To meet the legal or the business requirement or to comply with the regulations, organizations should have an emails life cycle policies as part of their Messaging Policy. Messaging Record Management feature help the organizations to decide and plan on, how long and where the email messages to be retained and do they need to retain all the emails for same period etc.
Important Terms related to MRM in Exchange 2013
Retention Policy
It is the logical grouping of Retention Tags. When applying a retention policy to a mailbox, the retention tags that are linked with it are directly applied to the mailbox.
Retention Tag
Retention tags are the retention settings that will be applied on messages and folders on the user mailbox. There are 3 types on Retention Tags are available
Default Policy Tag: This retention setting will be applied to all the email items on the mailbox that are not applied with any other retention tags
Retention Policy Tag: Retentions settings that are applied on default folders
Personal Tag: This will be applied in Outlook Web Access and Outlook 2010 and later client to the custom folders and individual emails items on mailbox
Managed Folder Assistant
Managed Folder Assistant is a process that runs on Mailbox Server, which process all the mailbox and it will apply the retention policy settings based on the retention tags link to it. It is responsible for archiving, message expiration and compliance.
How to Implement Messaging Records Management feature
Messaging Records Management feature is implemented using Retention tags and Retention Polices in Exchange 2013. Below shows the details on how to implement Message Records Management
Step 1: Create a Retention Tag
Three types of Retention Tags can be created and the below command creates a new Default Policy Tag
New-RetentionPolicyTag -Name "DPT-1Year-Delete" -Type All -AgeLimitForRetention 365 -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery
Step 2: Create a Retention Policy
New-RetentionPolicy "Chennai-Users-RP"
Step 3: Link Retention Tag to Retention Policy
We can link one Default Policy tag to delete emails, one Default Policy Tag to archive emails and one Default Policy Tag to deleted voice mail message, one Retention Policy Tag for default folders and number of Personal Tags
Note: If we already created the Retention Tags that are to be linked to the Retention Policy, then we can directly link the Retention Tags during the Retention Policy creation using the below shell command
New-RetentionPolicy "Chennai-Users-RP" -RetentionPolicyTagLinks " DPT-1Year-Delete ", "DPT-1Year-Archive", "DPT-Chenai-VM","RPT","Personal Tag Name"
Step 4: Apply Retention Policy to users Mailbox
Only one Retention Policy can be assigned to a mailbox, where that retention policy can hold different retention tags. To apply the Retention Policy to user mailbox
Set-Mailbox –Identity Rajkumar –RetentionPolicy "Chennai-Users-RP"
And to force the retention policy to apply to user mailbox
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant –Identity Rajkumar@chennai.com
Retention Hold
Retention hold is a Messaging Records Management feature which will help administrator to hold the emails for certain period of time, for example when user is on vacation etc. If a Retention Hold is enabled on the Mailbox, then the Retention Policy will not take effect.
To enable Retention Hold
Set-Mailbox –Identity Rajkumar –RetentionHoldenabled $True
Leave your comments If you need any information on Message Records Management…
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 RTM help file
Exchange Server 2013 RTM version will be released in the first quarter of 2013 and the volume licensing will be available to partners by this December. Before the release of Exchange 2013 RTM version, Microsoft made the Exchange 2013 RTM help file available for download
Click on the link to download Exchange 2013 RTM Help file
It's a advanced option for Exchange Server Admins to review the help file to know more details about the RTM version of Exchange 2013.
Click on the link to download Exchange 2013 RTM Help file
It's a advanced option for Exchange Server Admins to review the help file to know more details about the RTM version of Exchange 2013.
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Outlook Web App in Exchange 2013
We will have a look on the new options that are available in Exchange 2013 Outlook Web App (OWA).
