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Microsoft's Exchange Server product, part of the BackOffice suite of applications, brings client-server messaging to the NT network. With Exchange, Microsoft's goal was to have a scaleable system able to work with an enterprise-wide mail system, while still allowing for a centralized administrative model. In addition, the functionality requirements of mail systems are growing quickly, making the increasing programmable model that encompasses the mail system extremely important. Exchange replaces and/or supplements the current mail system, known as the "shared file system," or SFS. SFS includes Microsoft Mail version 3.x and its support components like gateways and multi-post office interchange capabilities. By offering the option to replace or supplement, Microsoft has provided a number of options in migrating your system to Exchange.
In this chapter, we'll be going through the overall architecture of Exchange, how it relates to current implementations of Microsoft Mail 3.x, and different things you'll want to know about Exchange and its workings prior to installing it. We'll also be going through an installation and review of the installation, showing you what to expect as you bring Exchange on-line for the first time.
It's important to understand that Exchange is a particularly intricate product, one that requires a great deal of forethought before you start bringing it on-line. This is due to a number of different considerations:
We'll be reviewing these considerations, and more, in the coming sections.
We'll be covering a fair amount of foundation information before we get into the installation of Exchange. Before you install Exchange, it's important to understand several things, including how it works and why it works. While this chapter certainly can't be an end-all solution to implementing, developing with and supporting all aspects of Exchange, we will make a strong push toward providing the information you'll need to help you determine what other areas need more research. We'll also be providing you with a good, solid starting point as you implement your Exchange server.
In the SFS system there is no active server-based process. The "shared" folders are server based and are limited to storing information for later searching and retrieval. There is no concept of intelligent, server-side processing of messages and other requests of the mail system.
Mail systems are typically divided into different post offices, often divided by physical locations, departments or other logical divisions between users of the system. The mail system also supports the use of Schedule Plus 1.x and its sharing of schedule information and the ability to send and receive meeting-related messages. The mail transfers with the use of the Message Transfer Agent or MTA (see Fig. 4.1). The MTA usually resides on a dedicated system and periodically polls the different post offices and transfers messages between them.
Fig. 4.1 - The Message Transfer Agent (MTA) links postoffices, both local and remote.
Postoffices not physically on the same wire with the MTA can call in to deliver and pick up mail. The call is received by and processed through the MTA, which makes available the messages that are pertinent to the calling postoffice. The MTA can be configured to receive calls and deliver any outgoing mail during the incoming call. It can also be configured to automatically place calls to deliver mail to remote postoffices either on a scheduled basis or when the mail arrives at the MTA.
When a user calls in from the field, for example, with a laptop system, the MTA is also the process responsible for answering the phone and delivering the mail for the specified user that is calling. All of the handling of mail headers, the message content and managing the remote user's mail box are handled through the MTA.
Obviously, if you have remote post office traffic, remote users calling in for their mail and active postoffices, you'll be faced with a significant bottleneck at the MTA. Across the many different installations of MSMail, there have been some ingenious workarounds to this that allow for everything from dedicated systems to handle specific types of traffic to elaborate circular transfers of mail between several different MTA's.
 Exchange will support multiple Connectors--the software process that works with external mail systems as the MTA does in MSMail. You won't have to have a dedicated system to manage the mail through each connector you install as you did with each active MTA in your MS Mail 3.x system.  |
An additional challenge presented by this approach is the number of phone lines required to support this configuration and the use of remote access by users that are remotely using the LAN. With the MTA setup, you'll be required to have one line to support the remote mail and one line to support Remote Access Services. This can certainly present a problem in implementing this solution for a number of users.
Microsoft Exchange addresses these issues and more and provides a great set of tools for managing the enterprise mail systems that are being brought on-line today. To address the issue of phone lines, for instance, Exchange has changed to using Remote Access Services (RAS) connections to remote users. By using existing RAS network connections, the requirement to have dedicated lines for mail delivery to remote users is no longer needed. Once a user has connected to the network and has been validated against the NT server accounts, they'll have access to Exchange just as they would if they were locally attached.
If you are using RAS, you'll probably want to set up a profile on the Exchange clients that will be used in the field. Selecting the Remote Mail options and turning on message header preview, you can optimize the connection to the network. You'll be able to preview message headers and download only those messages you want to work with at the time. |
In the coming sections, you'll see exactly how you can put these to work for you and your customers.
These are just some of the new features for the Exchange environment. It's likely that you'll need to implement your system in a stepped fashion, one piece at a time. The combination of features that will best serve your environment may not be readily apparent when you first bring up your Exchange system.
