Exchange Server 5.5 users will remember Exchange Server 5.5 sites as a tool both for allowing lower− bandwidth network links between servers in the same Exchange organization and for implementing
distributed administrative access to groups of Exchange servers in the same organization. Say that you had an office in Los Angeles and one in New York, and the link between the two was a T1 line. With Exchange Server 5.5, it would be best to put each of the offices in its own Exchange site and connect the two sites using some sort of site connector. Site connectors didn't require continuous, high−speed connectivity to keep Exchange 5.5 directories and public folders synchronized. They communicate primarily using X.400− or SMTP−based data protocols.
Just as Exchange site connectors allowed geographically distributed Exchange 5.5 servers to participate in the same Exchange organization, Windows Server 2003 site connectors are key to building larger Windows Server 2003 domains. No longer do you have to create separate domains just because your servers are separated by low−bandwidth networks. Just link your Windows 2003 sites into a single domain using Windows Server 2003 sites.
Exchange Server 5.5 allowed for multiple redundant connectors between sites and for setting priorities between site connectors based on the bandwidth available on different connectors. Thus, you could use a T1 line for your daily site link, but specify that a DSL or even dial−up link should be used if the T1 were not available. Windows Server 2003 sites allow for similar site link prioritization options. See Figure 2.8 for a view of the Active Directory user interface for managing Windows Server 2003 sites.
Figure 2.8: Managing Windows Server 2003 sites using the Active Directory Sites and Services Microsoft Management Console snap−in
Exchange Server 2003 servers separated by lower bandwidth can still be grouped and connected to
compensate for lower−bandwidth wide−area links. You don't use Windows Server 2003 sites. Instead, you use what are called message routing groups in Exchange Server 2003. After you're over the different naming convention, all is pretty much the same, including how you set up and use Exchange connectors. Distributed administration of groups of Exchange servers is not implemented in routing groups. Rather, Exchange 2003 administrative groups support distributed management. In Exchange 2003 message routing and distributed management have been separated, which, as many Exchange 5.5 administrators will attest, is a very good thing. Lots more on all of this will come in later chapters.
'New' User Interfaces
By way of Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange Server 2003 is chock−full of new user interfaces. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. The interfaces aren't always all that new. Where they're located is. Borrowing an analogy from earlier in this chapter, the doors are new. What's behind them is pretty much the same. Let me talk a bit about some of the 'new' interfaces that we haven't already covered.
Figure 2.9 shows the user interface for Exchange 2003 provided by the Exchange System Manager snap−in. Exchange 5.5 users will recognize a number of familiar management functions. From top to bottom, you deal here with Exchange organization−wide (global) property settings, property settings relating to Exchange 2003 recipients, server management, which includes Exchange Server 2003 storage groups and the management of a range of Internet and other protocols.
Figure 2.9: The Exchange System Manager Microsoft Management Console snap−in
Services for both NNTP and SMTP are installed when you install Windows Server 2003. Both are required if you're going to install Exchange Server 2003. Before you install Exchange Server 2003, these two interfaces live in the Internet Information Server snap−in. After you install Exchange 2003, the interfaces move to the Exchange container shown in Figure 2.9. It took me a while to realize this and, thus, to find these interfaces after I installed Exchange Server 2003.
Note As a Windows Server 2003 service, SMTP is used mostly for Windows 2003 communications; NNTP supports those neat−to−nasty Internet newsgroups. Both of these services can function just fine without Exchange Server 2003. When Exchange Server 2003 is installed, SMTP services are modified to provide Exchange 2003 mailbox users with Internet message transfer functionality, and NNTP services are enhanced to allow Exchange 2003 users to see select newsgroups in Exchange 2003 public folders. As you'll see in Chapters 13, 'Managing Exchange 2003 Internet Services,' and 14, 'Managing Exchange 2003 Services for Internet Clients,' both services are significantly enhanced when Exchange Server 2003 is installed.
Now take a look at Figure 2.10, which shows the organization−wide System Manager user interface for Exchange Server 2003. You actually saw this interface back in Figures 2.7 and 2.9. I've just expanded it a bit here so that you can see a lot more of what's inside the container. Again, old hands at Exchange Server 5.5 will recognize a wide range of interfaces formerly found in the Exchange Server Administrator.
Figure 2.10: The organization− wide system manager user interface for Exchange Server 2003
Notice the last container visible in Figure 2.10, the Message Tracking Center. It occupies the same level in the Microsoft Management Console hierarchy as the Barry Gerber and Associates (Exchange) organization−wide container (the highest−level container in Exchange System Manager). You'll notice that the tracking center is also visible in the Tools container within the Barry Gerber and Associates (Exchange) container. This is one of the neat capabilities of Microsoft Management Console. Not only do many containers (and their user interfaces) live within other containers, but they also can exist independently of those containers. I was able to install a separate instance of message tracking outside the Exchange Server 2003 System Manager container. This way, to get to message tracking, I don't need to drill down into the System Manager container to find it.