CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT
EXCHANGE 2000
SERVER
Almost a decade ago, Microsoft began its development of a powerful enterprise messaging
system, which years later became known as Microsoft Exchange Server. However, the market
had to wait until July 1996, when Microsoft finally released Exchange Server version 4.0,
which relied on a full-featured X.400 (88) message transfer agent.
Lesson 1:
General Overview of Messaging Systems
A new messaging system cannot expect to find an uncultivated market segment. Why should
your organization, which most likely has a messaging solution in place, consider Exchange
2000 Server?
Shared-File Messaging Systems
Shared-file messaging systems maintains a structure of directories and files at a centralized location,
usually on a file server. These centralized structures are often called post offices. Every user who
wants access to e-mail messaging needs to access a mailbox within a post office. Create a personal
store or .pst file, p5.
Client Sending and Polling
To send messages, users must write their data into the directories (mailboxes) of the post office. The
users on the receiving end recognize the written data as incoming messages.
File Locking
When one client opens common files for writing, these files must be locked to prevent accidents. All
other clients must wait until one client has completed its write operation. Microsoft Mail post office,
for instance, are limited to 500 users.
Exercise Summary:
messaging systems. Messages may be waiting, yet the recipients will not be aware of them
until the clients are polling their messages repositories.
make matters worse, polling always happens at regular intervals, even if there are not new
messages to retrieve.
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Client/Server Messaging Systems
These active services interact with the clients and will process the client requests to return the results
only. The client program only has to inform the server, “Here is a message for you. Please deliver it
to Paul,” and the server service will take care of that request. The client does not need to perform the
actual server-side processing, access any file server resources directly, or poll the server anymore
because the active server services are able to contact the client themselves when new messages
arrive: “Hey, aren’t you Paul’s Outlook client? Here’s a new message for you.”
Hardware Resources
To give an example, it is very common to install Exchange 2000 Server on dual-processor machines,
with at least 256 MB of RAM and a well-designed high-performance Small Computer System
Interface (SCSI) disk system.
Exercise Summary:
Exchange 2000 Server is strictly a Windows 2000 Server system comprising various active
Windows 2000 services, which are typically launched when the operating system starts.
Collaboration/Groupware Systems
Your future messaging system should have the capabilities beyond plain messaging. Even better,
automated processes on the active server can deliver information to you when the system
determines it may be helpful or relevant.
Collaboration Solutions
Basically, you only need to place the desired standard module in a public folder and your
work is done.
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The following are types of collaboration solutions based on Exchange 2000 Server and Outlook
2000:
Discussion groups. The repository of a discussion group is a public folder, where users
can post and share information using a standard or customized post form.
Instant collaboration. Solutions of this type rely on build-in Outlook 2000 modules to
realize collaboration solutions with minimal configuration and development effort.
Reference systems. A reference system stores unstructured data of any kind, such
as e-mail messages graphic images, URLs, voice mail message, and Microsoft Office or
other documents.
Routing systems. Routing solutions pass information to individual users in sequence or
to a group of users simultaneously.
Tracking systems. Tracking solutions keep a history of the usage of information and
are most useful for data that is constantly updated. Using a tracking solution, for instance,
you can track who currently is viewing a particular document, who reviewed the document
already, and whether the reviewer(s) approved or made changes to the document.
Real-time collaboration. This provides services that enable you to schedule, create,
administer, join and track online sessions and conferences. Exchange 2000 Conferencing
Server supports data and video conferencing and Exchange 2000 Server’s Instant
Messaging platform allows you to detect the presence of other users on the network and
communicate with them in real time.
Microsoft Web Storage System. Web storage solutions represent a new an exciting
technology that combines data repositories of various types, such as the folder system of
Exchange 2000 Server, the file systems of Windows 200 Server, and Web-based resources,
and presents them as a single place for storing information.
Lesson Summary:
Exchange 2000 Server provides an excellent set of workgroup
and workflow features.