As you work with the system now and in the future, you should be very careful to periodically review unused portions of the documentation, feature listings and technical information regarding your server. This will help keep the possibilities in the forefront of your mind and allow you to continue to expand your system to provide all available leverage to your messaging environment. |
Each of these items, and its importance in the Exchange environment, is briefly covered next.
In Exchange, you can enable folders as valid recipients. You can post a message to a folder, making it available to other people for their reference. You can also include a folder in a distribution list. A good application of this technique might be a phone message. You can send the phone message to the intended recipient and then have the system automatically post a copy of the message to a "Phone Messages" folder for record-keeping.
If the mail message is to multiple recipients, each recipient is parsed and the correct routing process is started. If the message is to multiple recipients in a single site, only a single copy of the message is needed. Exchange will, in essence, issue a pointer to the message on the server. When the user opens the message, the pointer will present the original message.
In the past, if you issued a large message to several people, you could take down a mail post office. This was because the system would make one copy of the message for each person on the distribution list. With Exchange, this won't be a problem as each user is referring to the same copy of the message.
With Exchange, you can send messages using the BCC, or Blind Carbon Copy, field. By doing so, you prevent Exchange from issuing the message to more than one person and effectively eliminate this feature of Exchange. If you're sending a message to many people, you should avoid using the BCC field if possible. |
Client-server messaging introduces a very important feature to mail systems, which is the ability to have the server pre-process messages on behalf of the recipient. The Inbox Assistant allows you to establish rules that govern the processing of your message. Figure 4.2 shows how, for example, you can establish a rule that indicates that any message from Stephen Wynkoop should be immediately deleted.
Fig. 4.2 - The Inbox Assistant lets you set up rules for incoming messages that govern how the messages will be pre-processed.
You can use the Inbox Assistant's rules even when you're not logged on to mail. The power of the Inbox Assistant is that the rules are server-based. They are implemented on, and controlled by, the server and do not require the interface with the client. As can be seen in Figure 4.3, there are a number of things that you can do with an incoming message, ranging from deleting it as noted previously, to moving it to a folder for later viewing.
Fig. 4.3 - The different options for working with incoming mail are quite varied, allowing flexibility in deciding how you want to filter your email.
Fig. 4.4 - The open interface provided by the client means that you can implement a single inbox that receives messages from sources that are not necessarily exclusive to Microsoft Exchange.
You may recall that one of the goals for the next revision of electronic mail includes fulfilling the concept of a "universal inbox." Since you can add providers to be handled by the client application, we can now start to see that you can direct all of your electronic communication to a common location. Faxes, electronic mail from all sources and even electronic documents can be managed by the server and organized through systems of folders.
Since the interface to the provider layer in Exchange is open, it's possible to create a provider that may query a database, like SQL Server, or provide an interface to a directory or other information base.
With Exchange, several new terms have been introduced to help define the mail system. These terms relate to the installation of the server. These terms, which indicate increased scope at each step, are outlined in the table below:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Server | The system that is performing the task of managing the folders, messages and tasks associated with the clients for which it is responsible. The Server runs the Exchange software and is able to participate in replication with other locations in your Exchange network. |
| Site | A Site consists of one or more Servers. |
| Organization | An Organization consists of one or more Sites. |
When you install Exchange, you'll need to have this information handy, and you'll want to have already planned out where your new Exchange server will play its part in this environment (see Fig. 4.5).
Fig. 4.5 - Servers, Sites and Organizations exist in a hierarchical system of servers and locations.
The key to establishing a solid Exchange site is planning. You must take the time to plan the Servers, Sites and Organizations that you'll be hosting in your system. You can relate Sites and Organizations in this context to domains in the NT Server model. Sites can replicate folders and messages between themselves and, of course, can also process electronic mail to and from other sites.
 Once you've installed Exchange and set up the various options, if you need to change fundamental implementation details like site names, organization names and other items like them, you must re-install Exchange server. This can, of course, cause a significant impact on the timing requirements of bringing up your server. |
It's recommended that your Exchange server reside on a server that is dedicated to the mail system's tasks if you have a fair number of people on the system, ensuring the best possible performance. If at all possible, do not run Exchange on the Primary Domain Controller or Backup Domain Controllers in your NT Network architecture.
The best scenario for an Exchange server is to be on a dedicated system whose network role is to be a server only. The resource it provides access to is the messaging subsystem and its features.
When Exchange is updating folder structures, it is using the messaging subsystem to do so. When a change occurs in a replicated folder, the information is mailed to all other servers that are influenced by that folder. The updates are completed and a confirmation is sent back to the original server. Since the mail subsystem itself is used to replicate the information, Exchange has automatic access to the store-and-forward mechanisms in Exchange.
