Thursday, September 30, 2010

Enabling processor virtualization for x64 on Dell Servers

Sometimes, it is the most obvious things that really kick you in the fanny....

I was setting up a new Dell R610 in my lab. All my virtual machines were starting up just fine until I got to my Exchange servers. They kept just restarting over and over again. After a lot of troubleshooting, I remembered that I had not enabled the virtualization technology in the BIOS. That must be enabled if any of the virtual machines are going to be x64.

Open up the BIOS, go to processor configuration, then enable Virtualization Technology.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Load balancing for Exchange 2010

I have been meaning to post about this for months. Many Exchange 2010 administrators have suddenly found themselves having to learn a new skill set, specifically that of load balancing and hardware-based load balancers. A good alternative to expensive appliances like the F5 hardware load balancers are the appliances from Kemp Technologies.

Henrik Walther has a series of articles on using a hardware based load balancer with Exchange 2010.  I recommend these as a good starting point. And thanks to David Eflassy for the recommendation on Kemp Technologies.  I need to get one in my lab to test!

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