feature section: Microsoft exchange server 2007

Understanding the
Architecture and
Features of Microsoft
Exchange Server 2007
By Ananda Sankaran
Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 includes significant changes from
Suman Kumar Singh
Exchange Server 2003. This article describes key technical aspects
of these changes—including its core architecture, mailbox data
access, and secure deployment features—to enable administrators
to effectively prepare for migrations to Exchange Server 2007.

M
essaging systems are an integral component of summarizes the major differences between these two ver-
many enterprises. Over the years, they have sions, which include key changes to server roles, memory
evolved from providing basic functionality such as use, and storage groups.
e-mail to encompassing rich collaboration features as well.
Users’ messaging requirements have also changed signifi- Server roles
cantly, from basic desktop e-mail access to remote collabora- Exchange Server 2007 includes five defined server roles—
tion available from multiple devices. In such an evolving sets of functionality that administrators can deploy individu-
Related Categories:
environment, administering and maintaining messaging sys- ally on servers or combined with other roles, with certain
Dell PowerEdge servers tems has become increasingly complex for IT administrators— restrictions:
Dell/EMC storage and enterprise requirements for security, regulatory compliance,
and availability only add to that complexity. Enterprises also • Mailbox: Hosts user mailboxes, public folders, and cal-
Microsoft Exchange
Server 2007 face an enormous challenge when implementing a suitable endar data
messaging system that meets their targets for total cost of • Client Access: Provides functionality for Microsoft Office
Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 ownership and return on investment. Outlook® Web Access (OWA), Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 incorporates features ActiveSync® client access, Post Office Protocol 3/Internet
Outlook Web Access
that enable enterprises to effectively meet these challenges Message Access Protocol 4 (POP3/IMAP4) client access,
Regulatory compliance
without fundamentally altering the traditional methods used and Outlook Anywhere access—referred to in Exchange
Security by end users to access e-mail. This article highlights some of Server 2003 as Remote Procedure Call (RPC) over HTTP
Unified communications these features, discussing the core architecture, mailbox data • Hub Transport: Handles internal e-mail flow across

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions
access, and secure deployment components of Exchange Exchange components and user message delivery, along
for the complete category index. Server 2007. with functionality such as journaling, server-side rules, and
an additional layer of antivirus and antispam security; this
Core architecture of Exchange Server 2007 role is mandatory in Exchange Server 2007 deployments
Exchange Server 2007 introduces several architectural changes • Edge Transport: Resides in the perimeter network and
and other features designed to enhance its scalability and routes external Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP)
performance compared with Exchange Server 2003. Figure 1 e-mail flow to and from the Internet, and provides

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | May 2007 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
22
 Exchange Server 2003 Exchange Server 2007
antivirus and antispam security, filtering,
and rule-based protection Platform 32-bit application based on x86 platforms 64-bit application based on x86-64 platforms

• Unified Messaging: Integrates e-mail, voice Memory Limited to 4 GB of system memory Scales beyond 4 GB of system memory
mail, and faxes into user mailboxes and scalability

provides Outlook Voice Access functionality, Number of • Up to 4 storage groups and 1 recovery • Up to 50 storage groups
supported storage group • Up to 50 mailbox databases total
which allows users to access e-mail, voice storage groups • Up to 5 mailbox databases per storage
mail, faxes, calendars, contacts, and direc- group

tory entries from a telephone Server roles Back-end, front-end, and bridgehead Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Edge
Transport, and Unified Messaging

These five server roles refine and add fea- Mailbox high- Microsoft Cluster Service–based shared • Single-copy clustering (Microsoft Cluster
availability storage clustering Service–based shared storage clustering)
tures to the traditional roles available with options • Cluster continuous replication (Microsoft Cluster
Exchange Server 2003. The mailbox and public Service–based majority node set clustering)

folder functionality of Exchange Server 2003 Supported Legacy and Volume Shadow Copy Service Legacy and VSS backups on both active databases
backup (VSS) backups on active databases and database copies using local continuous
back-end servers is provided by the Mailbox methods replication and cluster continuous replication
role in Exchange Server 2007. Some of the
Business Provided by storage hardware or third-party Provided through local continuous replication,
functionality of Exchange Server 2003 bridge- continuance software mechanisms in addition to storage hardware or third-party
head servers is provided and enhanced by the volumes mechanisms

Hub Transport role. Figure 2 illustrates the dif- Unified None • Unified mailbox for e-mail, voice mail, and faxes
Messaging • Voice access to e-mail, voice mail, faxes,
ferent server roles as part of an example features calendars, contacts, and directory entries
Exchange Server 2007 infrastructure.
With the exception of the Edge Transport Figure 1. Major architectural differences between Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange
server role, all Exchange Server 2007 server Server 2007
roles are members of Microsoft Active
Directory® domains. The Edge Transport role obtain the required Active Directory informa- server roles. The other restriction on role con-
resides in the perimeter network, outside of tion. Because of its location, the Edge solidation is that when the Mailbox role is
Active Directory frameworks, using Active Transport role cannot be consolidated and deployed in a highly available clustered con-
Directory Application Mode and EdgeSync to deployed on a single-server system with other figuration using single-copy clustering (SCC)

