Routing groups define the physical network topology of the Exchange servers. A routing group is a logical collection of servers used to control mail flow and public folder referrals. All servers in a routing group communicate and transfer messages directly to one another. For example, if a company has branch offices in Oakland and Detroit, each office may have its own routing group. To communicate between the two locations, the routing groups are connected with connectors such as the X.400 connector, the SMTP connector, and the Exchange Routing Group connector. In a routing group, servers communicate and transfer messages as outlined in the following steps::
Although all servers communicate with each other directly in a routing group, to facilitate communication between a server in one routing group and a server in another routing group, an administrator must create a routing group connector. Although other connectors such as SMTP or X.400 can be used for the connecting servers, the routing group connector is the preferred method of connecting routing groups because it was designed specifically for routing group connections:. Note
Enabling and Creating Routing GroupsAdministrators must configure the Exchange organization to display routing groups. After configuring this setting, the routing groups container is visible, and additional routing groups can be created for the organization. Routing groups can be enabled using the following steps:
When a routing group is created, two containers, connectors and members, are displayed beneath the routing group. The connectors' container displays all connectors installed on the servers in the routing group. The members' container displays the servers in the routing group. By default, the first server installed in a routing group is the routing group master server. Configuring routing groups is a multiple-step process: create the routing group, add member servers to the routing group, and then connect the routing group with a messaging connector. To create a routing group, complete the following steps:
Moving Servers Between Routing GroupsAdministrators may want to move servers between routing groups to place those servers with the most reliable connections within the same routing group. Moving servers between routing groups is useful whenever a network topology changes, a site consolidation occurs, or servers are being centralized. In native mode, servers can move between routing groups that exist in different administrative groups. In mixed mode, however, administrators can move servers only between routing groups in the same administrative group. Moving servers is performed using the following steps:
Renaming and Deleting Routing GroupsAdministrators may also need to rename or delete routing groups. Use the following steps to rename a routing group:
Deleting routing groups can be performed after the containers are empty. It is good practice to move member servers to a new routing group. To delete a routing group, use these steps:
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