What are the requirements for a File Share Witness Server ?   

I upgraded to a new Exchange 2007 Enterprise server at the main office. Now
my CIO wants me to setup a another Excahnge 2007 Enterprise Server at a COLO
as a cluster for failover if the Exchange 2007 Server at the Main office has
a power outage or network outage.
When I set this server up as a cluster node A with the the new Windows 2003
R2 Server for node B, What kind of server should I use for a File Share
Witness Server, How much memory and drive space, will it take up alot of
resources ?

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date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:11:03 GMT   author:   unknown

Re: What are the requirements for a File Share Witness Server ?   

- You can use any Windows server that is part of the same AD Domain.
- Microsoft recommends (and it makes sense) using a Hub Transport server for 
the File Share Witness.
- The FSW is nothing but a server with a shared folder - which requires very 
little storage.
-- 
Bharat Suneja
MVP - Exchange
www.zenprise.com
NEW blog location:
exchangepedia.com/blog
----------------------------



 wrote in message news:1206561783_615@news.newsfeeds.com...
>I upgraded to a new Exchange 2007 Enterprise server at the main office. Now
> my CIO wants me to setup a another Excahnge 2007 Enterprise Server at a 
> COLO
> as a cluster for failover if the Exchange 2007 Server at the Main office 
> has
> a power outage or network outage.
> When I set this server up as a cluster node A with the the new Windows 
> 2003
> R2 Server for node B, What kind of server should I use for a File Share
> Witness Server, How much memory and drive space, will it take up alot of
> resources ?
>
> ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet 
> News==----
> http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ 
> Newsgroups
> ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption 
> =----

date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:41:12 -0700   author:   Bharat Suneja [MVP]

Re: What are the requirements for a File Share Witness Server ?   

Dear,

If you are installing CCR on Windows Server 2003, the private network for all nodes in a cluster must be on the same subnet, but you can use virtual LAN (VLAN) switches on the interconnects between two nodes.

If you use a VLAN, the point-to-point, round-trip latency must be less than 0.5 seconds.

In addition, the link between two nodes must appear as a single point-to-point connection from the perspective of the Windows Server 2003 operating system running on the nodes. To avoid single points of failure, use independent VLAN hardware for the different paths between the nodes. The same subnet restriction does not apply to failover clusters running on Windows Server 2008.

If you are installing CCR on Windows Server 2003, the public networks for all nodes in a cluster must be on the same subnet, and they must use a subnet that is different from the subnet being used for the private networks. The same subnet restriction does not apply to failover clusters running on Windows Server 2008.

to Configure the File Share Witness use the following KB:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124922(EXCHG.80).aspx

FSW , it is just a file share with configured permission, its size will not go 10 MB , and can run on any server Microsoft recommend to put FSW on Hub transport rule.
-- 
Tarek Ismail Mohamed
Infrastructure Consultant
OMS

date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:17:15 +0200   author:   Tarek Ismail