Compared with Exchange 2003, one of the biggest changes in Microsoft's
philosophy is that Exchange 2010 now has
five server roles. This passion for 'Roles' mirrors Microsoft's
mantra of 'Customize This Server' on Windows Server 2008.
At one extreme you could deploy a single 2010 Server with four roles and forget about the
Edge (Gateway) server role. At the other extreme you could have five separate
Exchange servers, one for each role. Microsoft call this increased scalability, I think of it as
greater flexibility.
Exchange 2010 with its five roles, will benefit
those who have a clear plan of what they want to achieve from their email servers. In retrospect it could be argued that Exchange 2003 tried to be all things to all people.
As a result add-ons like
Conference Server and Instant Messaging are not available, instead Exchange
2010 concentrates on being a premier email server.
♠
Exchange
2010 -
Five Server Roles
In 2003 versions of Microsoft Exchange Server you could not select
specific roles, because all features were installed on each server.
Exchange Server 2010 uses the concept of server roles to control which
capabilities are installed on which Exchange server. The benefit of
this new arrangement is improved scalability, better security and simplified
administration.
Note: Exchange Server 2010 should be installed on a
member server, and not a domain controller.
Mailbox is a good name for the core Exchange server, which stores all the email. Incidentally, remember to install IIS and the World Wide Web (WWW) service.
Installing a Mailbox Server
on Windows Server 2008 and linking it a CAS (Client Access Server) would be like pairing the Back-end / Front-end
servers in Exchange 2003.
One surprise is that Mailbox servers do not transfer messages between mailboxes,
for this message delivery you need a Hub Transport server. Bear this in
mind when troubleshooting non-delivery of internal email. For smaller
Exchange Organization you could combine the Mailbox and Hub Transport roles
on the same server.)
Conceptially, the Mailbox server must connect with the Active Directory,
CAS, the Hub Transport server, Unified Messaging server and of course those
Microsoft Outlook clients.
Here is a list of Exchange related services on your Windows 2008 Server.
MSExchangeIS - Microsoft Exchange Information Store
MSExchangeMailboxAssistants - Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants
MSExchangeSearch - Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer
MSExchangeServiceHost - Microsoft Exchange Service Host
MSExchangeMonitoring - Microsoft Exchange Monitoring
MSExchangeSA Microsoft - Exchange System Attendant
MSExchangeMailSubmission - Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission
Msftesql-Exchange - Microsoft Search (Exchange Server)
MSExchangeTranportLogSearch - Microsoft Exchange Transport Log
Search
MSExchangeADTopology - Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology
The
Client Access Server (CAS) is installed by default. Plan to have for a
Client Access server in each site that has an Exchange 2010 mailbox server.
Your main clients will probably be desktop machines running Microsoft Outlook
2002 or later.
Other client types include POP3, IMAP4, Exchange ActiveSync, Web, and Outlook
Anywhere.
In terms of transition , CAS replaces those front-end
servers from Exchange 2003 days. As expected CAS also supports OWA (Outlook Web Access) clients.
The Client Access Server also supports Autodiscover. For those who require
internet access then configure an ISA server to manage the transition across
the firewall from internet to internal network.
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The best feature of this new this new version of SolarWinds VM Monitor is that it
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displays the CPU and memory utilization for each node.
It's easy to install and to configure this virtual machine monitor, all
you need the host server's IP address or hostname and the logon info. Give
this virtual machine monitor a try - it's free.
If your Client Access Server is accessible from the Internet, you
need to take
precautions. The crucial decision is whether to locate CAS on the internal
network or the perimeter network. If the
decision is close, I would locate the Client Access Server(s) on
the internal network.
You must install the CAS
role on a member server that has access to a
Global Catalog server. Also remember that the CAS must be able to
contact the Mailbox servers inside your Exchange
organization. A ratio of 1 CAS : 4 Mailbox servers works well.
In the case of Exchange organizations with fewer than 500 mailboxes you
could combine CAS with other Exchange roles, for
example, Hub Transport.
Once installed, I would call for the Security Configuration Wizard and
listen to its suggestions to lock down ports
and disable services that your particular Client Access server deployment does not
require. Only allow
access through the external and internal firewall for the essential
protocols. One solution would be to install and configure Microsoft's
Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.
The hub transport role replaces the old routing connectors. Smaller organizations would probably add this role to the Mailbox
Server or
possibly the Client Access server. The key point is that even for
large organizations, the Hub Server manages the delivery of all internal
Exchange 2010 email. At its heart, the Hub Server has a categorizer, which
analyzes each email and delivers it to the appropriate mailbox.
