- Lesson 1 - Introduction to Video Series
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In this kick-off Video, I introduce myself and share my expertise. It is a brief overview of what you will learn and what to expect from this comprehensive course. I also explain why Exchange 2007 is an exciting technology that you MUST master.
- Instructor Introduction
- What this Course Covers
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- Lesson 2 - Introduction to Exchange 2007
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First, we will define the networking architecture of our fictitious business, Cash Cow Capital Group, and detail our multi-server lab setup. I also detail my unique real-world approach to teaching Exchange technology, so you can prepare yourself for the exciting learning experience ahead!
- Cash Cow Scenario
- Scenario Diagram
- Lab Setup
- My Approach
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- Lesson 3 - Pre-Installation Preparation
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Learn the vital details and requirements for preparing your network & servers for the addition of a new Exchange 2007 organization. This includes going over hardware requirements and setting up an Active Directory, as well as registering a domain name, working with DNS, updating Active Directory schema and running the Readiness Scan.
You’ll learn the differences between Client Access License types, and the difference between Standard and Enterprise editions of the product. Once you are finished with this lesson, you should lack nothing to get started with an installation. You will also know how to leverage your existing AD infrastructure for centralized user and security management.
- Hardware and Software Requirements
- Planning Disks
- DNS Setup
- Active Directory
- Domain Registration
- Active Directory Requirements
- Active Directory Schema Changes
- Join the Domain
- Best Practice Analyzer Readiness Check
- Basic Differences Between Editions
- Client Access License Types
- Lesson 4 - Installation Overview
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Walk arm-in-arm with me through the actual Exchange 2007 installation process. You will become familiar with role selection and what your options are in regards to deploying different types of server roles. You’ll also learn the different stages of setup and the information necessary to successfully complete each step.
- Exchange Server 2007 Setup
- Error Reporting
- Typical vs. Custom Installation
- Client Settings
- Readiness Check #2
- Switching Between .Net Framework 1.1 and 2.0
- Add WSCG Component
- Switching Between .Net 1.1 and 2.0 (Part 2)
- Install!
- Get Critical Updates
- Verifying Install
- Finalize Deployment & End-to-End Scenario Tasks Lists
- Adding or Removing Exchange Roles
- Installing Service Pack 1
- Lesson 5 - Exchange Management Console
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Learn about the general console layout and how it maps to Exchange 2007’s role-based architecture. Learn how to use role delegation to set up different level Exchange administrators without giving away the keys to the kingdom. Dive into the Exchange Toolbox and other extra features hidden in the console.
Lastly, learn how to get and install the 32-bit version of the Management Console so you can do your Exchange administration from a workstation.
- Exchange Management Console
- Architecture
- Role Delegation
- Tour the Exchange Management Console
- Organization Mailbox Configuration
- Organization Client Access
- Organization Hub Transport
- Organization Trasport Rules
- Server Configuration
- Server Mailbox
- Server Client Access
- Server Hub Transport
- Recipient Configuration
- Recipient Distribution Groups
- Recipient Mail Contact
- Tool Box
- Extras
- 32-bit Edition
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- Lesson 6 - Exchange Management Shell
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Become more comfortable using xPowerShell to complete your management tasks. Learning the command-line shell allows you to take advantage of features not exposed through the Console. This is critical for mastery of the product, particularly for making light work out of repetitive tasks.
By the end of this lesson, you’ll know how to easily get command syntax when you need it. You will also know how to modify the settings of multiple mailboxes using PowerShell, and know how to streamline your productivity via pipelining.
- Shell Usage
- Aliases
- The "whatif" Command
- The get-mailbox Command
- Multiple Commands Per Line
- The set-mailbox Command
- Syntax Help
- The new-mailbox Command
- Pipelining
- Modifying Multiple Mailboxes with the Shell
- Other Management cmdlets
- Lesson 7 - Exchange 2007 Database
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Knowing the Exchange 2007 database architecture of the Extensible Storage Engine is important because it’s required for a complete understanding of how backup and recovery and Single Instance Storage works.
Learn what has changed in Exchange 2007, as well as the difference between storage groups and databases and how to use them. Also learn the best practices for Exchange database management.
Truly understanding these architectures will prevent serious mistakes in the areas of backup and recovery. It also helps you optimize your database for space, performance and stability.
- Exchange 2007 Database Overview
- What Has Changed from 2003?
- The Difference Between Storage Groups and Databases
- Limitations
- Best Practices
- Lesson 8 - Going Live
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Before you go live, make sure you have all the essential pieces in place to have a functional Exchange 2007 server. We’ll go through a critical checklist of tasks, some of which we’ve already accomplished.
