You can use NetBEUI to enable communication between a Windows 2003 domain controller and a
stand−alone server, although you do have to remember to install it. You can also use WINS for this purpose. A third and much better option is available: the DNS and Windows 2003's Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
As I mentioned previously in the 'Active Directory: Five Major Architectural Components' section, the native computer naming system on Windows Server 2003 networks is DNS. That's the same DNS that served as an example of a namespace earlier in this chapter. To get started, a stand− alone Windows 2003 server that is to be promoted to a domain controller in an existing domain needs both an IP address of its own and the IP address of its DNS server. The stand−alone server needs an IP address so that it can communicate with other
needs a DNS server so that it can find the domain controller, connect to it, and be authenticated by it so that it can join the domain as a new domain controller.
Although you can manually set the DNS parameters discussed previously, Windows Server 2003 lets you automate the whole process using DHCP. DHCP not only can assign an IP address to the new computer, but it also can give your new computer the IP address of the DNS server that it should use. Then (and this is really neat), when your new Windows 2003 server is up and running, Windows Server 2003 DHCP can even dynamically register your new computer in the existing domain controller's DNS. This process is called dynamic DNS. You don't even have to make a manual entry for the computer in the DNS. Additionally, you can reserve specific IP addresses in DHCP so that you're sure that a server will get the same address each time it boots up.
Even better, like earlier Windows products, a Windows 2003 server is ready to use DHCP immediately after stand−alone server installation is completed. So, as long as DHCP is properly set up on your existing domain controller or another Windows Server 2003 on your network, you don't have to do anything to promote a stand−alone server to domain controller status except run the domain controller promotion program on it. My goal in this chapter is not to make you an expert in adding domain controllers to Windows Server 2003 networks. We'll do that in Chapters 7 and 15, and we'll use Dynamic DNS to install a stand−alone server that will become our first Exchange server. Instead, my goal is to give you a sense of the changes in Windows Server 2003 networking compared to NT Server 4 networking.
Windows 2003 Servers Are Domain Controller Chameleons
To understand the difference between NT 4 and Windows Server 2003 servers, it's important to understand that Windows NT Server 4 servers were either stand−alone servers or primary or secondary domain
controllers. You created a domain controller while installing the NT 4 operating system. A domain controller could not revert to stand−alone status, and a stand−alone server could not become a domain controller. When you install a Windows Server 2003, you don't even have the option of making it a domain controller. Windows 2003 stand−alone servers become domain controllers after they are fully installed and running. Somewhat like a magician, you can promote a Windows Server 2003 to domain controller status anytime, and you can demote it back to stand−alone server status anytime. You can perform this metamorphosis as many times as you want or need to.
Summary
Windows Server 2003's Active Directory is central to both Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003. Active Directory is a namespace like the Internet standard Domain Name System (DNS). Active Directory is a repository for virtually all the information about users and resources (files, printers, and so on) available on a network.
Key to Active Directory creation and management are forests, trees, and domains. Forests are the top−level containers in Windows 2003 environments. A forest can contain one or more trees. Trees contain one or more domains. Domain objects in the same forest can communicate with each other automatically because
transitive trust relationships are created between the domains by default. Domains in different forests require
that trust relationships be specifically set up before objects within them can communicate with each other. Windows Server 2003 networking is based on DNS. The legacy Windows NT server networking protocols, NetBEUI and WINS, are available but are totally unnecessary in Windows 2003 networks. The Windows 2003 preferred networking approach is IP supported by Dynamic DNS, which combines DHCP and DNS to deliver IP address and other information to a computer and to place the computer in the network's DNS. That should be enough of Windows Server 2003 for a bit. Now let's move on to Exchange Server 2003 and take a look at its architecture.
Chapter 4: Exchange Server 2003 Architecture
Overview
Exchange is a client/server electronic messaging system. In this chapter, we'll take a close look at the
Exchange Server 2003−relevant architecture of Windows Server 2003, as well as the architectures of both the Exchange Server 2003 and client systems. We'll also see how the Exchange server and clients interact from an architectural perspective.
This is an important chapter because it exposes you to a range of Exchange terminology that you'll find useful later. It also gives you a sense of how the whole Exchange system hangs together and works. Remember that virtually all the architectural components that we discuss here are, in whole or in part, real program code running somewhere on a Windows Server 2003 or an Exchange Server 2003 or client machine.
Featured in this chapter: