How to Create a Resource Group for an Exchange Virtual Server in a Windows Server Cluster

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Before you can create an Exchange Virtual Server in a Windows Server cluster, you must first create a cluster resource group. A cluster resource group is the unit of failover in a Windows Server cluster. When Exchange Server is running in a Windows Server cluster, the cluster resource group that contains the Exchange cluster resources is referred to as an Exchange Virtual Server.

Before You Begin

Important

When you create an Exchange Virtual Server, ensure that the network name resource is dependent on a single IP address resource. If you want to associate additional IP addresses with the network name, you can add those dependencies after creating the Exchange Virtual Server.

Procedure

To create a resource group for an Exchange Virtual Server in a Windows Server cluster

  1. Start Cluster Administrator. If prompted to specify a cluster, type the cluster name, or browse and select the cluster in which you want to create an Exchange Virtual Server.

  2. In the console tree, right-click Groups, point to New, and then click Group.

  3. The New Group Wizard starts. In the Name box, type a name for the new cluster group, and then click Next.

  4. In Preferred Owners, you can specify a preferred owner for the group. However, you do not need to specify a preferred owner at this time.

    The Preferred Owners dialog box

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    Note

    If you want to specify a preferred owner for the group, ensure that you specify a different preferred owner for each group. If you want to specify more than one node as a preferred owner of a group, ensure that the list order on the other nodes is different. Specifically, the first item in the list should not be the first item for any other groups. For example, in a two-node cluster, if the preferred owners list on the first node lists CORP-SRV-01 and then CORP-SRV-02, ensure the second node lists CORP-SRV-02 and then CORP-SRV-01. For more information about the preferred owner settings for Exchange Virtual Servers, see "Specifying Preferred Owners" in the Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=21769).

  5. Click Finish. This new group object is displayed under Groups in Cluster Administrator.