We look at DNS settings and check the listening ports on our firewall. We then do several tests to verify mail-flow (The ability to send mail to external hosts and to accept delivery of inbound mail to internal mailboxes).
- Basic E-mail Connectivity Diagram
- Going Live Checklist
- Checking DNS Records
- Firewall Rule Allowing Port 25 Inbound
- Test for Outbound Port 25 Access
- Test if Exchange Server is Listening on Port 25
- Configure Authorized Domains and E-mail Policy
- Testing Inbound E-mail
- Testing Outbound E-mail
- Lesson 9 - Working with Recipients
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Skillfully integrating external users into organizational address books is key to healthy communication with partners and contractors.
Learn how distribution lists work and how to create dynamic distribution lists that help you avoid tedious maintenance of your company address books. This knowledge allows you to focus on other important tasks as your organization grows.
Leveraging room and equipment mailboxes make scheduling and reservations of these commonly used objects much simpler than past versions of Exchange. Also, learn how to use those resources to streamline scheduling in your organization.
- Scenario Management Requests
- Configuring Mail
- Working with Contacts
- Creating and Using Distribution Groups
- The set-distributiongroup Command
- Rooms and Equipment Mailboxes
- Using Recipients Filtering
- Lesson 10 - Configuring Public Folders
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Public folders are one of the most important collaborative features of Exchange, and knowing how they are managed in Exchange 2007 will allow you to provide solutions to many common business processing problems.
Gain a firm grasp on public folder architecture and learn the tools available for managing them. Learn how to do common tasks like creating new folders, assigning permissions to folders, and allowing folders to send and receive mail.
Once you’ve gotten comfortable with public folders, you’ll be in a position to make an operations manager happy with your proposed PF-related solutions.
- Public Folder Architecture
- Scenario Management Requests
- Tools for Managing Public Folders
- Creating New Public Folders
- Assigning Public Folder Permissions
- Allowing Public Folders to Receive and Send Mail
- Lesson 11 - Configuring Address Lists
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Understanding how server-side address lists work is a valuable skill in enterprise environments. The ability to configure and provide discrete lists of addresses to targeted user groupings is one common example.
Learn how to create a custom address list to target a particular group of users, and learn how the Global Address List is generated so you can more effectively troubleshoot any problems that come up with the GAL on your server.
We’ll look at offline address books and how they make life easier for both internal and external users. Learn how to use dynamic distribution groups that greatly reduce the overhead of distribution list management. Focus on important things rather than manually managing group memberships.
- Address Lists
- Creating a Custom Address List
- How the Global Address Book Works
- A Brief Explanation of Offline Address Books
- Dynamic Distribution Groups
- Best Practices
- Lesson 12 - Configuring Outlook - AutoDiscover
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AutoDiscover is a service that drastically reduces the amount of administrative intervention required to connect Outlook to Exchange on desktops. Knowing how to set it up will save you time and reduce headaches.
I’ll walk you through AutoDiscover mechanisms and setup, including certificate generation and installation. You’ll also learn how to setup Outlook when you have AutoDiscover properly in place. Upon finishing this lesson, you can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing you saved several hours of mail profile configuration this year.
- What is AutoDiscover?
- How AutoDiscover Works
- Internal AutoDiscover
- External AutoDiscover
- What Does the Client Ask DNS?
- AutoDiscover Setup
- The Certificate
- Obtaining, Installing, and Configuring the Certificate
- Configure Outlook
- Connecting Outlook to Exchange 2007
- Best Practices
- Lesson 13 - Configuring the Client Access Server
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Learn about Exchange 2007’s use of IIS virtual directories for monitoring activity. Then I will walk you through some of the features of Client Access Server.
Become a hero to remote workers by learning how to set up Outlook Anywhere in order to provide secure MAPI access to Exchange data from any internet-connected location.
What makes executives ecstatic? If you can configure the server for Exchange ActiveSync. ActivSync synchronizes mailbox content with Windows Mobile phones. Armed with these skills and some wise best practices from yours truly, you’ll be ready to tackle remote mail access with ease.
- Client Access Role Responsibilities
- IIS Virtual Directories for Exchange
- How Outlook Anywhere Works
- Active-Sync Architecture
- New Active-Sync Features
- Setting Up Active-Sync
- Active Sync Mobile Device Configuration
- Best Practices
- Lesson 14 - Outlook Web Access
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Every good admin knows how to implement and support web access to Exchange mailboxes and public folders from the internet. When you’re finished with this lesson, you’ll know the difference between editions of OWA, when to use the Light and Premium versions, how to access server-based shares, and more.
