Recipient Update Service question

We are installing Windows Server 2003 Ent. and Exchange 2003 Ent. in a F/E -
B/E environment. We have one AD Forest and two domain trees
(sales.mydomain.com and marketing.mydomain.com). sales.mydomain.com is the
root AD domain. We want the sales dept. to have an email address like
(E-Mail Removed) while the marketing dept. will have an email
address like (E-Mail Removed).

We installed four (4) Exchange 2003 ent. backend servers in the
sales.mydomain.com domain. We then installed three (3) Exchange 2003 ent.
frontend servers in the marketing.mydomain.com domain. Our thinking was all
the backend databases would be in the primary AD domain while the OWA F/E
servers would be in the domain of the first set of users in the
marketing.mydomain.com domain.

Our plan then was to add another two node (backend) cluster for the
sales.mydomain.com domain and another two node F/E (NLB) cluster to provide
OWA access for the users in the sales.mydomain.com domain. All of these
servers would be added to the sales.mydomain.com AD domain.
Sales.mydomain.com as about 3000 users and marketing.mydomain.com has about
17,000 users.

We started with the 17,000 user marketing.mydomain.com domain. We installed
Windows 2003 ent. on the four backend nodes and joined them to the
*sales.mydomain.com* domain. We then configured the cluster. We then
installed Exchange 2003 ent. on each backend node. The *Recipient Update
Service* for *sales.mydomain.com* is now running on node 1 for the
*marketing.mydomain.com* cluster.

We then installed Windows 2003 ent on the three *marketing.mydomain.com* F/E
nodes and joined them to the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain. We then
installed Exchange 2003 ent. on them. The first F/E node now has the
*Recipient Update Service* for the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain.

We don't want the F/E servers doing this job. My question is can we move
this function to one of the backend nodes? Any white papers on doing this?

I know this post was a little long, but thanks for any input.


Clayton

You seem to be doing a lot of work that you might not need to be doing.

First, it really doesn't matter too much where the FE and BE servers are
located. The big issues are that they have high speed connectivity to
multiple GCs in their domain. And there is no need from Exchange's point of
view to put one set of users on one server and the other set on the other
server. The FEs can also serve for both sets of users.

As far as the RUS, not really a big deal as to where they are located,
unless you have a tendency to add a large number of users at once. Otherwise
it is sitting idle most of the time. Just need to make sure that you don't
remove the server that it is running on.

As to the email address, two Recipient Policies is what you need to do, one
for each set of users. I'd suspect that you could use the domain membership
as LDAP query for creating the right addresses.



"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> We are installing Windows Server 2003 Ent. and Exchange 2003 Ent. in a
> F/E - B/E environment. We have one AD Forest and two domain trees
> (sales.mydomain.com and marketing.mydomain.com). sales.mydomain.com is
> the root AD domain. We want the sales dept. to have an email address like
> (E-Mail Removed) while the marketing dept. will have an email
> address like (E-Mail Removed).
>
> We installed four (4) Exchange 2003 ent. backend servers in the
> sales.mydomain.com domain. We then installed three (3) Exchange 2003 ent.
> frontend servers in the marketing.mydomain.com domain. Our thinking was
> all the backend databases would be in the primary AD domain while the OWA
> F/E servers would be in the domain of the first set of users in the
> marketing.mydomain.com domain.
>
> Our plan then was to add another two node (backend) cluster for the
> sales.mydomain.com domain and another two node F/E (NLB) cluster to
> provide OWA access for the users in the sales.mydomain.com domain. All of
> these servers would be added to the sales.mydomain.com AD domain.
> Sales.mydomain.com as about 3000 users and marketing.mydomain.com has
> about 17,000 users.
>
> We started with the 17,000 user marketing.mydomain.com domain. We
> installed Windows 2003 ent. on the four backend nodes and joined them to
> the *sales.mydomain.com* domain. We then configured the cluster. We then
> installed Exchange 2003 ent. on each backend node. The *Recipient Update
> Service* for *sales.mydomain.com* is now running on node 1 for the
> *marketing.mydomain.com* cluster.
>
> We then installed Windows 2003 ent on the three *marketing.mydomain.com*
> F/E nodes and joined them to the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain. We then
> installed Exchange 2003 ent. on them. The first F/E node now has the
> *Recipient Update Service* for the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain.
>
> We don't want the F/E servers doing this job. My question is can we move
> this function to one of the backend nodes? Any white papers on doing
> this?
>
> I know this post was a little long, but thanks for any input.
>
>
> Clayton
>

