requires
and you will have the knowledge that you need to complete tasks such as
backing up Exchange data and deleting mailbox stores, public folder stores, and
storage groups. You must also know about the options that are available to limit
or control how much data your users can store so that you can more easily
calculate how much disk storage your Exchange servers will require.
Lesson objectives After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
! Explain how and where Exchange stores data.
! Describe naming conventions for mailbox and public folder stores and
storage groups.
! Describe the guidelines for deleting mailbox and public folder stores and
storage groups.
! Delete mailbox and public folder stores and storage groups.
! Explain the purpose of circular logging.
! Move mailbox and public folder stores, mount and dismount stores, and
move transaction log files.
! Explain why mailbox limits should be implemented.
Multimedia: How and Where Exchange Stores Data

Introduction To effectively manage data storage in Exchange, you must understand the
technology that Exchange data storage is based on, where Exchange stores data,
and the process of how Exchange stores data. This interactive multimedia piece
provides answers to these questions:
! What technology is Exchange data storage based on and how does it work?
! Where does Exchange store data?
! What is the overall process of data storage in Exchange?
• How does Exchange store data on a hard disk?
• How are the disparities between memory and log files managed?
• How are transaction logs tracked?
• How are committed transactions tracked?
• How is data recovered with the checkpoint file?
• What happens when there is not enough space to create a new
transaction log?
Instructions Your instructor will step through the interactive multimedia piece to show how
Exchange stores data. When you have finished viewing the all three parts of the
multimedia piece, answer the two discussion questions that follow and be
prepared to discuss your answers with the rest of the class.
Tip To explore the How and Where Exchange Stores Data interactive
multimedia piece on your own, open the Web page on the Student Materials
compact disc, click Multimedia, and then click the title of the presentation.
Discussion question 1 You are an administrator at Northwind Traders and your server running
Exchange server fails during the processing of an incoming e-mail message sent
by a client. What happens to the message?
Exchange ensures that all the operations are completed or the transaction
will not be completed. Because not all the operations in the transaction
were complete, the message cannot be successfully delivered. The sending
host will hold the message in its outbound queue and attempt redelivery.
As long as your Exchange server is recovered in the sending server’s retry
window, the message will be delivered when your server is restored.
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Discussion question 2 You are the administrator for a medium-sized company and receive a call from
one of your technicians. She tells you that she is browsing your Exchange
server’s file system and discovered a folder that contains these files: E02.chk,
E02.log, E0200001.log, Res1.log, and Res2.log. She asks you if you know what
these files are used for and if it is acceptable to delete them to create some
available space on your Exchange volumes. What do you tell her?
Tell her that the following files are used by Exchange and that she must not
delete them:
• E02.log and E0200001.log. For each storage group, Exchange creates a
transaction log file named Exx.log. When that log file is full and
Exchange rolls over to a new log file, the new transaction log file
becomes Exx.log, and the old Exx.log file is renamed to Exx00001.log.
• E02.chk. For each storage group, a file called the checkpoint file tracks
the location of the last committed transaction that has been fully copied
to the database file. One checkpoint file is maintained for the series of
log files in each storage group and is named Exx.chk.
• Res1.log and Res2.log. For each storage group, two transaction log files
are created at the initialization of an Extensible Storage Engine (ESE)
database to provide resources in low-disk-space situations. When the
server runs out of disk space, each storage group reserves two log files,
Res1.log and Res2.log, which are stored in the transaction log file
folder.
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Naming Conventions for Stores and Storage Groups

When Exchange is first installed, the First Storage Group is created, and it
contains a mailbox store and a public folder store. By default, the files that
make up the mailbox store and the public folder store are stored in the
C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mdbdata folder. The mailbox store consists of two
files, priv1.edb and priv1.stm. The public folder store consists of two files,
pub1.edb and pub1.stm. By default, when you create a new storage group, a
new folder is created that is based on the name of the storage group. For
example, the Sales storage group would be created in the \Exchsrvr\Sales
folder.
By default, as you create new stores, the .edb and .stm files are named based on
the name that you give the store, and the .edb and .stm files are created in the
folder for the storage group. For example, the Sales mailbox store would create
a Sales.edb file and a Sales.stm file in the \Exchsrvr\Sales directory. You can
change the default name and location that are used for the storage group folder
and the store files by modifying the object’s property pages.
Guidelines for Deleting Stores and Storage Groups

Guidelines for deleting mailbox and public folder stores and storage groups:
! Guidelines for deleting a mailbox store:
• Before you delete a mailbox store, you must move the mailboxes that are
defined in that store to another store.
• If you are using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) on a front-end
server, you should not delete all the mailbox stores. If you are using
SMTP on a front-end server, a mailbox store is required, but the mailbox
store must not contain any mailboxes.
! Guidelines for deleting a public folder store:
• Before you remove the public folder store that is used for system folders,
you must select a new public folder store to host the system folders.
• If the public folder store that you want to delete maintains the only
replica of one or more folders, you will lose all the data that is in those
folders. If you attempt to delete a public folder store that maintains the
only replica of one or more folders, you will receive a warning message
that all the data will be lost if you do not first replicate the data to
another store.
• You cannot delete the last public folder store that hosts a public folder
tree or that is the default public folder store for mailbox stores or users.
If you attempt to do this, you will receive warning messages that all the
data will be lost if you do not first replicate the data to another store, that
you must select a server for any system folders, and that a new mailbox
store will be chosen if this is the default public folder store for a mailbox
store.
! Guidelines for deleting a storage group:

• You can only delete a storage group if it does not have any associated
stores.
• You must manually delete transaction log files. Transaction log files are
not deleted when the storage group is deleted; however, you will be
prompted by Exchange System Manager to manually delete the files.
How to Delete Stores and Storage Groups

You can use Exchange System Manager to delete stores and storage groups.
Important In the classroom environment, if you practice this procedure on your

own, make sure that you do not save your changes. Saving these changes would
leave Virtual PC in an incorrect state for upcoming practices.
To delete a mailbox or To delete a mailbox or public folder store:

public folder store
1. In Exchange System Manager, browse to the store that you want to delete.
2. Right-click the store, and then click Delete.
3. An Information Store message box appears. The message lists the
consequences of taking this action, and asks if you want to continue. Click
Yes.
4. A second Information Store message box appears that says, “The store has
been removed. You must remove the database files from your computer
manually.” Click OK.
5. Manually delete the storename.edb and storename.stm files (where
storename is the name of the mailbox or public folder store that you are
deleting) from your computer.
To delete a storage To delete a storage group:

group
1. In Exchange System Manager, browse to the storage group that you want to
delete.
2. Right-click the storage group, and then click Delete.
3. An Information Store message box appears. The message lists the
consequences of taking this action, and asks if you want to continue. Click
Yes.
4. Manually delete all the transaction files for the storage group from your
computer.
Tip The procedure for adding stores and storage groups by using Exchange
System Manager are included in Module 2, “Configuring and Managing
Exchange Server 2003,” in Course 2400, Implementing and Managing
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
What Is Circular Logging?

