Essential Guides

Exchange systems have become mission-critical systems. It's no wonder, as users are so focused on e-mail and communications in general. But, as a system administrator, it's your responsibility to make sure they're always up and running and if they're not, well, don't worry, you'll be the first to know. And then, you'll have to rebuild or repair the system while everyone is waiting to get to their e-mail.

In this guide, you'll discover how to make Exchange downtime a thing of the past and turn it into nothing more than a bad memory.

By Nelson Ruest & Danielle Ruest
Published by Redmond Magazine, December 2006

Organizations today are relying more and more on Web services for the implementation of mission-critical applications. With the advent of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), which make extensive use of the core Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the Web server from the past has moved into a vital role in the IT infrastructure.

In this article the authors guide you, step-by-step, through designing high availability for IIS, topics covered include:

If your organization wants to rely on database systems to operate, then they need to support you in the implementation of protection systems for the databases you manage. Using a combination of proper system understanding, service protection through built-in, high-availability services and data replication systems ensures the highest level of assurance.

Topics include:

• Windows Clustering Services (XOsoft extend MSCS protection to off-site replicas)
• Database mirroring
• Log Shipping
• Basic and WAN Replication
• Database Snapshots

(pdf, 2.9 MB)

By Nelson Ruest and Danielle Ruest
Published in Redmond Magazine, October 2006

A Report by Resolutions Enterprises

Our guide outlines these three steps as a way for you to ensure that both your Microsoft Exchange Servers and your BlackBerry systems are always up.

Step 1: Know your Exchange/BlackBerryArchitecture
Step 2: Use Traditional High Availability Measures
Step 3: Protect your Systems with Replication Technology

(pdf, 1.7 MB)

By Nelson Ruest & Danielle Ruest
Published by Redmond Magazine, Sept 2006

It doesn't matter how good your disaster recovery procedures and processes are if you don't test them. This stance may seem extreme, but disaster recovery is so important that the key metric is simple: either your procedures work as intended, or they don't. Finding out how well your processes work to restore your data, and continue your operations, is something you need to do before you need them.

By Paul Robichaux, Exchange MVP
Published in WindowsITPro, The Essential Guide, February 2006

Plenty of administrators have already implemented the basic measures of backup and recovery and shared storage, and they've either implemented clustering or rejected it as inappropriate in their environment. But none of the strategies I've described so far are sufficient by themselves to protect against large-scale problems such as hurricanes, terrorist attacks, or sustained local power outages. Those technologies all suffer from a common weakness: physical proximity. So the natural question is: What next? What more can you do to protect against major interruptions or outages?

By Paul Robichaux, Exchange MVP
Published in WindowsITPro, The Essential Guide, October 2005

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