Not sure I know enough about your environment to speak definitively to your scenario, though I've seen similar things done with great success. I will however offer this bit of advice, more GCs = Good. With 2 GCs for Exchange, failure of 1 puts entirely too much stress on the remaining server for 5k users. Although performance is supposed to be improved for GC queries in W2K3, I have no hard numbers to draw from and like to reduce SPOFs (Single Points of Failure) so I'd still suggest more than 2.
Sounds like a fun project though! -----Original Message----- From: Finch Brett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted At: Thursday, June 05, 2003 10:47 AM Posted To: swynk Conversation: Real world experience Subject: Real world experience I will spare the gory 'political' details as we are in the midst of trying to consolidate 35 '5.5' Exchange servers in 35 domains to as little servers as possible. We're looking at an Exchange 2K3 rollout and probably a hybrid AD using MS's meta directory (maybe). The real question is I am looking for real world experience with something similar to what we are going to from a Exchange 2K shop. Essentially we'll be looking at 5,000 users (.5 GB per mailbox) to start with another 5,000 in phase 2 and 5,000 more in phase 3. With a new 2K3 AD, we'll probably consider at least 2 DC's and one dedicated server for OWA. The main mail servers and storage is really the number cruncher. It's looking like a 3 server cluster and external storage (AV also has to be factored). All client stations will be on at least 10 if not 100 switched lines, GB speed on the WAN backbone. I have gone to Dell and other places to run the traditional load 'configuration wizard' and I have always preferred to error on the side of you can never have too much power. I would like to hear from people using SAN's or the like to account for TB size storage and backup. How close was the configuration load wizards to what you really required. Thanks _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&; lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
