00 - Exchange Server Administration - Activity

MS Exchange Server Administration SUPINFO Official Curriculum

Version 0.8 20/12/2011

Microsoft Exchange Server Administration SUPINFO Official Curriculum

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SUPINFO International University http://www.supinfo.com

About Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a clientserver, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products. Exchange's major features consist of electronic mail, calendaring, contacts and tasks; that work with Microsoft Outlook on PC and Mac, wireless synchronization of email, calendar, contacts with major mobile devices and browser-based access to information; and support for data storage. Exchange was added to Microsofts product line in April 1996 with the release of Exchange Server 4.0. Exchange Server really was a convergence point for the migration of Microsofts internal messaging system and their retail PC Messaging product. Internally, Microsoft was using a legacy Xenix system for their e-mail; however, with Microsoft growing and really a need to move to a homegrown solution, Microsoft developed what became Exchange Server.

Concurrently, Microsoft had a commercial product by the name of MSMail, which evolved from the purchase of a product called Network Courier from a Vancouver company. When sufficient bugs were worked out and scalability issues somewhat addressed, Exchange Server 4.0 was released. Work on improving the product has not stopped since then. Here is below a summary of the evolutions :


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Exchange 5.0 introduced the first version of Outlook Web Access (OWA), which initially was more appropriately named Exchange Web Access. It also added formal SMTP and LDAPv2 to the product. Exchange 5.5 maintained the same style administrative interface and updated LDAP to v3 and added NNTP. For the next version, (v6.0) naming changed to incorporate the calendar year and

Exchange 2000 underwent a major facelift. Directory service functionality was now being served by the new Windows Active Directory. SMTP was handed off to Internet Information Services (IIS) with Exchange extensions. Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging was also introduced as an IIS application for corporate IM. Exchange 2003 (v6.5) improved upon many features of Exchange 2000, including a richer AJAX OWA client and a recovery storage group for restores. Client access features evolved as well with ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) for mobile device users and RPC/HTTPS and Exchange Cached Mode for Outlook 2003 users. Instant Messaging was removed to serve in a separate application, Live Communication Server, now expanded to Office Communication Server. Exchange Server 2007 (v7.0) again introduces big changes throughout the application from architecture to appearance. Exchange 2007 is role-based allowing administrators to install only the roles that are required for that server. This is also the first Microsoft application to take advantage of Microsofts new extensible scripting language, PowerShell. Unified Messaging is also a significant feature addition, integrating with Office Communication Server and PBX/VoIP systems.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Microsoft reached the RTM (Release To Manufacturing) milestone for Exchange Server 2010 on October 8, 2009, and it was officially launched on November 9, 2009. Although the architecture remains unchanged from Exchange 2007, it provides many improvements regarding high availability, administration delegation, moderation, .. It is also the version which is used for the new Microsoft SaaS offer : Office 365. Microsoft Office 365 is a commercial software plus services offering a set of products from Microsoft Corporation, with the initial plan including a Professional subscription (for organizations of 25 and smaller) and an Enterprise subscription (for organizations with more individuals). In January 2011, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 won InfoWorld's 2011 Technology of the Year Award for Best Mail Server.


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About this course The objective of this 32 hours instructor-led course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills to configure and manage an Exchange Server 2010 messaging environment. This course does not require previous Exchange Server experience, but does require that students have significant experience in managing Windows Server and Active Directory directory services or Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). This course will teach you how to configure Exchange Server, as well as provide guidelines, best practices, and considerations that will help you optimize your Exchange Server deployment. To make this course more interactive was decided that the whole progression would be built upon a serious game scenario where the learner will be an administrator that has to implement an Exchange Server solution for its company. The theory will be provided by your instructor and will help the learner to complete the objectives. After completing this course, students will be able to: Install and deploy Exchange Server 2010. Configure Mailbox servers and Mailbox server components. Manage recipient objects. Configure the Client Access server role. Manage message transport. Configure the secure flow of messages between the Exchange Server organization and the Internet. Implement a high availability solution for Mailbox servers and other server roles. Plan and implement backup and restore for the server roles. Plan and configure messaging policy and compliance. Configure Exchange Server permissions and security for internal and external access. Monitor and maintain the messaging system. Transition an Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2007 organization to Exchange Server 2010. Configure the Unified Messaging server role and Unified Messaging components. Implement High Availability across multiple sites and implement Federated Sharing. This course is also part of a course collection for the Master 1 students and will be linked to two other courses to provide the learners a full path to unified messaging concepts (Sharepoint administration / VoIP Study and Implementation).


