In "8 Ways to Improve Your Exchange Cluster, Part 1," April 2004, InstantDoc ID 41630, I discuss how getting cluster-specific training, planning ahead, building in extra redundancy, and deploying a solid infrastructure are vital to a successful Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server cluster deployment. Now let's take a look at four more important factors: using the correct configurations, implementing the right security measures, minimizing the downtime and impact of failovers, and efficiently deploying Exchange service packs to your cluster.
5. Configuration
As I explain in Step 4 in Part 1, the stability of the Windows infrastructure underlying your cluster is key to the cluster's success. Properly configuring that infrastructure can also improve your cluster's performance. Important configuration steps include setting staggered boot delays for the cluster nodes, obtaining the applicable OS resource kit, and tuning memory. . . .