Outlook Web App 2013 has lot of advanced features and functionalities like
- Offline Access (works only with IE 10 and latest version of other browsers)
- Easy Navigation to access Email, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks etc…
- Option to access and perform a search on Archive Mailbox
- Conversation View
- Allows users to set categories from OWA
- Option to view full Message Headers
- Users can mark email as Junk email and based on the received emails they can create rule
- Users can set a Photo to their account
To login to OWA in Exchange 2013 type https://clientaccessservername/owa and the below login page will appears
Enter your credential and the new OWA screen appears as shown below.
Calendars in OWA 2013
Composing an Email in OWA 2013 will allow an option to compose on the same window. Also we have an option to pop out the email composing the window.
Lot of option are there to show, but I'm stopping here. Outlook Web App 2013 gives rich look with new features an functionalities for end users to access their emails.
Unable to access OWA in Exchange 2013
After installing Exchange Server 2013 preview, trying to access OWA or the new Exchange Admin Center will show a blank page or the page cannot be displayed message as shown below. If you try to open Exchange Management shell at this time, you will get an WinRM client error.
To fix this
Check all the Exchange Server related services are running on your Client Access Server. Everything is normal and still OWA and EAC are not accessible then register the .Net Framework 4.0 as shown below
- Open Command Prompt with Run as Administrator Permission
- Navigate to the path C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 and drag the file ASPNET_REGIIS to the command prompt and enter the switch "–IR –ENABLE". Command Prompt will look like this, check it and click enter.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\administrator.CHENNAI>C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir –enable
Once it is completed, IIS will start using Framework 4.0 which is a prerequisite for Exchange 2013 OWA and EAC to function
- Restart IIS using "IISRESET" command. Internet Information Store service will stop and restart. Now you will be able to access OWA and EAC
Inform us if any issue in opening the OWA and EAC in Exchange 2013 preview.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Exchange Server 2013 exams announced
Microsoft announced two exams for the Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and below are the details of those exams. If you are waiting for Exchange 2013 exams, get ready for that.
Exam 70-341 - Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
Above Exam is focused with the topics like, planning, configuring, installing and managing Exchange Server 2013 – click here for more information
Exam 70-342 - Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
Above Exam is focused for senior level 3 Exchange Administrators dealing with designing, configuring and migration – Click here for more information
Exam 70-341 - Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
Above Exam is focused with the topics like, planning, configuring, installing and managing Exchange Server 2013 – click here for more information
Exam 70-342 - Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
Above Exam is focused for senior level 3 Exchange Administrators dealing with designing, configuring and migration – Click here for more information
Monday, 15 October 2012
Mail Flow in Exchange Server 2013
With the 2 Roles (Mailbox Server Role and Client Access Server) server architecture in Exchange Server 2013, few changes are there on the transport components where Microsoft merge the Hub Transport Server role component into Mailbox Server role and introduced a new Front End Transport service on the Client Access Server Role to handle the mail flow in Exchange 2013.
Exchange 2013 Mail flow occurs through a Transport Pipeline. Transport Pipeline is a collection of Services, connections, components and queues that work together to route all the messages to categoriser in the Hub Transport Service on a Mailbox Server Role.
Three Components of Transport Pipeline
Below are the three Transport pipeline components that performs an important functions on the mail flow part in Exchange Server 2013
Front End Transport Service:
This Service is available in Client Access Server roles; it acts as a proxy for inbound and outbound emails. Where it receives the email from external SMTP using the receive connector and it performs a Connection filtering, Recipient Filtering and Sender filtering and it will route the email to Hub Transport Service in Mailbox Server Role. Front end transport service won't store any emails in queue etc.
Hub Transport Service:
This Service is available in Mailbox Server Role; it performs the same function as the Hub Transport Server Role in Exchange Server 2010. Hub Transport Service performs the categorization, the connection filtering and route the emails to Mailbox Transport Service
Mailbox Transport Service: This Service is available in Mailbox Server role, this Mailbox Transport Service is responsible to retrieve the sent emails by the user and submit it to Hub Transport Service and also it is responsible to receive emails from Hub Transport Service and it will connect to Mailbox Database using RPC to deliver the emails.