Microsoft Active Directory

Perimeter network

Edge Transport
servers

Internet Hub Transport

Storage systems
Fibre Channel
switches
External clients
PBX/VoIP Client Access
servers
Mailbox
Public switched servers
telephone network
Unified
Messaging
servers

External telephony Internal telephones and fax machines Internal Microsoft Outlook clients

Figure 2. Server roles as part of an example Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 infrastructure

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. www.dell.com/powersolutions 23
feature section: Microsoft exchange server 2007

or cluster continuous replication (CCR) based Extensible Storage Engine to utilize additional on different supported mobile devices through
on Microsoft Cluster Services, no other role memory to buffer data pages and thereby help- low-latency wireless data networks. The Direct
can be consolidated with the Mailbox role on ing reduce the number of required I/Os (specifi- Push feature helps keep Outlook mobile client
the same server. cally read operations) to the disk subsystem. devices up-to-date by providing new item noti-
Administrators should be sure to appro- fications, and many mobile devices provide
priately size the hardware for each server role Storage groups the ability to read and edit attachments that
for capacity and performance. High availability Exchange Server 2007 provides support for up use common Microsoft Office file formats.
and scalability for server roles other than the to 50 storage groups to host mailbox stores or Exchange Server 2007 ActiveSync also sup-
Mailbox role can be achieved by deploying databases, a significant increase from the 4 ports HTML messages, enhanced message
multiple server nodes hosting each role and storage groups supported in Exchange Server flagging, server-side searching for items not
using network load balancing. This flexibility 2003. This support enables administrators to stored locally, and access to Microsoft
to either consolidate roles or split them to dif- split mailboxes across multiple storage groups Windows SharePoint® Services and Windows
ferent servers makes Exchange Server 2007 a and helps simplify administrative operations file shares. The Exchange Server 2007 Client
highly scalable application: as an organization such as backup and restore. Splitting mailboxes Access server role hosts the services required
grows, administrators can choose to add serv- across multiple storage groups also increases for ActiveSync functionality, allowing Client
ers to a particular role or split roles among the checkpoint depth available for user data Access servers to communicate with mobile
additional servers. operations. In certain situations, dirty data clients that can connect to the Internet through
pages—those that have not yet been written to high-speed mobile data networks.
Memory use disk—can be optimized to reside in memory for
Exchange Server 2003 is a 32-bit application, additional time to help reduce the number of Web-based messaging
and is limited to 4 GB of addressable memory: required I/O write operations to the disk sub- Web-based messaging is enabled by OWA and the
it can utilize roughly 3 GB of user-mode virtual system. Exchange Server 2007 also increases Outlook Anywhere feature. OWA provides Web
memory, with the remaining 1 GB required for the data page size from 4 KB to 8 KB, which browser–based access to mailbox data, and
the kernel. Because Exchange Server 2003 allows it to optimize I/O in some situations by Exchange Server 2007 provides enhanced
does not support using Address Windowing containing large messages and internal data browser-based functionality that includes access
Extensions (AWE), it cannot access physical structures within a single page. to Unified Messaging data, HTML data conversion,
memory above 4 GB made available through and reduced local client data storage to enhance
Physical Address Extension (PAE) on sup- Mailbox data access security. OWA also provides access to Windows
ported Microsoft Windows OS–based sys-
®
in Exchange Server 2007 SharePoint Services and Windows file shares. This
tems, requiring the application to rely highly Exchange Server 2007 enables users to access feature requires Internet connectivity through a
on disk subsystems and perform a large their mailbox data in multiple ways using com- Web browser, but not an Outlook client.
number of I/O operations. Beyond the physical puters, telephones, and handheld devices. The The Outlook Anywhere feature provides
memory limitation, the kernel running main capabilities of this access are enabled by Outlook client connectivity to Exchange Server
Exchange Server 2003 is also under constant back-end functions, including mobile messag- 2007 through the Internet, without requiring a
stress because of the limited kernel-mode ing, Web-based messaging, and the Unified connection to an internal enterprise network; in
memory available for user connections and Messaging feature. In addition to these three Exchange Server 2003, similar functionality was
other processing. key capabilities, Exchange Server 2007 works referred to as RPC over HTTP. The Client Access
Exchange Server 2007 overcomes these closely with Outlook 2007 to provide rich fea- server role hosts the services and functionality
memory limitations by providing support as a tures such as the scheduling assistant, which required for OWA and Outlook Anywhere support,
64-bit application capable of running on sup- can automatically find appropriate meeting and facilitates the access of OWA Web browser
ported Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 x64 times based on free and busy data for each par- clients and remote Outlook clients to data hosted
Editions platforms, which make approximately ticipant. Outlook 2007 also provides features on Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox servers.
8 TB of addressable memory available for user- for organizing different message types, such as
mode and kernel-mode applications. Windows e-mail, voice mail, and faxes. Unified Messaging
Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition supports up Traditionally, e-mail, voice mail, and fax data
to 1 TB of physical RAM. Both the application Mobile messaging have been maintained in separate systems.
and kernel can have sufficient memory for Mobile messaging is enabled by Exchange Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging
operations, allowing the Exchange Server 2007 ActiveSync, which allows users to access data enables these three types of data to be routed

