Introduction

Recently I was faced with the task of re-installing the Exchange 2007 Mailbox server role as well as the operating system on
each node in a CCR-based Mailbox server setup. Since there’s no documentation available on how this is done in a step by
step fashion, I thought you would like it covered here on MSExchange.org as chances are you’ll find yourself in a similar
situation one day. To be honest the process is relatively straightforward, but things can become messy if you don’t follow the
right steps as well as perform them in a specific order.

Note:
The steps provided in this article will make sure the clustered mailbox server (CMS) is 100% available to your Outlook users
during the whole process.

In the first article, we’ll uninstall the passive clustered mailbox role from the first CCR node, evict the node form the Windows
cluster and the re-add the node to the Windows cluster after the operating system has been re-installed and configured
accordingly.

Re-Installing the first CCR Node

The very first thing you’ll want to do is to logon to one of the CCR nodes. Then ensure the Windows cluster resources and
the clustered mailbox server is owned by the opposite node than the one you’re going to reinstall first. To see which node
owns the Windows Cluster resources, open the Windows Cluster Administrator console, then select the Groups node as
shown in Figure 1 below. As you can see in the right pane the owner for both the Windows Cluster Group and the CMS is
revealed.

Figure 1: Cluster Administrator Console

Note:
You can also see which node owns the CMS by typing Get-ClusteredMailboxServer | FL in the Exchange Management
Shell (EMS). If you’re running Exchange 2007 SP1, you can even use the Exchange Management Console (EMC) to check
this. This is done under the Server Configuration work center, where you open the Property page for the CMS and then click
the Clustered Mailbox Server tab).

If the resources are owned by the node you planned on reinstalling first, you must move them to the other node. As you
probably had the CMS running in production for quite some time, I shouldn’t need to tell you this but remember that it’s only
supported to move the Windows Cluster Group using the Windows Cluster Administrator. The CMS must be moved using
either the Move-ClusteredMailboxServer cmdlet (Figure 2) or if you’re using Exchange Server 2007 SP1 by using the
Manage Clustered Mailbox Server wizard in the EMC (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Moving the clustered mailbox server using the Exchange Management Shell

Figure 3: Moving the clustered mailbox server using the Exchange 2007 SP1 Management Console

When the Windows Cluster Group and CMS have been moved to the other node, we can begin uninstalling the Mailbox
server role. To do so, open the Control Panel and then Add/Remove Programs. Select Microsoft Exchange and click
Remove (Figure 4). This will launch the Exchange 2007 Setup wizard.
Figure 4: Clicking Remove in Add or Remove Programs

On the Exchange 2007 Setup wizard maintenance mode page, click Next then untick Passive Clustered Mailbox Role and
Management Tools. Click Next again.
Figure 5: Removing the Passive Clustered Mailbox Role

Let the readiness checks complete then click Uninstall (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Readiness Checks completed successfully

When the passive clustered mailbox role have been uninstalled, click Finish (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Exchange 2007 Passive Mailbox role and Management Tools removed successfully

With the passive clustered mailbox server role uninstalled, we can evict the node from the Windows cluster. To do so, open
the Cluster Administrator console, then right-click on the respective node and select Stop Cluster Service in the context
menu as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Stopping the cluster service

When the cluster service has been stopped, we are able to evict the node. Do so by right-clicking on the node that’s now
offline then select Evict Node (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Evicting the cluster node

We’ll get a warning message like the one shown in Figure 10, click Yes.

Figure 10: Warning message

We have now removed the node from the Windows cluster (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Cluster Administrator with one node

We can begin to re-install the operating system, but before you do so please make sure you have the NetBIOS name, IP
addresses, LUNs etc. documented, so you know how to configure these things when Windows Server 2003 has been
reinstalled. Before we re-add the node to the Active Directory domain, we must also make sure the computer account is
reset. To do so open the Active Directory Users & Computer MMC snap-in, then select the respective computer account
object, right-click on it and select Reset Account on the context menu (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Resetting the Active Directory Computer account

When the cluster node has been reinstalled and you have configured the NetBIOS name, IP addresses, and LUNs as well
as added the node to the Active Directory domain, the next task is to re-add the node to the Windows Server cluster. To do
so, open the Cluster Administrator console and then right-click somewhere in the left pane. In the context menu, select New
> Node as shown in Figure 13 below.
Figure 13: Adding a new node to the Windows Server 2003 cluster

On the Add Notes Wizard welcome page, click Next, then enter the NetBIOS name of the node you’re re-adding to the
cluster and click Add (Figure 14). Click Next.
Figure 14: Entering the NetBIOS name of the node to be re-added to the cluster

The cluster wizard will now analyze the cluster configuration (Figure 15). When finished click Next.
Figure 15: Cluster configuration wizard analyzes the cluster configuration

We now need to enter the password for the cluster service account (Figure 16). When you have done so, click Next.

