Exchange 2010 CAS array using Windows NLB in a Hyper-V Cluster

This was tricky since it is very dependent on your environment. We have 3Com switches for our Hyper-v cluster (for now... budget constraints) and Cisco switches for the rest of the network. We also have a Cisco router for our gateway and an ASA for our mail firewall.

First I tried Multicast for the NLB, but our ASA did not like the NLB. We couldn't access the NLB vIP address from outside, VPN clients, or at our offices connected via site-to-site VPN. First we tried adding ARP entries to the router and main switch(s). Then we tried Unicast, giving both CAS servers the same MAC as the NLB. It worked and we could access the NLB from outside, but it wouldn't failover. If one server was down it was all down. So instead of being redundant I was doubling my chance of failure.

Finally I used IGMP Multicast. I used this webpage as a guide. The key I think was getting the MAC address for the "Virtual Machine Bus" Adapter ("Virtual Network Switch" Adapter in 2008 R2) Hyper-V hosts. Since I use 2008 R2 for the Hyper-V hosts, I enabled MAC spoofing in the VM Settings for both CAS servers. I also entered ARP entries on the switch and routers, using the IGMP multicast MAC address.

ECP error when using certain options

Exchange 2010 and 2007

A lot of people get this error when they click on Options in Outlook Web Access (OWA): if you click on "Groups" or "Rules" you get "Sorry! We're having trouble processing your request right now. Please try again in a few minutes."

In my setup, the authentication settings for OWA are "forms based"/"username only". ECP should match OWA, except, anonymous authentication should also be enabled. Go into IIS and enable anonymous authentication for the ECP directory.

If you are getting an error right when you click on "Options", or it's bringing you back to the login screen, ECP probably doesn't match your OWA authentication.

Adding Pass-through disks to a Hyper-V cluster

I could not find decent documentation on how to add iscsi pass-through disks to a VM in a Hyper-V cluster. Here are the steps i used:

1. I'm assuming you already have the disk in Disk Management. Bring it online, initialize it and take it back offline.
2. In Cluster Management, right-click on "storage" and click "Add a Disk". Add the disks you are going to use as pass-through. This will add the disks as "Available Storage".
3. To make this easy, shut down the server you're adding the disk(s) to. Now, in Cluster Mgmt, highlight the server you're adding it too and select "Manage Virtual Machine" on the right pane.
4. In the instance of Hyper-V Mgmt that opens, right click the server you're adding the disk(s) to and click "Settings". Add the disk(s) as a scsi resource.
5. Now, go back to Cluster Mgmt and select the server in the left hand pane. In the middle pane, right click on the server and go to More Actions -> Refresh VM Configuration.
6. Back to the left pane. Right click on the server resource and select "Add Storage". Check the disk(s) you added and click OK. Now the disks are added as a cluster resource and can migrate.