Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Interview Related Exchange Stuff

Some info on Exchange

Before Installing Exchange Perform the following things:

  1. Make sure AD is looking good in the domain. Run DCDIAG\NETDIAG\EVENTVWR
  2. Make sure we have a connection to a Global Catalog server: 3268 Working(NLTEST)
  3. Make sure DNS name resolution is working fine.
  4. Run Forestprep(AD schema upgrade)\(ENT Admin, Schema Admin, DOmain Admin, Local Machine Admin). {Extends the Active Directory schema to include Exchange-specific classes and attributes} &&& {Creates a container object for the Exchange organization in Active Directory.}
  5. Run Domainprep(AD schema upgrade)\(Domain Admin, Local Machine admin)- Creates Exchange Domain Servers and Exchange Enterprise Servers groups {Creates the Exchange System Objects container, which is used for mail-enabled public
    folders} &&& {Nests the global Exchange Domain Servers into the Exchange Enterprise Servers local group}
  6. Install the following services on the machine {Net Framework \ ASP.Net \ IIS(Internet Information Services) \ WWW Publishing Service \ SMTP Service \ NNTP(Network News Transfer Protocol) Service}
  7. Run Exchange Setup (Must be Local Admin on member server & Exch full admin permissions)

Exchange Tabs under User Properties:

  • Exchange General
  • Exchange Features
  • Exchange Advanced
  • E-Mail Addresses

What if we change the mode from Exch Mixed mode to Native Mode?

  1. You can create query-based distribution groups. A query-based distribution group provides the same functionality as a standard distribution group. However, instead of specifying static user memberships, with a query-based distribution group you can use an LDAP query to build membership in the distribution group dynamically. For more information about query-based distribution groups, see "Managing Recipients and Recipient Policies" in the Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47617).
  2. Your routing bridgehead server pairs use 8BITMIME data transfers instead of converting to 7-bit. This difference equates to a considerable bandwidth saving over routing group
    connectors.
  3. Routing groups can consist of servers from multiple administrative groups.>You can move Exchange Server 2003 servers between routing groups.
  4. You can move mailboxes between administrative groups.
  5. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the default routing protocol.

Note: This change is irreversible.

Difference bet IIS 5.1 and IIS 6.0

IIS 6.0
  • IIS 6.0 provides 2000 application pools. IIS 6.0 operates in worker process isolation
    mode, up to 2000 application pools can be created where each application pool can be
    configured separately. So if one app pool goes down(worker process) u still have the rest on the website running.
  • As IIS 6.0 have many application pools so it provides a well-defined separation of
    applications. Now thousands of applications can run side by side on a single IIS 6.0 server.
  • In IIS 6.0 the webrequest is picked up by HTTP.SYS driver(on port 80) and passed on to
    ASP.Net worker process(asp_wp.exe). This is a 2 Step Process.
  • IIS 6.0 provides error logging in a seprate file from the web logs and also have more
    properties to configure in the error log.
  • IIS 6.0 supports auto restart of failed applications

Worker Process: asp_wp.exe

IIS 5.1

  • With IIS 5.0 all applications are pooled into one application pool which is hosted by
    DLLHost.exe. So if this pool goes down, all the website are inaccessible.
  • With IIS 5.1 the webrequest is picked up on port 80 by HTTP.SYS and then passed on to
    aspnet_isapi.dll and then forwarded to worker process asp_wp.exe. SO this is a 3 Step
    process.