Below figure shows the components that are available on each Transport Service and this image is copied from Microsoft website to explain the mail flow architecture in Exchange 2013.
To give a demo kind of explanation, I marked with 1 to 10 to represent how the external emails send to an internal user reaches his mailbox.
Step 1: Inbound Emails from external SMTP will be received by Receive Connector (SMTP Receive) on the Front End Transport Service. SMTP Receive perform a Connection Filtering, Recipient filtering and Sender filtering by the Protocol Agent and the emails will be delivered to Hub Selector. Hub Selector use the delivery groups to find where to deliver the emails based on the recipient and the emails will be sent to SMTP Send component on the Front End Transport Service
Step 2: SMTP Send component on Front End Transport Service performs email routing based on whether it is an internal email or an external email.
Step 3: In our case it is an inbound email. The SMTP Send component on the Front End Transport Service routes the emails to SMTP receive component on the Hub Transport Service on the Mailbox Server Role.
Step 4: SMTP Receive component on Hub Transport Service receives the email from Front end transport service and email from other Hub transport services. It has a Protocol Agent to inspect the emails content (Content filtering) and the email will be sent to Submission Queue.
Step 5: Submission Queue receive the email from 3 ways, 1. SMTP Receive component, 2.Pickup and 3.Replay Directory and the emails are sending to Categoriser on the first in first out basis
Step 6: Categorizer perform the same functions like recipient resolution, routing resolution and Content Conversion then the email will be place on the Delivery Queue.
Step 7: SMTP Send component on the Hub Transport Service pick the emails from Delivery queue and it will send the email to SMTP Receive component on the Mailbox Transport Service. Based on the Routing resolution that occurred on the categorizer, the email will be routed to the respective destination. It can be of local mailbox server of the Hub Transport service of other mailbox server.
Step 8: If the email is send to a mailbox on the same server, the email will be received by SMTP receive component on the Mailbox Transport Delivery Service and it will be delivered to Store Driver.
Step 9 and 10: Store Driver deliver in Mailbox Transport Delivery Service process the email and the Mailbox Transport service connect to Mailbox Database using RPC and the deliver the email to respective Mailbox.
Above gives a short explanation on how the inbound email flow to exchange organization occurs in Exchange 2013 organization. And the same way the outbound emails will be submitted to Mailbox Transport Submission Service and the emails will be routed to HUB Transport Service and then to front end transport service and it will be delivered to external SMTP host.
Please leave your comment if you need any other information on the Mail Flow on Exchange Server 2013.
Exchange 2013 Mail flow occurs through a Transport Pipeline. Transport Pipeline is a collection of Services, connections, components and queues that work together to route all the messages to categoriser in the Hub Transport Service on a Mailbox Server Role.
Three Components of Transport Pipeline
Below are the three Transport pipeline components that performs an important functions on the mail flow part in Exchange Server 2013
Front End Transport Service:
This Service is available in Client Access Server roles; it acts as a proxy for inbound and outbound emails. Where it receives the email from external SMTP using the receive connector and it performs a Connection filtering, Recipient Filtering and Sender filtering and it will route the email to Hub Transport Service in Mailbox Server Role. Front end transport service won't store any emails in queue etc.
Hub Transport Service:
This Service is available in Mailbox Server Role; it performs the same function as the Hub Transport Server Role in Exchange Server 2010. Hub Transport Service performs the categorization, the connection filtering and route the emails to Mailbox Transport Service
Mailbox Transport Service: This Service is available in Mailbox Server role, this Mailbox Transport Service is responsible to retrieve the sent emails by the user and submit it to Hub Transport Service and also it is responsible to receive emails from Hub Transport Service and it will connect to Mailbox Database using RPC to deliver the emails.
