Planning & Architecture

Home
- Articles & Tutorials
  - Exchange 2003 Articles
    - Planning & Architecture

Planning & Architecture categories topic

[	202	]	Exchange 2007 Articles	Last updated: Oct 02, 2008
[	271	]	Exchange 2003 Articles	Last updated: Jun 03, 2008
[	19	]	High Availability & Recovery	Last updated: Feb 07, 2008
[	70	]	Management & Administration	Last updated: May 10, 2007
[	27	]	Migration & Deployment	Last updated: Dec 05, 2006
[	28	]	Mobility & Client Access	Last updated: Jun 27, 2006
[	18	]	Monitoring & Operations	Last updated: Jun 03, 2008
[	30	]	Planning & Architecture	Last updated: Sep 12, 2006
[	46	]	Security & Message Hygiene	Last updated: Dec 07, 2006
[	33	]	Tools	Last updated: Feb 01, 2007
[	71	]	Exchange 2000 Articles	Last updated: Jul 06, 2004
[	12	]	Exchange 5.5 Articles	Last updated: Jan 05, 2005
[	10	]	Product Reviews	Last updated: Mar 01, 2005

Planning & Architecture Articles

Exchange Server 2003 Mailflow (Part 1): Date - Sep 12, 2006; Author - Marc Grote; In this article I will show you how e-mail messages flow through Exchange Server 2003 for Intra-site and Inter-site Messaging.
Exchange Internals – How the Exchange Core Components work together: Date - Jun 15, 2006; Author - Marc Grote; In this article I will show you the Basic core services in Exchange Server 2003 and how they work together.
Storage Design – Have You Considered iSCSI?: Date - May 25, 2006; Author - Rui Silva; In this article I will test the HP NAS device I used in a previous article, this time with an iSCSI configuration.
System Center Capacity Planner 2006 Overview (Part 2): Date - Apr 04, 2006; Author - Neil Hobson; In part 1 of this 2 part article, we looked at what System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) 2006 is, its installation requirements and how to start a new design using the Model Wizard. We’ll conclude our look at SCCP here in part 2, where we’ll cover the Model Editor, the Hardware Editor and the running of a simulation.
System Center Capacity Planner 2006 Overview (Part 1): Date - Mar 28, 2006; Author - Neil Hobson; In December 2005, Microsoft shipped System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) 2006. In this two-part article, I want to give you an introduction to what SCCP 2006 is and how it can help the Exchange professional. Here in part 1, I’ll cover an overview of SCCP, its installation requirements and how to start a new design using the Model Wizard.
Exchange on NAS: Proved and Approved: Date - Mar 21, 2006; Author - Rui Silva; With the release of Windows Storage Server Feature Pack, putting the Exchange databases on a NAS device started to be a supported configuration, provided that the storage devices are Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certified (i.e. with the “Designed for Windows” logo). I did some tests using an HP NAS device that proved to be a valid option for some particular configurations. This article is a short description of my experience.
Exchange 2003 and Windows Storage Server: Date - Mar 14, 2006; Author - Rodney Buike; All data shares one thing in common, and that is the requirement for dependable storage. With small to medium size businesses growing storage requirements, Windows Storage Server 2003 is becoming an affordable option to store data, and with Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack 1 it can now support hosting Exchange transaction logs and database files.
Understanding the LegacyExchangeDN: Date - Jan 24, 2006; Author - Marc Grote; In this article I will discuss the LegacyExchangeDN and how to use the free LegacyExchangeDN tool from the Microsoft website.
Demystifying the OWA 2003 FE/BE Logon Process: Date - Dec 15, 2005; Author - Rodney Buike; Effective troubleshooting requires knowledge of the processes taking place. By knowing the process taken when a user attempts to logon, troubleshooting Outlook Web Access (OWA) logon issues becomes a whole lot easier.
Understanding the Exchange Information Store: Date - Dec 08, 2005; Author - Rodney Buike; We would like to welcome Rodney Buike to our team of authors as he presents his first article to MSExchange.org readers. The Information Store is the heart and soul of Exchange Server 2000 and 2003. Understanding the fundamentals of the Information Store is important for anyone managing an Exchange server.
