One Exchange Server with Two IronPorts

[f24564261]

Hi all, my company is buying a new IronPort C-Series box and also a Management box. We already have a C-Series box working with an Exchange server. I am planning how to put them inside my network, and my suggestion is:

-LEGEND-

IronPortA = Old IronPort (C-Series) box (existing today)

IronPortB = New IronPort (C-Series) box (the one my company is buying)

M-Box = New Management (M-Series) box (the one my company is buying as well)

-STEPS-

1) Install IronPortB and Install the M-Box.

2) Make a cluster using IronPortA and IronPortB using the new M-Box. (So, boxes will share same settings and policies)

3) Create a new MX Record in my DNS for the new IronPortB.

4) Confirm that exists a SMTP Route in IronPortB poiting to the same address as the IronPortA. That is my one and only Exchange Server in the network.

So...i will have two clustered IronPorts, with a MX Record load-balancing, sending to the same Exchange Server.

Is this approach ok? I've seen that in some documentations and i want to use it. So,the questions are:

A) Are there another settings than "SMTP Route" that is necessary to configure in IronPortB?

B) Is there any special setting to do in Exchange Server to support this solution?

Please, this is very critical and any help will be very welcome.

Thanks all.

[Rehan Latif · Accepted solution]

Hi Mauro,

Your understanding and steps are correct. The only thing you need to take care is that you must have "Centralized Management" feature keys on both IronPortA and IronPortB in order to use clustering feature.

Once you join them in cluster, IronPortB will have identical configuration to IronPortA. This also means, nothing needs to be added to SMTP Routes after joing the cluster.

There is nothing required on the Exchange side. However, if you are planning to use both ESAs for outbound, you can add IronPortB's IP address to the Exchange as smart host.

Hope thi will help.

Regards,

Rehan

[f24564261]

Rehan,

thanks a lot for the answer buddy. I know this is not a MS Forum, but, could you answer me a last question?

I want to make IronPortB like a replica of IronPortA. So, i will use for outbound too.

This advice about the necessity of creating a new smarthost in Exchange to my IronPortB IP address was very important. But, lets supose that my IronPortB goes down, ok?? So, my Exchange server will understand that IronPortB is out and stop sending messages to it? And, of course, start to only send messages to the IronPortA?

My concern is: in a crash situation, do i have the possibility to get my Exchange server sending messages to a "crashed and out" IronPort box, and therefore, losing them all??

Thanks again.

[Rehan Latif]

Hi Mauro,

I am not an expert of MS Exchange and connot verify if we can do both Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance on single Exchange server. However, I have tried to search the net and have found few discussions advising that adding second smart host in same send connector will add Load Balancing only. If one of the IronPort is not reachable, Exchange will still queue the messages for that.

I cannot comment on authencity of above information and therefore, I recommend to check the Exchange documentation.

I hope this will help.

Regards,

Rehan

[f24564261]

Ok. Thanks a lot for your help, my friend.

Best Regards,