Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for Exchange 2010 server

Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for Exchange 2010 server

1. For Exchange 2010 Database, it is recommended that the size of elements within a RAID stripe be set 512K for best performance.

2. Windows NTFS allocation unit size for Exchange 2010 database partitions should be set to 64K for best performance. For log partitions, if separated from database, the default allocation unit size should be used.

3. To see current settings run the following command, check bytes per cluster

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter>


4. How to format a new disk:
 
Make sure your RAID stripe is 512K
 
and run this command on command prompt
 
Diskpart
list disk
select disk
create partition primary align=1024
assign letter=
format fs=ntfs unit=64K label="" nowait
 
Example:
 
C:\>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: ASPIRINGGEEK
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn GPT
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 186 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 100 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 120 GB 0 B
Disk 3 Online 150 GB 150 GB
DISKPART> select disk 3
Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> create partition primary align=1024
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> assign letter=F
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs unit=64K label="MyFastDisk" nowait
 
References:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd758814(SQL.100).aspx
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/security/Dell_PV_MD1200_7200_Mailbox_Resiliency_Exchange_2010_Storage_Solution.pdf
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee832792.aspx

Blackberry Server 5 and Exchange MAPI CDO, and Windows 2008 Domain controller

It has beed nothing but fun after I upgraded BES 4 to 5.
Most painful problems are :
besadmin keeps loosing connections to exchange server.
After BES 5.0 SP1 gets installed, I could not login to BES admin web site.

I opened a ticket with RIM and spent almost a month with them hoping they could figure them out and finally I figured out and fix them by myself.
I like to share how I fixed it so you don't have to spend a month with useless RIM support.

First check your MAPI CDO's version if it is either 6.5.8147 or 6.5.8153, you need the newest MAPI CDO. Those MAPI CDO has unexpected crash problems. Check this website for more information: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stephen_griffin/archive/2010/04/29/updated-mapi-download-fixed-crashes.aspx

and if you upgraded domain controllers to Windows 2008 servers, GC will refust many connections from the BES and resutling slow email delivery and many pending messages on BES.

This is part of the error on BES :  {0x4EC} CDO initializing failure in CDO helper
The information store could not be opened. [MAPI 1.0 - [MAPI_E_LOGON_FAILED(80040111)]]


To fix this issue, take a look at this M$ KB2019948

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2019948

Windows Server 2008 GC’s have a limitation of 50 concurrent NSPI connections per user.
Applications such as Outlook 2007, Blackberry Enterprise Server, or any application that will create multiple NSPI connections to a DC/GC can experience these symptoms.
 


-To fix login failure issue after BES 5 SP1 gets installed


See RIM KB20406

Here is the SQL script to fix the particular issue, run it against BES 5 BESMGMT database

update dbo.BASTraits
set value = null
where traitid=0 and pluginid=111

How to get copy of NDR sent to your email address

On EMS run this command

Set-OrganizationConfig -MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient


Set-TransportConfig -GenerateCopyOfDsnFor

For example

Set-OrganizationConfig -MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient xyz@abc.om

Set-TransportConfig -GenerateCopyOfDsnFor 5.1.1,5.7.1,5.7.2,5.7.3

For more information about DSN messages: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/exchange2007/exchange2007_ndr.htm