Discuss the new server architecture in Exchange 2013 Discuss the Client Access server role Discuss the Mailbox server role
5 major roles Tightly coupled Forefront Online Protection for Exchange Edge Transport Routing and AV/AS Enterprise Network Hub Transport Routing & policy Phone system (PBX or VOIP) Functionality Geo affinity Versioning External SMTP servers Mailbox Storage of mailbox items Unified Messaging Voice mail and voice access User partitioning Mobile phone Layer 7 LB Client Access Client connectivity Web services Web browser Outlook (remote user) Outlook (local user) Line of business application AD
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LB L7 LB CAS Ex HT Ex MBX SAN MBX Ex Ex Copyright Microsoft Corporation
2000/2003 2007 2010 2013 Role differentiation through manual configuration Hardware solutions for reliability ($$$$) Separate roles for ease of deployment and mgmt. segmentation Support cheaper storage Separate HA solutions for each role Introduced the DAG Rich management experience using RBAC Leaves resources on the ground in each role Simplify for scale, balanced utilization, isolation Integrate HA for all roles Simplify network architecture LB Ex Ex CAS HT L7 LB Ex SAN Ex MBX MBX Copyright Microsoft Corporation
The New Server Role Architecture
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Layer 4LB 2 Building Blocks Client Access Array Evolution of E2010 CAS Array SMTP Front-End Forefront Forefront Online Online Protection Protection for for Exchange Edge Transport Routing and AV/AS Enterprise Network CAS Array CAS DAG MBX AD Database Availability Group Evolution of E2010 DAG Includes core server protocols Loosely coupled Functionality Versioning User partitioning Geo affinity External SMTP servers Mobile phone Web browser Outlook (remote user) Outlook (local user) CAS CAS CAS CAS Line of business application MBX MBX MBX MBX Phone system (PBX or VOIP)
EWS protocol MRS proxy protocol SMTP Protocols, Server Agents EWS MRS MRSProxy Transport RPC CA Assistants Custom WS Transport MRS MRSProxy Assistants RPC CA EWS Business Logic XSO Mail Item Banned E2010 XSO Mail Item CTS Other API CTS Other API Storage Store Content index Store Content index ESE File system ESE File system Server1 (V n ) Server2 (V n+1 )
E2010 Architecture E2013 Architecture Hardware LB L7LB Load Balancer AuthN, Proxy, Re-direct CAS2013 CAS, HT, UM AuthN, Proxy, Re-direct Protocols, API, Biz-logic MBX Assistants, Store, CI Protocols, API, Biz-logic Store, CI MBX2013
User For a given mailbox s connectivity, the protocol being used is always served by the protocol instance that is local to the active database copy CAS This means that the rendering for clients like OWA occurs on the Mailbox server This means that Transport transcoding is occurring on the Mailbox server etc DAG1 MBX-A MBX-B
Client Access Protocol Proxying
CAS2013 is comprised of three components: Client protocols (HTTP, IMAP, POP) SMTP UM Call Router Thin, stateless (protocol session) servers organized in a load balanced configuration Session affinity NOT required at the load balancer Provides a unified namespace and authentication for clients Where the logic lives to route a specific protocol request to the correct destination end point Capable of supporting legacy servers with redirect or proxy logic Is a domain-joined machine in the corporate forest Copyright Microsoft Corporation
OWA Outlook EAS EAC PowerShell IMAP SMTP Telephony SIP + RTP Load Balancer Redirect CAS2013 IIS HTTP Proxy POP IMAP SMTP UM HTTP POP IMAP SMTP IIS POP IMAP Transport UM MBX2013 RPS RpcProxy RPC CA OWA, EAS, EWS, ECP, OAB M MailQ
RPC/HTTP and the death of RPC/TCP RPCProxy.dll Copyright Microsoft Corporation
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HTTP Load Balancer HTTP Load Balancer CAS MBX IIS HTTP Proxy HTTP Site Boundary CAS MBX IIS HTTP Proxy HTTP Site Boundary MBX HTTP Protocol Head Protocol Head Protocol Head Local Proxy Request OWA Cross-Site Redirect Request Cross-Site Proxy Request
Trade-Offs Who s it for? Generalist IT admin + Simple, fast, no affinity LB + Single, unified namespace + Minimal networking skillset - Per Server Availability Those with increased network flexibility Functionality Simplicity + Simple, fast, no affinity LB + Per protocol availability - One namespace per protocol Those who want to maximize server availability + Per protocol availability + Single, unified namespace - SSL termination @ LB - Requires increase networking skillset
E2010 Legacy Coexistence OWA Cross-Site Redirect Request HTTP Load Balancer Load Balancer E2010 CAS Protocol Head RPC CAS2013 IIS HTTP Proxy Site Boundary E2010 CAS Protocol Head RPC MBX MBX2013 MBX Store Protocol Head Store Cross-Site Proxy Request