Circular logging is a feature that allows log files to be overwritten by new log
files after the transactions in the original log file have been committed to the
database. Circular logging is defined at the storage group level and it should be
taken into consideration when managing stores and storage groups. Although
circular logging uses transaction log techniques, it does not maintain previous
transaction log files for long periods of time. Instead, Exchange maintains a few
log files (typically, a set of four log files), renames older logs, and overwrites
the oldest log when a new transaction log file is needed. You can enable or
disable circular logging for each storage group independently by using
Exchange System Manager. By default, circular logging is disabled in
Exchange.
What happens when you When you enable circular logging, multiple log files may be present in the
enable circular logging? storage group folder. The presence of multiple log files in the storage group
folder is normal, because the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) uses four log
files before reusing one of the existing four log files. For example, logs
E0000010.log, E0000011.log, E0000012.log, and E0000013.log would become
E0000014.log, E0000011.log, E0000012.log, and E0000013.log, respectively.
The circular log numbers are hexadecimal, and they increase in increments of
one. If the checkpoint is still referring to the lowest numbered log file, and a
new log file needs to be created, ESE increases the set of log files from four to
five to avoid overwriting the checkpoint.
Advantages and The main advantage of circular logging is that it reduces the use of hard disk
disadvantages of space. You can use circular logging to reduce the buildup of transaction log
circular logging files. The main disadvantage of circular logging is that if the database fails,
only the data from the last backup of the database will be restored. Only the
most recent backup of the database is restored because more recent database
transactions have been overwritten.
Important Do not use circular logging in an environment where data recovery

is important.
When to use circular You can use circular logging if data recovery is not important. For example,
logging you could use it on a front-end server that does not have mailboxes or public
folders, and where data would never need to be recovered.
If the data on the server is critical to your company, maintain the server’s
default setting by keeping circular logging disabled and implementing an
appropriate backup strategy that will correctly remove log files. Performing a
full online backup removes old log files, so if circular logging is disabled and
you perform full online backups frequently, you do not need to worry about the
logs occupying too much space.
Practice: Enabling In this practice, you will create a storage group with circular logging enabled.
circular logging on a
storage group
Important To complete the practices in this module, you must be logged on to
2400_London-Virtual PC as NWTraders\LondonAdmin with a password of
P@ssw0rd and run the script entitled “2400A_11_Setup.vbs” located in the
C:\MOC\2400\practices\Mod11 folder.
! To prepare for this practice

1. Start 2400_London-Virtual PC, if it is not already started.
2. Log on as NWTraders\LondonAdmin with a password of P@ssw0rd.
Note This procedure may take five minutes to complete before you can
continue.
! To enable circular logging on a storage group:

1. In Exchange System Manager, browse to Administrative Groups\
First Administrative Group\Servers, click London, right-click London,
point to New, and then click Storage Group.
2. In the Properties dialog box, in the Name box, type Newsfeed Storage
Group and select the Enable circular logging check box, and then click
OK.
3. In the Newsfeed Storage Group message box that appears, read the
warning and then click Yes.
4. Verify that the Newsfeed Storage Group exists on the London server.
Should you enable circular logging on a mailbox store? Why or why

not?
No. Enabling circular logging greatly reduces your ability to
recover from a failure. With circular logging enabled, you can only
recover data that exists on your last backup set. With circular
logging disabled, you can recover data up to the point of failure. In
most environments, recovery up to point of failure is required for
all mailboxes.
How to Move Stores, Mount and Dismount Stores, and Move

Transaction Log Files

If you lack sufficient hard drive space, to help fix the problem you can move
stores and transaction log files. You can also optimize your storage by moving
stores and transaction log files to different hard disks with better input/output
(I/O) capacity or better disk storage capacity than the current location.
To move a store You can move a store to another location on the server to create more space on
your hard disk. To move a store:
1. In Exchange System Manager, expand the appropriate storage group, locate
the store that you want to move, and display the properties of the store.
2. In the Mailbox Store Properties dialog box, click the Database tab.
3. On the Database tab, click the Browse button for the database file (.edb),
the streaming store file (.stm), or both, and then specify the new path to
which you want to move them.
A system message appears to warn you that the database will be temporarily
dismounted during the move operation and that it will be inaccessible to any
user. Verify that no users are using the database during the move operation.
To mount and dismount You must mount a store before a client can access it—mounting a store means
stores that you must bring the store online. You must also dismount a store before
moving its transaction log files and database files or before restoring it from
backup.
To take a specific store offline and bring it online again, use the Mount Store
and Dismount Store commands, which are on the store context menu. These
commands are toggle options, which means that Exchange only displays the
available action. The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service must be
running before you can use these commands.
Warning Users are not automatically warned that the server is dismounting a
store. You will see a warning that dismounting the database will disconnect all
users when you select this option. Use the mailbox container in Exchange
System Manager to view which users have mailboxes in the store and verify
that they are not connected to their mailboxes before you continue.
To move transaction log To relocate transaction log files, use the General tab in the Properties dialog
files box for the storage group. When you change the location of the transaction log
files, all the stores in the storage group are dismounted, the transaction log files
are moved, and the stores are then remounted.
Caution To move transaction files successfully, you must use Exchange

System Manager, which ensures that all associated information is moved with
the file.
Why Implement Mailbox Limits?