This means that you can be assured that changes are going to flow between sites, just as they will with the messaging flow between the sites. If a site is down, whether it's over a remote link or over a network connection that has been severed for some reason, the Exchange engine will store the messages until the server becomes available. At that time, the changes are applied, in the order they were originated.
Replication is entirely a background process with Exchange, not something explicitly controlled by your application or other manually controlled process in Exchange. Replication is also a server-based process. This means that, regardless of whether your client software is running, the server will still make sure the different folders are in sync and have all updates applied as soon as possible after a change.
Fig. 4.6 - Sample Exchange application built with the Exchange Forms Designer.
One of the things you'll notice if you run this sample program is that when you press the "send" button, the message is not sent to another user. Instead, the message is posted to the folder that was active when you initiated the request.
After you create a form, you install it to the Exchange system. When you do, you select a folder hierarchy in which to place it. Forms-applications are available in all subordinate folders that are part of the hierarchy. If you install a forms-based application in a "leaf-node" folder, one that has no subordinate folders, the form will not be available to users of the system unless the user is in the specific folder in which it was installed. |
When you first use a form, Exchange will automatically update your local system, installing a copy of the form you requested. This installs to your system and is associated with your local folder structure in the same location that it was on the Server. This means that the forms on your local system, and those on the server, will be updated as needed and can be managed from a single location.
There are three different broad categories of applications that use the mail subsystem for their information transport. These are information transport only, folder-based applications and mail-based applications. At first, it may seem that the first and last types of applications are the same, but there are significant differences in how you approach these two different areas.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Information Transport | This type of system uses the mail system to move its information around from application to application. It may be that there is no user knowledge that the mail system is even the transport for these types of systems. It's merely a way to get from point A to point B. For example, if you have a remote SQL Server system, it might be a good way to offer the user the ability to send requests for SQL queries to be run. You can send the request over mail and, when the connection is made, the remote server can be queried and the results can be returned as part of a reciprocal email message. |
| Folder-Based | These applications never leave the mail subsystem. You usually think of mail-based applications as coming into and going out of the mail system. With Folder-Based applications, the application is based in, and stores its information in, the mail system. Folders can be hosts to forms as shown earlier. These forms provide the interface to the information in the folder. |
| Mail-Based | Mail-based applications are a combination of the first two options. Mail-based applications take an application that is inherently built upon the mail system and use it to access information in the system. The difference is that the information may be sent to users, routed to different automated processes, or other operations that must work with the information. In a mail-based application, you may even have a case where, during the life of the application, it may be routed to several people and processes, but once it is complete, it automatically posts itself to a folder for permanent storage. |
You can see that the Exchange system can be approached a number of different ways when it comes to implementing solutions. It's important to understand where you can look for these capabilities as they lend a great detail of leverage to your development efforts.
First, consider installing the Exchange Forms Designer. This package allows you to create electronic forms like those shown earlier. These forms can be customized, created completely from scratch or be created based on popular templates. The forms come with the mail interface already built in. You won't have to worry about how to develop applications for Exchange's API, nor will you have to be aware of all the subtleties of the system. Exchange Forms Designer is the successor product to the Electronic Forms Designer, previously available for Microsoft Mail 3.x.
You can use forms created with the new Exchange Forms Designer with Microsoft Mail 3.x post offices. Note, however, that you cannot view the forms created with Exchange on mail clients that are not yet upgraded to the Exchange client. You'll need to upgrade all clients to the Exchange client for your server prior to implementation of your new forms. |
Second, you should install the OLE messaging capabilities offered for use with Access, Excel, Visual Basic and other environments that can host OLE servers. The OLE messaging capabilities provide an object and method interface to the mail system. Before OLE messaging came along, you needed to use the MAPI API to send and receive messages from your applications. Now, the process of searching the inbox, retrieving mail and even sending custom messages is much simplified. In the example lines below, you can see how easy it is to use the new OLE messaging objects.
...
Set objFolder = objSession.Inbox
Set objMessColl = objFolder.Messages
Set objMessage = objMessColl.GetFirst("IPM.MyMessage.Custom")
If objMessage Is Nothing Then
...
These lines are standard Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code, so you can use them in Access, Excel, Visual Basic or other languages that host the VBA environment. As you can see, the power of Exchange can be introduced into your application regardless of the hosting environment quite easily.