Below figure shows the components that are available on each Transport Service and this image is copied from Microsoft website to explain the mail flow architecture in Exchange 2013.
To give a demo kind of explanation, I marked with 1 to 10 to represent how the external emails send to an internal user reaches his mailbox.
Step 1: Inbound Emails from external SMTP will be received by Receive Connector (SMTP Receive) on the Front End Transport Service. SMTP Receive perform a Connection Filtering, Recipient filtering and Sender filtering by the Protocol Agent and the emails will be delivered to Hub Selector. Hub Selector use the delivery groups to find where to deliver the emails based on the recipient and the emails will be sent to SMTP Send component on the Front End Transport Service
Step 2: SMTP Send component on Front End Transport Service performs email routing based on whether it is an internal email or an external email.
Step 3: In our case it is an inbound email. The SMTP Send component on the Front End Transport Service routes the emails to SMTP receive component on the Hub Transport Service on the Mailbox Server Role.
Step 4: SMTP Receive component on Hub Transport Service receives the email from Front end transport service and email from other Hub transport services. It has a Protocol Agent to inspect the emails content (Content filtering) and the email will be sent to Submission Queue.
Step 5: Submission Queue receive the email from 3 ways, 1. SMTP Receive component, 2.Pickup and 3.Replay Directory and the emails are sending to Categoriser on the first in first out basis
Step 6: Categorizer perform the same functions like recipient resolution, routing resolution and Content Conversion then the email will be place on the Delivery Queue.
Step 7: SMTP Send component on the Hub Transport Service pick the emails from Delivery queue and it will send the email to SMTP Receive component on the Mailbox Transport Service. Based on the Routing resolution that occurred on the categorizer, the email will be routed to the respective destination. It can be of local mailbox server of the Hub Transport service of other mailbox server.
Step 8: If the email is send to a mailbox on the same server, the email will be received by SMTP receive component on the Mailbox Transport Delivery Service and it will be delivered to Store Driver.
Step 9 and 10: Store Driver deliver in Mailbox Transport Delivery Service process the email and the Mailbox Transport service connect to Mailbox Database using RPC and the deliver the email to respective Mailbox.
Above gives a short explanation on how the inbound email flow to exchange organization occurs in Exchange 2013 organization. And the same way the outbound emails will be submitted to Mailbox Transport Submission Service and the emails will be routed to HUB Transport Service and then to front end transport service and it will be delivered to external SMTP host.
Please leave your comment if you need any other information on the Mail Flow on Exchange Server 2013.
Friday, 12 October 2012
Exchange 2013 Client Access Server Role in Short
We have only two server roles in Exchange Server 2013, the Mailbox Server Role and the Client Access Server Role. It doesn't mean the Mailbox Server role will sit inside the network and the Client Access Server role will sit at the perimeter network. Both the server roles are internal domain joined servers in the internal Active Directory forest.
Exchange 2013 Client Access Server role act as a light weight Exchange Aware Proxy Server, which serves all the client (MAPI, EWS, OWA, EAS, POP, IMAP, EAC) request and proxy the requests to Mailbox server role. Exchange 2013 also works as a Layer 7 SMTP Proxy and router where it finds the best place to route the emails to the destination.
3 Main Components of Client Access Server Role
Client Access Protocols and the Client Connections
All the client protocols\connections like OWA, EMS, EAC, MAPI, EAS, POP/IMAP, SMTP, UM Calls will connect to the Client Access Server roles, respective request will be passed to the concerned component on the Mailbox Server role. For example, if a POP3 client connects to exchange 2013 mailbox, the connection will go to POP/IMAP component on the Client Access Server role and that component will talk to the POP/IMAP component on the Mailbox Server role
All the above client connections are received by the CAS server and proxy to the mailbox server role. If a UM call request comes to CAS, it will send an acknowledgement with the redirection and the request will be redirected to UM component on the Mailbox Server role.