There are many reasons to set mailbox limits:
! To make capacity planning easier. It is difficult to perform capacity
planning if there is no limit to the mailbox size. For example, although a 50
megabyte (MB) mailbox may seem large to a new Exchange user who has
been using an older e-mail system, after that user realizes how simple it is to
store all types of data in his or her mailbox, that mailbox can quickly grow
in size. If you do not set mailbox limits, typical users will never clean out
their Inbox, Sent Items, or Deleted Items folders. If you are trying to budget
for storage, you must define a limit for how much data your users can store
in their mailboxes so that you can then decide on the capacity that you will
need for your Exchange server.
! To help meet service level agreements. The larger your Exchange databases
are, the longer it will take to back up and restore the databases. To ensure
that restores can be performed in the time frame dictated by a service level
agreement, while still hosting the number of mailboxes that you need on the
databases, the size of users’ mailboxes must be managed.
! To help users comply with corporate e-mail retention policies. Because
companies know that information in past e-mail messages can be used
against them in a lawsuit, many companies have e-mail retention policies
that limit how long users can keep old e-mail messages. Although mailbox
limits will not prevent the retention of e-mail messages, if a user can only
store a certain amount of data on the server, he or she will have to clean out
their mailbox on a regular basis, and often, older e-mail will be deleted first.
Some companies prevent users from storing any e-mail on the e-mail
servers. To a certain extent, mailbox limits can help minimize a company’s
legal liability.
Note Before you implement any mailbox limits that impact your users, clearly
communicate these changes to your users. By communicating any changes, you
will improve the user experience and help reduce support calls after the change
has been implemented. For detailed information about how to configure storage
limits either on a mailbox store or by using a mailbox store policy, see
Module 2, “Configuring and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003,” in
Course 2400, Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
Lesson: Managing Disk Space

Introduction This lesson describes the storage technologies that Exchange can use and the
disk requirements of Exchange. It then explains how to configure and manage
disk space and storage for Exchange. By understanding what type of storage
technologies are available to you with Exchange, you can make informed
decisions about how to best provide storage for Exchange that is both fault
tolerant and expandable.
! Describe where Exchange stores client resources.
! Describe storage technologies that Exchange can use.
! Describe the guidelines for and recommended hard disk configuration to use
with Exchange.
! Choose the best RAID levels for your environment.
! Add disk space to an Exchange server.
! Describe considerations for calculating storage space.
Where Exchange Stores Client Resources

In a non-clustered environment, when an Exchange client sends a request to the
server running Exchange, that server retrieves the information from the
Exchange mailbox or public folder store that resides on the local disk and
returns the information to the client.
In a clustered environment, individual servers are called nodes. When an
Exchange client sends a request to the server running Exchange, the request is
sent to logical servers, referred to as virtual servers. The virtual server routes
the request to the node controlling the requested resource, service, or
application. That node retrieves the information from the Exchange store that
resides on a shared disk resource. Because the client computer connects to the
virtual server, if a failure occurs, users are unaware that an alternate node is
being used.
Note For more information about clustering, see Course 2087, Implementing
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Clustering.
Storage Technologies That Exchange Can Use

You can use three different storage technologies to store Exchange data. It is
recommended that you use storage area network solutions.
Storage technologies There are several types of storage technologies currently deployed in
that Exchange can use environments, including external storage arrays, network-attached storage, and
storage area networks. Each type of storage technology may have a place in an
Exchange environment, depending on the size of the Exchange organization and
how the hardware or storage vendor has implemented the technology.
Storage
technology Description
External storage Also called direct attached storage, this is a storage solution that uses an external SCSI drive
array cabinet to hold multiple SCSI disk drives and other hardware, usually configured as a RAID set. It
is connected with SCSI cables directly to your Exchange server. This type of storage provides
good performance but limited scalability, and must be managed on a per-server basis. External
storage arrays can be adequate storage solutions for smaller Exchange organizations.
Network- A network-attached storage solution is any storage product set up with its own network address
attached storage rather than being attached to the server. The network-attached storage device is attached directly to
the Ethernet network through SCSI or Fibre Channel connections and assigned an IP address. File
requests are mapped by the main server to the network-attached storage file server.
Exchange has local data access and I/O bandwidth requirements that network-attached storage
products do not typically meet so they are not supported by Microsoft. However, several network-
attached storage devices can also be directly attached to Microsoft Windows-based servers, which
will allow them to run Exchange. Only if the network-attached storage device and its associated
configuration is on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) will it be supported for
Exchange 2003. It is recommended that you contact your hardware or storage vendor before you
deploy any network-attached storage solution to obtain assurance that the end-to-end solution is
designed for use with Exchange. Many hardware and storage vendors have best practices guides
for Exchange.
(continued)
Storage
technology Description
Storage area A storage area network solution connects multiple servers and different storage devices on a single
network network. A storage area network provides storage and storage management capabilities for
company data. Storage area networks use Fibre Channel switching technology to provide fast and
reliable connectivity between storage and applications, allowing many servers to connect to a
single storage area network.
Note If you decide to implement a network-attached storage solution in your

Exchange organization, read the following articles and consult with your
network-attached storage vendor. For more information about network-attached
storage solutions, search for the articles 317173, “XADM: Exchange 2000
Server and Network-Attached Storage” and 314916, “XADM: Issues That
Might Occur If You Place Exchange Data Files on Network Shares” on the
Product Support Services page of the Microsoft Web site at
http://support.microsoft.com.
The recommended Storage area networks are complex, and they require specialized knowledge to
storage solution for design, operate, and maintain. They are also a more expensive solution than
Exchange external storage arrays and network-attached storage solutions. However, it is
recommended that storage area networks be used to store Exchange data, such
as mailbox and public folder stores, because storage area network
configurations optimize server performance and reliability and are also highly
scalable. Storage area networks are good storage solutions for large Exchange
organizations.
If you implement a storage area network solution in your Exchange
organization, you receive the following benefits:
! Storage area networks meet Exchange’s high I/O bandwidth requirement.
Storage area networks use a channel-attached disk storage system and
generally have a large RAM cache. This keeps even disk access from
becoming a bottleneck in most cases.
! Storage area networks meet the Exchange requirement that mailbox and
public folder stores exist on a drive that is local to the Exchange server.
Storage area network solutions connect directly to Exchange servers through
a local Fibre Channel connection. The operating system sees these drives as
direct-attached drives.
! Storage area networks are highly scalable. This is an important
consideration for Exchange. As e-mail data grows and mailbox limits are
continually challenged, you must increase storage capacity and I/O rates. As
your organization expands, a storage area network allows you to easily add
disks to your storage. Select a storage area network that incorporates storage
virtualization, which allows you to easily add storage and quickly reallocate
it to your Exchange servers. With storage virtualization, you can purchase
storage disks in accordance with your budget; even if the disks are of
various capacities, a storage area network that features storage virtualization
is capable of immediately using all available disk space.
! Storage area networks allow you to expand your Exchange organization by

adding servers. If you use storage area networks, you can connect multiple
Exchange servers to the same storage device and then divide the storage
among them.
! Storage area networks enhance backup, recovery, and availability. Storage
area networks use volume mirroring and snapshot backups, and because
storage area networks allow multiple connections, you can connect high-
performance backup devices to the storage area network. Storage area
networks also allow you to designate different RAID levels to separate
storage partitions.
Guidelines and Recommendations for the Hard Disk Configuration

