After Active Directory and the physical OS has been chosen and deployed, the Exchange infrastructure can be set up and optimized for the specific needs of the organization. With these needs in mind, you can do several things to optimize an Exchange 2007 setup, as detailed in the following sections.

Determining the Exchange Version

When installing Exchange, the choice of Exchange version needs to be made. As with Windows Server 2003, there are two versions of Exchange, Standard and Enterprise. The Standard Edition enables all Exchange 2007 functionality except the following:

. Multiple databases

. Databases larger than 75GB . Clustering support

The advanced feature set of the Enterprise Edition is geared toward larger deployments. The critical factor that pushes the midsize to large organizations to the Enterprise Edition, however, is the 75GB database limit. Some organizations require large mailbox sizes and could potentially require multiple databases larger than 75GB. Because this functionality is available only with the Enterprise Edition of the software, it must be installed.

CAUTION

Because the Standard Edition of Exchange does not support databases larger than 75GB, keep track of the size of the private database store, ensuring that it stays well below the designated limit. The database will shut down if it passes this limit, so it is critical to keep a watchful eye on database size if using the Standard Edition.

In addition to the ability to house multiple databases and databases greater than 75GB, the Enterprise Edition also allows for clustering support. In addition, the OS version must be Windows Server 2003 Enterprise or DataCenter Edition for clustering to be supported.

Determining Exchange Databases and Storage Groups Layout

As previously mentioned, the Enterprise Edition of Exchange enables the concept of multiple databases, up to a maximum of 50. This enables a greater amount of design freedom and gives administrators more flexibility. A maximum of 50 production storage groups can be created, and each storage group can contain up to five databases. This does not mean that a server can support 250 databases, however, as Exchange 2007 limits an administrator to 50 total databases across all storage groups.

Outlining Exchange Recovery Options

Deploying Exchange requires considerable thought about backup and recovery solutions. Because Exchange is a live, active database, special considerations need to be taken into account when designing the backup strategy for email.

Microsoft designed Exchange 2007 to use the backup application programming interfaces (APIs) from Windows Server 2003. These APIs support the Volume Shadow Copy Service, which enables Exchange databases to be backed up through creation of a “shadow copy” of the entire disk at the beginning of the backup. The shadow copy is then used for the backup, so that the production disk is not affected.

NOTE

The Windows Server 2003 backup utility can be used to back up Exchange using the traditional online backup approach. Volume Shadow Copy requires a third-party solution that has been written to support the Windows Server 2003 backup and restore APIs.

Exchange 2007 also includes support for the concept of a recovery storage group, which is an additional storage group (available with either Standard or Enterprise Exchange) and which can be used on a running server to restore databases and mailboxes “on the fly.” This streamlines the mailbox recovery process because restore servers are no longer a necessity.

Considering Exchange Antivirus and Antispam Design

Viruses are a major problem for all organizations today. Email is especially vulnerable because it is typically unauthenticated and insecure. Consequently, design of an Exchange implementation should include consideration for antivirus options.

Exchange 2007 enhances the Virus Scanning Application Programming Interface (VSAPI) that was introduced in Exchange 2000 and improved in Exchange 2003. The enhanced VSAPI engine enables quarantine of email messages, as opposed to simply attachments, and enables virus scanning on gateway servers. Third-party virus products can be written to tie directly into the new VSAPI and use its functionality.

Spam, unsolicited email, has become another major headache for most organizations. In response to this, Exchange 2007 has some built-in antispam functionality that enables email messages to contain a spam rating. This helps determine which emails are legitimate, and can be used by third-party antispam products as well.

Monitoring Exchange

Email services are required in many organizations. The expectations of uptime and reliability are increasing, and end users are beginning to expect email to be as available as phone service. Therefore, the ability to monitor Exchange events, alerts, and performance data is optimal.

Exchange 2007 is a complex organism with multiple components, each busy processing tasks, writing to event logs, and running optimization routines. You can monitor Exchange using one of several methods, the most optimal being System Center Operations Manager 2007 (previously named Microsoft Operations Manager or MOM). SCOM 2007 is essentially a monitoring, alerting, and reporting product that gathers event information and performance data, and generates reports about Microsoft servers. An Exchange-specific management pack for SCOM contains hundreds of prepackaged counters and events for Exchange 2007. Use of the management pack is ideal in midsize and larger environments to proactively monitor Exchange.

Although close monitoring of multiple Exchange servers is best supported through the use of SCOM, this might not be the most ideal approach for smaller organizations because SCOM is geared toward medium and large organizations. Exchange monitoring for small organizations can be accomplished through old-fashioned approaches, such as manual reviews of event log information, performance counters using perfmon, and simple Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMP) utilities to monitor uptime.