Exchange Server 5.X (70-81, 70-76)

   ( From CERTSITES )

The Exchange Heirarchy

·         The Oganization is the highest level of the Exchange heirarchy.  It holds all Exchange Sites within an organization

·         The Site is a grouping of Exchange servers into a single unit.

·         The Server is the lowest portion of the heirarchy.   It is responsible for message storage, public folders, and all information for the site

Exchange Clients

·         Exchange server supports the Microsoft Exchange client, Outlook, POP3 clients and HTTP clients

Required Services

·         Directory service - maintains information that describes the complete orgainization such as users, servers, and distribution lists

·         Message Transfer Agent (MTA) - Routes messages between servers and sites

·         Information Store- contains the public and private databases that hold messages

·         System Attendant - Maintains routing tables and performs diagnostic and logging tasks

Exchange Server Installation

·         To install Exchange Server 5.x, the following minimum requirements must be met:

o        NT server 4.0 w/SP2

o        TCP/IP

o        486 Processor or greater

o        At least 250 MB of free space

o        At least 24 MB RAM

·         You must be an NT administrator to install Exchange

·         A Site Services account should be created for use by the Exchange services.  This account must have Logon as a Service, Restore Files and Directories, and Act as part of the Operating System rights within NT.

·         A Custom install must be done to install the Connectors

Exchange Server Communication

·         Within a single site, information is transferred using RPCs

·         If a server within a site is not available.   The orginating server will store the messages until the destination server is back online.

·         Each object in the Directory is given a distinguished name which is used to route messages to the appropriate server, and eventually the appropriate recipient.

·         If the MTA cannot deliver the message successfully, it will retry to transfer the message periodically until it is successful or until the time out is exceeded in which case it will issue a non-delivery report.

Recipient Creation and Management

·         Types of recipients:

o        Mailboxes

o        Distribution Lists

o        Custom Recipients

o        Public Folders

·         New Mailboxes are created by clicking on File-New mailbox within the Exchange Administrator.  This allows you to create the mailbox and set the proper parameters such as specifying a home server, enabling/disabling protocols, and associating the mailbox with an NT account.

·         Distribution Lists are created so that one message can be sent to many recipients.  Each DL can be assigned an owner who can add and remove list members.

·         Custom Recipients are recipients outside the messaging site.  An example would be an internet mail account.

Client Configuration

·         A profile must be created so that a user can access his/her mail.  This includes choosing the proper information services, a personal address book, an Outlook address book, and personal folders.  Note: not all are required.

·         An offline folder can be created so that a user can access mail while not connected to the network.  A user must synchronize the folder before going offline to have access to all messages.

·         A client can allow other people to access their information store by making that person a delegate.  Delegate options are Send On Behalf Of, which will put the delegate's address in the From box and the user's name will appear after 'Sent on Behalf Of'.  You can also give a delegate Send As righs which will allow that person to send mail so that it appears to come from the user.  This must be set on the server.

Server Administration

·         The pre-defined administration roles are as follows:

o        Admin- allowed to perform user additions/modifications, delete object, modify admin attributes

o        Permissions Admin - All the rights of the admin plus Modify Permission rights

o        Service Account Admin - has complete control over the server

o        View Only Admin - Only allowed to logon to the server and view objects

o        User - can only modify their own attributes

o        Send As - can send mail as another user

·         Storage Limits on the Private and Public Information Stores are set at the server level by editing the properties

·         Maximum message size can be set on the MTA properties

Inter-Site Connectors

·         Directory Replication Connector - communicates directory information between sites.  Another connector must be installed for this connector to be functional.  It is not a messaging connector.  The directory replication connector will transfer directory information as soon as a messaging connector has been established.

·         Address Space - this is the information associated with a connector that identifies the types of messages that can be sent on a messaging connector.

·         Site Connector - allows for a server in one site to sent a message directly to another server in the remote site.  A target setver can be configured for the site connector so that a specific server in the remote site will be the target for message transfer. A Bridgehead server can be configured for each site.   This means that all Exchange servers in the site will connect to  the bridgehead server and the bridgehead server is responsible for sending messages to the other sites.  The site connector uses the most bandwidth because all messages are immediately transferred.

·         A target server cost can be set for the site connector.  The lower the value, the higher the priority in connecting to that server.

·         X.400 Connector - similar to the site connector in that it can use bridgehead servers but cannot use target servers.  The X.400 connector allows for more control over the link between sites so it may be most cost efficient to use this connector across WAN links.

·         Internet Mail Service - allows SMTP mail to be transferred to other SMTP mail hosts.  The Internet's DNS system is used for message routing.  A proper MX record must be set up for proper mail transfer.

·         Dynamic RAS Connector - allows a dial up connection to be established between servers for mail transfer.

·         More than one connector can be set up between sites.  The MTA will use routing calculations and cost values to determine which connector to use.

·         The gateway address routing table (GWART) is the routing table used by the MTA to route messages.  It is made up of the address space of each connector which provides the routing info for the connector.

Internet Protocols

·         Permissions can be set for each protocol at either the Site or the Server level.  Certain protocols can also be enabled/disabled at the mailbox level.

·         POP3 - allows messages to be stored on the server until they are retrieved by the client

·         LDAP - allows clients to access directory informaion from the Exchange Server.  LDAP is enabled on the Exchanges server by default.

·         NNTP - allows internet newsgroups to be retrieved and stored on the Exchange server.  Also allows newsgroups to be published to the internet.

·         HTTP - allows clients to check their mail using an internet browser. This requires that the active server pages be installed on the Exchange server.

Public Folders

·         Allows information to be shared among other users in the Exchange organization.

·         Public folders can be replicated to other sites.   Public folder site affinity can be set on a server so that when a client tries to access a public folder that does not exist in their site, the affinity value will provide the order in which a connection to the public folder is made.  The lowest affinity value will be tried first.

·         Storage and age limits can be set on public folder contents.  Permissions can also be defined to limit access.

·         Replication can be set for one server to either push or pull public folder contents.  There is the possiblity that two users will edit the contents of a file on a public server at the same time.  If this happens both users and the public folder administrator will receive a notification and the problem will have to be corrected manually.

·         If a server's public folders are out of sync, another Exchange server will backfill the out of sync information store to restore synchronization.

Server Maintenance

·         When backing up an Exchange server you must have an Exchange-aware backup product.

·         A full backup will backup all database files.   A differential or incremental backup will only backup the log files.  The database can be rebuilt from these log files if necessary.

·         Edbutil.exe (has been replaced by eseutil in Exchange 5.5) can be used to defragment the databases while the Exchange server is offline.

·         ISINTEG will find and correct errors in the Exchange databases.  Test mode searches for errors and writes the results to a log file.  Patch mode will repair information stores that will not restart after a restore.