Exchange Server 2010 is the evolution of a product
that has been continuously improved well over a decade of development.
It provides for robust messaging capabilities, in addition to a dizzying
array of new functionality. The one area of development that has always
been missing in Exchange, however, has been the collaboration and
document management capabilities. Attempts to build this functionality
in Exchange public folders were short-lived, and Microsoft shifted
development of this aspect of Exchange to the SharePoint Products and
Technologies line, the subject of this book.
Taking
the history of development with Exchange into account, SharePoint 2010
is the collaboration piece of Exchange that has always been missing in
the platform. Because of this codependence between the platforms, many
Exchange environments are considering deploying SharePoint 2010, and
vice versa. Subsequently, an in-depth knowledge of Exchange 2010 is
highly useful for SharePoint administrators. This section of this
chapter focuses on a high-level overview of what Exchange 2010 is and
how it fits in within a SharePoint 2010 environment.
Outlining the Significant Changes in Exchange Server 2010
The major areas of
improvement in Exchange Server 2010 have focuses on several key areas.
The first is in the realm of user access and connectivity. The needs of
many organizations have changed, and they are no longer content with
slow remote access to email and limited functionality when on the road.
Consequently, many of the improvements in Exchange focus on various
approaches to email access and connectivity. The improvements in this
group focus on the following areas:
“Access anywhere” improvements—
Microsoft has focused a great deal of Exchange Server 2010 development
time on new access methods for Exchange, including an enhanced OWA that
works with a variety of Microsoft and third-party browsers, Outlook
Mobile improvements, new Outlook Voice Access (OVA), Unified Messaging
support, and Outlook Anywhere (formerly known as RPC over HTTP). Having
these multiple access methods greatly increases the design flexibility
of Exchange because end users can access email via multiple methods.
Protection and compliance enhancements—
Exchange Server 2010 now includes a variety of antispam, antivirus, and
compliance mechanisms to protect the integrity of messaging data. These
mechanisms are useful to protect SharePoint email-enabled content from
viruses and spam, as well.
Admin tools improvements and PowerShell scripting—
The administrative environment in Exchange 2010 has been completely
revamped and improved, and the scripting capabilities have been
overhauled. It is now possible to script any administrative command from
a command-line MONAD script. Indeed, the GUI itself sits on top of the
PowerShell scripting engine and simply fires scripts based on the task
that an administrator chooses in the GUI. This allows for an
unprecedented level of control.
Database Availability Groups (DAGs)—
One of the most anticipated improvements to Exchange Server has been
the inclusion of the concept of database availability groups. These
technologies allow for “log shipping” functionality for Exchange
databases, allowing for up to 16 replica copies of an Exchange database
to be constantly built from new logs generated from the server. This
enables administrators to replicate in real time the data from a server
to another server in a remote site or locally on the same server.
Outlining Exchange Server 2010 Server Roles
Exchange Server 2010
continued the concept of server roles for Exchange servers that were
introduced with Exchange Server 2007. In the past, server functionality
was loosely termed, such as referring to an Exchange Server as an OWA or
front-end server, bridgehead server, or a mailbox or back-end server.
In reality, there was no “set” terminology that was used for Exchange
server roles. Exchange Server 2010, on the other hand, distinctly
defines specific roles that a server can hold. Multiple roles can reside
on a single server, or there can be multiple servers with the same
role. By standardizing on these roles, it becomes easier to design an
Exchange environment by designating specific roles for servers in
specific locations.
The concept of server roles is
not unique to Exchange, but is also included as a concept for
SharePoint servers, as well, with roles such as search and index, web,
database, Excel Services, and the like driving design decisions for
SharePoint.
The server roles included in Exchange Server 2010 include the following:
Client Access Server—
The Client Access Server (CAS) in Exchange 2010 is used for all client
traffic, including standard MAPI traffic. In this version of Exchange,
all client communications is routed through the CAS tier, and the CAS
servers communicate directly with the Exchange mailbox servers. The CAS
servers also handle Outlook Web Access (OWA), Exchange ActiveSync, POP3,
and IMAP traffic. CAS servers are the replacement for Exchange
2000/2003 front-end servers and can be load balanced for redundancy
purposes. As with the other server roles, the CAS role can coexist with
other roles for smaller organizations with a single server, for example.
Edge transport server—
The edge transport server role is unique to Exchange 2007/2010, and
consists of a standalone server that typically resides in the DMZ of a
firewall. This server filters inbound SMTP mail traffic from the
Internet for viruses and spam, and then forwards it to internal hub
transport servers. Edge transport servers keep a local Active Directory
Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) instance that is synchronized
with the internal AD structure via a mechanism called EdgeSync. This
helps to reduce the surface attack area of Exchange.
Hub transport server—
The hub transport server role acts as a mail relay for all messages
sent and received in Exchange, including messages sent between
recipients on the same server. The hub transport role is also used for
policy enforcement via hub transport policies. There can also be
multiple hub transport servers to provide for redundancy and load
balancing.
Mailbox server—
The mailbox server role is intuitive; it acts as the storehouse for
mail data in user’s mailboxes and down-level public folders if required.
The mailbox servers can be configured with DAG replicas to provide for
both high availability and disaster recovery of the mail data.
Unified messaging server—
The unified messaging server role is new in Exchange 2007/2010 and
allows a user’s inbox to be used for voice messaging and fax
capabilities.
Any or all of these roles can be
installed on a single server or on multiple servers. For smaller
organizations, a single server holding all Exchange roles is sufficient.
For larger organizations, a more complex configuration may be required.