By searching the current Inbox for any message of type IPM.MyMessage.Custom, you can quickly retrieve only the messages you are interested in for our application. The objFolder, objMessColl and objMessage objects are defined earlier and initialized when the session is started. After the GetFirst call, the objMessage collection will contain the different messages that were in the inbox that met our message class request.
In the context of this review, it's not really important to understand the intricacies of these lines, but only to understand what's really happening here. To start with, the objSession.Inbox provides you a quick access path to all messages in the current inbox. This, and the other lines of code represented here, are the equivalent of many lines of code used when working with the MAPI API directly. In short, if you're planning to create and implement solutions based on Exchange that go beyond the Exchange Forms Designer, be sure to also install the OLE messaging objects.
The OLE messaging objects are found on the Microsoft Development Kits. They are not part of the Exchange product. |
Exchange talks to the clients using Remote Procedure Calls, or RPC. RPC opens a channel of communication between the two systems and allows them to "converse" in the sense that they are able to make and fulfill requests from each other. RPC is somewhat like DDE in that you are establishing a peer-to-peer conversation to accomplish the task at hand. You might also liken RPC functionality to a sort of shared procedure environment. If you have done development in many of Office 95's applications, you know that you have the ability to create both public and private modules. The public procedures and functions can be accessed by other routines running on your system.
With RPC, this public moniker's capabilities are extended out over the network. Your system can make a call to another system and have the request performed, and optionally values returned, just the same as if the procedure were local on your system. RPC is real-time, peer-to-peer shared functionality.
Exchange uses RPC to maintain the updates between server-based information stores and the stores on your local system. When you install Exchange, if you accept default file extensions, several new files are created on your system. These are working files that are used in the daily functioning of the system. The first of these is a file with an extension of "PAB." This file is your Personal Address Book. It's usually created in your Exchange directory with a filename of your user name and an extension of PAB.
The other very important file that's created is the basis for all mail you receive. Personal folds, or Personal information Stores (PSTs) are the files that contain your email messages, attachments and folder structures. The PST files are also generally created in your Exchange directory and can get quite large over time.
You can have more than one PST on a system and even in a given profile. This can be helpful if you have multiple mail addresses, as may be the case if you're the administrator for a web site, are the exchange administrator, etc. You may want to create a different profile to access each of these mail addresses, and, if you do, you'll probably want to create a different PST for each. This will help keep messages separate on your system.
There is also a function in the Tools, Services, Properties property sheets that will allow you to designate an additional mail box that you'd like to monitor. This effectively gives you the ability to have mail for multiple addresses all show up in your mailbox as if it were sent directly to you. This is called Proxy addressing and was covered briefly earlier. By using multiple Personal Folders, you can more easily sort and organize the mail messages on your system. |
When you backup your system, it's imperative that you backup all PST files on your system. This will ensure that you can recover your system should the need arise.
Your client cooperates with the server to make sure the local stores of information are in sync and that you have ready access to the mail messages and their related attachments. You'll also recall that the electronic forms are installed at the folder level. This has some real advantages over past implementations that were more server-based installations.
There are many variables that impact your server's performance. They include other tasks running, the speed of the hard disk in your system, the number of users, the amount of memory installed and available to Exchange and more. Microsoft has provided two different utilities that help ease the pain of testing and tuning your server. These utilities, the Server Optimizer and the Client Load Simulator are covered in the sections starting on after going over the installation procedure for Exchange.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Install NT Server and Exchange at the same time | If you can install Exchange at the same time that you're setting up your domain, you'll save the need to create users twice. If you set up the users first, or install Exchange into an existing system with users already defined, you'll need to define the users manually in Exchange through the Exchange Administration utility. If you create users after Exchange is installed, the process of creating users and their mailboxes is integrated into the NT User Manager. |
| Use an existing MS Mail 3.x Post Office as a starting point | If you already have an existing MS Mail 3.x post office, you'll be able to use the users defined for it as the starting point for your new Exchange server. This will save the time defining users on the system, as the migration utility will either create new user accounts as needed, or assign Exchange accounts to existing NT accounts as they move from MS Mail to Exchange. |
| Set up accounts so they share user names | When you set up NT accounts, you should use the same user names in NT as you will be in MS Mail. This will allow Exchange to map mailbox names directly to user names, saving conversion time and effort. |
The process of Installing Exchange includes designating the software and connectors you want to install, and indicating what the site and organization will be (see Fig. 4.7). There are two options when you start up the installation program that you'll find on the Exchange Server CD in the directory that corresponds to your processor type.
The directory naming conventions for the Exchange CD are much the same as the NT Installation CD. Select the processor type in the setup directory that matches the processor you'll be installing onto.