Client Access Server as email router (Front End Transport Service)
Client Access Server role in Exchange 2013 has a component named Front End Transport Service, which will act as a SMTP proxy to handle all inbound and outbound external emails for the exchange organization. CAS SMTP component wont store any emails or email queue, it will receives the emails, inspect the emails and it will send the email to destination
High Availability for Client Access Server Role (CAS Array)
Group of Exchange 2013 Client Access Server roles in an Active Directory is function as a Client Access Array. The RPC Client Access Server Array model is removed in Exchange 2013, which means there is no RPC/TCP connection in Exchange 2013. It Supports only RPC/HTTP.
Outlook Connectivity
As mentioned above, Outlook Clients connecting to RPC end points in Exchange 2010 is not available in Exchange 2013. The RCP/TCP model is removed and all the outlook clients connect to CAS server by RPC over HTTP. With the RPC over HTTP connection, there is no need to specify the RPC CAS array name on the Mailbox Databases and the Pop up while activating the passive copy won't appear anymore for users
Intelligent Email Routing by CAS using Delivery Groups
Front End Service in Client Access Server role has two important components named SMTP Receive and SMTP Send.
SMTP Receive – It receives the emails from External SMTP and performs Connection filtering, Sender Filtering and Recipient Filtering by the Protocol Agents and the emails will be sent to Hub Selector component on the SMTP Receive Component. Hub Selector finds the where to send the emails and the email will be sent to SMTP Sent Component.
SMTP Send – It sends the email to SMTP component on the Mailbox Server role and if it external emails it will send the emails to smart host
Delivery Groups
Hub Selector uses the Delivery groups to route the emails. Delivery Groups find the best routing path to deliver the emails. Delivery Groups are not new in Exchange 2013, the Active Directory Sites, Mailbox Server and the DAG used when routing or to find where to deliver the emails are the Delivery Groups in Exchange 2013. Email delivery to which delivery group is selected based on the recipients mentioned on the email.
Ports used for Mail Flow in CAS
Port 25 is used to communicate between server to server and Port 587 is used for Server to Client Communication
If any of the above information is not clear, please leave your comments to edit the same.
Exchange 2013 Client Access Server role act as a light weight Exchange Aware Proxy Server, which serves all the client (MAPI, EWS, OWA, EAS, POP, IMAP, EAC) request and proxy the requests to Mailbox server role. Exchange 2013 also works as a Layer 7 SMTP Proxy and router where it finds the best place to route the emails to the destination.
3 Main Components of Client Access Server Role
- Client Access Protocols
- SMTP
- UM Call Router
Client Access Protocols and the Client Connections
All the client protocols\connections like OWA, EMS, EAC, MAPI, EAS, POP/IMAP, SMTP, UM Calls will connect to the Client Access Server roles, respective request will be passed to the concerned component on the Mailbox Server role. For example, if a POP3 client connects to exchange 2013 mailbox, the connection will go to POP/IMAP component on the Client Access Server role and that component will talk to the POP/IMAP component on the Mailbox Server role
All the above client connections are received by the CAS server and proxy to the mailbox server role. If a UM call request comes to CAS, it will send an acknowledgement with the redirection and the request will be redirected to UM component on the Mailbox Server role.
Client Access Server as email router (Front End Transport Service)
Client Access Server role in Exchange 2013 has a component named Front End Transport Service, which will act as a SMTP proxy to handle all inbound and outbound external emails for the exchange organization. CAS SMTP component wont store any emails or email queue, it will receives the emails, inspect the emails and it will send the email to destination
High Availability for Client Access Server Role (CAS Array)
Group of Exchange 2013 Client Access Server roles in an Active Directory is function as a Client Access Array. The RPC Client Access Server Array model is removed in Exchange 2013, which means there is no RPC/TCP connection in Exchange 2013. It Supports only RPC/HTTP.
