Going Native

Once you switch an Exchange organization to native mode (see Chapter 8, ‚“Building Administrative and Routing Groups, ‚½ for details on the process), the organization is no longer directly interoperable with Exchange 5. x servers. Native-mode organizations can contain only Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server computers.

You must also be aware that the switch is one-way. Once you switch an organization to native mode, you cannot switch back to mixed mode. Therefore, it is important that your organization be ready for the switch. Here are a few guidelines to help you decide if switching to native mode is the right action to take:

• You no longer have any Exchange 5. x servers in your organization.

• You do not plan to add any Exchange 5. x servers at a later date.

• You have re-created all connectors on the Exchange Server 2003 servers that existed on the Exchange Server 5. x servers.

• If you do have Exchange 5. x servers still running on your network, you do not require interoperability between them and the Exchange Server 2003 organization (i.e., you are maintaining separate organizations).