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | May 2007 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
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to Outlook in-boxes, allowing the in-boxes to networks. Administrators can also configure PowerVault™ and Dell/EMC storage provide a
serve as consolidated repositories for messag- Hub Transport servers with antivirus and anti­ standard hardware platform for deploying
ing data. Users can access this data using spam functionality when these servers have Exchange Server 2007 messaging solutions,
Outlook clients on a computer or mobile device, been set up to relay external messages directly and Dell Services can provide assessments,
or through OWA using a Web browser. Voice mail without utilizing Edge Transport servers. designs, and implementations tailored for
messages and incoming faxes appear as e-mail those messaging deployments. Dell also offers
attachments with unique identification flags; Compliance and archiving end-to-end Exchange messaging solutions that
voice mail can be played on computer or device Exchange Server 2007 includes features include partner offerings for security, archiving,
speakers. Unified Messaging also provides tele- designed to help organizations effectively meet and backup and recovery. Enterprises can take
phone access to the messaging data through their regulatory compliance and archiving advantage of these services when planning to
Outlook Voice Access: users can dial in from requirements. Administrators can configure upgrade to or deploy Exchange Server 2007 in
their office extension or an external telephone transport rules for Hub Transport servers that their data centers.
and access their e-mail, voice mail, faxes, cal- enforce restrictions on internal and external
endar, contacts, and directory entries. communications based on the users involved or Ananda Sankaran is a lead engineer in the Dell
The Exchange Server 2007 Unified the message content. Messaging records man- End-to-End Solutions team. His interests include
Messaging server role hosts the services and agement features provide managed folders— databases, application consulting, performance
functionality required to implement Unified Outlook user folders that can be centrally engineering, and sizing, and he led the release
Messaging. Unified Messaging servers use managed by administrators. Journaling features of the Dell SQL Server 2005 Advisor and Dell
voice over IP (VoIP) protocols, enabling them to have been enhanced to include journaling at the Exchange 2007 Advisor tools. Ananda has a
receive voice mail and fax messages from exist- mailbox, distribution list, or mailbox database master’s degree in Computer Science from Texas
ing private branch exchange (PBX) telephony level, and messages included in journaling can A&M University.
systems and store these messages in user mail- be sent to a third-party SMTP server, an Exchange
boxes hosted by Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox mailbox, or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Suman Kumar Singh is a lead systems engineer
servers. Through their connection with the tele- folder for archiving. User-wide mailbox scan and on the Dell End-to-End Solutions team. He spe-
phony system, Unified Messaging servers also search functionalities are included to help meet cializes in messaging systems architecture and
provide the interface for voice access to Outlook compliance and retention requirements. sizing, and led the release of the Dell Exchange
data. A VoIP gateway device may be needed to 2003 Advisor tool. His other interests include
translate between Unified Messaging servers Backup and recovery storage area networks, virtualization, and secu-
and the PBX system; it is critical that this Exchange Server 2007 supports backups of rity, and he has published and presented sev-
gateway meet the requirements for Unified database copies when using local continuous eral papers at industry conferences. Suman has
Messaging server integration. replication (LCR) or CCR. Backing up copies, a master’s degree from the University of Texas
rather than active production databases, helps at El Paso.
Secure enterprise deployments increase performance by reducing the load on
for Exchange Server 2007 production servers and e-mail clients and
Exchange Server 2007 introduces several fea- enables administrators to remove time restric-
tures designed to enhance security, compliance tions on backup and maintenance windows. The
and archiving, and backup and recovery database portability feature allows other serv-
functionality. ers to host a failed server’s user mailboxes,
enabling users to continue sending and receiv-
Security ing messages while the backup mailbox data is
Exchange Server 2007 provides enhanced built- being recovered.
QUICK LINks
in antivirus and antispam security features,
including filtering based on IP address, content Enhanced Exchange Server 2007
and attachments, and sender ID, as well as mes- architecture and features Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on Dell:
www.dell.com/exchange2007
sage stamping to identify scanned messages in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 introduces
the system. Edge Transport servers provide multiple features and enhancements designed Dell Secure Exchange solutions:
www.dell.com/secureexchange
these features in perimeter networks and can to meet ever-growing enterprise messaging
filter potential threats before they enter internal needs. Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers and Dell

Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2007. Copyright © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. www.dell.com/powersolutions 25