Managing Exchange Server 2003 Remotely

Windows Server 2003's built-in feature set enables it to be easily managed remotely. This same feature set can be used to manage Exchange Server 2003, which can significantly reduce administration time, expenses, and effort by enabling administrators to manage systems from remote locations rather than having to be physically at the system.

The most common tools available to remotely manage a system are

• Microsoft Management Console (MMC) The MMC not only provides a unified interface for most, if not all, graphical interface utilities, it also can be used to connect and manage remote systems. For example, administrators can use the ESM or Active Directory Users and Computers to manage the local computer and a remote system.

• Remote Desktop for Administration This empowers administrators to log onto a remote system as if they were logging onto the system locally. The desktop and all functions are at the administrators' disposal.

• Scripting with Windows Script Host (WSH) Scripting on Windows Server 2003 can permit administrators to automate tasks locally or remotely. These scripts can be written using common scripting languages. There are many scripts that come bundled with Exchange Server 2003 that can perform a myriad of tasks , such as configuring recipient policies, newsgroups, virtual servers, and much more.

• Command-line Utilities Many command-line utilities are capable of managing systems remotely.

• Telnet Telnet is a gateway type of service through which an administrator or client can connect and log on to a server running the Telnet Server service. It is not exactly the most flexible or best tool to use for either Windows Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2003 but it can be easily used to test SMTP functionality. By entering

    telnet <   servername or server IP address   > 25  

  you can test whether Exchange Server 2003 is responding to SMTP requests .

CAUTION

By default, Telnet sends usernames and passwords across the network in plain text.