Using Policies | MCSA[s]MCSE

Policies are a feature of Exchange Server 2003 that allows an administrator to create collections of configuration settings that can be easily applied to large numbers of objects at once. For example, you might configure a policy that configures a group of server- related settings. You could then apply those settings across a group of servers without having to manually configure each server.

There are two types of policies in Exchange Server 2003:

System policies affect servers, mailbox stores, and public stores. These policies appear in the System Policies container in System Manager.

Recipient policies are applied to mail-enabled Exchange objects to generate e-mail addresses. These appear in the Recipient Policies container inside the Recipients container in System Manager.

Note ‚

If you do not see a System Policies container in System Manager, you will need to create one. In order to do this, System Manager must be configured to display administrative groups, even if you have only one administrative group. To display administrative groups, open the property pages for the organization object and enable the administrative groups display. To create a System Policies container, right-click a specific administrative group and choose the New Server Policy Container command. Once the container is created, you can disable the viewing of multiple administrative groups if you want to.

System Policies

As mentioned, system policies can be created for and applied to servers, mailbox stores, or public stores. Once you define a policy, you can apply it to a set of objects throughout the organization. In addition, once a policy is associated with a group of objects, changing a setting in the policy changes that setting in all associated objects.

Creating a Policy

To create a new policy, right-click the policy container, point to New, and select the type of policy you want to create: Server, Mailbox Store, or Public Store. A set of property pages opens immediately for you to configure the policy. Each policy has a General page that lets you name the policy and a number of other pages that correspond to pages of the object for the type of policy you are creating. For example, the Server policy has only one extra page that represents the General property page of a server object.

Table 10.3 lists the pages available for each type of policy.

Table 10.3: Property Pages Available for System Policies
Type of Policy	Page	Description of Parameters
Server	General	Configuration of message tracking and log file maintenance
Public Store (see Chapter 6 for more information on specific settings)	General	General settings, such as support for S/MIME signatures and formatting of plain text messages
‚	Database	Maintenance interval for public store
‚	Replication	Replication interval and limits
‚	Limits	Storage and age limits and deletion settings
‚	Full-Text Indexing	Update and rebuild intervals
Mailbox Store (see Chapter 9 for more information on specific settings)	General	General settings, such as default public folder and offline folder settings
‚	Database	Maintenance interval for mailbox store
‚	Limits	Storage and age limits and deletion settings
‚	Full-Text Indexing	Update and rebuild intervals

Managing Policies

You can adjust the settings for a policy by opening its property pages. Selecting the policy in the left-hand pane displays all the objects attached to the policy in the right-hand pane. You can right-click an object to remove it from the policy.

You can also right-click a policy to find three useful commands: Delete: This command also dissociates the policy from any objects to which it is currently applied. However, the settings made by the policy remain in effect on objects unless otherwise modified. You can, however, change these settings if desired either manually or via another policy.

Copy: Once a copy is made, you can make only the necessary adjustments to create a similar policy.

Rename

Applying Policies

After creating and configuring a policy, you can apply it to objects throughout the organization. Exercise 10.4 outlines the steps for applying a server policy. The procedures for adding objects to the other types of system policies are almost identical.

Recipient Policies

Recipient policies work somewhat like system policies but are applied to groups of mail-enabled recipients instead of server objects. Recipient policies are used to generate e-mail addresses for recipients. By default, Exchange includes a single recipient policy that is used to generate SMTP and X.400 e-mail addresses for various mail-enabled recipients. You can create additional policies for other types of e-mail addresses.

EXERCISE 10.4: Applying a Server Policy

Start System Manager.
Expand the System Policies container.
Right-click the policy to which you want to add objects, and select the Add Server command from the shortcut menu.
Select a server from the list in the dialog that appears, and click the Add button to add it to the list of servers to add.
If a dialog box opens asking you to verify that you want to add the server to the policy, click Yes to proceed.
If the server is under the control of another policy, another dialog will appear asking you whether you want to change to the new policy. Click Yes to proceed.
Repeat Steps 4 ‚ 6 to add as many servers to the policy as you want.
Once you have finished, click OK to return to System Manager.

Recipient policies use what is known as a background apply method, in which policies are defined and associated with recipients but are not immediately applied to recipients upon association (system policies are immediately applied). Instead, recipient policies are actually applied during regular maintenance intervals when the Recipient Update Service updates address lists within the Exchange organization. Alternatively, you can force an update by issuing the Update Now command to the applicable Recipient Update Service as discussed in Chapter 5, ‚“Creating and Managing Exchange Recipients ‚½