The Future of Exchange (Online)

A W A R D W I N N I N G E X C H A N G E M A N A G E M E N T

The future of Exchange (online)What’s in it for you?


Speaker Introduction

• Director of Product Research at ENow Software• Exchange Server MVP• Certified Solutions Master

Messaging (MSCM)

• Twitter: @mvanhorenbeeck• Blogs: blog.enowsoftware.com, vanhybrid.com


Agenda

• Improvements in Exchange 2013• A first look into Exchange 2016 • Exchange 2016 Preferred Architecture• Exchange Online future• Q&A


Exchange 2013(-ish)


Standalone HCW

• Remove dependency on the on-premises server for HCW bits; similar to how oAuth config is done today.• Allows MSFT to be more agile >

shorter MTTR in case of issues• Familiar look and feel


Standalone HCW FAQ

• Will I be able to run it on Exchange 2010/2013/2016?• Can I upgrade from Exchange 2010 to newer version?• Can I opt out of the new HCW experience?• Will I need to add any additional URL to my outbound proxy device?• Will running the Stand Alone HCW change any of my settings?


Support for IAAS

• As of May (announced at Ignite), MSFT supports the following Exchange 2013 scenario on Azure IAAS VMs:• Non-production• Cluster Witness for stretched DAG• Production; IF Azure Premium Storage is used


“Exchange on Azure is for people with more money than sense”

~ Jeff Guillet (Exchange MVP)


Why Azure (or not)?

• Limited use cases• If you need hosted Exchange, better choose Office 365• Can be costly:• Premium Storage = +/- $60 per month for 512 GB• Must use “DS-series”-VMs = +/- $800 per month for “common” server• …


Exchange 2016


Enhanced document collaboration


Office Server?

• Exchange server now leverages the Office web apps• Delivered via Office Web Apps

infrastructure (must be separate server!)• Enables side-by-side viewing and

edit & reply capabilities for OWA• Access to the document is

authorized by Exchange via an OAuth token


Search enhancements?

• Faster search (improvements based on behavioral analysis in Office 365)• Outlook will now use server-side index when online (= more reliable

results)• Suggested search terms (e.g. contact names)


Other Productivity Enhancements

• Improvements • Inline previews for URLs / Videos

• Intelligent recipient selection and people search

• Inline reply

• One-click archive

• Common typos/suggestions

• Better way to handle/insert images

• Weather view

• Emojis

• Single line view

• …


Architecture


Key architecture changes

• Evolution from Exchange 2013• Lessons learned from Office 365 (again!)• Emphasis on preferred architecture;• Combined MBX and CAS server roles

• Simple(r) coexistence with Exchange 2013;• Easier Namespace planning / rollout


HA Improvements

• Faster DB corruption detection through new feature called “DB divergence detection”• Faster DB failovers (95pctile < 18 sec)• “Loose Truncation”

• Support for ReFS• New DAG Management service• Replay Lag Manager now on by default;

• Auto play down when # of copies is insufficient• Tied to disk I/O (disk health)


HA Improvements

• Get-MailboxServerRedundancy• Determine which servers can/cannot be recycled/put into maintenance mode

• Limit excessive database moves• Policies to limit/control human-initiated db moves• Use New-SettingsOverride to control the policies (define peak times, # moves

per hour…)• Admin can still override by specifying the

–SkipMoveSuppressionChecks parameter with Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase


HA Improvements ct’ed

• AutoReseed improvements• 99,99 % success rate (!)• In 2016 now also reseeds when single copy in the volume fails (instead of

volume failure

• Configuration-only-Reseeds:• Source DB does not have to be online


Security enhancements

• BitLocker support• Enhancing Mailbox Audit logging (same as Office 365)• Further improve DLP (new sensitive data types)• eDiscovery and Archiving improvements;• Public Folder Data• Integration with Equivio (Machine Learning)


Extensibility

• MAPI/CDO no longer supported (for real this time)• Move to other protocols such as EWS or REST APIs

• REST APIs:• Mail-, Calendar-, Contacts API• Enable access across all sorts of platforms (mobile, web, …)• Granular, scoped, permissions to user data


Preferred Architecture


Namespaces

• Unbound namespace model• Autodiscover• Mail (or protocol-specific entries)• OOS

• Bound namespace for OOS (former WAC)• Use round-robin or GEO-DNS to distribute load across datacenters.


Unbound model

Round robin between # of VIPs

DNS resolution

DAG

Sue (somewhere in NA)

VIP #1 VIP #2

DAG

mail.contoso.com

Slide courtesy from Microsoft


Unbound model (global)

Sue(somewhere in NA)

DNS Resolution

DAG

na VIP na VIP

DNS Resolution

DAG

eur VIP eur VIP

Jane(somewherein Europe)

mail.contoso.com

na.contoso.comeur.contoso.com



Load Balancing

• For Exchange: similar to Exchange 2013• Exchange 2013 and 2016 can coexist in same array• For Office Server: affinity required!


E16 MBX

Exchange Upgrades, the new way.

E2010 CAS

E2013 CAS

Load Balancer

E2013 MBX

It’s Good!!



DAG Design• Each DC in separate AD site (transport HA!)

• Increase DAG density before creating new DAGs

• Scale out instead of scaling up!

• Unbound, symmetrical DAG model spanning across datacenters

• No administrative access point

• Single network for replication and client traffic

• Utilize a third datacenter or Azure for Witness server placement, if possible

• Deploy four copies, two copies in each datacenter

• Distribute active copies across all servers in the DAG

• One copy is a lagged copy (seven days) with automatic play down enabled

• Native Data Protection is utilized

DC2DC1mail VIP

mail VIP

DAG

DC3/Azure

Witness Server



Server design

• Physical deployment; use “commodity” hardware• Dual-socket systems only (20-24 cores total, mid-range processors)• Up to 196GB of memory

• JBOD storage• Large capacity 7.2k SAS disks• Battery-backed cache controller (75/25)• Multiple databases/volume• AutoReseed with hot spare• Data volumes are formatted with ReFS• Data volumes are encrypted with BitLocker



Large mailboxes? Anyone?

• Exchange 2016 will support (very) large mailboxes (100GB+)• Allows to eliminate PST files• Removes need for (3rd party) Archiving solutions• Outlook 2013 or higher can control cached data through slider


Summary

• Architecture improvements bring a better HA story and improve coexistence/migration scenarios• Want to go low-cost? Take advantage of the Preferred Architecture

and leverage physical, commodity hardware like large capacity 7.2k disks• Keep It Simple S… (KISS). Less is more!


Exchange OnlineHow about Exchange Online?

A W A R D W I N N I N G E X C H A N G E M A N A G E M E N TAlready


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Redmond

Van Hybrid

Cunningham

Guillet

http://l.exchangeserverpro.com/office-365-for-exchange-professionals/

Technology

The Future of Exchange (Online)