The Art and Science of Sizing Exchange 2003 (Part 3): Date - Dec 01, 2005; Author - Rui Silva; In the last 2 parts or this article series I covered the process of sizing the hardware for an Exchange Server. Now it’s time to validate the results, using some stressing tools and monitor software. You’ll also be glad to know that there are some tools that really can help and ease the sizing process.
The Art and Science of Sizing Exchange 2003 (Part 2): Date - Oct 25, 2005; Author - Rui Silva; Storage is the most critical component of an Exchange back-end server and it’s usually the cause of performance degradation. If your users are complaining about frequent Outlook messages saying that it’s trying to retrieve data from the Exchange Server, that’s probably a storage bottleneck. Good Exchange planning with proper disk sizing can prevent these kind of problems from happening.
The Art and Science of Sizing Exchange 2003 (Part 1): Date - Oct 06, 2005; Author - Rui Silva; I’m pretty sure that it’s, at least, arguable that you can call it art. I don’t know either if it’s deep enough to be called a science. One thing I can assure you is that sizing an Exchange server can be a complex task and it requires not only the knowledge, but also a dose of sensibility and some previous experience with the Microsoft Server family of products. Although there are some pretty good documents from Microsoft about this subject, I’ll try to condense them all and include the main guidelines in this three-part article.
Dual or Pass-Through Authentication in an Exchange 2003 Front-End/Back-End Setup: Date - Sep 20, 2005; Author - Henrik Walther; In this article, I will explain the differences between using dual and pass-through authentication in an Exchange 2003 front-end/back-end setup, where forms-based authentication isn’t enabled, and where the required Exchange services aren’t published through an ISA Server located on the perimeter network (aka DMZ, demilitarized zone or screened subnet).
Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 BETA (build 7623.0) Exposed: Date - Sep 01, 2005; Author - Henrik Walther; In this article I will go through the most interesting fixes, improvements as well as new features included in Exchange 2003 SP2. I will also take a look at some of the features we can expect to come with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0, which in conjunction with Exchange 2003 SP2 enable a faster, richer, and more secure mobile Outlook experience for your mailbox-enabled Windows Mobile 5.0 users.
A First Look at Exchange 2003 SP2: Date - Aug 24, 2005; Author - Marc Grote; In this article I will give you some information about Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and some useful enhancements.
Planning for Your First Exchange Server: Date - Aug 18, 2005; Author - Amit Zinman; Considerations for installing a single Exchange server for first time Exchange admins.
Implementing iSCSI for Exchange Server 2003: Date - Aug 09, 2005; Author - Marc Grote; In this article, I will show you how to move your Exchange Server 2003 databases to new disk space on a file server on which storage is published over iSCSI.
Disk Geometry: Date - Jun 14, 2005; Author - Rui Silva; The storage subsystem is one of the most critical elements on a Microsoft Exchange infra-structure, mainly because of the aggressive random I/O requirements of the Exchange Server 2003 database. The key to a healthy environment is proper configuration of the storage array, considering performance before capacity. One of the measures you can take is to realign the hard disk tracks with the Windows physical disk partitions, increasing performance up to 20 percent.
Just say NO to A/A: Date - May 12, 2005; Author - Rui Silva; In my opinion, e-mail is still the internet killer-app. And according to Forbes.com, Exchange is the number one corporate e-mail server. Should you use Exchange clustering? Well, it depends on your business needs and how much are you willing to lose for the downtime. Should you use Active/Active clustering? NO!
Understanding Exchange Databases Disk Consumption: Date - Mar 22, 2005; Author - Erik Rozman; Exchange databases need disk space, once they run out of disk space they can not continue to function. My aim in this article is not to describe methods of preventing or solving the disk space problem(even though I will provide a tip or two)- my aim is to describe and explain the way that Exchange databases uses disk space.
Exchange log disk is full, Prevention and Remedies: Date - Jan 13, 2005; Author - Erik Rozman; We would like to extend a warm welcome to Microsoft MVP Erik Rozman to our team of authors as he presents his first article to MSExchange.org readers. In the following document I will describe preventive measures that should help you avoid running out of disk space and in addition I will also describe possible remedies if this has (gasp) already happened.
Implementing the X.400 Connector - Is It Worth Using with Exchange Server 2003?: Date - Jan 06, 2005; Author - Markus Klein; Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition still provides a X.400 connector. With Exchange Server 5.5 this was the default protocol and connectivity standard. With the release of Exchange 2000 Server Microsoft implemented SMTP as the default protocol for connectivity. Due to backward compatibility there is still a X.400 based MTA stack available. But it is only a stack and not a protocol implementation. The following article is a drill-down through the basics of X.400 and how to configure the X.400 connector. Afterwards we will then talk about in what cases we still need it.
Exchange Memory Allocation: Date - Oct 12, 2004; Author - Amit Zinman; Deciding how much memory to use for Exchange is rarely an exact science. Large organizations might have statistics for Exchange usage so they can plan according to charts, but even then the planning might fail if user's mail usage changes or a virus spreads internally. Any Exchange hardware or software problem might also prove to be too much for systems that usually run smoothly. This article will deal with how much memory Exchange servers should have and how to deal with servers with large RAM.
Access Your Exchange 2000 / 2003 Mailbox With WebDAV: Date - Sep 14, 2004; Author - Lee Derbyshire; There are several Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that you can use to access an Exchange 2000 or 2003 Mailbox. WebDAV is not the easiest to learn, but can often be the most convenient. This article is an introduction to the topic.
Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 Review: Date - Jun 03, 2004; Author - Amit Zinman; Step by step guide to installing the latest Exchange service pack and quick overview of some of the new features.
Choosing the Right Storage for Your Exchange Server: Date - Jun 01, 2004; Author - Amit Zinman; Choosing the right storage solution depends on balancing budget and functionality. Knowing about alternatives is always good since having a cheaper solution is better than having no solution at all. This article provides an overview of the hardware used to store the Exchange operating system and databases.
Microsoft Live Communication Server (LCS): Date - Dec 29, 2003; Author - Marc Grote; Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 is a manageable and extensible instant messaging server (IMS) that provides a real-time collaboration solution. It enables corporations to reach, collaborate, and respond to information more quickly as compared to telephones and e-mail. In this article we'll walk you through the steps that are involved while installing and configuring the Live Communications Server.
Improvements in Exchange 2003: Date - Nov 11, 2003; Author - Jakub Synoradzki; Not everyone has managed to migrate to Exchange 2000 yet, while others choose to ignore it completely, and continue using Exchange 5.5. Meanwhile, Microsoft has introduced a new upgrade – the 2003. This is related to the appearance of a new MS Windows 2003 version, the operating system to provide a really good tandem with Exchange 2003. As we will see further on, when using Exchange 2003 without combining it with Windows 2003, it loses most of its functionality.
Exchange 2003 Beta 2 – Improvements and Questions: Date - Jan 24, 2003; Author - Amit Zinman; Exchange 2003 is supposed to be a minor upgrade of Exchange 2000, mainly delivering improvements based on customer feedback. Exchange 2000, a major leap from Exchange 5.5 had some incomplete features and stability issues. Some features have been added through services packs (STM files virus checking, fault tolerant domain controller access, and more) and some have been saved for the new code named Titanium version. Some of the new features are only available when installed on the Windows 2003 platform, some only when used with the upcoming Outlook 11 client, also in its beta cycle.