The following table presents guidelines and recommendations for the hard disk
configuration to use with Exchange.
Category Guidelines Recommendation
System and Configure a separate drive and provide fault tolerance. RAID-1
boot files
Pagefile Configure a separate drive. No fault tolerance is required. Using a separate drive No RAID required
reduces recoverability because no memory dump will be created during system
failure.
SMTP Configure a separate drive and provide good throughput with fault tolerance. RAID-1
queue Although messages are typically stored in the SMTP queue for a short time, if a
directory failure occurs downstream, the SMTP queue could be required to store a large
amount of data. Using RAID-1 provides a good solution because it provides fault
tolerance while providing adequate throughput. You must ensure that your RAID-
1 volume is large enough to handle instances in which your SMTP queue grows
unexpectedly.
.edb and Configure a separate drive and provide fault tolerance. Optimize for performance RAID-1, RAID-5,
.stm files or capacity. After you optimize for reliability, your storage solution is based on a or RAID-0+1,
(or database choice between optimizing performance (RAID-1) and optimizing capacity depending on
files) (RAID-5). If possible, use RAID-0+1 for these files. You could store public what you are
folder database files on a RAID-5 array, because data on public folders is usually trying to optimize
written once and read many times. RAID-5 provides better read performance than for
write performance.
(continued)
Category Guidelines Recommendation
Transaction Configure on a separate drive from .edb and .stm files. Split the transaction logs RAID-0+1
log files and database onto separate disk spindles to take advantage of sequential writes.
The spindle set should be dedicated only to logs. For example, you will not
receive the performance benefits of the split if you choose to place the pagefile or
Windows binary files on the same spindle set as the logs. Provide fault tolerance
with best performance. Use a separate drive for the transaction log files for each
storage group. If you are using a storage area network solution, use separate
virtual drives. Protect the drives against failure. Transaction log files are critical to
the operation of a server.
Note For more information about hard disk configuration, see the white paper
Storage Solutions for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server in the Additional
Reading section of the Student Materials compact disc.
How to Choose the Best RAID Levels for Your Environment

Each Exchange environment is different because companies work with different
budget constraints and different performance expectations. When you evaluate
which level of RAID is appropriate for your company, take these factors into
consideration:
! All implementations of RAID share two similar aspects. They all:
• Use multiple physical disks to distribute data.
• Store data according to a logic that is independent of the application for
which they are storing data.
! You must balance the risk against the cost of implementing different RAID
solutions by looking for the best performance and the most acceptable levels
of fault tolerance for your company. To choose the best RAID level:
a. Assess reliability by evaluating the impact that a disk failure would have
on the integrity of the data. RAID-0 does not implement any kind of
redundancy, so a single disk failure on a RAID-0 array requires a full
restoration of data. The three fault-tolerant solutions are RAID-1, RAID-
0+1, and RAID-5. Of the three solutions, RAID-0+1 is the most reliable,
because very specific sets of two or more disks must fail before data is
lost.
b. Evaluate cost by calculating the number of disks needed to support your
array. The RAID-0+1 implementation is the most expensive because
you require twice as much disk space as you actually need. However,
when you consider the maximum read and write rates, this configuration
also yields much higher performance than the same-capacity RAID-5
configuration.
c. Determine how fast your service level agreement (SLA) requires
recovery of data, and determine if the array will support it. Because
RAID-5 takes longer to write data, data recovery after a complete system
failure takes longer. If your SLA has a short recovery time and you have
large amounts of data to recover, you may not be able to use this RAID
configuration.
Note To balance the cost, performance, and fault tolerance of the RAID
solutions, you can use the job aid titled RAID Cost, Performance, and Fault
Tolerance Comparison that is printed at the back of the student workbook. For
more information about storage solutions, see the white paper Storage Solutions
for Microsoft Exchange 2000 under Additional Reading on the Web page on
the Student Materials compact disc.
Practice: Choosing the Read the following scenarios, determine a solution, and then discuss your
best RAID levels for solution with the class.
your environment
To determine the best storage solution for your database files and your
transaction log files, use the job aid RAID Cost, Performance, and Fault
Tolerance Comparison, which is printed at the end of the workbook, and the
guidelines and recommendations in this lesson. A copy of the job aid is also
included in the Job Aids folder on the Student Materials compact disc.
Scenario 1 You have just been given your budget for the upcoming fiscal year and you
have limited funds to purchase storage for your new Exchange server. You
must select a storage solution for your mailbox store and transaction log files
that gives you the best performance while still maintaining fault tolerance for
your data. Which RAID solution should you implement?
Because your budget is limited, you should choose a solution that provides
fault tolerance but that gives you the best use of your storage. Choosing a
RAID-5 array for the mailbox database and a RAID-1 array for the
transaction logs would require the fewest hard disks while still providing
the level of fault tolerance that you need.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Scenario 2 Given the same scenario as in Scenario 1, if you did not have any budgeting
constraints, would you implement a different RAID solution? Why or why not?
Yes. If budget was not an issue, using RAID-0+1 would be the best choice
for the databases and the log files. RAID-0+1 will give you excellent
performance while providing a fault-tolerant solution that has the least
amount of risk associated with it.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
How to Add Disk Space to an Exchange Server

How you add additional storage to your Exchange server depends on your
storage method:
! If you are using local (direct) attached storage, you must first shut down the
server, open the disk cabinet (or computer, if storage is internal), install the
additional storage, and then restart the server. The risk with shutting down
the server is that there is a possibility that the server will not restart after it is
shut down.
! If you are using an external storage array, you must add a new disk to the
array and then rebuild the array. Some manufacturers’ solutions allow you
to expand your storage capacity without incurring any downtime to your
messaging system. Other solutions, however, will not allow the data to be
available until the array is rebuilt.
Note Before you add additional storage, contact your hardware or storage
vendor for information about which procedures for performing the upgrade they
support.
Considerations for Calculating Storage Space

When you calculate storage space, consider the following items:
! Plan storage for transaction log growth. Depending on how busy your
server is, you will need to allow for a build up of transaction logs files.
Transaction log files are transactions that have not been written to the
database yet. Even in a small Exchange environment, log files could amount
to more than 300 MB of storage.
! Plan storage for data storage growth. No matter how accurately you think
you have calculated your data storage needs, data will always grow. Typical
calculations only take into consideration a value that equals the number of
users times the size of a typical mailbox, plus some allowance for additional
storage space. To minimize interruptions to your messaging system, always
plan to add storage into the server design instead of adding it after the server
is deployed.
! Plan free space for using utilities. The accepted practice is to allow 110
percent of your largest planned database size as free space to run database
maintenance utilities such as eseutil/isinteg. These utilities should only be
used if you have had problems with your server and are talking with
Microsoft support. Additionally, if you have your servers attached to a
storage area network, you can use a single volume for all of your servers
and not keep one for each individual server.
Lesson: Managing Hardware Upgrades

Introduction This lesson explains hardware upgrade concepts and tasks for managing
hardware upgrades. By understanding the types of upgrades that you can
perform on your Exchange servers, you will better understand what type of
tuning may be required after the upgrade to optimize performance. If you are
upgrading your entire server, you must understand the methods for moving
mailbox and public folder information onto the server after the hardware has
been prepared and the operating system and Exchange have been installed on
the server.
! Explain the purpose of virtual address space.
! Explain guidelines for adjusting virtual address space.
! Maximize virtual address space.
! Describe the purpose of the store database cache.
! Explain what should be considered when changing the store database cache.
! Modify the store database cache size.
! Describe the process for upgrading server hardware for Exchange 2003.
! Describe the purpose of the Microsoft Exchange Public Folder Migration
Tool.
! Optimize performance on new hardware.
What Is Virtual Address Space?

Independent of the hardware configuration, the amount of databases, and the
number of users on your server, the store.exe process in Exchange 2003 has a
finite amount of memory that it can address; this is known as the virtual
address space. In most scenarios, the virtual address space for the store will
dictate the overall performance and scalability of your Exchange mailbox
servers. For small to medium sized servers, Exchange will achieve the best
balance of the virtual address space for you. For larger servers, however, you
will want to adjust some of the tuning parameters for the virtual address space
yourself.
Guidelines for Adjusting Virtual Address Space Parameters

Guidelines for adjusting the virtual address space parameters are as follows:
! If your Exchange server has 1 GB of memory or more, add the /3GB switch
to the Boot.ini file on the server. By default, the Microsoft Windows 2000
Advanced Server and Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 family operating
systems reserve 2 GB of virtual address space for kernel mode and 2 GB for
user mode. The virtual address space for a specific process is allocated at
startup and increases as more memory is used during run time. It is normal
for the actual memory usage (working set) of a process to be much less than
the virtual address space that the process was allocated. On an Exchange
server with 1 GB or more of memory, you must modify the
Windows Server 2003 family operating systems or Windows 2000
Advanced Server so that 3 GB of user mode space is available; you do this
by using the /3GB switch.
! Never set the /3GB switch if you are running Windows 2000 Server. This
memory tuning switch is not supported in Windows 2000 Server, but it is
supported in Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000
Datacenter Server. Although a Windows 2000 Server will not present an
error if you use the /3GB switch, a fake memory address space will exist. In
situations where a process attempts to access this higher address space, the
operating system will stop responding and a blue screen will appear.
Note The /3GB tuning switch is supported in all editions of

Windows Server 2003, including Standard Edition. For more information
about how to set the /3GB switch, search for article 328882, “Exchange
Memory Use and the /3GB Switch,” on the Product Support Services page
of the Microsoft Web site at http://support.microsoft.com.
! If you are running Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003, set the
/USERVA=3030 parameter in the Boot.ini file. Setting this parameter
allows for more system page table entries on the server, which are critical
for larger systems.
! Do not let the Store.exe process run out of virtual address space. When
virtual memory in the store process runs low, the performance of your
Exchange server can decrease dramatically. Depending on the size of the
largest free block of virtual memory, you may need to restart the
information store service or restart the Exchange server.
Note The /USERVA switch is supported in all editions of

Windows Server 2003, including Standard Edition. For more information about
how to use the /USERVA switch, search for articles 815372, “How to Optimize
Memory Usage in Exchange Server 2003,” and 316739, “How to Use the
/USERVA Switch in the Boot.ini File to Tune /3GB Configurations,” on the
Product Support Services page of the Microsoft Web site at
http://support.microsoft.com.
How to Maximize Virtual Address Space

Monitor the store’s virtual address space on large mailbox servers to ensure
good server performance and system stability. The easiest way to monitor
virtual address space is to watch the VM Largest Block Size counter on the
MSExchangeIS object in Performance Monitor. The value for the counter is
shown in bytes. After start up, it is common to see a sharp decrease in the
largest block size. However, after a day or so has passed, the block-size value
should maintain a constant, steady value. A server that has more than
200,000,000 bytes (~200 MB) as the largest free block is very healthy and does
not require virtual memory tuning. If you notice a lower value, carefully
monitor the server.
What to do if you have If you have low virtual address space:
low virtual address
space 1. If you have 1 GB or more of physical memory installed, set the correct
option in the Boot.ini file:
• For Windows 2000 Advanced Server, ensure that the /3GB option is set.
• For the Windows Server 2003 family, ensure that the /3GB and
/USERVA=3030 options are set.
2. Set the following registry parameter if you have 1 GB or more of physical
memory, and then restart the server. This parameter is fully described in
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 815372.
Registry parameter Description
Path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet
\Control\Session Manager
Parameter HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold
Type REG_DWORD
Default Not present
Recommend setting: 0x00040000
In most scenarios, these steps will resolve most virtual address space
consumption issues. On larger servers, more tuning may be required to realign
the balance between performance and scalability; this involves changing the
store database cache size, as described in the next topic.
Note For more information about memory fragmentation in Exchange 2003,

search for article 822180, “Exchange Server 2003 and Virtual Memory
Fragmentation,” on the Product Support Services page of the Microsoft Web
site at http://support.microsoft.com.
What Is the Store Database Cache?

The store database cache, also called the ESE buffer, is a database cache that
provides a large caching area for database transactions before they are
committed to the store. By default, Exchange 2003 queries the memory
configuration of the local computer and allocates 896 MB if the /3GB switch is
set and 576 MB if the /3GB option is not set. When a server is heavily loaded
or when disk performance is not optimal, a large store database cache will
increase overall system performance. Depending on the overall configuration,
you may need to increase or reduce the size of the store database cache to get
the best overall performance.
When should I change When Exchange 2003 is used in an environment where it co-exists with other
the size of the store server-side applications, such as in a branch office system, it is possible for
database cache? Exchange to monopolize the available memory. The Dynamic Buffer
Allocation algorithm is responsible for returning memory to the operating
system if other applications require it. However, you can limit Exchange’s use
of physical memory by reducing the size of the store database cache.
Guidelines for Changing the Size of the Store Database Cache

Guidelines for changing the size of the store database cache are as follows:
! For servers with more than 2 GB of memory, it may be beneficial to
increase the size of the store database cache. Because of virtual address
space limitations, this value should never be set higher than 1,200 MB.
! Before you increase the maximum store database cache size, use Windows
Performance Monitor to monitor the memory of the server under normal
load. Monitor the following Performance Monitor values:
• Performance Object: Process
• Counter: Virtual Bytes
• Instance: STORE
The information gathered from Performance Monitor will give you an
accurate value for the virtual address space that the Store.exe process has
allocated.
! On a server with the /3GB switch set in the Boot.ini file, the value in
Performance Monitor should be below 2.8 GB.
! For a server without the /3GB switch set in the Boot.ini file, the value
should be below 1.8 GB. It is recommended that servers with 1 GB or more
of memory have the /3GB switch added to Boot.ini file.
Important If you see values that are higher than the preceding values for
either configuration, do not increase the size of your maximum store
database cache size. If you see values that are lower for either configuration,
you may be able to increase your maximum store database cache size. For
example, if you have a server configured with the /3GB switch, and the
performance monitor shows the virtual bytes count at 2.5 GB under a heavy
load, you may be able to increase your maximum store database cache size
by ~300 MB, for a total of 1,200 MB.
! On very large mailbox servers, you may need to decrease the default store
database cache size to prevent system instabilities. Unfortunately,
increasing the store database cache size sometimes has a negative effect on
server performance. A larger store database cache means more virtual
address space consumption. Therefore, if your server already lacked
sufficient address space, increasing the store database cache may result in
system instability.
! Set the msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax parameter to an exact multiple
of 8,192 for maximum efficiency. The msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax
parameter controls the store database cache size. Its value is expressed in a
count of pages. These values do not appear by default when you view the
properties of the msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax attribute.
Use the following values as your starting point for adjusting the store
database cache. For example, if you have used the /3GB switch and you
need to increase your store database cache, the value that you enter should
be larger than 229,376 but smaller than 307,200:
• Default size on /3GB servers = 229,376 (896 MB)
• Default size on non /3GB servers = 147,456 (576 MB)
• Recommended maximum = 307,200 (1.2 GB)
• Very large servers lacking sufficient address-space = 196,608 (768 MB)
Note The transaction log replay will be significantly faster if the store database
cache is set to a large size. Consider temporarily increasing the store database
cache size to 307,200 in disaster recovery scenarios.
How to Modify the Size of the Store Database Cache

To modify the store To modify the store database cache size:
database cache
1. Use Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI) Edit to browse to the
following path:
Configuration Container | CN=Information Store,CN=<server>,
CN=Servers,CN=<Admin Group>,CN=Administrative Groups,
CN=<org>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration
2. Right-click the Information Store object, and then click Properties.
3. Select the msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax attribute, adjust the value,
and then click Set.
Note Be careful when setting this value, because it is easy to make a

mistake and set the msExchESEParamCacheSizeMin attribute instead.
4. Close the ADSI Edit tool and then wait for Microsoft Active Directory®
directory service replication to replicate this new value throughout the
forest. The amount of time that this will take depends on your environment.
5. Restart the Information Store service on the server running Exchange
Server 2003.
Practice: Configuring In this practice, you will configure Exchange performance settings.
Exchange performance
settings
Important Because the virtual PCs used in this classroom do not have extra
memory, you will not save your changes when you complete this practice.
! To prepare for this practice

1. In 2400_London-Virtual PC, on the menu, click PC, and then click Shut
Down.
2. In the Shut Down dialog box, click Save PC state and keep changes,
verify that the Commit hard drive changes now check box is selected, and
then click OK.
3. Restart 2400_London-Virtual PC.
! To configure Exchange virtual address space parameters

1. From your desktop, click Start, click Run, type C:\ and then click OK.
2. In Local Disk (C:), on the menu, click Tools, and then click Folder
Options.
3. In the Folder Options dialog box, click View.
4. On the View tab, in the Advanced settings box, clear the Hide protected
operating system files (Recommended) check box, click Yes to
acknowledge the warning, and then click OK.
5. In Local Disk C:\, right-click boot.ini, and then click Open.
6. In boot.ini-Notepad, locate the line
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server
2003, Enterprise" /fastdetect
7. At the end of the line, type /3GB /USERVA=3030 so that the line now
reads multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows
Server 2003, Enterprise" /fastdetect /3GB /USERVA=3030
8. On the menu, click File, click Exit, and then click Yes to save changes.
9. From your desktop, click Start, click Run, type regedit and then click OK.
10. In Registry Editor, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager, and then click Session
Manager.
11. In the details pane, right-click HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold, and
then click Modify.
12. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 40000 and then click OK.
Verify that the value in the details pane appears as 0x00040000 (262144).
13. Close Registry Editor.
! To configure Exchange store database size cache

1. From the desktop, click Start, click Run, type Adsiedit.msc and then click
OK.
2. In ADSI Edit, expand the following containers:
a. Configuration [London.NWTraders.msft]
b. CN=Configuration,DC=NWTraders,DC=msft
c. CN=Services
d. CN=Microsoft Exchange
e. CN=Northwind Traders
f. CN=Administrative Groups
g. CN=First Administrative Group
h. CN=Servers
i. CN=London
j. CN=InformationStore.
3. In the console tree, right-click Information Store, and then click
Properties.
4. In the CN=InformationStore Properties dialog box, in the Attributes box,
click msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax, and then click Edit.
5. In the Integer Attribute Editor dialog box, type 237569 and then click
OK.
6. In the CN=InformationStore Properties dialog box, click OK.
7. Close ADSI Edit.
! To restart the Information Store service

