Saturday, November 14, 2009

Exchange Server 2010: Previous exchange server Coexistence

Exchange server 2010 have the option for coexisting with the previous version of Exchange server 2003 and 2007 in the same forest. It is not possible to have exchange 2000 or exchange 5.5 with the exchange 2010 in the same exchange organization. Integrating Exchange server 2010 into the existing exchange 2003 or 2007 is called the transition scenario, where as new deployment of exchange server 2003 in new active directory forest and then transferring/migrating the records across the forest is called migration scenario.

Hope the above is informative.

Thanks
Logan
971552596187

Message Routing in Exchange 2007 vs. Exchange 2003 Multisite Environment:

The message routing architecture in multi site environment is always an interesting one to explore. We all know the role of routing groups and also routing group connector in exchange2003, this has been revised in fact completely modified in exchange 2007. Routing group and connectors concept has been removed in the exchange 2003. Lets us consider the below scenario for example,

Site1 – Amsterdam Main Office – subnet 10.10.0.0/16

Site2 – Auckland Branch Office – subnet 10.11.0.0/16

We can domain controller in both sites for user authentication and other domain info. We can also have DNS in both sites. So with the help of the site link (WAN link), we will be able to enable the replication b/w the sites. Now, coming to the messaging part, we have only option to use the routing group and connector for message transport b/w the sites. Since active directory sites and Exchange server routing groups are independent one, i.e. not compatible with each other.

Exchange 2007 has the new feature that Hub transport server role has been built in a manner that it will use the active directory sites for the message routing. In this case, transport hub server in Amsterdam will use the active directory site link to route the message to the hub transport server in Auckland and vice versa.

I end up here; you people can explore more in this for more detail. Hope the above is informative.

Thanks
Logan
9841499143 | Logu_microsoft@hotmail.com


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Exchange server 2010’s new features:

Hope, everyone are excited and waiting for the release of the exchange 2010. The below are some of the new features of the exchange 2010. I tried to put in simpler terms and have not described in detail, the idea is to have an overview of the exchange 2010 product. I have covered only the few important and major changes, apart from this there are still many other changes have been done. Please visit Microsoft site for more details.

1. DAG – Database Availability Group.
2. Improved Outlook Web Access called as outlook web app which has features like search options, favorites, attaching message to message, etc.
3. Edit option for user properties like username, telephone number in OWA.
4. ECP called Exchange control panel for organization level changes like user, group and distribution list creation/changes.
5. No More LCR and SCR clustering technology of exchange 2007 are removed and replaced by new Database Availability group.
6. Server Cluster failover technique also removed because still the so many system administrator are not comfortable in doing it. The Microsoft has come up with the effective and ease alternative for this.
7. No more storage groups term available in exchange 2010, so only database is the predominant one and other database files, transaction log and database type(JET) are same as of the exchange 2007.
8. SIS – Single Instance Storage is no longer available in exchange, means that traditional model has been changed. I.e. when you send a mail of 1 MB to 10 different recipients, the db potentially grows 10 MB. So obviously consumes for storage requirement but the performance on the database I/O has been improved drastically.
9. Database page file size has been increased from 4KB to 8KB, improving the I/O on the disk file system.
10. No more 32 bit processor support for testing also.
11. Microsoft is also gradually moving to the cloud technology. Microsoft Online Services helps to host the mailbox also. It can be 100% hosted or 100% in premise or can be also mixed environment.
12. Powershell V2 more powerful, also has a new feature called IDE Interactive Development Environment using which you can built a script and also run the output with the small output window. The option for remote management of exchange is also possible with Windows Remote Management, which is included with the Powershell V2.
13. Send mail GUI option available in the EMC for testing mail flow.
14. Active Directory Rights Management enables to have the control of the message after sending to the recipients like disabling the forward option of the confidential messages.
15. Cross premises routing is possible.
16. Enhanced disclaimer with HTML code, pictures, hyperlinks, etc is available.
17. In exchange 2007, after delivering the message from hub transport server to next hop, it will be deleted. The same in exchange 2010, the message will be deleted only after the successful receipt of the message from the next hop, in case of non-receipt, it will try to redeliver the message. This type reliable routing model is called as Shadow Redundancy Routing Model.
18. Role Based Access Model for implementing the permission for the administrative accounts.
19. Personnel archive folder option or can be called as Archive PST with all live mailbox.
20. Improved Unified messaging roles with some exciting new features like Voicemail preview, integration with SMS test message, additional language support, etc.

Hope the above is informative.

Thanks

Logan

Logu_microsoft@hotmail.com | 971552596187