Fig. 4.7 - If you'll be administering the server from this system, be sure to install the administrative utilities.
Your file sizes may vary somewhat from those shown in the example. The file sizes show are accurate for the current "Release Candidate 1" version of Exchange, available as of this writing. Some minor changes may be completed to the dialog boxes in this installation procedure, but they should not impact the installation process itself or the answers to prompts that you'll receive along the way. |
The connectors in Exchange are the gateways of systems in the past. Connectors provide you access to other services, including older MS Mail 3.x post offices, X.400 networks, wireless networks and many others. When you purchase a connector from a third party vendor, you'll be adding functionality to your system that will allow your users, or subsets of your users, to access additional outside resources.
The native Exchange connectors provide connectivity to MS Mail post offices, SMTP mail connections and to X.400 networks. There may be others provided as part of the native installation at the time of release, however.
Next, you'll need to select the Organization and Site that you'll be known as to the users of the server (see Fig. 4.8). If this is your first or only server, or if it's a server that will not rely on another server, select the "Create a new site" option and indicate the organization and site.
Fig. 4.8 - If you're joining an existing organization, specify the name here, with a new site name.
If you do create a new site, you'll be prompted to confirm that fact. This is a verification that you didn't want to become part of an existing site, and simply had a typo in the site name. Remember, if you're setting up a multi-server system of Exchange servers, you'll want to choose your site and organization names carefully (see Fig. 4.9). Once you install Exchange, the only way to change these values is to re-install with new values indicated in this dialog box.
When Exchange installs, it must have administrative access to the system. This is because it will be adding services, making changes to the NT User Manager to add mail administration, etc.
It's a good idea to establish a new account as the working administrator for Exchange. This way you can make changes to the overall administrator account without impacting the Exchange server's access to the system.
Fig. 4.9 - You'll need to specify the user name and password of an existing administrative account.
The administrator account you specify will have two new rights installed to it if they are not already present. These rights are "log on as a service" and "restore files and directories." These rights are assigned to the ID so that Exchange can perform background administrative tasks as needed.
Once you've specified this information, Exchange has the information it needs to install the files onto your server. The actual process of moving the files to the server can be quite lengthy; the footprint for Exchange is more than 100M, so you may want to consider taking a break while the installation process completes.
Once completed, the installation process will give you the opportunity to run the Optimizer Utility. It is highly recommended that you run this utility to utilize the hardware and software configuration you are using with the numbers and types of users that you'll be supporting.
Fig. 4.10 - The Server Optimizer will ensure that your system is offering the most optimum performance possible.
You should always run the Optimizer utility after you've set up the server. While you can come back and re-run the utility later, it's the best way to ensure that you have the best configuration possible to start with.
The Optimizer does a number of things, including moving your files to better locations. This can be either by physical characteristics of your system, like faster hard drives, or out of convention, such as moving files out of the root directory of your system. You'll be asked to confirm these changes to the file locations, and you'll have the opportunity to override the changes (see Fig. 4.11).
Fig. 4.11 - The Optimizer will suggest alternate locations for your files if it would be helpful to the Exchange installation.
If you want to run the Optimizer at a later date, you can run it from the icon that will be installed in the Microsoft Exchange program group. You'll have all the same options and can "upsize" your server configuration at that time if needed.
The second role of the simulator can help in showing growth patterns and their impact on your system. By using the Load Simulator at different times after you implement Exchange, you can help determine how your system will respond as the workload increases. You can use this information to help justify new equipment, memory or other resources that may be required to optimize your system.
When you run the utility, you'll be able to select how much load to put on the server, what your mail topology is, how you want to test the system and more. When the test runs, you'll be able to determine how many users your system can comfortably support. As of this writing, "comfortably support" indicates that the user's response time is less than or equal to one (1) second.
The LoadSim documentation, found on the CD with the LoadSim utility, reviews the tests that Microsoft has performed with Exchange on systems ranging from low-end systems (486 processors) to higher-end systems with extra memory, possibly multiple processors and more hard disk management. Be sure to check the documentation to determine the different assumptions that are put into play when you run the simulator.
Users are divided into Light, Medium and Heavy usage categories by the utility and these different categories are used to stress the server based on the profile of your users. It will be important to have a good profile in mind that covers the users of your system when you run the utility.
If you're using common systems, you'll be able to use the Server Migration utility to transfer user accounts, mailboxes and shared folders in many cases. Several different scenarios are supported as transition steps to Exchange.