1. From the desktop, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type net stop msexchangeis and then press
ENTER.
3. After the service is stopped, at the command prompt, type net start
msexchangeis and then press ENTER.
Are there any circumstances in which you would want to decrease the
default store database size cache?
On very large mailbox servers, you may need to decrease the
default store database cache size to prevent system instabilities. A
larger store database cache means more virtual address space
consumption. Therefore, if your server already lacked sufficient
address space, decreasing the store database cache may result in
better system stability.
! To prepare for the next module

1. Reject any changes made to your virtual PC during this practice by shutting
down 2400_London-Virtual PC and choosing Turn off PC and undo
changes from the Shut Down list.
2. Restart 2400_London-Virtual PC.
How to Upgrade Server Hardware for Exchange 2003

In some situations, adding components such as storage or additional memory or
processors to your server may not be practical or possible. In these situations
you may need to upgrade your entire server. To upgrade your entire server, you
will install your new server hardware running Exchange 2003 and move
resources from your old server (Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003) to your new
server.
The process The process for upgrading entire servers is as follows:
1. Install Windows 2000 Server, Service Pack 3 or later or the
Windows Server 2003 family on the same server on which you plan to run
Exchange Server 2003.
2. Run ForestPrep to extend the Active Directory schema to include Exchange-
specific information and run DomainPrep to prepare the Windows domain.
This step is required only if this is the first Exchange 2003 server installed.
3. Install Exchange 2003, creating or joining an existing Exchange
organization. The first server in a domain must be installed by a user with
Exchange Full Administrator rights at the organization level. Additional
servers can be installed by a user with Exchange Full Administrator rights at
the administrative group level.
4. Move mailboxes to new Exchange 2003 server. Recommendations are:

• Before performing the move, back up the existing server that the
mailboxes will be moved from and the new server.
• Disable anti-virus software during the movement of mailboxes.
• To prevent permissions problems when moving mailboxes, ensure that
clients are not logged on.
Note Depending on how many mailboxes you are moving, your log files
may experience unusual growth. Monitor transaction logs during the move
to make sure that you do not run out of storage space on the drive where
your transaction logs are located.
5. Use Exchange Tasks in Active Directory Users and Computers to select the
user accounts for the users whose mailboxes you want to move and select
the server running Exchange 2003 and the associated mailbox store to
which you want to move the mailboxes.
6. Test the move mailbox procedure by checking the application and system
event logs for any Exchange-related errors. Also, connect to a mailbox on
the new server to ensure that messages, calendar items, contacts, and to-do
lists have moved properly.
7. Back up the new server running Exchange 2003.
8. Move public folders to the new server running Exchange 2003 by
replicating public folders from the old server and removing replicas. Use
the pfMigrate tool to do this.
9. Move any connectors to the new server. If the old server is acting as a
bridgehead server for any connectors, you must move the connectors to the
new server before you remove the old server.
10. Remove the old server. Uninstall the old server to remove it from the
Exchange organization.
Note For more information about removing the server, see Module 2,
“Configuring and Managing Exchange Server 2003,” in Course 2400,
Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
For additional assistance with the upgrade process, browse to the
Support Tools\ExDeploy folder on the Exchange Server 2003 compact disc,
and review the Microsoft Exchange Server Deployment Tools (ExDeploy) tool.
What Is Microsoft Exchange Public Folder Migration Tool?

Microsoft Exchange Public Folder Migration Tool, called pfMigrate, is a new
tool that you can use to:
! Create public folder replicas on a new server.
! Remove replicas from the source server after public folders have replicated.
! Generate a report before you run the tool to determine how many public
folders need to be replicated.
! Generate the same report after you run the tool to determine whether the
public folders replicated successfully.
Where do I get The pfMigrate tool is in the ExDeploy folder on the Exchange 2003 compact
pfMigrate? disc, under Support Tools. You can run the tool at the command prompt, either
on the Exchange server or from the administrative console.
Guidelines for Optimizing Performance on New Hardware

Guidelines for optimizing performance on new hardware are as follows:
! Understand the proper way to tune hardware:
• Carefully document the changes that you make and monitor your system
after each change. Keep all tuning changes in a master document and
make sure your team is aware of the changes. Be prepared to supply
your tuning document to Microsoft Product Support Services if you need
to call them regarding your servers.
Note Consider using a product such as Microsoft Operations Manager to

monitor your Exchange servers. For more information, see the Microsoft
Operations Manager page of the Microsoft Web site at
www.microsoft.com/mom/.
• Tune your system in stages. If you make many changes all at once and
the performance of your server degrades, you will not know which
change had the negative effect and will have to back out all changes.
• If your server is not exhibiting performance problems, be cautious in
making performance-tuning adjustments.
! Choose appropriate hardware and configure it properly. The hardware that
you choose for your Exchange deployment will have the greatest impact on
the performance that you receive. Choose the best possible hardware
components that you can afford based on the role of your Exchange server.
Also, ensure that all firmware for your hardware is current and up to date.
! Be aware of the latest processor developments and configure processors

appropriately:
• Exchange can fully use multiple processors, but depending on the server
role, you may want to use a different processor configuration. When
possible, choose the fastest processors available in the class of CPU that
you are purchasing. Sometimes, purchasing faster processors is better
than purchasing more processors (such as in the front-end scenario).
• Processor cache can also make a positive difference on performance. A
1 MB L2 cache should yield a 10 percent performance improvement
over a 512 kilobyte (KB cache. Similarly, a 2 MB L2 cache should yield
a 10 percent performance improvements over a 1 MB cache.
! Know how much memory Exchange will use. The Exchange services can use
up to 3 GB of physical memory. After you add operating system
requirements and antivirus, backup, and management software, the total
amount of physical memory that can be used approaches 4 GB. On servers
that are dedicated to Exchange, there is little point in adding more than
4 GB of memory because Exchange will not use it.
! Understand what to do with the network interface. Much of the network
interface subsystem will be tuned automatically. Beyond ensuring that you
have the latest device drivers on the server, there is not much more to do. If
your are implementing a front-end and back-end topology or are backing up
your Exchange servers across the network, consider the following:
• If you plan to configure Internet Protocol security (IPSec) on your
Exchange server, perhaps because of a front-end and back-end server
configuration, you may want to invest in a specialized network card that
can offload IPSec processing from the main CPU.
• For mailbox servers, a full duplex 100 MB/sec network connection is
usually sufficient. But if you plan to back up and restore servers across
the network, consider Gigabit Ethernet.
• Generally, the biggest bottleneck in a front-end/back-end configuration
is the network that separates the two sets of servers. Consider multiple
switched fast Ethernet networks with Gigabit Ethernet connections.
Note For more detailed information about network performance in front-

