The Five Server Roles of Exchange 2010

Part 1 - Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role

Compared with Exchange 2003, Microsoft has changed compared to Exchange 2003 the biggest changes in Exchange 2010 is that it now has five server roles.

There are ways to mix and match the way you deploy/install exchange 2010, if you take one extreme, you could deploy a single 2010 Server with all four roles without the installation of the Edge (or Gateway) server role. Or the other way would be to have all five roles as separate Exchange servers, (one for each role). As Guy has said, Microsoft calls this increased scalability" or you could actually think of it as greater flexibility.

If you have done your homework and know what you want and how you want to deploy, Exchange 2010, with its five roles, will benefit them. On the other hand, it could be argued that in Exchange 2003 you could do everything with one server. Add-ons like Conference Server and Instant Messaging are not available.

Since all features were installed on each server you deployed, The versions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 were not flexible and thus you could not select specific roles. Exchange Server 2010 uses the concept of server roles to control which capabilities are installed on which Exchange server. The benefit of this new arrangement is improved scalability, better security and simplified administration.

Note: Exchange Server 2010 should be installed on a member server and not a domain controller.

Below are the five roles:

1. Mailbox Role

2. Client Access (CAS)

3. Hub Transport (Bridgehead)

4. Unified Messaging

5. Edge Transport (Gateway)

The term "Mailbox" in one of the roles refers to the core Exchange server; it stores all the email. When installing the mailbox role, one must remember to install IIS and the World Wide Web (WWW) service as well. If you are installing a Mailbox Server on Windows Server 2008 and linking it with a CAS (Client Access Server) in Exchange 2010, it would be like pairing the Back-end / Front-end servers in Exchange 2003.

Also it would be good to note that Mailbox servers do not transfer messages between mailboxes. Thus for message delivery you need a Hub Transport server. When troubleshooting, bear this in mind for non-delivery of internal email. For smaller Exchange Organization you could combine the Mailbox and Hub Transport roles on the same server.

Conceptually, the Mailbox server must connect with the Active Directory, CAS, the Hub Transport server, Unified Messaging server and Microsoft Outlook clients.

Here is a list of Exchange related services on your Windows 2008 Server.

• MSExchangeIS - Microsoft Exchange Information Store

• MSExchangeADTopology - Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology

• MSExchangeMailboxAssistants - Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants

• MSExchangeSearch - Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer

• MSExchangeServiceHost - Microsoft Exchange Service Host

• MSExchangeMonitoring - Microsoft Exchange Monitoring

• MSExchangeSA Microsoft - Exchange System Attendant

• MSExchangeMailSubmission - Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission

• Msftesql-Exchange - Microsoft Search (Exchange Server)

• MSExchangeTranportLogSearch - Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search

Mailbox servers can also be used to host public folder databases, and produce address lists including offline address books (OABs).

NOTE: This Articles is based on the one that i have read written by Guy Thomas (credit goes to him).

#exchangeserver #exchange2003 #exchange2010 #exchange2003 #exchange2010 #emailserver #Microsoft