Adding a second Exchange server 1

[arnaudvdv]

Hi everybodey,

We are running an Exchange server 5.5. The Information Store has almost reached 16 GB and will be failing in a few weeks or so. Now i want to add a second exchangeserver 5.5 to our site and move some of the mailboxes the another server. Is it possible to have mail delivered to one server and if the mailbox is not present on that server have it sent to the second Exchange server? And if so does anybody have a description on how to do that? Any other ideas on how to solve the 16GB problem?

TIA, Arnaud

 

[zbnet]

Exchange will automatically route the mail to the correct server for the mailbox when you have a multiserver site - you don't even need to think about it; just make sure your MTA service is running.

Other solutions to solve the 16GB problem? Simple - upgrade to Exchange 2003

 

[arnaudvdv]

Thx zbnet for responding so quickly. U mean that if I setup a second server and have the MTA running it will automatically detect the other server? I dont have to setup replication or anything (not for mailboxes of course)? Or point one server to the other?

TIA, Arnaud

 

[zbnet]

No, not exactly - the only way to add a server to an existing site is to point it at an existing server (the reference server) in the site as part of the install - the new server hoovers the directory off the reference server, and then joins the party so that all servers in the site know about all others. Message routing and directory replication intrasite are part of the 'black box' of Exchange 5.5, you don't have to set them up and you have no control over them, they just happen.

 

[arnaudvdv]

ah...as part of the install..great, thx for helping me out.

 

[Griffyn]

This is one of the better aspects of Exchange. When you use the Move Mailbox feature in the Exchange Administrator to shift some mailboxes to the new server, you don't ever need to update the client's setup (at least with Outlook you don't) - they automatically find their mailbox on the correct server.

Don't forget that the Enterprise edition of Exchange 5.5 doesn't have the 16GB limit for the private information store.

 

[zbnet]

That's true - faq10-6004 mentions this.

 

[sybak]

Hi,

I got a similiar situation which I need to setup one Exchange 5.5 server to handle internet mail with some mailboxes (abc@company.com). However, the tricky part is I got a fax server using a SMTP listener to catch emails from the Exchange server and fax out emails (18881234567@company.com). Can I setup the Exchange server to route any email that has no mailbox to the fax server?

Thanks in advanced.

Matt

 

[Griffyn]

How is the fax server accessing the e-mail address. Presumably it's doing via POP3, which means you can set up a mailbox on the exchange server with the 1888123467@company.com e-mail address, set up the POP3 Protocol for that mailbox to ensure POP3 is enabled, and then configure the fax server to access your exchange box as it's mail server.

 

[sybak]

Thanks for the suggestion. However, the fax server software use its own SMTP "server" to send and receive email. That's why I have to route email to it. I can setup Exchange server to route all emails with *company.com to the fax server, but that'll send all the existing mailboxes (abc@company.com) emails to the fax server as well. And the fax server will just discard any improper formatted emails.

Thank you.

 

[Griffyn]

What's the fax server software called? Maybe I can dig up some info on it. It makes no sense at all for a fax server to have it's own SMTP server.

Does the fax server have to have e-mails matching something@company.com? Can't you tell it to only look for e-mails similar to 238472347@fax.com? That way you can have Exchange route any e-mails for faxit.com to your fax server.

 

[sybak]

The software called Faxcore. Actually, it doesn't have a SMTP server by itself. Just it works with Exchange server by sending and receiving any SMTP traffic with Exchange server.

I can route the whole domain to the fax server and it'll work. However, I want to have a setup of company email (mail@company.com) and fax email (1888234567@company.com) under the same domain. I want Exchange server to pass on any email doesn't have a mailbox to the fax server.

Will I be able to use MTA to make this work?

 

[Griffyn]

As far as I know, this is not possible. An Exchange server knows every e-mail address in the entire Exchange Organization, so it makes no sense for it to have the ability to see an e-mail address for a domain it's supposed to handle and say to itself "I don't know this e-mail address that I should know, so I'll forward it to a server that might".

I've had a look at the Faxcore online help and can see how it works, and you're right - it's a passive listener, which means all the routing work must be done by Exchange.

You can easily configure the Internet Mail Service to handle forwarding e-mails destined for a particular domain to your Faxcore server. I can't see any way to do what you want, and I recommend you change your mind and put all the faxcore e-mails on a different domain, ie. 1283478557@company.fax

 

[sybak]

Thank you for the suggestion. In fact, using a different domain is one of my options.

I'm considering to use a subdomain for normal emails (abc@mail.company.com) and root domain for faxing(1888234567@company.com). Is this possible? I presume setting up two IMSs: one with address *company.com and another one with *mail.company.com. For the *company.com IMS, all emails will be routed to the fax server. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Griffyn]

You don't need two Internet Mail Services. One can handle routing to any number of domains. Have a look under the Connections tab of the IMS, and click the E-Mail Domain button.