I’ll also teach you how to change the base URL for OWA to make it simpler for users to remember. This is another one of those high-profile knowledge areas that makes a big difference to your end users!
- New Outlook Web Access (OWA) Features
- Scenario Management Requests
- Light and Premium Versions
- Authentication Options
- Accessing Server Files
- URL Simplification
- Lesson 15 - Working with POP and IMAP
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Despite the proliferation of MAPI clients like Outlook, there is often a need to securely enable the server for different types of legacy clients. You will need to know how to configure POP3 and IMAP on your server if your environment requires you to be flexible and compromise for some legacy clients. I show you how to do this, while keeping security concerns in mind.
After I teach you the basic architecture of those services, I’ll show you the CAS and Hub role settings you will need to change, as well as settings that are unique to each user. You’ll then learn you how to configure an external client to connect to your server using the IMAP and POP3 protocols, and you’ll learn several best practices related to implementing POP3 and IMAP in your organization.
- POP and IMAP Comparison
- Scenario Management Requests
- Preparing the Client Access Server
- Hub Transport Settings
- Client Setup
- Best Practices
- Lesson 16 - Looking at Hub Transport
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When I teach you about the Hub Transport role, I’ll be covering the process of mail delivery and routing, and the tools built around managing and configuring those functions. You’ll learn how to create Transport Rules, which will allow you to set disclaimers, filter traffic, screen some content, and many other things that will make your HR and security departments happy.
I’ll cover the Send and Receive Connectors that are used to control your inbound and outbound mail activity, set encryption settings, even route mail for particular destinations uniquely. I’ll also show you how to set size limits and delivery restrictions, which will allow you to throttle the activity on your server, increasing system stability and manageability.
You’ll also learn about the Queue Viewer. The QV allows you to know what’s happening with undelivered mail and have actionable intelligence with which to make troubleshooting decisions.
- Hub Transport Architecture
- Scenario Management Requests
- Configuring Transport Rules
- Using Send Connectors
- Using Receive Connectors
- Setting Limits
- Working with Queues
- The Queue Viewer
- Lesson 17 - Meeting Compliance Requirements with Exchange 2007
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Learn how to capture internal and external mail for auditing and compliance purposes. This skill can protect your company from federal and industry audits.
Learn how to set up journaling, and look at two third-party products commonly used to archive mail. I’ll walk you through the installation and use of one of these products, GFI’s MailArchiver.
- Scenario Management Requests
- Journaling Intro
- Planning and Implementing Journaling
- 3rd Party Products
- GFI?s Mail Archiver Setup
- Other Compliance Concerns
- Lesson 18 - Edge Transport Role
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Knowing that your Exchange server is protected against external threats provides great peace of mind. And the ability to properly configure an Edge server will bring you there.
In this lesson, you will gain a solid understanding of Edge transport architecture and the security it affords. In addition, I’ll also teach you the requirements for setting up an Edge server, and make you familiar with both the process and the best practices around installing and securing an Edge server.
- What the Edge Transport Server is for
- Edge Server Facts
- Network Diagrams with and without the Edge Server
- Edge Setup Requirements
- Installing the Edge Server Role
- Edge Subscription Checklist
- Verify EdgeSync is Working
- Securing the Edge Server
- Best Practices Recommendations
- Lesson 19 - Configuring Edge Anti-Spam Components
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These lessons will focus on honing your understanding of the spam filtering options in Exchange. This allows you to save time for your end-users and save storage on your servers.
You’ll learn how the transport pipeline works and then find out how to configure the diverse filtering and transport rule options that Exchange 2007 offers.
You’ll learn how to install and configure the Anti-Spam components on a Hub role server, in the event that your organization does not use an Edge server. In any case, this is one set of skills that will have your users showering you with praise!
- Scenario Management Request
- Anti-Spam Architecture
- Installing the Edge Anti-Spam Filters on the Hub Transport
- Connection Filtering
- Sender Filtering
- Sender ID Filtering
- Create an SPF Record
- Content Filtering
- Attachment Filter
- Transport Rules
- The Address Rewrite Agent
- Safelist Aggregation
- Best Practices
- Lesson 20 - Anti-Virus and Exchange 2007
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Integrating Anti-Virus into your Edge solution alongside anti-spam and general security will make your Edge server a one-stop shop for mail hygiene. Having this consolidated security solution will save considerable time, money and problems.
I’ll show you some options for Anti-Virus solutions and then give you the tools to configure and manage Microsoft ForeFront AntiVirus on your Edge server.