Outlook Connectivity
As mentioned above, Outlook Clients connecting to RPC end points in Exchange 2010 is not available in Exchange 2013. The RCP/TCP model is removed and all the outlook clients connect to CAS server by RPC over HTTP. With the RPC over HTTP connection, there is no need to specify the RPC CAS array name on the Mailbox Databases and the Pop up while activating the passive copy won't appear anymore for users
Intelligent Email Routing by CAS using Delivery Groups
Front End Service in Client Access Server role has two important components named SMTP Receive and SMTP Send.
SMTP Receive – It receives the emails from External SMTP and performs Connection filtering, Sender Filtering and Recipient Filtering by the Protocol Agents and the emails will be sent to Hub Selector component on the SMTP Receive Component. Hub Selector finds the where to send the emails and the email will be sent to SMTP Sent Component.
SMTP Send – It sends the email to SMTP component on the Mailbox Server role and if it external emails it will send the emails to smart host
Delivery Groups
Hub Selector uses the Delivery groups to route the emails. Delivery Groups find the best routing path to deliver the emails. Delivery Groups are not new in Exchange 2013, the Active Directory Sites, Mailbox Server and the DAG used when routing or to find where to deliver the emails are the Delivery Groups in Exchange 2013. Email delivery to which delivery group is selected based on the recipients mentioned on the email.
Ports used for Mail Flow in CAS
Port 25 is used to communicate between server to server and Port 587 is used for Server to Client Communication
If any of the above information is not clear, please leave your comments to edit the same.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Exchange 2013 Mailbox Server Role in Short
This is a short note on Mailbox Server Role in Exchange Server 2013. If we look at Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server role, it hosts the mailbox database and public folder database. Exchange Server 2013 also host the mailbox databases and the Public Folders (not the Public Folder Database) inside the mailbox databases and the activities like data storing, processing and rendering will takes place in Mailbox Server role itself.
Below are some of the important changes\options that are available in Exchange 2013 Mailbox Server Role
Mailbox Server Role Connection:
In Exchange 2010 all the client connection goes via the Client Access Server and the Client Access Server will connect to the mailbox server to access the mailbox data but the folder access will directly goes to Mailbox Server role. In Exchange 2013, the only server role that directly connects to Mailbox Server role is the Client Access Server and all the Clients connection goes Client Access Server Role. There is an exception on the UM call routing, where the UM client send a SIP request hit the UM component on the CAS and it will send a SIP redirection to call and the caller will connect to Mailbox Server.
Changes to Public Folder Database:
Public Folder database are no longer available with Exchange 2013. It doesn't mean the public folders are removed, we can continue to use the Public Folders using the newly created Public Folder Mailbox. First created Public Folder Mailbox will hold the Public Folder Hierarchy and there won't multi master replication model, Exchange Server 2013 Public Folders will continue to use the same Continuous Replication model to achieve high availability.
Separate Process for each Mailbox Database
With the newly introduced managed stored model, every mailbox database will have a separate process. If any issue with the single mailbox database, then that particular process will go down and there won't be any issue for the other mailbox databases.
High Availability for Mailbox Server
Exchange 2013 has the function of Database Availability Group which is available in Exchange 2010. DAG allows having 16 Mailbox Server to be member of DAG and the DAG is boundary for replication of Mailbox Databases. We can create 100 Mailbox databases per server including the active and passive mailbox database. DAG uses the same continuous replication model to replicate the active mailbox databases to passive mailbox database.
Support for larger Mailbox
Exchange 2010 supports up to 25 GB of Mailbox size, with Exchange 2013 it supports up to 100 GB of Mailbox size this removes the need for third party archive solutions and we have the option to control the size of the Offline Storage file (OST) using outlook 2013
Mailbox Server role as Transport server
Mailbox Server role in Exchange Server 2013 performs a transport functionality of email. There are 3 important services running in Mailbox server role that handles the mail flow, they are
Other lot of features like faster mailbox search, IOP reduction to 99.7 % and lot of improvements on the mailbox database high availability and resilience are done in Exchange server 2013.