Note:
Although I use the Administrator account as the cluster service account in my lab, you should always create a dedicated
cluster service account for the cluster when dealing with production environments.
Figure 16: Specifying the password for the Cluster Service Account

Now verify you want to add the node to the proposed cluster configuration and click Next (Figure 17).
Figure 17: Proposed Cluster Configuration

Wait for the cluster to be configured and when possible click Next and finally Finish to exit the Cluster setup wizard (Figure
18).
Figure 18: Cluster is configured

Summary

In this part 1 of this 2 part article series, we uninstalled the passive clustered mailbox role from the first CCR node, evicted
the node from the Windows cluster and then re-added the node to the Windows cluster after the operating system had been
re-installed and configured accordingly.

In the next part, we will install the passive mailbox role and configure it accordingly.

Introduction

In the previous article, we uninstalled the passive clustered mailbox role from the first CCR node, evicted the node from the
Windows cluster and then re-added the node to the Windows cluster after the operating system had been re-installed and
configured accordingly.

In this part two of this articles series, we can move on where we left off in part one by installing the passive mailbox role. To
do so, launch Exchange 2007 Setup.exe, and then click Install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Figure 2.1).

Note:
The clustered mailbox server in the lab I’m using for the purpose of this article is running Exchange 2007 SP1, which is why
I use the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 binaries to re-install the passive Mailbox role. If you’re CMS haven’t yet been
upgraded to Exchange 2007 SP1, it’s important you use the Exchange 2007 RTM binaries to re-install the passive Mailbox
role.
Figure 2.1: Exchange Server 2007 SP1 splash screen

On Introduction page, click Next > accept the License Agreement and click Next. Decide whether or not you want to enable
error reporting, and then click Next once again.

On the Exchange 2007 Setup Installation Type page, select Custom Exchange Server Installation and click Next (Figure
2.2).
Figure 2.2: Selecting a Custom Exchange Server Installation

Now tick Passive Clustered Mailbox Role. If you installed the Exchange 2007 binaries at another location than the default,
this is also the page on which you change the installation path (Figure 2.3). Click Next.
Figure 2.3: Selecting Passive Clustered Mailbox Role and specifying the Installation path

The readiness checks will now be performed. This will normally complete without any issues or errors, but if you like me
forgot to remove the database and log files from the Database or Log file LUNs, you’ll receive an error similar to the one
shown in Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.4: Readiness Check error as databases are present on the database LUN

When removed, you should see a Readiness Checks page like the one in Figure x (of course without the 32-bit version
warning). Click Install.
Figure 2.5: Readiness Checks Completed Successfully

The installation process will now begin and after a few minutes you should get a completion page as shown below (Figure
2.6).
Figure 2.6: Installation of Passive Clustered Mailbox Role installed successfully

Now that the Exchange 2007 SP1 binaries have been installed, we must reboot the node before continuing with the next
steps.

Next step is to reseed the storage group copies, so that the CCR node gets up to date replicas of each the active databases.
This can be done using the Exchange Management Shell and when speaking Exchange 2007 SP1 the Exchange
Management Console (EMC) UI. In this article, we’ll use the EMC UI, so launch the EMC. In the EMC, select the clustered
mailbox server under the Server Configuration work center. As we can see in Figure 2.7 below, the copy status is currently
in a failed mode, which is expected.
Figure 2.7: Copy status is currently in a Failed state

If we open the Property page for one of the storage groups and click on the Cluster Continuous Replication tab, we can also
see that no logs have been copied to the newly installed CCR node.
Figure 2.8: No logs have been copied to the new CCR node

To seed the passive node, select a storage group and click Update Storage Group Copy in the Action pane (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9: Update Storage Group Copy

On the Update Storage Group Copy Introduction page, click Next (Figure 2.10).
Figure 2.10: Update Storage Group Copy Wizard

On the Summary page, click Update (Figure 2.11).

Figure 2.11: Update Storage Group Copy page

If you receive the warning shown in Figure 2.12, click Yes.

Figure 2.12: Checkpoint File Warning

After a while (depending on the size of the databases) you’ll be taken to the Completion page (Figure 2.13), where you
simply click Finish.
Figure 2.13: Completion page

The storage group will now be in a healthy state (Figure 2.14) and any log files will have been copied to the passive node
(Figure 2.15).

Figure 2.14: Healthy Copy Status

Figure 2.15: Log file copy dates updated

You must run the Update Storage Group Copy wizard for any existing storage groups.

Re-installing the Second CCR Node

Time has come to re-install the second CCR node. Since the steps are identical to the ones we went through in order to re-
install the first CCR node, I won’t repeat them. Just go back to part one of this articles series and follow each step until you
end up here again.

Summary

As you have seen throughout this article, although CCR-based clustered Mailbox server scenarios can be complex, it is a
straightforward task to re-install the nodes in such as scenario. But with that said, if you do not follow the right steps in the
right order, your day (or perhaps week!) can quickly be ruined. This article helps you through the process without any
downtime to your end users at all.