I have a exch2010/Win2008r2 system serving about 300 users. We don't run any Virtual servers because it doesn't make sense in such a small company. Currently, we have two exchange servers. One server is performing the Mailbox server role and the other is the CAS/HT server. These servers are approaching three years old(the limit I like to keep servers). I have read some surveys related to our business and only one percent has moved to server2012/exch2013 so we will be sticking with 2010. My users are pretty evenly split across three mailbox DBs and the total size of our data is 600Gb. This grows very slowly (about 10 Gb every 2-3 months) because we have Barracuda Message Archiver running and messages are deleted based on age. There are no performance/speed problems from the user perspective. Now the first round of questions:
1. Should I split to three servers so each DB is on it's own?
2. If so, what complications might this add and will speed suffer since mail will need to be routed between boxes?
We work on what is the best for stability and the least interfering with users. That said, I see two options:
Option A - either copying or backup/restore the three DBs
option B - adding the server(s) as a new MBX server(s) and then moving the users several at a time with the utilities in the Exchange Management Console. I've read of some benefit to the second approach because it gives users a fresh unfragmented DB but
lack any personal experience with it.
Questions:
1. Which is the preferred method and/or your opinions?
2. What are the dangers involved?
3. I came from a Groupwise background and moving users around on post offices was pretty fast, so we always did it that way. I lean this way because we can test the waters on the new server with nonessential IDs. Is it terribly slow and/or are the
users out of commission during the whole copy?
4. The servers are in 10/100/1000 switches, but there are a few servers on the the same one. Doing it after hours, will it generate a huge amount of traffic?
5. Finally are there any good how-to's or step by steps out there I should check out? I've done a few basic google searches.
Thanks for your help! Several years ago through questions like these you helped me jump from Novell so I thought I'd start here on my next big adventure.