For many years now I have been using Microsoft Exchange Server for my main e-mail system. I started with Exchange version 4.0, which was the first release, and moved right into version 5, the second release.
After several years, Microsoft improved the functionality and released 5.5, which has been the standard for some time. It has been very popular with medium to large businesses, and has recently become popular with even small businesses, after Microsoft decided to release it in their small business server platform.
Exchange 2000 Functionality
Exchange has all the functionality needed for a small business that has a local area network infrastructure. It really shines in large organizations in a Wide Area Network. I would have to say that Microsoft did a great job designing it to compete with Lotus Notes and Novell’s GroupWise, not to mention their own product, Microsoft mail (Yuk!). It has become the most widely-used system by far for e-mail functionality and personal information management.
I install systems for a living, and many of my clients purchase the Small Business Server and have me deploy it within their offices. I have over fifty sites with Exchange 5.5 installed. Last October, I finally deployed Exchange 2000 Server and had a bit of trouble with the system.
First I should tell you that I am a one-man shop and have up to sixteen machines used for production, testing and beta testing throughout my office. I have everything from Linux, Novell 3.12 and 4.11, to everything that Microsoft releases, including the new beta test of the next release of Microsoft Windows, code-named Whistler.
I set off to implement my project, and the first thing I did was crash my system. I upgraded my SCSI cards’ firmware at the same time as I installed the new Exchange Server. Windows 2000 Advanced Server replaced it with a driver on the CD that was older than the OEM driver I tried to install.
I lost everything. I took this opportunity to start from scratch and install Windows 2000 Advanced Server as a clean install.
Everything went well, once I read Microsoft’s technical article on how to get around the OEM driver problem. Soon after that I implemented the Active Directory and installed Exchange 2000 Server Enterprise Edition. It went well.
Mailboxes Lost in Crash
I made one mistake when I decided to change my older system and upgrade to 2000—I kept the mailboxes on that same server. So since it crashed, everything was lost. However, I am a firm believer in tape backups and I had the Information Store and Directory Store on tape. I used the tape later on to retrieve my lost e-mail, calendar and contacts.
It was incredible: Microsoft published an article on how to retrieve a lost Exchange 5.5 Server. I followed the instructions to a tee and everything worked.
I had an extra machine installed as a backup domain controller for my older Windows NT 4.0 Domain, so I promoted it to a domain controller and installed Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 with the same exact names for the Organization and Site.
Recovery Is Easy
Then I ran the program specified in Microsoft’s white paper and copied the information store and directory store on top of the newly installed stores. It worked—all my data was there. I quickly copied everything to a personal folder and imported it back into my new Exchange mailbox on the new server. I could not believe how easy it was.
Well, after using this version for several months now and working with the Active Directory, I would have to say, they have done an excellent job in deploying this server. However, you have to re-think how things work.
The old way used a Windows NT server with a Domain User Manager holding the accounts for every user on the system. Then there is an Exchange Server with its database of recipients that had a pointer to the User Manager to authenticate each user to the Domain. Two separate databases of names are used to keep up with matching each name to the other. It was quite a mess trying to delete a user out of one, then making sure you deleted that user out of the other. There was a system that would help you with this, except you had to have the Exchange server installed on the server you were changing the accounts on, or you had to do it manually.
In Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Active Directory, everything is integrated into one database and even the Exchange features are in the same database. It is well thought out, not to mention all the enhanced features that Microsoft has thought of while building this new release.
Check E-mail from Anywhere
One of the most powerful features in Exchange server is the ability to check your e-mail from anywhere in the world. I have used this for quite a few years now. When I travel to Las Vegas for Comdex, I just use any machine there that has Internet Access and check my e-mail located in my office many miles away. They really improved this feature, and tightly integrated the Internet Information Services built in to Windows 2000 for very fast access. It looks very much like the real Outlook, installed on your local system. It is a little more secure this time as well.
As I mentioned before, Microsoft’s Exchange Server really shines in an enterprise-wide environment. If you have such a company, they have improved the clustering of such circumstances.
One feature that even a small company might think about is that of the enterprise version of Exchange 2000 Server. It has no limitation of storage groups and you can have more than one. The standard version has a 16 gigabyte limitation on the information store and you can only have one. For small businesses, this is fine, because you might only have 10 to 20 employees and with that much storage, you can hold a lot of e-mail to hold before you reach the limits.
However, think of this situation: you have a boss that has erased all his/her e-mail and deleted the trash, permanently destroying all their mail. Now he/she wants it back and expects you to go to tape and restore all the mailboxes in the information store, overwriting all the e-mail that the other users have to date.
If you have the enterprise version of the Exchange Server, you can have his information store separate from the rest of the users. This feature was not available in Exchange 5.5. Also, there is no limitation on any of these stores in the enterprise version.
Also included in the enterprise release is distributed services, allowing you to enable services across multiple servers to provide scalability in such an environment.
SMTP Now Used
The biggest feature that Microsoft changed in this release is the use of SMTP instead of remote procedure call (RPC) between servers. MS enhanced the anti-spamming capabilities and even included SMTP routing in this release.
As far as the management of such an animal, it was pretty much done in the Exchange Manager in version 5.5. However, they have switched everything over to one management console in Windows 2000 called the Microsoft management console (MMC). It includes right-clicking, which was not available before in Exchange, and several other features, like the ability to manage it in a single-seat environment across all servers within the domain.
The security is about as strong as can be, since it is all in the Active Directory now and Microsoft has done a fine job in implementing this infrastructure. They have even added access control lists in this release, as well as the public key encryption used before.
Migrating is a breeze, with numerous wizards helping you import users from all kinds of environments, including Microsoft mail, Lotus Notes, CC Mail, GroupWise, or any IMAP/LDAP Internet mail servers.
Another nice feature added to this release is the installable file system (IFS), which allows you to see a drive that has your mailbox and all your messages and contacts in file format. You can manage documents in such a way that you can open the message in an Office product just by clicking it right in from the Web storage system.
There are even real-time collaboration features like instant messaging, chat, and conferencing server available. It just depends on how big you want to go.
You might ask why you would use such a monster if you only have five employees and not much of an Internet connection, like maybe DSL. Well, I know I lean toward the enterprise release of Exchange 2000, but the standard release works very well in such an environment.
Intranet Mail
Having your own Exchange server in your office with a small number of users allows you to have intranet mail as well as Internet mail. You can have several aliases to your mailbox, including CEO, Manager, your name in several different formats—and you don’t have to worry about your ISP reading all your mail from their end.
All your mail is stored on your local server and available to you anywhere in the world, if your server is connected to the Internet with one static IP address.
With Exchange 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Internet connection sharing, you can use this one server to connect all your users to the Internet and have e-mail with only one IP address for the whole office. And at minimal cost, as well. Microsoft has solutions for all types of environments and especially small businesses.
Well, that’s it for this month. See you next month with more technical material about the active directory and Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