end/back-end configurations, search for the technical paper Microsoft
Exchange 2000 Server Front-End and Back-End Topology on the TechNet
page of the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/.
! Understand what to do with the disk subsystem. In general, you should

purchase the fastest disks available. The faster the spin rate, the more I/O’s
the disk will support. The number of physical disk spindles that you need
for each server running Exchange usually depends on the role and number
of users that the servers host. As disks become larger, you may be tempted
to purchase fewer larger disks to accommodate user data, but this may not
give you the best performance for your user load. You must choose enough
physical disk spindles to accommodate performance and to meet your
storage needs.
! Understand store and ESE tuning. Exchange 2003 supports up to 25

databases per server; the total storage space is made up of a maximum of
four production storage groups with five databases per storage group and a
Restore Storage Group that can accommodate up to five databases for
recovery purposes. When possible, fill out your storage groups to the
maximum number of databases before you create a new group. This reduces
memory consumption and disk overhead. But you must make a few
tradeoffs:
• Circular logging can be controlled only at the storage group level.
Circular logging should never be enabled on production mailbox
databases, but it must be considered for Network News Transfer
Protocol (NNTP) folders and if you are performing large numbers of
mailbox moves.
• If one database in the group goes offline because of an error, the other
databases in that group temporarily go offline and then reconnect. This
scenario does not apply to out-of-disk-space errors.
• Only one backup or restore process can take place in a single storage
group at any one time.
• Backing up one database in a storage group halts the online maintenance
of all other databases in the storage group.
• If possible, online maintenance should be staggered so that only one
storage group is going through online maintenance at a time.
• While log files for separate storage groups should never share a single
drive, separate databases in a storage group can. Data access in log files
is basically sequential when the server is busy, so sharing the drive
makes the seek times much greater. However, database access is rarely
sequential, so sharing database drives has a much smaller impact.
Usually, the most efficient solution uses a combination of storage groups
and databases. For example, a server that has two storage groups with three
databases in each storage group will provide a good balance between
performance, resource consumption, and manageability. If recoverability is
your primary focus, consider using three storage groups with two databases
in each storage group. This configuration will provide you with a smaller
recovery window by allowing you to perform restores of databases in all
three storage groups at the same time. You should create and populate a
fourth storage group only on the largest of servers.
Discussion: Managing Data Storage and Hardware

Resources

Instructions Read the following scenarios and discuss possible solutions with the class.
Scenario 1 You are the administrator for Northwind Traders, and you have just installed a
new server running Exchange Server 2003. When the server was first installed,
you performed a full online backup. To make sure that you can restore your
server if it fails, you have performed incremental backups every night since you
installed the server. Your server has been running for one month and you are
now getting out-of-disk-space warnings in your event log. What should you do?
Because you have only been performing incremental backups, the
transaction log files have not been purged since installation. Performing a
full online backup will purge the transaction log files and reclaim the disk
space that had been occupied by those logs.
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Scenario 2 When you migrated your users to Exchange Server 2003, you calculated
mailbox store storage requirements by multiplying the number of mailboxes on
the server by the size of the mailboxes in your former messaging system. You
notice that the average size of the mailboxes on the Exchange Server 2003 is
growing at a tremendous rate, and you are concerned about running out of disk
space. What should you do?
To control the current growth situation, you should establish a policy that
encourages users to clean out their own mailboxes. This policy should be in
two parts: an actual storage limit on their mailbox that, when exceeded,
causes the user to lose functionality, and a mailbox management routine in
which you configure Exchange to systematically delete particular messages
from user mailboxes (for example, deleted items that are more than one
year old). The policy should be communicated to all users so that no
surprises occur.
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Scenario 3 The performance of your server running Exchange Server 2003 has been
degrading slowly for several months. You received approval to add additional
memory to the server so that the server now has 4 GB of memory, but the
performance of the server does not appear to be improving. What else must you
do to improve your performance?
For your server running Exchange to use more than 1 GB of memory, you
must edit the Boot.ini file on the server and add the /3GB switch. If your
server is also running on a member of the Windows Server 2003 family,
you should include the /USERVA=3030 switch. After you make these
changes, you must restart your server.
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Module 11: Managing

Data Storage and

 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Important It is recommended that you use PowerPoint 2002 or later to display

Preparation tasks To prepare for this module:

How to Teach This Module

The three lessons in this module map to these tasks.

Lesson: Managing Data Storage

Lesson: Managing Disk Space

Therefore, writes are twice as expensive with RAID-5 as with RAID-0+1.

Lesson: Managing Hardware Upgrades

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Lesson: Managing Data Storage

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Multimedia: How and Where Exchange Stores Data

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Naming Conventions for Stores and Storage Groups

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Guidelines for Deleting Stores and Storage Groups

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! Guidelines for deleting a storage group:

How to Delete Stores and Storage Groups

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Important In the classroom environment, if you practice this procedure on your

To delete a mailbox or To delete a mailbox or public folder store:

To delete a storage To delete a storage group:

What Is Circular Logging?

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Important Do not use circular logging in an environment where data recovery

! To prepare for this practice

! To enable circular logging on a storage group:

Should you enable circular logging on a mailbox store? Why or why

How to Move Stores, Mount and Dismount Stores, and Move

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Caution To move transaction files successfully, you must use Exchange

Why Implement Mailbox Limits?

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Lesson: Managing Disk Space

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Where Exchange Stores Client Resources

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Storage Technologies That Exchange Can Use

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Note If you decide to implement a network-attached storage solution in your

! Storage area networks allow you to expand your Exchange organization by

Guidelines and Recommendations for the Hard Disk Configuration

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How to Choose the Best RAID Levels for Your Environment

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How to Add Disk Space to an Exchange Server

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Considerations for Calculating Storage Space

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Lesson: Managing Hardware Upgrades

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What Is Virtual Address Space?

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Guidelines for Adjusting Virtual Address Space Parameters

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Note The /3GB tuning switch is supported in all editions of

Note The /USERVA switch is supported in all editions of

How to Maximize Virtual Address Space

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Note For more information about memory fragmentation in Exchange 2003,

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