Introduction

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When my co-authors and I set out to write this book, we wanted to provide a fresh perspective on planning, designing, implementing, and migrating to an Exchange Server 2003 environment. The four of us (Rand, Mike, Kenton, and Joe) started working with Exchange Titanium more than 18 months prior to the product release to the public. We had several clients who were large beta implementers of Exchange Server 2003, and some of our clients have dozens of servers in production using the Exchange 2003 beta. With our clients having hundreds of thousands of mail users migrated to Exchange 2003 for months prior to product release, we have been fortunate to gain a breadth and depth of a broad Exchange 2003 install base. This provided us with the knowledge and experience behind the creation of this book.

Unlike some books that are merely a cut-and-paste of a previous Exchange 2000 edition of the book, the structure, organization, and content in this book was written from scratch. We felt it was important to outline and write information specific to the Exchange Server 2003 so that your review and use of this information is focused on the features and benefits of the Exchange 2003 environment. We also felt this approach would incorporate our true recommendations for best practices, tips, and tricks to get the most out of an Exchange Server 2003 messaging environment.

This book is organized into 10 parts , each part focusing on core Exchange Server 2003 areas, with several chapters making up each part:

  • Part I: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Overview This part provides an introduction to Exchange Server 2003, not only from the perspective of a general technology overview, but also to note what is truly new in Exchange Server 2003 that made it compelling enough for organizations to implement the technology in beta in a production environment. We also cover basic planning, prototype testing, and migration techniques, and provide a full chapter on the installation of Exchange Server 2003.

  • Part II: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Messaging This part covers the design of an Exchange Server 2003 messaging environment for small, medium, and large organizations. It also covers the integration of Exchange 2003 in a non-Windows environment. We understand that the implementation of Exchange is different for organizations of different sizes. Small organizations typically do not have the need for extensive routing groups and administrative groups, so the design illustrations focus on limited server environments. Exchange for large organizations frequently involves extensive front-end, back-end, and distributed user environments, so specific design recommendations are made for these types of organizations.

  • Part III: Microsoft Networking Services' Impact on Exchange This part covers DNS, Global Catalog and domain controller placement, Microsoft routing and remote access configuration, and Outlook Web Access configuration from the perspective of planning, integrating, migrating, and coexistence. Notes, tips, and best practices provide valuable information on features that are new in Exchange Server 2003. You explore what's new and different that you can leverage after a migration to Exchange Server 2003.

  • Part IV: Securing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Environment Security is on everyone's mind these days, and Microsoft knew it and included several major security enhancements to Exchange Server 2003. We dedicate three chapters of the book to security, breaking the information into client-level security, such as remote client access, message encryption, and attachment encryption; server-level security, such as encrypted front-end and back-end server configuration, certificates, and privacy and antispam protection; and transport-level security, such as IPSec, http proxy, and system-to-system encrypted communications.

  • Part V: Migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 This part is dedicated to migrations. We provide a chapter specifically on migrating from Windows NT4 to Windows Server 2003 as it applies to planning and preparing Active Directory with Exchange Server 2003 in mind. Other chapters in this part of the book address migrating Exchange 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000 to Exchange Server 2003, and compatibility testing of Exchange add-ins and components in a Windows 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 environment. These chapters are loaded with tips, tricks, and cautions on migration steps and best practices.

  • Part VI: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administration and Management In this part, four chapters focus on the administration of an Exchange Server 2003 environment. This is where the importance of a newly written book (as opposed to a modified Exchange 2000 book) is of value to you, the reader. The administration and management of mailboxes, distribution lists, and sites have been greatly enhanced in Exchange Server 2003. Although you can continue to perform tasks the way you did in Exchange 2000, because of significant changes in replication, background transaction processing, secured communications, integrated mobile communications, and changes in Windows 2003 Active Directory, there are better ways to work with Exchange Server 2003. These chapters drill down into specialty areas helpful to administrators of varying levels of responsibility.

  • Part VII: New Mobility Functionality in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Mobility is a key improvement in Exchange Server 2003, so this part focuses on enhancements made in the mobile phone and PDA replication tools to Exchange. Instead of just providing a remote node connection, Exchange Server 2003 provides true end-to-end secured anytime / anywhere access functionality. The wireless mobility functions provide access to Exchange, using mobile phone, wireless device, and PDA support. The chapters in this part highlight best practices on implementing and leveraging these technologies.

  • Part VIII: Client Access to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 This part of the book focuses on the enhancements to the Outlook Web Access client, various Outlook client capabilities, and Outlook for non-Windows systems. Outlook Web Access is no longer just a simple browser client, but one that can effectively be a full primary user client to Exchange. Different versions of the full Outlook client have varying levels of support in Exchange 2003 relative to security, XML-based forms support, data recovery, and information manageability. The chapters in this part of the book focus on providing details on leveraging the client capabilities.

  • Part IX: Client Administration and Management As many organizations choose to upgrade the client software on their desktop and mobile users, new capabilities in Windows Group Policies and various deployment techniques simplify the process. The two chapters in this part of the book cover best practices, tips, and techniques to automate the client administration and management process.

  • Part X: Fault Tolerance and Optimization Technologies The last part of the book addresses fault tolerance, data recovery, and system optimization in Exchange Server 2003. Exchange Server 2003 must be reliable, and Microsoft included several new enhancements in fault-tolerant technologies and data recovery to Exchange 2003. The four chapters in this part address system-level fault tolerance in leveraging clustering and network load balancing technologies, best practices in backup and restore procedures, tested procedures at recovering from a disaster, and capacity analysis and performance optimization of an Exchange 2003 environment. When these new technologies are implemented in an Exchange messaging environment, an organization can truly achieve better enterprise-level reliability and recoverability.

The real-world experience we have had in working with Exchange Server 2003 and our commitment to writing this book from scratch enables us to relay to you information that will be valuable in your successful planning, implementation, and migration to an Exchange Server 2003 environment.

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Unleashed
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Unleashed (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672328070
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 393
Authors: Rand Morimoto

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