by Ron M. Sonntag and Raymond W. Sundstrom
The Exchange Server is the engine of Microsoft's client/server messaging system. It manages the tasks required for information interchange: messaging, information storage and organization, information sharing, scheduling, and security.
Exchange is designed to run on an NT Server computer, and it shares some of NT's features such as centralized management using graphical tools, integrated security, and network communications.
To use Exchange, you must install and configure the appropriate services. During installation, Exchange installs and configures services necessary for basic operation. After installation, Exchange is ready to support clients, send and receive e-mail, support creation of public and private folders, and support group scheduling with Schedule+.
This chapter covers the steps that maintain the basic Exchange services. You are introduced to the Exchange Administrator, shown in Figure 10.1, and its role in maintaining Exchange.
Figure 10.1. The Exchange Administrator, connected to an Exchange Server.
With Exchange Administrator you will be able to
The Microsoft Exchange Administrator is the graphical tool that allows management of Exchange Servers. It enables you to configure and maintain an organization, its sites, and servers from a single location. You can run the Administrator from an NT Server or workstation.
After initial Exchange setup, you can manage nearly all aspects of the Exchange Server using the Exchange Administrator, on which you find more detail later in this chapter.
The Exchange Server maintains information in a variety of ways. The two main repositories are the directory and the information store.
The directory holds information about recipients, servers, and messaging configurations. Other Exchange components and third-party applications that work with Exchange use the directory to route messages.
The information store has two components: a repository for data and a collection of services that enable users to send e-mail and use folders.
Nearly every component of the Exchange messaging infrastructure is represented as an object and is managed in some manner by the directory. The following are some of the major objects:
You set the Directory's configurable options by selecting DS Site Configuration from the Exchange Administrator window, as shown in Figure 10.2.
Figure 10.2. Selecting the DS Site Configuration container.
Each setting is displayed on one of the property pages (tabs) in the Exchange Administrator window. The DS Site Configuration property pages are General, Permissions, Offline Address Book Schedule, Offline Address Book, and Custom Attributes.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.3, you can do the following:
Figure 10.3. The DS Site Configuration General property page.
On the Permissions property page, shown in Figure 10.4, you can do the following:
Figure 10.4. The DS Site Configuration Permissions property page.
On the Offline Address Book Schedule property page, shown in Figure 10.5, you can do the following:
Figure 10.5. The DS Site Configuration Offline Address Book Schedule property page.
The Offline Address Book property page controls the attributes of the offline address book. The offline address book enables remote users to have information about other users when the remote users are disconnected from their Exchange Server. For the offline address book, you can select which Exchange Server generates it and which recipients are in it.
On the DS Site Configuration Offline Address Book property page, shown in Figure 10.6, you can do the following:
Figure 10.6. The DS Site Configuration Offline Address Book property page.
If you want to store special information about recipients, Exchange enables you to define up to 10 custom attributes in the Custom Attributes property page, which is shown in Figure 10.7. You can define a field, for example, for an employee badge number.
Figure 10.7. The DS Site Configuration custom attributes property page.
Custom attributes apply to all recipients for a site.
To create a custom attribute, select the Custom Attributes tab. The DS Site Configuration page has 10 entries for custom attributes. Simply enter the label for the custom attribute that you want to create. After you create it, you can enter the custom attribute value on the Custom Attributes property page of each recipient object.
The information store enables users to send and receive e-mail and to store information in both public and private folders. Information stored in public folders can be shared with other Exchange users.
The information store functions include the following:
You can maintain the configuration of the information store by selecting Information Store Site Configuration from the Exchange Administrator window, as shown in Figure 10.8.
Figure 10.8. Selecting the Information Store Site Configuration container.
The Information Store Site Configuration includes several property pages: General, Permissions, Top Level Folder Creation, Storage Warnings, and Public Folder Affinity.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.9, you can do the following:
Figure 10.9. The Information Store Site Configuration General property page.
On the Permissions property page, shown in Figure 10.10, you can specify the rights that users or groups have on the Information Store Site Configuration object. The default is User Rights. The security roles are inherited from the site's configuration object. You also can assign users new security roles by using the Windows NT accounts with Permissions dialog at the bottom of this page.
Figure 10.10. The Information Store Site Configuration Permissions property page.
On the Storage Warnings property page, shown in Figure 10.11, you can set the schedule on which messages are sent to mailbox owners or public folder contacts who have exceeded the maximum amount of space allocated for their mailboxes or public folders.
Figure 10.11. The Information Store Site Configuration Storage Warnings property page.
On the Top Level Folder Creation property page, shown in Figure 10.12, you can set which users have the right to create top-level public folders using the Microsoft Exchange Client. Top-level public folders are the highest tier of the public folder hierarchy. The owner of that folder can set permissions to enable other users to create folders below the top-level folder.
Figure 10.12. The Information Store Site Configuration Top Level Folder Creation property page.
On the Public Folder Affinity property page, shown in Figure 10.13, you can configure Microsoft Exchange so that clients in your site can connect to public folders in other sites. Doing so can reduce the need to replicate public folders to all sites that may need access to them. If a public folder replica is available at multiple sites, a cost can be associated with access by site; Exchange then connects the user to the least cost site.
In order to use Public Folder Affinity to connect to public folders at other sites, users must have a network connection to that site. The network connection must be capable of supporting remote procedure calls.
Examples of the type of connection required are direct network connections (via Ethernet, for example) or a remote network connection using Microsoft's Remote Access Services for Windows.
Figure 10.13. The Information Store Site Configuration Public Folder Affinity property page.
A public folder holds information that can be shared by a group of users. Public folders can provide services such as message forums and electronic bulletin boards. You can set up a public folder, for example, to hold employee classified advertisements. Company press releases and annual reports could be held in folders contained within a company communications folder.