If you need any information on the mailbox server role on Exchange Server 2013, leave your comments here.
Below are some of the important changes\options that are available in Exchange 2013 Mailbox Server Role
Mailbox Server Role Connection:
In Exchange 2010 all the client connection goes via the Client Access Server and the Client Access Server will connect to the mailbox server to access the mailbox data but the folder access will directly goes to Mailbox Server role. In Exchange 2013, the only server role that directly connects to Mailbox Server role is the Client Access Server and all the Clients connection goes Client Access Server Role. There is an exception on the UM call routing, where the UM client send a SIP request hit the UM component on the CAS and it will send a SIP redirection to call and the caller will connect to Mailbox Server.
Changes to Public Folder Database:
Public Folder database are no longer available with Exchange 2013. It doesn't mean the public folders are removed, we can continue to use the Public Folders using the newly created Public Folder Mailbox. First created Public Folder Mailbox will hold the Public Folder Hierarchy and there won't multi master replication model, Exchange Server 2013 Public Folders will continue to use the same Continuous Replication model to achieve high availability.
Separate Process for each Mailbox Database
With the newly introduced managed stored model, every mailbox database will have a separate process. If any issue with the single mailbox database, then that particular process will go down and there won't be any issue for the other mailbox databases.
High Availability for Mailbox Server
Exchange 2013 has the function of Database Availability Group which is available in Exchange 2010. DAG allows having 16 Mailbox Server to be member of DAG and the DAG is boundary for replication of Mailbox Databases. We can create 100 Mailbox databases per server including the active and passive mailbox database. DAG uses the same continuous replication model to replicate the active mailbox databases to passive mailbox database.
Support for larger Mailbox
Exchange 2010 supports up to 25 GB of Mailbox size, with Exchange 2013 it supports up to 100 GB of Mailbox size this removes the need for third party archive solutions and we have the option to control the size of the Offline Storage file (OST) using outlook 2013
Mailbox Server role as Transport server
Mailbox Server role in Exchange Server 2013 performs a transport functionality of email. There are 3 important services running in Mailbox server role that handles the mail flow, they are
- Microsoft Exchange Transport – handles mail flow and performs content inspection
- Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Transport delivery – it will receive email from Microsoft Exchange Transport Service and delivers it to Mailbox database
- Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Transport Submission – this is the mailbox submission service in exchange 2010, which will take the mail from mailbox database and submits it to Microsoft Exchange Transport service.
Other lot of features like faster mailbox search, IOP reduction to 99.7 % and lot of improvements on the mailbox database high availability and resilience are done in Exchange server 2013.
If you need any information on the mailbox server role on Exchange Server 2013, leave your comments here.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Exchange 2013 Architectural changes
Exchange 2010 released with 5 server roles as like Exchange 2007. With the release of Exchange 2013 Preview, there are only two serer roles (Mailbox and the Client Access Server Roles). The 4 Internal Server Roles, Mailbox, Client Access, HUB and the UM servers are combined into two servers roles in Exchange 2013. The support or the option for the Edge Server Role in Exchange 2013 is not yet informed. It may or may not be released (Jan or Feb of 2013) in Exchange 2013 RTM
With Exchange Server 2010, the Server Roles are tightly coupled in the perspective of functionality and versioning (If client access server role is upgraded to new release, the mailbox server role has to be updated). With Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox and Client Access server roles, it is loosely coupled and there is no dependant on Functionality and versioning (If we upgrading the client access server roles, there is no dependence that the Mailbox server to be upgraded
Above diagram represents that, the Client Access Server Role in Exchange 2013 is responsible for Authentication, Proxy and redirection, reset of the component related to other server roles are moved to Mailbox Server Role.