In each case, the users' mailboxes will be converted and placed into the Exchange system. We'll be covering the conversion of an MS Mail post office in this section. The difference for the first option is that you'll be using a fixed format file as the source for the import process. There are several extractor programs included on the Exchange Server CD ROM, so be sure to check there to see if there is an extractor for your system.
If an extractor exists, its options will vary according to the features of your mail system. In any event, it will export the messages stored in the system, private and share message storage locations, referred to as folders in Exchange. Once you've created this file, the first option on the Migration Wizard will prompt you through the different steps necessary to import the information into Exchange.
In this section, we'll focus on migrating a MS Mail post office so you can see the process and know what to expect from the Migration Wizard (see Fig. 4.12). When the wizard is started, it will ask you to select the source of the incoming data. Select the second option, "Migrate from MS Mail for PC Networks" and select Next.
Fig.4.12 - The Migration wizard offers two pre-defined conversion options and one custom, data-file driven option for importing to Exchange.
When you start the process, you'll need to know the mail administrator's mailbox name and password on the MS Mail post office. This will be used to log in to the system and gather up the information to be converted to the new system. Of course, you'll also need to know the location of the post office.
The MS Mail post office will start with a directory named "WGPO" at the location you specify.
There are several different ways that you can go about migrating to Exchange, especially with MS Mail. If you want to try out Exchange first, you can run both systems side-by-side. You can configure the Exchange client to use both the MS Mail post office and the Exchange server. The client will deliver mail from both sources to users' inboxes. This will allow you to let users get comfortable with the new system prior to cutting over entirely and can help ease the anxiety of switching over to a new system in a single step. Later, you can move the mailboxes and folders to the Exchange server and complete the migration process.
You can also complete the migration in a single step, transferring all of your users to the Exchange server in one step. This is perhaps the easiest, but can also cause the most friction in some environments because of people's tendency to be wary of change. A sensible approach can ease the pain of transition a bit. By moving to the Exchange server in steps, you can help people become used to the new interface while at the same time minimizing your impact should any problems arise.
Consider the following approach for your transition, even if only for the first conversion:
By walking people more slowly through the conversion process, you'll be able to help iron out any problems that arise, and you'll be able to debug your user list and accounts situations on the server. In the coming sections, we'll cover how you can use the Migration Wizard in both the scenario shown above, and in the one-step method of simply converting all users at once.
Fig. 4.13 - You can select some or all information to be imported into Exchange during the migration process.
If you have already created mailboxes on your system, you can deselect the first option to create mailboxes. Otherwise, the Migration Wizard will automatically create new mailboxes for you.
Remember, when a mailbox is created, so is a Windows NT user account. If you have any special security concerns, you'll want to first create a template account and refer the migration to that account as shown below. Otherwise, users are created on the system with default user rights, just as if you'd created the user manually without restricting rights. |
You have several options to limit what information is converted, including the selection of date ranges, deselecting the Schedule Plus information, etc. Each of these is purely optional and, if you suspect that information may be unneeded or is out of date on the older system, these can help filter that information and keep the new Exchange system free of unneeded items.
You also have the option to select which accounts you'll be migrating (see Fig. 4.14). If you are rolling out a test implementation, you can select only those accounts with your test users. Otherwise, you can select each of the accounts or the "Select All" button to simply convert all accounts.
Fig. 4.14 - You can indicate which accounts you want to convert to Exchange.
The next step prompts you for the server name and the "Recipients Container" in which to place the new recipients. Recipient Containers are effectively folders that contain the recipients on your system. As you'll see when we review the Exchange Administrator, you generally have one recipient container per site, although you can specify additional recipient containers if desired.
The dialog box will display the list of available containers, allowing you to select the destination of the incoming new addresses (see Fig. 4.15).
The container's name is displayed in the address book of the users when they look up addresses from the Exchange client, and is listed in a hierarchy below the site name.
Fig. 4.15 - Be sure to indicate an account template if you want new accounts to be created with a specific profile.
It's a very good idea, if you're concerned about security, to create a template account to refer to in the installation process. Perhaps the easiest way to ensure the best security is to create a template account with the rights you desire and the "Must Change Password..." option selected. By combining this with the ability to create accounts and use the account name as the password, you can ensure that the account is secured once the user signs in the first time.
Implementing this option may take some experimentation on your part. If some of your clients are running network or operating system software that will not support changing of passwords during the sign-on process, the user may be locked out of the system. Be sure to test this option on all target operating system and network operating system combinations that are the target of your conversion efforts. |
The final step will prompt you for how you would like to secure new accounts that are created. You have three different options available. These are to create accounts with random passwords, create accounts with passwords set initially to the username, and do not create NT accounts.
