Chapter 3: Designing a New Exchange 2007 System

Overview

Whether your system will be based on a single Exchange server in a single physical location or hundreds of Exchange servers spread out over multiple locations, you need to consider a number of design issues before implementation. This chapter presents a step-by-step planning model based loosely on a process developed by Microsoft. Tracking and retracking through these steps will help your organization decide where it wants to go with electronic messaging and how it can get there with Exchange.

One of the common reasons that Exchange server deployments are slow or have many problems is that organizations don't take the time to properly gather and review all of the relevant information. We can tell you from lots of experience that this process really works. Generally, we have found that we can gather any required information and generate a fairly complex first-draft plan, complete with a most convincing executive summary, in a month or so.

Warning 

Exchange deployments often fail when all of the factors that affect Exchange and Active Directory are not considered.

This chapter isn't just about design, though. It also offers practical information about Exchange Server 2007 and how it works. For example, you'll find detailed information about Exchange's network connection options: what they do and which networking topologies and protocols support them. Information such as this is central to designing and implementing an Exchange system, and it's not found anywhere else in this book.

This is a long chapter covering a great deal of information in detail. Just as you wouldn't try to implement a complex Exchange system in one day, you shouldn't try to plow through this chapter in one hour.

Note 

We cover installing Exchange Server 2007 as well as migrating Exchange Server 2000/2003 systems to Exchange Server 2007 in later chapters. However, even if your immediate goal is a migration, we strongly suggest you first carefully read this chapter.

Much of the information found in this chapter will be more relevant to an organization that is deploying Exchange Server for the first time, but we hope even organizations that are upgrading from Exchange 2000/2003 (or earlier) will still find some useful information in this chapter. If you are new to Exchange management and someone else designed your organization's Exchange infrastructure, this chapter may be of use to you when figuring out why some of the things are designed the way they are.

Topics in this chapter include the following:

• Assigning accountabilities for planning, design, and management

• Performing a needs assessment

• Planning your network configuration

• Rolling out the plan