Lesson 2:
Exchange 2000 Server Design Goals
Microsoft’s customer-driven software design process relies on direct customer responses, usability
testing, and field studies. Customer responses are gathered from sources such as Microsoft Product
Support Services and discussion forums on the Internet, as well as direct design requests, which
come primarily from developers, solutions providers, independent software vendors, and IP
managers.
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Early adapters, for instance, used Exchange 2000 Server in their production environments during
the beta phase and provided valuable feedback that helped to guarantee a high quality standard
for the released software.
Powerful Infrastructure for Messaging and Collaboration
Each organization has a unique environment and a unique set of requirements. A small company
might plan to use Exchange 2000 Server for only 80 users.
Distributed Security Services
This includes Kerberos and SSL, which allows seamless access to all authorized network,
messaging and collaboration resources on the basis of a single authentication that is performed
during the initial logon to the network.
Distributed Server Configurations
With Exchange 2000 Server, you can partition services across multiple servers to implement
front-end/back-end server configurations.
Integration with Active Directory Directory Services.
Trouble-free administration and maintainability is achieved through seamless integration with
Windows 2000, particularly with Microsoft’s Active Directory.
Internet Mail Integration
Seamless integration with Windows 2000 is also a key factor in Exchange 2000 Server’s
improved performance and scalability, which is achieved through increased integration with
Internet-based message transport protocols. For instance, Exchange 2000 uses and extends
the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service of Windows 2000 for all native server-
to-server communication, which results in a flexible routing scheme.
Likewise, Exchange 2000 Server provides the best performance for Internet based e-mail
clients through its capability of storing and retrieving message objects encoded with Multiple
Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). In addition, Exchange 2000 Server supports X.509 V3
certificates and certificate trusts lists (CTLs), which enable Secure/MIME (S/MIME) compatible
e-mail clients to send S/MIME encrypted and signed e-mail.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Integration
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Utilizing MMC’s features, you can create customized management tools and assign them to
your administration to let them focus on specific management tasks, such as mailbox and public
folder maintenance.
Multiple Clustering
Clustering with multiple active nodes and Exchange 2000 Server can benefit from these advanced
configurations.
Multiple Storage Groups
With Exchange 2000 you can split your mailbox and public folder resources across multiple
message databases. This allows you to perform backup and restore operations for subsets
of messaging resources independently. Splitting mailbox and public folder resources across
multiple storage groups increases reliability, results in fewer lost work hours in the event of
system failure, and reduces the time required to restore a system.
*** NATIVE MODE ONLY *****.
Support for Collaborative Business Solutions
When specialists get excited about a particular software solution, they sometimes refer to it
as a “killer app.” The installable file system of Exchange 2000 Server, which relies on the
Web Storage System, is such a solution because it allows you to access your mailbox and
public folder resources using virtually any application you want.
Knowledge Workers Without Limits
Using a Web browser, for instance, you can access all items through URLs and its
establishes a platform for information management that includes consistent search and
data categorization.
Collaboration and Communication Without Limits
For most organizations, it is crucial to invest in future-oriented technologies, especially
when entire business processes must rely on it (such as, the communication infrastructure).
We’ll have smart TVs. Wherever you are, you’ll be able to access your own digital
dashboard, the set of information that you care about on any screen, from a PC to that
small pocket device.
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Outlook Web Access
Outlook Web Access is an application that works in conjunction with Internet Information
Services (IIS). Using Outlook Web Access, you can access your mailbox, public folders,
calendar and appointment items, and contact information using any standard browser that
supports script languages and frames.
Online Conferencing
Data conferencing services rely on the T.120 standard, which support document authoring
with client software such as Microsoft NetMeeting. Video conferencing, on the other hand,
offers integrated scheduling and management services for multicast video conferencing based
on the H.323 protocol suite. The Gatekeeper.