The easiest option to administer is the second option of creating accounts and initial passwords with the same value. For this scenario, an example would be created with a username of "swynk" and a password of "swynk", making it a simple matter to let people know their initial password.
You'll also be prompted to indicate the domain that will contain the users that are created. This domain must be a domain in which you are an administrator, capable of creating new accounts. The domain will default to the current domain.
Have everyone log out of MS Mail at this time until the conversion process is completed, and make sure that users do not attempt to use the old post office after this point. To do so may cause lost mail as the post office has already been converted. |
During the conversion, the Wizard will display a status message, indicating the process that is being carried out, and a summary screen showing statistics for the move when it is finished.
Once completed, your users can sign in to the new Exchange server and see all of their old mail, while at the same time begin using some of the new features of Exchange.
Later, when you've completed your test phase, you can use the second step of this option to extract and import the message files, folders and shared folders from the MS Mail system into the Exchange server. Users will already be created, so only the step to manage the transition of mail data between the servers will be carried out.
It's important to understand the enhanced benefits that you'll have when you move to Public Folders from Shared Folders. With Public Folders, you can enable rules, filters and smart, server-based processing on the objects that are posted. Public Folders can be thought of like Usenet news groups or Lotus' Notes product in that they support conversation threading and are able to present views based on the conversation threads. |
During the conversion, the steps to convert the data will be the same as noted above in the single-step approach. For more information about the different things you'll be prompted for, please see "Using the Single-Step Approach" immediately preceding this section.
Most importantly, you should select the Microsoft Mail service from the Information Services option of the Custom Installation (see Fig. 4.16). This will install the service provider for this MS Mail post office and will let you have it co-exist with Exchange.
Fig. 4.16 - Be sure to select Microsoft Mail to allow the two systems to be accessed by the same client configuration.
Selecting Microsoft Mail during the installation process does not automatically add it to the profiles for the client software. You will still need to set up a profile that specifies that the provider should be used by the client. By selecting it during the installation process, you're copying the provider software to the client system and making it available for selection during the profile setup phase. |
After the software is installed on the client system, you'll be able to establish specific profiles to use the different information providers you'll need (see Fig. 4.17). You set up the profile by selecting "MS Exchange Services" from NT, and by going to the Control Panel and selecting "Mail and Fax" icon in Windows '95. When you set up a new profile, you'll be able to select the options you want to include in the profile.
Third-party providers are adding new services all the time. Be sure to check if your provider has drivers for the Exchange client. For example, drivers are available for Internet POP accounts and,CompuServe mail and Lotus cc:Mail.
Fig. 4.17 - Select the different information providers you want to include in this profile.
You'll be asked to provide a profile name for the configuration you're setting up. This is the name that you'll select when you start mail and are prompted to select a profile. It's helpful if you make the title descriptive. For example, if you're setting up multiple profiles, you may want to name your profiles as shown below:
In each case, you may associate a new set of folders and information providers with the profile. By selecting the mail service you desired, you would be assured of having the appropriate mail provider loaded.
If you selected Microsoft Exchange as an information provider, you'll need to indicate what server your account is located on and what user name you are identified by. This information will be used to connect to the server and work with your mail. When you enter the information, the setup process will validate you as a user.
You will have options to use mail remotely, and you'll be asked to provide the mailbox and password information for your Microsoft Mail connection if you chose that option. After you've indicated the services and the various items needed to connect to them, you'll be asked to select your personal address book (PAB) and your folders (PSTs).
You can use the same PST and PAB files across more than one profile. If you do this, you can have a common folder with all messages from all sources in it, and you can always have your address book up to date.
Fig. 4.18 - Once installed, Exchange integrates into the NT Server's User Manager.
When you create a new user, you'll follow the same steps as you did prior to the installation of Exchange. However, after you select Add, you'll be presented with a new dialog box containing several property sheets or tabs. The dialog lets you define the user's presence on the Exchange system and sets up the mailbox and other options (see Fig. 4.19).
Fig. 4.19 - Creating a new mailbox requires only that you specify an alias and a display name.