Hub Servers also have a Journaling Agent. You have the technical ability
to save a copy of all email, how much, or how little use you make of this
facility is best discussed with your company lawyers.
Guy Recommends:
The SolarWinds Exchange Monitor
Here is a
free tool to monitor your Exchange Server. Download and
install the utility, then inspect your mail queues, monitor the Exchange
server's memory, confirm there is enough disk space, and check the CPU
utilization.
This is the real deal - there is no catch. SolarWinds provides this
fully-functioning freebie, as part of their commitment to supporting
the network management community.
Let us consider what happens to 'native' clients. By native I mean:
Microsoft Office Outlook 200x, Office Outlook Web Access, Outlook by Phone.
Let us analyze what happens when one of these accounts with an Exchange mailbox, sends a message.
We will pick up the trail from the message waiting in the outbox.
The Exchange Mail Submission service, contacts
the Store driver which transfers the email into the 'Submission queue' on
the Hub Transport server. This queue leads to the Categorizer, which
is the heart of the Hub Transport server. Rather
like the snail-mail postal service, the Categorizer looks up the recipient's
mailbox, then resolves the best route to that site. Unlike the
snail-mail service, the Categorizer can also do other stuff, such as content
conversion and applying any mail flow rules that are in operation.
The categorizer has two helpers, 'Local Delivery' and 'SMTP Send'.
From their descriptive names, I am sure you can work out which one is for a
mailbox delivery to a server in the same
site, and which one requires remote delivery with external routing.
Because I want to build up concepts slowly but surely, the above diagram
focuses only on internal email. To make the diagram more realistic,
the Categorizer would also have arrows indicating delivery of email from the
internet. My point is that the Categorizer is the central component,
and deals with routing all email irrespective of its source.
This server hosts the integration of voice (voice-mail), calendar, email and fax. Unified messaging enables
voicemail and faxes to be delivered to the Outlook 2010 (Version 14) Inbox. This role needs
'speechify', most likely the wizard will install it automatically.
This Edge Transport (Gateway) server is a new development for
Microsoft's Exchange. Think of the
Gateway server as the hygiene server, as a rival of Message Labs or as a replacement for your third party email cleaning service. An absolute requirement is that the
Edge server must be in it's own
workgroup and must not, repeat not, be a member of the Exchange Organization's Active Directory domain. For this reason the Role Selection wizard displays a horizontal separator between this and the
other server roles.
For a variety of reasons the Edge server has proved to be the least popular
Exchange Server 2010 role. This is especially true in the UK where people
rely on other solutions to clean mail and act as a gateway to the internet.
See more on the Edge Server Role
Guy Recommends: SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper (NTM)
NTM will produce a neat diagram of your network topology. But that's
just the start;
Network Topology Mapper can
create an inventory of the hardware and software
of your machines and network devices. Other neat features include dynamic
update for when you add new devices to your network. I also love the ability to export
the diagrams
to Microsoft Visio.
Finally, Guy bets that if you test drive the Network Topology
Mapper then you will
find a device on your network that you had forgotten about, or someone else
installed without you realizing!
In July 2009 Mike Mclean wrote to me pointing out that
Microsoft themselves now support 64-bit guest operating systems for Hyper-V.
Thus you can now use this marvellous virtual technology to support the
64-bit version of Exchange 2010.
Back in June 2008 Microsoft Virtual Server only
supported 32-bit guests. You may know that Exchange 2010 server
REQUIRES 64-bit hardware. Now that has been fixed and you can run
64-bit guests in Hyper-V virtual machines.
Exchange Server 2010 Two Editions - Standard and Enterprise
Exchange Server 2010 is available in two editions, Standard and
Enterprise the difference is determined by the product key. The Enterprise Edition supports
up to 100
databases on each server, whereas the Standard Edition supports only 5
databases. Fortunately, Exchange
2010 has no software limit on the database storage, each storage group
database can be as big as you like. In Exchange 2003 Standard edition,
the limit was 16Gb or 75Gb.
Microsoft has decided on a structured approach and provide five roles for Exchange
Server.
You have the flexibility of multiple roles on the same server, or you could deploy a dedicated server for each role.
However, remember that the Edge Server MUST be on a separate server in a separate workgroup,
also, there are also advantages in separating the Mailbox and Client Access roles.
If you like this page then please share it with your friends
Here is a
free tool to monitor your Exchange Server.
Download the utility, then inspect your mail queues, monitor Exchange server's
memory, confirm there is enough disk space and check the CPU utilization.
