Designing a High Availability Messaging Solution using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

You are viewing a Preliminary Course Syllabus. This course is not yet available. Because some parts of the course are currently in development, some elements of this syllabus are subject to change.

 

This 2-day course teaches messaging engineers to design a high availability messaging solution using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Students will create a high availability design to meet service level agreement requirements and learn strategies for gaining approval for the design. They will learn how to identify risks and create mitigation plans to maintain the business continuity of the messaging system. Students will also learn how to design a backup strategy, disaster recovery procedures, and test plans for those procedures.

 

This course is intended for people with 3 or more years experience working with previous versions of Exchange Server and experience implementing Exchange Server 2007. Most students will have managed enterprise-level Exchange Server organizations. Students are expected to be new to participating in designing high availability solutions for Exchange Server 2007 or be planning to design high availability solutions for Exchange Server 2007 in the near future. Students may have done some design for Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 deployments but want to learn how to design Exchange Server 2007 environments. Students may have experience in designing and managing high availability solutions for other network services.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

 

• Describe foundational high availability concepts for messaging.

• Evaluate high availability messaging technologies for Exchange Server 2007

• Create a high availability messaging strategy.

• Design the messaging portion of a business continuity plan.

• Design backup for a high availability messaging environment.

• Ensure recovery readiness of a high availability messaging environment.

• Must have a basic understanding of high availability concepts. For example, how clustering works at the operating system level (Windows clustering) and how network load balancing works.

• Must have a basic familiarity with deriving business requirements. For example, gathering business requirements and understanding that business needs come from a variety of sources (direct personnel needs, regulatory, business operations requirements).

• Must have a basic understanding of backup systems. For example, types of backups (disk to tape, disk to disk, Storage Area Networks (SAN) snapshot, imaging, etc.), backup rotation schemes, and offsite backup procedures.

• Must already know how to use:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management tools

• Exchange Best Practice Analyzer (ExBPA)

• WinNT backup (ntbackup.exe)

Module 1: Foundational High Availability Concepts for Messaging

 

• Introduction to Service Level Management

• Overview of High Availability Technologies

 

Module 2: Evaluating High Availability Technologies for Exchange Server 2007

 

• Evaluating High Availability Options for Mailbox Servers

• Evaluating High Availability Options for Non-Mailbox Servers

 

Module 3: Creating a High Availability Messaging Strategy

 

• Designing a High Availability Strategy for Mailbox Servers

• Designing a High Availability Solution for Non-Mailbox Servers

 

Module 4: Designing the Messaging Portion of a Business Continuity Plan

 

• Overview of Business Continuity Planning

• Identifying Threats to the Messaging Organization

• Mitigating Threats to the Messaging Organization

• Designing the Business Continuity Plan

 

Module 5: Designing Backup for a High Availability Messaging Environment

 

• Identifying Backup Requirements

• Designing Backup Procedures

 

Module 6: Ensuring Recovery Readiness of a High Availability Messaging Environment

 

• Designing Recovery Strategies

• Evaluating Disaster Recovery Readiness