Datasheet
15
Evaluating and Planning Server
Deployment Based on Best Practices,
Budget, and Other Business Factors
This section will look at what is required to make up a good server deployment plan. Busi-
ness factors and budget are discussed here, as are best practices. The discussion should
provide you with a good understanding of when to place a server at a specific location and
when not to.
Planning Exchange Server 2007 Placement
In this section you will learn how to plan the placement of Exchange Server 2007. Deciding
where to put a Mailbox server is one of the most critical planning aspects of the Exchange
design. Thus it’s important to analyze what’s available today before stepping down into the
different areas that you need to consider in your design.
Analyze What You Have Today!
Understanding what is currently implemented in terms of messaging and Active Directory is
an important starting point. You should investigate any area of importance that might have
influence in creating your Exchange design.
Active Directory Site Topology
As a first step in planning where to deploy servers, you always should have a solid under-
standing of your Active Directory site topology. This is especially important in medium-to-
large organizations, where the site topology can get geographically or politically dispersed
and complicated.
A good practice is to collect all information and to document it so you can review
it with your Active Directory team. Consider collecting the following items for your
documentation:
Sites and their subnet associations
Subnets that have overlapping site associations or do not belong to any site
IP site links and member sites
IP site link costs
Domain controllers in each site (including which domain controllers are global cata-
log servers)
Assessing this material will give you a solid understanding of you network and where you
could place Exchange servers.
Evaluating and Planning Server Deployment Based on Best Practices, Budget, and...
81461.book Page 15 Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:49 PM