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Conventions used in this document

This course guides you through the process of implementing a complete Microsoft Exchange Architecture. You play the role of a consultant that has to implement a Microsoft Exchange server 2010 infrastructure (Note : This course was developed for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 but works also on Microsoft Exchange server 2007). It is made to be provided in two ways : - On campus with a trainer - By yourself for self study For each steps, the following conventions were used : - Normal text : the story - Blue text : activities that have to be done by the learner When knowledge needs to be provided to help you complete the activity, you will find the following table :

For each of those contents is provided a Powerpoint to use on campus and a link to one of the videos of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Config 70-662 course on CBT Nuggets (available through http://libraries.supinfo.com) All the corrections of the activities are also available in the course folder on http://courses.supinfo.com For everything about virtual machines to do this activity, please consult the appendix 1 of this document.

This course suppose that you have some computing skill prior to this course : - Administering Microsoft Windows 2008 - Implementing Microsoft Active Directory on a Windows 2008 infrastructure For all the learners that want to acquire those subject before the course, we recommend several contents from our partner CBT Nuggets : - Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Active Directory 70-640 - Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure 70-642 - Microsoft PRO Windows Server 2008 70-646

Knowledge needed ! On campus : Slide 01.ppt Online : Vido


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Day one The one with the Exchange installation You work as an IT consultant for the DECIPLEX Company. You arrive at your office on Monday The week seemed calm, but as you open the door your manager comes to you and says We have an issue, one of your big client, the [IDBOOSTER] company just broke their service contract with their mail infrastructure provider. Note : For the need of this course, we used the [IDBOOSTER] convention. Replace this by your actual Open Campus ID. They want to have their own infrastructure and have asked us to prepare a demonstration of what the solution could be. You need to take this case and prepare the solution. When you arrive at [IDBOOSTER], you meet Paul Thompson - the infrastructure manager of the company - that gives you a brief overview of the information system of the company and its needs : We have about 200 users located in several branches. All thoses users are managed through an Active Directory in charge of the [IDBOOSTER].com domain. We have several file servers and pro-applications that run using this directory. We would like the new solution to integrate smoothly in the system. After few minutes, you present to your customer the Microsoft Exchange 2010 solution.

At the end of your presentation, the IT manager is ok to go with this solution and you start to prepare your POC (Proof Of Concept) by implementing and Active Directory for the [IDBOOSTER].com domain.

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 01 Introduction to Microsoft Exchange.ppt Online : Introduction to Microsoft Exchange and Exchange Certification

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 02 Active Directory.ppt Online : See related course


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For the need of your POC, you implement an Active Directory for the [IDBOOSTER].com domain and create 3 users : John Smith Jim Root Steve Thompson Now that your Active Directory is ready, you need to set your certification authority.

Prepare your certification authority. When done, your POC is now ready for exchange installation. But before going further you device to check the documentation about Exchange Server, its roles and its components

Now you need to install Microsoft Exchange and its pre-requisites. Your base installation is now finished. You were thinking about leaving the office for today when the IT Manager comes in and ask you to do a small demonstration of the solution to show your progression.

You decide to show the presentation by starting mail clients (on virtual machines or on your computer) to show the solution and send some mails between the users you created earlier. Your first day at [IDBOOSTER] is now over, you leave the office to take some rest and be ready for the second day !

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 03 About certification authority.ppt Online : Exchange from the Outside World: Security, Certificates, Name Resolution, and Autodiscovery

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 04 Understanding Exchange Roles, components and installation process.ppt Online : Understanding Exchange Roles and Components, Preparing your Infrastructure and Installing your First Exchange Server

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 05 Client Access Server Role.ppt Online : Outlook, OWA, and the Exchange Control Panel


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Day two The one with the Mailbox Server and Hub transport roles You arrive early at [IDBOOSTER] to go on with your POC. During the night you had a flash The drive I took for my POC is not big enough so you decide to move it on another drive. While you arrive, the IT Manager comes into your office and says Yesterday we had those messages about the certification authority when we connected the clients, is there a way to remove it on the POC ? .

