Scaling with SQL Server

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 uses SQL Server to store user and configuration data. The Standard Edition uses SQL Server 2005 Express, which Office Communications Server Setup automatically installs. However, it is possible to use the Standard or Enterprise version of SQL Server 2005 or 2008 as well for Standard Edition. The Enterprise Edition uses SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SQL Server 2008, which must be installed separately on the back-end server. The back-end server computer must be installed with Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 and cannot be collocated with the front-end server. Encrypted File Systems (EFSs) should not be turned on in the %TEMP% directory; if it is, setup will fail.

Note

An easy way to verify that encryption is not turned on is to start Windows Explorer, type %temp% in the Address field, and press Enter. Right-click anywhere in the empty space of the folder and select Properties. Click Advanced. Verify that the Encrypt Contents To Secure Data check box is not selected.

For best results, two hard drives with fast access time should be installed on the back-end server. One hard drive is used for the SQL Server database and the other hard drive is used for the log files. A 4-processor server is the minimum requirement. For larger deployments, an 8-PROC server is recommended. A 1-gigabyte (GB) NIC for the back-end server is recommended. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 supports the use of 32-bit and 64-bit servers for the SQL Server back-end server.

You can build redundancy into the back-end server for the Enterprise Edition case. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 supports only single-instance failover, also commonly referred to as active/passive clustering. A two-node cluster is configured to fail over to the standby SQL Server if the primary SQL Server fails. SQL backup and restore remains the supported way for inter-pool disaster recovery.

Note

Windows Server 2008 improves on overall server security by implementing a much more comprehensive firewall. One item of note is that, by default, all ports are closed until an application install or a server administrator creates a rule, in effect opening the ports to specific conditions defined by the rule. SQL Server 2008, as of this writing, warns you with a dialog box that you will need to open ports and refers you to the SQL Server 2008 technical information. SQL Server 2005 SP1 does not issue a warning at all.

The minimum rule that you have to create is an inbound rule to allow Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and port 1433 from the front-end servers. This can be done either using the Administrative Tool for managing the firewall or using the command-line tool netsh. For more information about management and rules for the Windows Server 2008 Advanced Firewall, see "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and IPsec" at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=133668l

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