Thank you Ed for taking the time to read my *long* post. This is the
environment that I walked into with this new job. However, I was thinking
that they didn't need to do all of this too. They (we) are setting up two
cluseters (one for each domain) and I just didn't think that they had to do
it that way. However, it's not for me to say. You see, they already spec'd
out and bought all the hardware before I got hired. Oh well, what can I
say?


Clayton



"Ed Woodrick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> You seem to be doing a lot of work that you might not need to be doing.
>
> First, it really doesn't matter too much where the FE and BE servers are
> located. The big issues are that they have high speed connectivity to
> multiple GCs in their domain. And there is no need from Exchange's point
> of view to put one set of users on one server and the other set on the
> other server. The FEs can also serve for both sets of users.
>
> As far as the RUS, not really a big deal as to where they are located,
> unless you have a tendency to add a large number of users at once.
> Otherwise it is sitting idle most of the time. Just need to make sure that
> you don't remove the server that it is running on.
>
> As to the email address, two Recipient Policies is what you need to do,
> one for each set of users. I'd suspect that you could use the domain
> membership as LDAP query for creating the right addresses.
>
>
>
> "Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> We are installing Windows Server 2003 Ent. and Exchange 2003 Ent. in a
>> F/E - B/E environment. We have one AD Forest and two domain trees
>> (sales.mydomain.com and marketing.mydomain.com). sales.mydomain.com is
>> the root AD domain. We want the sales dept. to have an email address
>> like (E-Mail Removed) while the marketing dept. will have an
>> email address like (E-Mail Removed).
>>
>> We installed four (4) Exchange 2003 ent. backend servers in the
>> sales.mydomain.com domain. We then installed three (3) Exchange 2003
>> ent. frontend servers in the marketing.mydomain.com domain. Our thinking
>> was all the backend databases would be in the primary AD domain while the
>> OWA F/E servers would be in the domain of the first set of users in the
>> marketing.mydomain.com domain.
>>
>> Our plan then was to add another two node (backend) cluster for the
>> sales.mydomain.com domain and another two node F/E (NLB) cluster to
>> provide OWA access for the users in the sales.mydomain.com domain. All
>> of these servers would be added to the sales.mydomain.com AD domain.
>> Sales.mydomain.com as about 3000 users and marketing.mydomain.com has
>> about 17,000 users.
>>
>> We started with the 17,000 user marketing.mydomain.com domain. We
>> installed Windows 2003 ent. on the four backend nodes and joined them to
>> the *sales.mydomain.com* domain. We then configured the cluster. We
>> then installed Exchange 2003 ent. on each backend node. The *Recipient
>> Update Service* for *sales.mydomain.com* is now running on node 1 for the
>> *marketing.mydomain.com* cluster.
>>
>> We then installed Windows 2003 ent on the three *marketing.mydomain.com*
>> F/E nodes and joined them to the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain. We
>> then installed Exchange 2003 ent. on them. The first F/E node now has
>> the *Recipient Update Service* for the *marketing.mydomain.com* domain.
>>
>> We don't want the F/E servers doing this job. My question is can we move
>> this function to one of the backend nodes? Any white papers on doing
>> this?
>>
>> I know this post was a little long, but thanks for any input.
>>
>>
>> Clayton
>>
>
>

"Clayton Sutton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you Ed for taking the time to read my *long* post. This is the
> environment that I walked into with this new job. However, I was thinking
> that they didn't need to do all of this too. They (we) are setting up two
> cluseters (one for each domain) and I just didn't think that they had to
> do it that way. However, it's not for me to say. You see, they already
> spec'd out and bought all the hardware before I got hired. Oh well, what
> can I say?

You can say, "Gee boss, this plan doesn't make much sense to me. I think
there is a much better way to do this that will be much less expensive to
the company over time and will provide the performance that we need."