Setting Up Virtual Servers for Clustering

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

A server cluster is a group of independent computer systems, known as nodes, working together as a single system to ensure that mission-critical applications and resources remain available to clients. Server clusters provide high availability. High availability in a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server cluster means that, if one virtual server fails, its work is dispersed to the remaining virtual servers in the cluster, ensuring mail service is not interrupted. The other benefit of server clusters is the failover of server resources, which is when a virtual server goes down and another one comes online to assumes its role.

In clustering, a node is a system that has a working installation of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and the Cluster service. Microsoft recommends creating a new virtual server on your node for clustering, rather than reconfiguring your default SMTP virtual server.

For more information about Windows Clustering and server clusters, see Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Help. That documentation contains detailed information about setting up and administrating server clusters.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /User:Administrative_AccountName "mmc systemroot\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To set up an SMTP virtual server for clustering

  1. If necessary, change the default startup setting of the SMTP Service to Manual.

  2. Before creating a new virtual server, in IIS Manager, right-click Default SMTP Virtual Server, and then click Properties.

  3. On the General tab, click Advanced.

  4. Under Address, double-click All Unassigned.

  5. In the Identification box, change the TCP port number from 25, which is the default setting, to another port number -- any unassigned port will work. Type in the new port number, making sure it is unique, and then click OK.

  6. Create a new SMTP virtual server. After it is created, you will have to manually start the new virtual server. Use the default TCP port on the new virtual server, which is port 25.

    Important

    When you get to the Select Home Directory and Default Domain screen of the New SMTP Virtual Server Wizard, be sure to type paths to the shared resource that will be used in clustering. Do not type paths to a local hard drive.

  7. Run the iiscnfg /copy command to copy the IIS configuration on your node to the other nodes in the server cluster. At a command prompt, navigate to the systemroot\System32\Inetsrv directory on your node, and then type iiscnfg /copy /ts target server /tu userid /tp password where the following is true:

    • /ts is another node in the same cluster.

    • /tu is the user ID to use when connecting to the target server.

    • /tp is the password associated with the specified user ID.

Important

The /copy operation does not copy the server content, such as Web pages and FTP files, that is associated with the IIS configuration. This command changes the computer-specific and system-specific properties in the metabase so that they are valid on the target computer. However, it does not adjust the directory or file paths. As a result, you might need to configure valid paths on the target computer.

Repeat the iiscnfg /copy command for each node in the server cluster. For more information about the iiscnfg /copy command, see Copying IIS Configurations Using Iiscnfg.vbs.

  1. Check the TCP port numbers on your newly created SMTP virtual server and on the default virtual server. Specifically, view your local node from other nodes in the server cluster, and make sure that the TCP port settings are identical to the settings on the local node. On all nodes, the default SMTP virtual server should no longer point to the default TCP port (25), but the new SMTP virtual server should be assigned port 25. Settings must be identical on every node for clustering to work.

  2. Start Cluster Administrator. Follow the wizard and associate a resource type to the new SMTP virtual server.

Note

In the Parameters box, be sure to select your new SMTP virtual server from the list, and not the default SMTP virtual server. See Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Help for more information about Cluster Administrator.