Two Server roles in Exchange 2013
Two server roles with Mailbox and Client Access Server roles in Exchange Server 2013, doesn't mean that HUB and UM server roles are removed in Exchange 2013. Functionality of HUB and UM components are split between those 2 available server roles
Layer (4) Hardware Load Balancer is enough
With the architectural changes by instead of using Session affinity at the Client Access connection to NLB to CAS, exchange 2013 uses TCP affinity for access, which allows the use of Layer 4 hardware load balancer.
Each Server is treated as an individual Island
In Exchange Server 2010, EWS on one server can directly talk to store component on the other server and it makes the servers roles tightly coupled with each server roles , this is no longer the case wit Exchange 2013 and next releases. Which means the EWS on server can talk one with EWS on other server and it cannot be directly talk with other components. This removes the tightly coupled functionality in Exchange 2013
Let me know if you are having any doubts on the architectural changes in Exchange 2013.
With Exchange Server 2010, the Server Roles are tightly coupled in the perspective of functionality and versioning (If client access server role is upgraded to new release, the mailbox server role has to be updated). With Exchange Server 2013 Mailbox and Client Access server roles, it is loosely coupled and there is no dependant on Functionality and versioning (If we upgrading the client access server roles, there is no dependence that the Mailbox server to be upgraded
Above diagram represents that, the Client Access Server Role in Exchange 2013 is responsible for Authentication, Proxy and redirection, reset of the component related to other server roles are moved to Mailbox Server Role.
Two Server roles in Exchange 2013
Two server roles with Mailbox and Client Access Server roles in Exchange Server 2013, doesn't mean that HUB and UM server roles are removed in Exchange 2013. Functionality of HUB and UM components are split between those 2 available server roles
Layer (4) Hardware Load Balancer is enough
With the architectural changes by instead of using Session affinity at the Client Access connection to NLB to CAS, exchange 2013 uses TCP affinity for access, which allows the use of Layer 4 hardware load balancer.
Each Server is treated as an individual Island
In Exchange Server 2010, EWS on one server can directly talk to store component on the other server and it makes the servers roles tightly coupled with each server roles , this is no longer the case wit Exchange 2013 and next releases. Which means the EWS on server can talk one with EWS on other server and it cannot be directly talk with other components. This removes the tightly coupled functionality in Exchange 2013
Let me know if you are having any doubts on the architectural changes in Exchange 2013.
Friday, 5 October 2012
3 options that are missing in Exchange 2013
Below 3 options that are available in Exchange Server 2010 but it is not available in Exchange Server 2013 Preview. Not sure they will bring the second and third option Exchange 2013 RTM release
[button color="lightblue"] Exchange Management Console[/button]
Exchange Management Console in Exchange 2010 is replaced with the new management web console named Exchange Admin Center.
[button color="lightblue"] PowerShell Help[/button]
If we are editing mailbox or something on Exchange Management Console, we have an option to see the PowerShell command for that editing.
With the new Exchange Admin Center, there is no option to see that PowerShell command.
[button color="lightblue"] DAG creation on GUI[/button]
Exchange Management Console allows the administrator to create a DAG and add additional mailbox servers from the EMC itself. With the New Exchange Admin Center, we can create a DAG, but there is no option to add additional mailbox as member server. We have to add the member server using shell command.
[button color="lightblue"] Exchange Management Console[/button]
Exchange Management Console in Exchange 2010 is replaced with the new management web console named Exchange Admin Center.
[button color="lightblue"] PowerShell Help[/button]
If we are editing mailbox or something on Exchange Management Console, we have an option to see the PowerShell command for that editing.
With the new Exchange Admin Center, there is no option to see that PowerShell command.
[button color="lightblue"] DAG creation on GUI[/button]
Exchange Management Console allows the administrator to create a DAG and add additional mailbox servers from the EMC itself. With the New Exchange Admin Center, we can create a DAG, but there is no option to add additional mailbox as member server. We have to add the member server using shell command.
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