Database Assignment: ITT Virtual Database

IT260
ITT Virtual Library Assignment
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Kolin Bulmer
ITT Technical Institute, Las Vegas

Active Directory Requirements
Here 's what your Windows environment must look like to install Exchange Server 2007:
An available Active Directory forest running a domain functional level of at least Windows 2000 Server native. The Schema Master role must be running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). As already required by the presence of Active Directory you need to have Domain Name Service (DNS) installed and configured properly.
At least one global catalog server running at least Windows Server 2003 SP1 in each Active Directory site on which you plan on running Exchange 2007.
If an Exchange organization already
exists, there cannot be any Exchange 5.5 servers, and the organization must be running in either Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 native mode.
Server Requirements (Cavalancia, 2008)
If your Active Directory environment is aligned with these requirements, your Exchange server must meet the following minimums: x64 Intel Xeon or Pentium processor supporting the Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Itanium IA64 processors are not supported by Windows Server 2003). x64 AMD processor supporting the AMD64 platform.
A 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 running with at least Service Pack 1, with New Technology File System (NTFS) as the file system on both the operating system partition and all partitions containing Exchange binaries, databases, transaction logs, etc.
A minimum of 1 gigabyte (GB) of random access memory (RAM) for the operating system, plus 7 megabytes (MB) per mailbox you plan on hosting. Microsoft recommends 2 GB of RAM and 10 MB per mailbox.
A minimum of 200 MB of available disk space on the system partition.
A minimum of 1.2 GB of available disk space on the partition where you will install Exchange.
An additional 500 MB of available disk space per unified messaging language pack you plan on installing.
A DVD drive (which can be located either locally on the Exchange server or on a remote computer).
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
Windows PowerShell.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0.

Tip
Microsoft ships Exchange 2007 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
However, only the 64-bit version of Exchange running on a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 is supported by Microsoft in production environments.
Normally, at this point in the chapter, you 'd expect to see some silly minimum requirement, like a Pentium 500 MHz with 512 MB or RAM (not even your kids are running a computer that slow!), at which point, I would write a few paragraphs on what the really real minimums are. In this case, Microsoft is taking a bold move forward and making the basic requirement to install Exchange 2007 be that you are running state-of-the-art hardware. The move to recommend 64-bit hardware for Exchange and Active Directory is to increase the performance of both in larger environments. Table 2-1 lists the processor and memory requirements recommended by Microsoft.

Backup of Exchange Server
Exchange 2007 server, there are always two copies of each change to the database: the change written to the page (or series of pages) in RAM, and the log record of those changes in the transaction logs. If the information is lost in RAM, if it has been written to a transaction log, it can be recovered and written to the database. This graph shows the types of backups and its effects on the files/transaction logs.

Type
Copies
Database?
Copies Log?
Purges Logs?
Explanation
Full (Normal)
Yes
Yes
Yes
First copies the logs to disk and then purges the logs that are not needed. Backup marker is set on all files backed up.
Incremental
No
Yes
Yes
Backs up log files prior to the checkpoint log file and then deletes them. To restore the database, you 'll need the last full backup, plus all the subsequent incremental backups.
Differential
No
Yes
No
Backs up log files prior to the checkpoint log file but does not delete them.
To restore the database, you 'll need the last full backup and the most recent differential backup. This is the fastest restore process.
Offline
Yes
N/A
N/A
Offline backups mean that the store process has been shut down prior to backing up the database. This means that all the transaction logs have been flushed to the database and that the database is in a consistent state. Therefore, offline backups are always full backups, because the database must be shut down first. No additional transaction log files are needed to complete a restore of an offline backup. Offline backups require manual selection of the database during the backup process.
Copy
Maybe
Maybe
No
Copy backs up any files that have changed since the last full backup. You must specify which files should be copied. In most scenarios, the copy backup will copy the new transaction logs and the databases, since they will have most likely changed since the last full backup. However, if there are no changes, these files will not be backed up. You can manually select which files should be included in a copy backup, and we suggest that you use the copy backup to copy the transaction logs but not the
databases. (Cavalancia, 2008)

References
Cavalancia, Nick. (© 2008). Microsoft exchange server 2007: a beginner’s guide. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.proxy.itt-tech.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=22159.
McBee, Jim. ( © 2009). Mastering microsoft exchange server 2007 sp1. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.proxy.itt-tech.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=29802.
Redmond, Tony. ( © 2008). Microsoft exchange server 2007 with sp1: tony redmond 's guide to successful implementation. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.proxy.itt-tech.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=32312.