Planning Considerations and Best Practices

Before deploying the Exchange 2003 Outlook client, organizations should consider all the details involved with the Outlook client deployment. Because most organizations support different types of clients and can have complicated messaging environments in multiple locations, client deployments should be reviewed and planned in detail to avoid any unforeseen potential issues.

Identifying the types of client needs involved in each deployment and reviewing the overall network topology can greatly enhance the performance of each deployment and assist with the transparent client installation.

Network Topology Bandwidth Consideration

In any situation, administrators must plan Outlook client deployments in a manner that avoids client network disruptions and bandwidth saturation when deploying to remote locations.

Evaluating the network environment and determining the needs of remote location for each deployment can help ensure a transparent deployment of the Outlook client. In a single-location network environment, planning the deployment can be accomplished by evaluating the bandwidth availability of the network to avoid network problems when pushing or deploying the Outlook client with Group Policy. Because the installation can be pushed over the network, deployments should be planned and pushed in smaller groups.

With multisite organizations, administrators must also plan and deploy the Outlook client without causing network disruptions. One larger factor in this scenario is Wide Area Network (WAN) links. Because these types of connections are generally much slower than local network connections, it is difficult to complete multiple Outlook client deployments without possibly causing communication issues over the WAN links.

With shares called Administrative Distribution Points in each remote location, deployments can still be centrally managed while deploying client installation from each local share. Using these Administrative Distribution Points can avoid bandwidth saturation over WAN links and enhance the overall time required to deploy the Outlook client in remote locations.

Planning Best Practices

To assist in the planning process involved with deploying the Outlook client, study the following common considerations and best practices:

• Deploying the Outlook client with the Microsoft Office suite provides enhanced functionality, such as using Microsoft Word for the Outlook client email editor.

• Documenting all profile settings and configuration options for each Transform, PRF, and custom installation file.

• Testing deployment options and profile generations in a test environment before deployment to network desktops.

• Deploying to a smaller pilot group first.

• Performing deployments in small groups and phases for ease of management.

• Creating and naming configuration files based on the group or configuration options they will apply. For example, create a file called Public.PRF to configure options for group workstations called Public Relations.

Addressing Remote and Mobile Client Systems

Addressing remote and mobile Exchange Outlook client needs presents an entirely different challenge for administrators when planning the Outlook client deployment. With remote and mobile users accessing the network in many different ways, administrators should consider the impact on the installation when clients access the network over low bandwidth links.

Scheduling remote and mobile users to come into a location where administrators can perform the installation manually can often be easier than deploying over slow network connections. If required to deploy Outlook for these types of clients, use the Installation State options page to install only the required components needed to support the Outlook client, reducing the overall size of the installation package. Leverage Administrative Installation Points located closest to the remote or mobile user 's access point to deploy the Outlook client.

Managing the Outlook Deployment

It is difficult to manage the deployment of Outlook clients without additional software, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). With Microsoft Systems Management Server, deployments can be tracked and managed down to the desktop level, enabling administrators to identify desktops needing the Outlook client, deploy Outlook, and even indemnify failed installations in a single report.

When options such as SMS are not available, it can be difficult to determine how the deployment of the Outlook client is progressing, because all evidence of the Outlook client installation is not remotely present through the standard tool available in the ORK and Windows 2003. Administrators must use other methods to determine whether a software installation was successful:

• Look for MSI Installer events that are written into the Application Event Logs.

• On the local machine, view Add/Remove programs to see whether the Outlook update package is listed.