F5 solution for Microsoft Exchange

2

Exchange 2010 Architecture

ExternalSMTPservers

Edge TransportRouting and

AV/AS

Phone system (PBX or VoIP)

Client AccessClient connectivity

Web services

Hub TransportRouting and

policy

Web browser

Outlook (remote

user)

Mobile phone

Outlook (local user)

Line of business application

MailboxStorage of

mailbox items

Unified MessagingVoice mail and voice access

BIG-IP

3

Software or hardware load balancing?

Answering “yes” to any of these indicates a key reason for hardware load balancing Yes No

1 Will there be a reverse proxy or NAT between users and Exchange servers?

2 Will you deploy Outlook Anywhere, Active/Sync mobile and web clients?

3 Will you deploy multi-role servers (Mailbox and CAS on the same server?)

4 Do you need continuous Exchange availability during CAS server maintenance?

5 Do you need Exchange service health awareness (not merely server health)?

6 Will you use client IP addresses from a small number of Class C subnets?

7 Will you deploy more than 8 CAS servers?

4

Configuration - we have a template for that

5

Site level health

• BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager (GTM)– Starts with good server level health within 1 site– Includes external link health– Disaster Recovery and Active/Active

Site A

Users

Site B

Global Traffic Manager

6

• Endpoint inspection

• Virtualization for Application and Directory

• Web application security

• Web application acceleration

ExchangeCAS Servers

Policy Manager Directory

ASM or

WA

LTM +

APM +

Richer Application Delivery

7

Exchange related resources

• F5 Solution page for Exchange Server– http://www.f5.com/solutions/microsoft/exchange

• Video demo of BIG-IP deployment for Exchange Server 2010– http://www.vimeo.com/album/1537190

• F5 Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010– http://www.f5.com/pdf/deployment-guides/f5-exchange-2010-dg.pdf

• F5 developer/IT admin user community– http://devcentral.f5.com/microsoft

• Microsoft Exchange Tested Solution with F5– http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg513522.aspx

• Technical white paper by Microsoft on their internal deployment– http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/D/85D61478-8719-4219-96BA-E5C53DD4F4

36/0941_ExchangeServer2010ArchitectureTWP.docx

• Load-balancing requirements from TechNet– http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff625247.aspx