Preparation of Exchange 2007 Cluster

SPAMfighter Exchange Module Cluster uses the infrastructure provided by the Windows Cluster technology in order to work.

Before integrating SPAMfighter Exchange Module into the Windows Cluster you need to ensure that the following 2 cluster resources exists in the Windows Cluster:

       Physical Disk (=Shared Disk / Quorum Disk)

       Distributed Transaction Coordinator

Physical Disk

A Physical Disk resource must exists in order for SPAMfighter to operate properly in the Windows Cluster.

If you are using Exchange 2007 Single Copy Cluster, at least 1 Physical Disk resource already exists - as it is required in an Exchange 2007 SCC installation.

If you are using Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication, then it may or may not be required to create a Physical Disk resource.

       1. Open the Cluster Administrator console in Windows located in Administrative Tools

       2. Open the "Groups" folder

       3. Look in each of the Cluster Groups and verify that at least Physical Disk resource exists (look in the Resource Type column)

If no Physical Disk resource exists, one has to be created. Note: A Physical Disk resource has special hardware requirements - the disk needs to be accessible to all nodes in the Cluster on a shared bus.

       1. Open the Cluster Administrator console in Windows located in Administrative Tools

       2. Open the "Groups" folder

       3. Open the Cluster Group in which you want to create the Physical Disk resource. SPAMfighter recommends that this is the same as the Exchange Cluster Group

       4. Right click on the cluster group and select "New" -> "Resource"

       5. Enter the name "Disk <drive letter>:" - where drive letter is the letter of the disk drive (for example Q)

       6. As a "Resource type" select "Physical disk"

       7. Click Next

       8. In Possible Owners click Next unless you do not want MSDTC to run on a particular node

       9. In Dependencies, do not add any dependencies, and then click Next

       10. In Disk Parameters, click the physical disk that you will use

       11. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created

       12. Bring the resource online

Distributed Transaction Coordinator

A Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource must exists in order for SPAMfighter to operate properly in the Windows Cluster.

This resource does not necessarily exist in the existing Windows Cluster - and it may be necessary to create this manually.

To verify whether or not a Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource exist or not - please do the following:

       1. Open the Cluster Administrator console in Windows located in Administrative Tools

       2. Open the "Groups" folder

       3. Look in each of the Cluster Groups and verify that at least Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource exists (look in the Resource Type column)

If no Distributed Transaction Coordinator exists, you must create this before continuing.

Microsoft Knowledge Article 301600 describes how you can do this - or you can do the following unofficial guide from SPAMfighter (note: SPAMfighter cannot be held responsible for any undesirable side-effects that might occur)

Create a Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource

Note: A Physical Disk resource and a Network Name resource must already exist in the cluster group before creating a Distributed Transaction Coordinator resource.

Before you continue - please review the Microsoft Knowledge article 817064 before continuing.

       1. Open the Cluster Administrator console in Windows located in Administrative Tools

       2. Open the "Groups" folder

       3. Navigate to the cluster group which contains your Physical Disk resource

       4. Right click on the cluster group and select "New" -> "Resource"

       5. Enter the name "MSDTC"

       6. As a "Resource type" select "Distributed Transaction Coordinator"

       7. Click Next

       8. In Possible Owners click Next unless you do not want MSDTC to run on a particular node

       9. In Dependencies, press and hold the CTRL key on the keyboard, select both the Physical Disk and Network Name resource and then click the Add button

       10. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created

       11. Bring the resource online