Round-Robin DNS Sue (somewhere in NA) DNS Resolution Round-Robin between # of VIPs mail.contoso.com DNS Resolution via Geo-DNS Round-Robin between # of VIPs Sue (traveling in APAC) VIP #1 VIP #2 VIP #3 VIP #4 DAG DAG
Geographical DNS Solution Sue (somewhere in NA) DNS Resolution Round-Robin between # of VIPs mail.contoso.com DNS Resolution via Geo-DNS Round-Robin between # of VIPs Sue (traveling in APAC) VIP #1 VIP #2 VIP #3 VIP #4 DAG DAG
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The Mailbox Server Role
MBX1 MBX2 MBX16 Copyright Microsoft Corporation
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1 IOPS/Mailbox 0.8 0.6 0.4 +99% reduction! 0.2 0 Exchange 2003 Exchange 2007 Exchange 2010 Exchange 2013
1 Day 150 11 MB 1 Month 3300 242 MB 1 Year 39000 2.8 GB 2 Years 78000 5.6 GB 4 Years 156000 11.2 GB Copyright Microsoft Corporation
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Reduced Processing of Body and Attachments MBX2013 MBX2013 Transport Transport Content Transformation Service Mailbox Local Delivery Mailbox Store ExSearch CTS Index Node Passive Log Reliable Event Read Content Idx Log Idx
Dawn of a New Age Architectural bet Public folders are based on the mailbox architecture MBX2013 Private logon Public Logon CAS 2013 Hierarchy Mailbox MBX2013 Public logon Content Mailbox MBX2013 Details Hierarchy is stored in PF mailboxes (one writeable) Content can be broken up and placed in multiple mailboxes The hierarchy folder points to the target content mailbox Uses same HA mechanism as mailboxes No separate replication mechanism Single-master model Similar administrative features to current PFs (setting quota, expiry, etc.) No end-user changes (looks just like today s PFs) Not all public folder usage scenarios are best served by public folders
Transport Architecture
Front-End Transport Service Handles all inbound and outbound external SMTP traffic for the organization, as well as client endpoint for SMTP traffic Does not replace the Edge Transport Server Role Functions as a layer 7 proxy and has full access to protocol conversation Will not queue mail locally and will be completely stateless All outbound traffic appears to come from the CAS2013 Listens on TCP25 and TCP587 (two receive connectors) Copyright Microsoft Corporation
External Server CAS MBX 1. New SMTP Connection 2. CAS performs envelope filtering 3. CAS determines route to best MBX server 4. Message delivery begins 1. If successful, CAS returns 250 OK acknowledgement to external server 2. If unsuccessful, CAS returns 421 response
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DAG CAS / MBX SMTP MBX-1 Transport SMTP MBX-2 Transport SMTP Mailbox Transport Mailbox Transport MAPI 1 2 1 2
Service Availability Improvements
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Managed Availability + Retries stuff breaks and the Experience does not LB CAS-1 DAG OWA send OWA failure MBX-1 OWA failure detected OWA 1 2 OWA restart service OWA restart complete OWA verified as healthy MBX-2 OWA send OWA failure CAS-2 OWA 1 2 OWA failure detected OWA restart service OWA restart service failed MBX-3 OWA 1 2 Failover server s databases OWA service restarts OWA verified as healthy Server becomes good failover target (again)
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SMTP 250 OK R1, R2, R3 CAS2013 or MBX2013 250 OK 1. Maintain a copy of the message in the queue database but don t acknowledge the DATA verb 2. Generate a shadow copy on another MBX2013 server in the DAG (remote site preferred) 3. Wait for acknowledgement from the shadow server 4. Send acknowledgement to SMTP client 5. Delete message from queue after SafetyNet threshold has expired Transport R1, R3 R1 R2, R3 Mail.que Transport Mail.que Transport Mail.que Transport Mail.que MBX Transport MBX Transport MBX Transport MBX Transport 1 2 Transport Store MBX1 Mail.que MBX Transport 1 2 Transport Store MBX Transport MBX2 Site Boundary 1 2 Store MBX3 Log Log Log Log Log Log R3 250 OK Mail.que Transport Mail.que MBX Transport 1 2 Transport Store MBX4 Mail.que MBX Transport Store Store Store Store 3 4 MBX5 3 4 MBX6 3 4 MBX7 Log Log Log 3 4 MBX8
Facilitates deployments at all scales from self-hosted small organizations to Office 365 Provides more flexibility in namespace management All core Exchange functionality for a given mailbox is served by the MBX2013 server where that mailbox s database is currently activated Simplifies the network layer Transport protection is built-in All components in a given server upgraded together No need to juggle with CAS <-> MBX versions separately Utilize CPU core increase, cheaper RAM Utilize capacity effectively Fewer disks/server => simpler server SKUs Copyright Microsoft Corporation