To start your day, you move your database to another drive and set the local certification authority as requested. One this task completed, you go on with the implementation of the mailbox server role.

The IT Manager wants to POC to display a directory with the clients of the company and some ressources calendars. The directory will have to allow the employees of the company to access this directory for their everyday communications with the customers. Once done, you create a calendar to check the availability of a video projector. Anyone from the company must be able to request the equipment. Now that this is done, you continue your implementation with the Hub Transport Role.

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 06 Managing the database and local authority certification.ppt Online : N/A

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 07 The mailbox server role.ppt Online : Mailbox Server Role: Databases, Mailboxes, and Public Folders Mailbox Server Role: Addresses, Folders, Groups, Contacts, and Resource Mailboxes

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 08 The hub transport role.ppt Online : Hub Transport Role: Message Transport, Connectors, Accepted Domains, and Remote Domains Hub Transport Role: Email Address Policies, Transport Rules, and Journal Rules


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You now need to add the Transport Hub role for mail routing. You will also configure an anti-spam feature that will work on intra-domain mails. The IT Administrator also want a policy that will make that all the mailboxes of the company will be [email protected] You present your POC to the IT Manager that congratulates you, but he has a request The company HTML signature will have to be added to any recipient outside the company. This signature should also contain the lastname and firstname of the sender and its business phone, can you do that please ? You add those features before finishing your second day at IDBOOSTER.com


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Day 3 The one with scripting and backup You start your day with a meeting with the IT Manager who is becoming anxious about all the everyday tasks and the time it might require. You explain him that he does not need to worry thanks to the powershell administration features.

The IT manager seems interested and asks Could you show me examples of automation using powershell please ? For example I would like the four following scripts - CreateDynamicDistributionGroup.ps This script will be in charge of creating a dynamic distribution list such as [email protected]. Note : The following structure for the AD users must be created : - A management department - A technical support department - A accounting department - A commercials department - CreateUserAndMailbox.ps This script will be in charge of creating the users mailbox and accounts. The creation will be made through a serie of questions such as : - Name? - Firstname ? - Department? (Do not forget to add the users to the good distribution lists). - DisableUsers.ps This script will have to delete the mailbox account while keeping the AD Account. - ImportUserAndMailboxCSV.ps This script will have to be able to import a list of users from a CSV File such as firstname,lastname,department and add them to their respective distribution lists. The script will take the path of the CSV as argument.

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 09 Managing Exchange 2010 with Windows Powershell.ppt Online : Managing Exchange 2010 with Windows PowerShell


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Now that this demonstration is complete, you use the few remaining hours you have left today to present to the IT Manager the Monitoring and reporting features including Best Practice Analyser.

Prepare a report that will contain all the anomalies that are reported by your server.

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 10 Exchange monitoring and reporting.ppt Online : Exchange Monitoring and Reporting


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Day four Almost finished or not ? The week has been good so far, the IT Manager of IDBOOSTER is thrilled by your POC and you are about to have if validated. When you arrive the IT Manager comes to your office with someone else. This someone is no-one but the manager of your contact, the IT Manager of WORLD-IT, the firm that holds IDBOOSTER and several other companies. I heard about your POC and thats why I came here to see you, we have a similar need for other companies WORLD-IT is managing and we are in the middle of a discussion about our global messaging infrastructure . You now have to adapt your POC so you can present the behaviour of 2 Exchanges servers together. Note for learners : From now you need to work by pairs to link your exchange servers together. For security reasons you implement the Edge Transport role on another Windows 2008 server.

You decide to start a second virtual machine a set a Edge server so you will be able to demonstrate the security advantages of this feature. Once done you demonstrate that your architecture is working by exchanging mails between the servers. Finally, the last worries for the IT Manager are about disaster recovery, so you decide to implement backup on your solution.

When implemented, simulate a crash by removing the drive where your mailbox are stored and do a recovery of the data to have the server up and running again.

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 11 Edge Transport Role Installing and configuring.ppt Online : Edge Transport Role Installing and configuring

Knowledge needed ! On campus : 12 Backup and Recovery.ppt Online : Exchange Backup and Recovery

00 - Exchange Server Administration - Activity

Documents

release of exchange

features of exchange

exchange extensions

exchange web access

microsoft application

microsoft outlook

exchange cached mode

live communication server