- Anti-Virus Architecture
- Vendors
- ForeFront Install Process
- Best Practices Recommendations
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- Lesson 21 - Configuring Backups
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A mail database disaster can literally destroy a company. As Exchange administrator, knowing how to properly preserve email data is vital to maintaining, possibly even restoring the health of the company.
Learn how to backup data using NTBackup and Volume Shadow Copy. I’ll round out those topics with some coverage of clustering. One type of clustering technology is known as Local Continuous Replication.
LCR is a new feature that provides a significant amount of assurance against local database crashes and disk corruption. It does this by creating a continuously updated copy of the mail database that can be mounted in the event of a crash. I will walk you through the process of setting up LCR and show you how to use it if things get ugly.
I’ll also give you an overview of Standby Continuous Replication and wind things down with some critical recommendations regarding backups. The knowledge in this lesson will help you be the “ultimate” protector of your organization’s mail.
- Backup Essentials
- What to Backup
- Using NTBackup
- Volume Shadow Copy
- Setup Local Continuous Replication
- Standby Continuous Replication Basics
- Best Practice Recommendations
- Lesson 22 - Disaster Recovery
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Disaster preparedness is not just about making good backups. You must follow through with intelligent recovery if you want to save the day and keep your organization protected.
In this lesson, we’ll look at a variety of sticky disaster situations ranging from stolen servers to database corruption. I’ll walk you through the steps to recover from several of those scenarios. You’ll learn how to develop a wise backup strategy so you can make recovery much simpler.
- Recovering Recently Deleted Items
- Recovering Order Deleted Items
- Mailbox Recovery Process
- LCR Recovery
- Recovery from Backup to Original Server
- Database Portability
- Recovering a Server
- Best Practices Recommendations
- Lesson 23 - Transport Layer Security
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The ability to guarantee message encryption between organizations across the public internet is something that TLS provides. A solid understanding of TLS on Exchange 2007 will allow you to answer your CSO’s inquiries authoritatively.
Learn about TLS architecture and the changes between Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003. Then you’ll learn how to configure server-to-server encryption in different scenarios to keep your communication secure.
- Scenario Management Requests
- Transport layer Security Architecture
- TLS Types
- Implementing TLS
- Best Practice Recommendations
- Lesson 24 - Advanced Mailbox Topics
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In most organizations, mailboxes get complicated very quickly. To service your users, you must know how to delegate access to a mailbox to other users, use linked mailboxes to handle accounts in other domains, and use managed folders to provide policy-driven data handling.
In this lesson, we’ll cover all of those scenarios, along with some general recommendations on how to implement strategic solutions to prevent future problems.
- Scenario Management Requests
- Delegating Mailboxes
- Linked Mailboxes
- Managed Folders and Folder Policies
- Best Practice Recommendations
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- Lesson 25 - Exchange 2007 Tools
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With wisdom that only experience can generate, I use this Video to show you how to identify problems with your Exchange 2007 installation. Learn what tools are at your disposal to resolve several types of outages.
I’ll also show you some tools like the Best Practices Analyzer that you can use to keep your server healthy and optimized. I’ll show you how to interpret the Analyzer results, and we’ll spend some time with Message Tracking, protocol logs, ESEUTIL and other invaluable tools.
Beyond this, I’ll give you some troubleshooting techniques & tips that will help you take a proactive approach towards server health and prevent common problems.
- Scenario Management Request
- Mail Flow Troubleshooter
- Message Tracking
- Exchange Best Practices Analyzer
- Performance Monitor and Performance Troubleshooter
- Exchange Server Database Utilities (SEUTIL)
- Other Troubleshooting Resources
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- Lesson 26 - Integrating SharePoint
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Using SharePoint as an endpoint for inbound Exchange mail is a desired solution in many environments. And knowing the roadmap for building that solution is a valuable asset.
In this lesson, we start by looking at how the architectures of Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007 are built to integrate with each other.
I will show you how to set up Exchange 2007 to allow Outlook Web Access clients to browse SharePoint libraries, and how to access SharePoint via Outlook 2007. I will also show you how to make a SharePoint library a destination for inbound mail, which is a requirement for organizations that are replacing public folders with SharePoint libraries.
To wrap up the lesson, I reveal points you should consider when planning a migration of public folder data to SharePoint. I also go over some Best Practices for Exchange administrators who need to work with SharePoint.
- Scenario Management Requests
- Enabling SharePoint as a Mail Destination
- Moving Content into SharePoint
- Folder Access
- Accessing SharePoint Libraries from OWA and Outlook
- Best Practices Recommendations