Unified Messaging
Unified messaging is a synonym for the convergence of voice and data systems. Exchange
2000 Server includes support for the Voice Profile for Internet Mail standard that facilitates
interoperability and compatibility among voice and messaging systems and built-in voice
forms.
Chat Services
Chat Service in Exchange 2000 Server can be scaled up to 20,000 users per server.
Lesson 3:
Backward Compatibility and Interoperability
Messaging systems are typical computer network applications: They don’t make much sense
if they are used as a stand-alone applications on a single computer. The Internet, for instance,
combines all kinds of computer systems. For this reason, protocol standards have been
developed to allow different computer systems to communicate with each other. Exchange
2000 Server supports the relevant messaging standards, making it a tremendous flexible
platform.
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Coexisting with Earlier Versions of Exchange Server
Exchange 2000 Server and previous versions are not alike. The system architecture has
changed significantly in that the new version integrates tightly with Windows 2000 Server,
whereas previous versions maintain their resources separately.
Server-to-Server Communication
Computers running Exchange Server 5.5 at a single site communicate with each other using
remote procedure calls (RPCs). Exchange 2000 servers, on the other hand, use SMTP as
their native server-to-server transport protocol.
Mixed Mode Operation
Exchange 2000 Server supports a specific operation mode called mixed mode to facilitate
coexistence with previous Exchange Server versions and it provides all required components
for directory replication with previous versions (Active Directory Connector [ADC] and
Site Replication Service [SRS].
NOTE: If you need to connect your Exchange 2000 Server environment to previous
versions in the future, continue to operate your organization in mixed mode for full backward
compatibility.
Active Directory Directory Services Integration
Using the ADC, earlier Exchange Server versions are able to replicate their directory
information with Active Directory.
Coexistence with Other Messaging Systems
Direct connections to Microsoft Mail, Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, and Novell Group
Wise are supported.
Coexistence Through Messaging Standards
Exchange 2000 does not provide connectors to further messaging systems, which is an issue
if you plan to connect Exchange 2000 Server to an environment currently utilizing Professional
Office Systems (PROF), System Network Architecture Distributed Systems (SNADS), or
any other system not mentioned previously. In these situations, use one of the well-established
messaging standards (SMTP or X.400) to build the e-mail bridge.
Coexistence via Earlier Exchange Server Versions
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Alternatively, you may use connectors installed on computers running Exchange Server 5.5,
provided you operate your Exchange 2000 organization in mixed mode.
Windows 2000 Network Components
Exchange 2000 provides various connectors and relies on Windows 2000 protocols to
support its integration into a heterogeneous environment. Lotus cc:Mail and Lotus Notes
can operate over a variety of local area networks (LAN) protocols, such as TCP/IP or
IPX/SPX, all of which are supported by Windows 2000 Server.
Supported Client Platforms
Because of its implementation of popular messaging standards, Exchange 2000 Server
supports a wide variety of messaging clients.
Messaging Application Programming Interface
MAPI is more than a single protocol; it’s a description of a messaging architecture. It
defines the interface for both the client and the underlying messaging system. Many different
vendors of messaging systems now provide MAPI drivers for standardizing access to their
messaging servers as well.
Internet-Based messaging Standards
The most popular Internet-based messaging standards supported by Exchange 2000 Server
are POP3, IMAP4, HTTP, and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). Several other
Internet standards and protocols, such as MIME, are likewise implemented. For instance,
you can use POP3 client software regardless of your operating system to download messages
from a computer running Exchange 2000.
Exercise Summary:
resources.
operating systems including MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.1 and Windows 2000, as well
as Apple Macintosh.
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Chapter Summary:
administration even in complex environment.
workflow capabilities.
mixing with earlier Exchange Server versions. It also provides all required components for
coexistence with MS Mail, Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, and Novell GroupWise.
connectors, such as for PROFS or SNADS, or via common messaging standards, such
as SMTP and X.400.