You create public folders using the Exchange client. Folders you create are either top-level folders (at the top of the public folder hierarchy) or subfolders (folders created within folders). Who can create top-level folders is controlled by settings in the Top Level Folder Creation property page of the Information Store Site Configuration container. Settings in the parent folder control who can create subfolders.
A folder is a special type of recipient and, like other recipients (for example, mail boxes), can receive mail.
After you can create a folder, its properties can be maintained either with the Exchange client (to a limited extent) or the Exchange administrator; see Figure 10.14.
Figure 10.14. The Public Folders container.
To maintain a public folder's properties with the Exchange administrator, select the folder in the Administrator window and then choose File | Properties. There are several property pages: General, Replicas, Folder Replication Status, Replication Schedule, Distribution Lists, E-mail Addresses, Custom Attributes, and Advanced.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.15, you can do the following:
Figure 10.15. The Public Folders General property page.
On the Replicas property page, shown in Figure 10.16, you can set up copies (replicas) of folders on other servers in your site. You can select servers that receive copies of a folder from the Servers list box and add them to the Replicate Folders To list box on the site you select in the Site list box. From the Replicate Folders To list box, you can remove servers that are to no longer receive replication of the folder.
Figure 10.16. The Public Folders Replicas property page.
Information about the condition of the copies of a folder is displayed on the Folder Replication Status page, which is shown in Figure 10.17. You can find the following information: the server name, last received time, average transmission time in seconds, and replication status (whether the copy is in sync with the original).
Figure 10.17. The Public Folder Replication Status property page.
The Replication Schedule property page, shown in Figure 10.18, controls when the folder will be copied. The options are to use the information store schedule, never, always, or selected times.
Figure 10.18. The Public Folder Replication Schedule property page.
On the Distribution Lists property page, shown in Figure 10.19, you can specify which distribution lists this folder belongs to. This way, the folder can receive messages addressed to the distribution list. The Distribution List Membership box shows all the distribution lists the folder belongs to. Clicking the Modify button opens a dialog box, shown in Figure 10.20, that enables you to assign the folder to distribution lists.
Figure 10.19. The Public Folders Distribution Lists property page.
Figure 10.20. The Public Folder Distribution Lists Modify dialog box.
Public folders are recipients and have e-mail addresses. On the E-mail Addresses property page, shown in Figure 10.21, you can view, edit, remove, and create them.
Figure 10.21. The Public Folder E-mail Addresses property page.
On the Custom Attributes property page, shown in Figure 10.22, you can enter values for the custom attributes assigned to all recipients using the DS Site Configuration property page.
Figure 10.22. The Public Folder Custom Attributes property page.
On the Advanced property page, shown in Figure 10.23, you can do the following:
Figure 10.23. The Public Folder Advanced property page.
The Exchange Message Transfer Agent (MTA) is responsible for delivering messages to other Microsoft Exchange message transfer agents, information stores, connectors, and third-party gateways.
The MTA is configured in the site configuration container and in the server configuration container. You configure the MTA in the site container by selecting MTA Site Configuration in the Exchange Administrator window, as shown in Figure 10.24. The property pages for the site's MTA configuration are General, Permissions, and Messaging Defaults.
Figure 10.24. Selecting the MTA Site Configuration container.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.25, you can do the following:
Figure 10.25. The MTA Site Configuration General property page.
On the Permissions property page, shown in Figure 10.26, you can do the following:
Figure 10.26. The MTA Site Configuration Permissions property page.
The Messaging defaults properties control values that affect the transmission of messages. These parameters include timeouts for connecting to other systems, message retries, and non-delivery notification. On the Messaging Defaults property page, shown in Figure 10.27, you can do the following:
Figure 10.27. The MTA Site Configuration Messaging Defaults property page.
The property pages for the server's MTA are configured in the server configuration container (see Figure 10.28), using the Message Transfer Agent property pages. The property pages that configure the server's MTA are General and Diagnostics Logging.
Figure 10.28. The Server Configuration container.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.29, you can do the following:
Figure 10.29. The Server Configuration MTA General property page.
The settings on the Diagnostics Logging property page, shown in Figure 10.30, control the amount of information written to the NT Event Log for the activities related to the MTA. Generally, you leave diagnostics logging at the default settings (none) unless you are performance-tuning or troubleshooting an Exchange Server.
Figure 10.30. The Server Configuration MTA Diagnostics Logging property page.
The system attendant provides a group of "helper" functions for Exchange. It generates e-mail addresses for new recipients, maintains the message tracking log, and monitors the connection status between Exchange Servers, among other tasks.
If message tracking is enabled, the system attendant writes logging information that is used by the message tracking center.
You configure the system attendant in the server configuration container by selecting System Attendant from the Exchange Administrator window. The System Attendant property pages are General and E-mail Addresses.
Figure 10.31. Selecting the System Attendant configuration.
On the General property page, shown in Figure 10.32, you can do the following:
Figure 10.32. The System Attendant General property page.
Exchange is a powerful and flexible messaging engine. A great number of the aspects of tuning and maintenance are handled automatically by Exchange itself. There are, however, many features that can be configured to customize Exchange for your particular organization.
Administrative tasks can be distributed among several people by setting configuration permissions. You can display information that can be useful for your users, like recipient custom attributes. You can control the amount of storage that Exchange needs by configuring message size, private information store size, and public folder size. You can balance loads between servers in a large organization by replicating heavily used information. You can influence the amount of processor time Exchange consumes by setting how often replication occurs for public folders and the offline address book. If you configure logging functions you can have valuable tools for monitoring performance, diagnosing problems, and tracking message delivery.
Carefully administrating Exchange will assure a smooth running messaging environment.