The Exchange organization configuration is stored in a number of different places. First and foremost, most of the Exchange configuration information is stored in the Active Directory's configuration partition, but you will also find Exchange-related configuration information in the Internet Information Server (IIS) metabase as well as the Windows Registry.
The administrative tools such as the Exchange Management Console (EMC) and the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) hide the complexity of accessing, viewing, and updating this configuration information.
Whether you are just getting started with Exchange server as an e-mail platform or you are an experienced Exchange administrator, you may have a bit of trouble finding the right place to make a configuration change. Microsoft has tried hard to make the management interface simpler and more intuitive, but the fact remains that sometimes finding the right object is a little difficult.
Note | This chapter should serve as an introduction to where the settings for different objects are located. You can find more information about configuring most of these in other places in the book. |
In this chapter we hope to provide you with more insight into finding the right place to make configuration changes. For experienced Exchange 2000/2003 administrators, we will be providing some parallels to where you will find some of the configuration tasks that you used to perform in the Exchange System Manager.
Topics in this chapter include the following:
Active Directory storage of configuration data
Exchange organization-wide configuration
Server-by-server configuration
Recipient management tools