The following table provides a summary of what information is available on each tab of the User Properties dialog box:
| General | This tab sets up the base account. You specify the alias, descriptive display name and address information for the mailbox. This tab also specifies the NT account that is associated with the mailbox. |
| Organization | The organization tab allows you to indicate the user's manager and subordinates. This will be helpful information for applications to query in resolving a relative reference. For example, if an application needs to send an email message to this user's supervisor, the destination can be looked up here. |
| Phone/Notes | As you might expect, this tab allows you to specify a number of phone numbers for this user. You can also enter a series of notes about the user. |
| Distribution Lists | The Distribution Lists tab allows you to select from existing lists those lists to which this user should belong. |
| Email Addresses | You may recall from earlier in this chapter that we discussed Proxy Addresses, or mail address aliases and their use. This tab allows you to establish those aliases for accounts. Note that, by default, more than one address may be created, depending on the different connectors that are installed at the server. A user may have one or more addresses associated with each connector that is running on the server and available to the user. |
| Delivery Restrictions | This tab allows you to indicate those individuals from whom you will or will not accept email. This can be a helpful junk mail filter. The message originator is notified of bounced mail if it is declined at your mailbox. |
| Delivery Options | You have the option of setting up "Send on behalf of" privileges for users. This will allow them to, for example, send mail for their supervisor, or for a co-worker. Another common use for this feature is to send mail on behalf of a shared mail account. For example, perhaps you have a technical support account, "TechSupport" that is actually monitored by more than one individual. Using this feature, other users can send mail that can originate from the TechSupport account. |
| Custom Attributes | Custom attributes are simply fields in which you can place information pertinent to your operation. |
| Advanced | Advanced options include several metering options that control system and disk space utilization, mail display names, etc. This tab might be helpful in managing users that tend to have a great deal of mail and require large amounts of disk space to store it. You can manage their disk space usage on this tab and help prevent storage outages. |
The property sheets, or tabs that you see when you define users, connectors and other objects in the Exchange environment are extensible by third parties. In some cases, when you install a product that works with Exchange, some property sheets may be added or changed from the default installation. |
Once you press OK, you'll be returned to the User Manager and be ready to add the next user to the system. The user's mailbox will have been set up with the different values you indicated and he will be able to sign on to Exchange to retrieve mail.
After you've initially set up an account, you can use the Exchange, Properties menu option to mange the options for a mailbox.
Fig. 4.20 - The Administrator lets you see and manage the different aspects of your Exchange system.
The most common area you'll spend your time in is the Recipients container. As you saw in the Migration Wizard, the recipients container is where all of the user accounts are stored. It is from this container that you can administer the user accounts and the properties that are associated with the account. The User Profile dialog boxes are the same ones used by the Exchange... menu option in the User Manager and discussed in the previous section.
There is one difference when creating a user account in the Administrator as compared with the User Manager. In the Administrator, you'll be prompted as to whether to use an existing NT account for a new Exchange account, or create a new account, based on the information for the new account. This is because, when you're using the Administrator, you don't have a concept of an already selected user, whereas from the User Manager you do and this is not an issue. |
The Administrator is also where you'll install additional connectors for your system. For example, if you're installing the Exchange wireless connector, this is where you'd install it. You generally manage the different objects in the system from either the File or Edit menus by selecting the appropriate option, be it creating a new account or managing an existing one (see Fig. 4.21).
Fig. 4.21 - You can create new objects in the system from the File menu.
When you install a connector, you may see that new property sheets or tabs are available when working with that connector. This is because the property sheets are extensible by third party developers. This allows an installed package to add new options, configurations and diagnostics as needed while still staying within the Exchange environment. |
Custom Recipients can be created for new connectors that you may have on your system. This is how you can create a recipient that is known to a gateway. For example, if you want to create a recipient that is for a wireless or paging connector attached to your system, you can create a "John Smith - Pager" recipient. This recipient will be associated with the wireless gateway and messages sent to this user will automatically be sent out the pager connector.
The Administrator is a great tool for managing the different objects and seeing how they interact. By working carefully with the different objects you've installed, you can provide comprehensive distribution list management, user management and connector support for your Exchange system. The specific options you have available to you will vary by the services, transports and connectors you have installed.
Exchange is certainly a much broader topic than we've been able to address here. With the information in this chapter, though, you'll be able to install, bring up and convert to a solid Exchange server implementation. By taking the time to plan both your Exchange and your NT Server installations, you can bring up a world-class information system for your users.
Integrating Exchange into your web site can take on many different approaches. From publishing public folders to making interactive mailing lists, Exchange is an important part of your Intranet and Internet presence.
For further information relating to topics in this chapter see:
Copyright ©1996, Que Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Making copies of any part of this book for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws. For information, address Que Corporation, 201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290.Notice: This material is from BackOffice Intranet Kit, ISBN: 0-7897-0848-5. The electronic version of this material has not been through the final proof reading stage that the book goes through before being published in printed form. Some errors may exist here that are corrected before the book is published. This material is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.