Exchange 2016 Mult-Site Design Considerations

Question

Hi,

I have a customer who is running Exchange 2010, looking to move to Exchange 2016. They have three datacentre locations (two are in a stretched AD site and the third is in its own site).

The customer would like to have an Active/Active DAG setup across the three DC's and I was considering a single server per site to cater for the number of users that will be moved to Exchange 2016.

I have a couple of questions about this architecture:

1. Can I deploy all servers into a single DAG?
2. Considering there are three servers in the cluster, I am assuming no FSW is needed?
3. Can I leverage a single namespace (unbound) across all sites considering they will all be active, and what are the implications if any?

Thanks,

Mike.

Answer 1

1. Yes, assuming you have adequate bandwidth/ low latency between all the sites.
2. Correct
3. That would be the best approach - assuming that all the 2016 servers are equally accessible by clients and load balanced( the implications being if all three DCs are not equal and peers, do not do this. If they are, have at it.)

Exch 2016 is amazingly resilient and will handle things fine if the underlying network and load balancing is configured correctly so that all 3 DCs are true peers.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/namespace-planning-in-exchange-2016/ba-p/604072