Administrators of Exchange 2000/2003 in both small and large organizations always end up hearing the same complaints when it comes to managing an Exchange 2000/2003 organization. The following are some of the common complaints administrators reported hearing:
Finding the right object or configuration task within Exchange System Manager is difficult because the object or task is often buried many levels deep.
The Exchange System Manager is poorly designed and often objects are found in the tree view and tree objects are found in the management pane.
Management of Exchange servers and mail recipients through scripting is very difficult.
Bulk management of recipient objects is difficult.
There are too many different APIs for managing Exchange-related configuration data and mailbox data.
The new Exchange 2007 administrative architecture is designed to be much more administrator friendly whether you prefer to work from the graphical user interface or from the command line. The Exchange Management Console has been greatly improved and the new Exchange Management Shell will keep command-line enthusiasts and Unix administrators very happy.
Topics in this chapter include the following:
The new administrative architecture
The Exchange Management Console
Assigning administrative permissions
Basics of the Exchange Management Shell