[SteveA]

Hello,

I currently have approximately 140 users spread over 6 Exchange servers across Canada and one in the UK.

Running BES 4.1.6 with MSDE database (approx 300Mb).

I'm virtualizing my BES, upgrading it to version 5, and would like to configure the HA feature.

I have a spare SRP, which is eligible for BES 5. My plan is to (ideally) introduce some kind of HA over the WAN in case our internet connection is down or we need to perform maintenance.

The Toronto and Montreal offices have the largest user base and similar hardware. BladeCenter H and VMWare 4.0 hosts.

I'm thinking about configuring a (virtual) BES 5 server in Montreal with my spare SRP and moving to a SQL database. The same would be performed in Toronto.

Toronto and Montreal have identical 20Mb, 100Mb burstable (e100) internet connections.

Your thoughts, opinions or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Goals: HA, BCP/DR

Notes:
We do not have hardware load balancers
We do have CA XOsoft for SQL replication on our ERP
Active Directory is Server 2003, with about 4 new Server 2008 DCs being introduced this weekend.

Cheers!