Introduction

Overview

Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is the latest in a successful series of Mastering Exchange Server books. Each book has helped introduce tens of thousands of readers to the concepts of Exchange and helped Exchange administrators successfully support their Exchange systems better and more accurately.

We took a step back and looked at the previous editions of the book to try to figure out how much of the previous material was still relevant. We quickly realized that the book was going to have to be almost completely rewritten since the entire administrative model of Exchange 2007 has changed. We were faced with the challenge of explaining not only a completely new management interface, but also the new Exchange Management Shell command-line interface, new server roles, and new features.

We started designing the new book almost a year before Exchange Server 2007 was to be released. Much of the book was written using beta 2 code and consequently updated once the released version was ready. In writing this book, we had a few goals for both the book and the knowledge we want to impart to the reader.

• The book is designed to help you master the basics of Exchange Server 2007. We want you to get all of the basic skills necessary to install and manage an Exchange Server 2007 system.

• The skills and tasks covered in this book should be applicable to 80 percent of all organizations running Exchange Server.

• The book should educate not only "new to product" administrators, but those "new to version" administrators that are upgrading from a previous version.

• The book should introduce you to that 20 percent feature set, such as clustering and unified messaging, that will be applicable to only certain types of organizations.

• The book should impart as much practical advice as possible given that as we write this book, Exchange Server 2007 has only been in the hands of customers for a few months.

Despite the fact that many things have changed, if you are upgrading from a previous version you will still be comfortable with the concepts and principles of operation. Exchange Server 5.5 was one of the most powerful, extensible, scalable, easy-to-use, and manageable electronic-messaging back ends on the market. Exchange 2000 Server retained all of 5.5's best features and added new ones. Exchange Server 2003 went a step further, altering interfaces that didn't quite work in the 2000 flavor and adding some great new features.

Microsoft listened to the advice of many of its customers and its internal consultants at Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and to Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs), Most Valued Professionals (MVPs), and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) to find out what was missing from earlier versions of the product and what organizations' needs were. Much of this work even started before Exchange Server 2003 was released. Here are some of the common requests, feedback, and complaints that customers frequently provided about earlier versions of Exchange Server:

• Simply the management interface and make it easier to script all Exchange management functions.

• Allow for local or remote replicas of Exchange databases.

• Provide better anti-spam capabilities and update anti-spam configuration data and signatures frequently.

• Provide better security for mobile devices and make them easier to manage.

• Provide better integration with voicemail and faxing solutions.

• Make resource scheduling and calendaring better integrated.

• Reduce the burden on help desks by enabling clients to be configured automatically.

Improvements to Exchange Server 2007 are not to any single component. For starters, the management interface was completely revamped. The new Exchange Management Console simplifies Exchange Server administration with a totally redesigned interface that makes finding features and components much easier. The Exchange Management Shell provides a powerful alternative to the Exchange Management Console; all administrative tasks can be performed via the Exchange Management Shell, including many advanced tasks that cannot even be performed in the graphical user interface. All mail-enabled recipient administration (mailboxes, groups, and contacts) is now performed through the Exchange Management Console utility, not the Active Directory Users and Computers utility; needless to say, this was a bit of a controversial decision. The Exchange 2000/2003 extensions for Active Directory Users and Computers no longer work reliably with Exchange Server 2007. Some features continue to work, but mail-enabled objects should not be created through Exchange System Manager, and once they have been moved to Exchange 2007 servers, they should not be managed using Exchange System Manager.

Another controversial decision was to support only x64 processor architecture. Exchange Server 2007 requires Windows 2003 SP1 x64 or Windows 2003 R2 x64. The decision to support the x64 architecture was driven by the need for more RAM in larger organizations. Exchange Server 2007 has been tested heavily in environments with up to 32GB of RAM. More RAM improves disk I/O performance dramatically.

Exchange Server 2007's tight integration with Active Directory has not changed; almost all of the Exchange configuration data and recipient e-mail attributes is still stored in the Active Directory just as it was with Exchange 2000/2003. A popular misconception is that Exchange recipient configuration is no longer in the Active Directory since the recipient management utility is no longer Active Directory Users and Computers.

To simplify installation of Exchange Server 2007 and to make it easier for organizations that split server functions across multiple servers, the setup program allows you to chose which functions (called roles) the server supports. These roles include the Mailbox server, the Client Access server, the Hub Transport server, the Unified Messaging server and the Edge Transport server. Additionally, during installation, a server can be configured as either an active clustered server or a passive cluster server. By allowing the installer to easily separate the functions of a server during installation, setup is simpler and the server is more secure because only the components necessary for that server's functions are installed.

One of the most interesting new feature sets for Exchange Server 2007 is the ability to replicate a database to another location on the same server or a remote server. The replication is based on replicating the transaction logs; once they have been completely filled to another location, the logs are replayed to a backup copy of the database. Local continuous replication allows you to replicate a copy of the database to another location on the local server and to very quickly recover from a database failure. Clustered continuous replication allows you to keep a replicated copy of the databases from the active node on the passive node of the cluster.

Although sender filtering, recipient filtering, sender ID, and real-time block list features have been retained, anti-spam capabilities have been improved with additional methods of connection filtering, such as reputation filtering. An all-new version of the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) is now included with Exchange Server 2007 and is called the content filter. Customers with Enterprise client access licenses can get daily updates to the reputation filter and the content filter. Anti-spam components can be installed on the Hub Transport servers or they can be offloaded to dedicated Edge Transport servers in an organization's perimeter network. Enterprise client access licenses allow an organization to use Microsoft's Forefront Security for Exchange (formerly Sybari Antigen).

If you ever wanted to have better control of messages in transit, then the redesigned message transport and transport rules will have you dancing on tables. All messages are delivered through a Hub Transport server role regardless of whether they are being delivered locally or remotely. Transport rules allow you to apply conditions to messages moving through the transport (such as sender/recipient, sender/recipient group memberships, message classification, and so on) and take actions on them.

Calendaring and resource scheduling have been dramatically improved. The free/busy functions of earlier versions of Exchange have been completely replaced with a new web service. Resource mailboxes are now specific mailbox types rather than just generic mailboxes as with previous versions. The Calendar Concierge feature allows the administrator to configuration automatic resource booking options.

Outlook Web Access is better than ever with a completely revamped interface that includes improved options, better scheduling integration, and the ability to manage mobile devices via the Outlook Web Access interface.

Another new web service is the Autodiscover service; the Autodiscover service works with Outlook 2007 and Windows Mobile 6 devices automatically configure Outlook to connect to the correct Exchange resources regardless of whether the client is on the internal network or the external network.

An entirely new Exchange Server function is the Unified Messaging server role, which integrates with your Voice over IP phone system or legacy PBX via VOIP gateway. This allows Exchange Server to handle your automated call routing, inbound voicemail, and inbound faxing. Exchange users can call into the Unified Messaging server to retrieve their voicemail, have their e-mail read to them, listen to their calendar, or even move items around on their calendar.

With these and an impressive array of other features, Exchange Server 2007 can help your organization move smoothly and productively into the world of advanced, enhanced electronic messaging.