Review: Exchange 2007 Beta 2 Leaps Ahead

public release of Exchange 2007 Beta 2

Exchange 2007 arrives with new server modular architectural advancements and many features that improve operational efficiency, and user productivity. In addition, new set of Web services APIs are now available that extend Exchange's capabilities well beyond the previous version. At first glance, Exchange 2007's new modular architecture allow for greater scalability by separating server activities based on roles that operate over multiple tiers. But on a closer look, the architecture was found to greatly boost management experience and simplify server configuration.

The install packages separate the server into four clearly defined roles, including a fifth role called the Edge Transport, which provides gateway access and preventive anti-spam and anti-virus scanning.

The Edge Transport role is optional and it is usually deployed on a DMZ. The mailbox role is still largely and arrives with all the core modules for a mailbox database deployment, end user folders, e-mail access and calendaring.

Most of the roles are optional, with the exception of the Client Access server role, which serves as the middle tier for other server roles, especially for Exchange mailbox servers. This role is analogous to how transaction servers provide the data transport layer between databases and clients.

By separating direct end user connectivity, Client Access servers are able to reduce the workload on mailbox servers and provide better control over each end user connection. The Client Access server provides all the interfaces for client mobile devices, Outlook Web Access (OWA), custom applications that use the new Web services API and desktop Outlook clients that run RPC over HTTP.

In addition to reducing stress on mailbox servers, single function deployments allow administrators to get better control over CPU and memory utilization by removing server-side custom programs and scripts that do not provide direct use.

Perhaps the best new Exchange role--Unified Messaging--which is optional. It combines e-mail, voice mail and fax receive into one repository that all its client-based software can access.

A Unified Messaging Exchange server can connect to either legacy voicemail PBX infrastructure or more directly to IPBX systems, which provide VoIP access. On this release, voice messages are searchable only if users attach notes to individual messages.

CRN Test Center engineers were not able to figure out if administrators can adjust the size of voice mail files to alleviate mailbox storage capacity problems. In addition, audio cannot be searched directly and there are no transcription capabilities. Exchange supports various codecs for audio compression, which administrators can configure.

A new e-mail voice access capability is available through OWA clients that allow users to access email from nearby phones. Users can speak commands directly to Exchange. The server can read email and provide direct feedback to users.

Exchange arrives with greatly improved Outlook Web Access (OWA) support, including better access on mobile based devices that use Exchange's ActiveSync technology. Exchange provides flexible collaboration features for OWA users. Essentially, users can act as their own administrators by controlling their own public and private folders. For instance, OWA public or privates can be set to time out after certain idle time. Users can restrict attachments as well as fileshares. Through OWA, users can even make documents Web ready by having Exchange convert file formats into HTML.

Exchange's new Management Console arrives with a new Exchange Management Shell that provides command-line scripting to automate just about every task through direct access to Exchange objects. All the commands in the shell are tightly coupled to Exchange, so every task that can be done through the graphical environment can also be done through the command line. In fact, the new Exchange graphical environment is built on top of commandlets, which are based on the Windows PowerShell technology.

From daily operations, the Exchange Management Shell will undoubtedly be the most popular feature in Exchange 2007 because for the first time, the only limits will be imposed by administrators' imagination.

In addition to automating scripting, the Shell can also be used to populate UI objects. Unfortunately, Microsoft has no IDE-type environment for making PowerShell scripts. However, macros for Visual Studio or any other IDE can be created quickly to identify keyword commands.

A new Web Services API now provides direct access to Exchange stores, allowing developers to manipulate mailboxes and calendar data without having to use tie-in into the old Exchange COM API. Use of the API allows Java and other enterprise technologies to access Exchange directly. For corporate developers using SharePoint portal, they can embed the Exchange OWA using a new Web Parts component.

Solution providers engaged in compliance projects can take advantage of a new transport agent API that extends Exchange's policy engine. With the transport API, solution providers are able build sophisticated agents that can check for message compliance directly from a Hub Transport server role.

The agents should not affect performance as much as previous versions of Exchange used to interoperate with server side agents, since the new Hub Transport server role can apply journaling policies, including all external messages in a stand alone mode. The Hub Transport normally will be deployed on an Active Directory farm.

Exchange's new policy engine intercepts and checks every message that passes over a new Hub Transport server role. This will allow solution providers that are now relying on Outlook's difficult MAPI API when accessing Exchange messages from separate servers to simplify their work. Policies also play a major role in access control. For instance, Exchange administrators can set policies to control how devices and users can access mail. Hardware as well as specific messages or attachments can be blocked based on policies.

Test Center engineers would like to see more integration between all Exchange 2007 APIs and Visual Studio, just like SQL Server now provides to help developers build code without having to use low level SQL access. The PowerShell can create dummy messages, including calendaring resources for testing but these messages can not be generated from Visual Studio.

The old nightmare restoring process has finally been solved. Exchange 2007 databases can be moved around a network and attached to any arbitrary Exchange server instance. This capability is based on a new server replication technology built right into Exchange 2007. With Exchange server replication, solution providers are now able to build server clusters by replicating primary and secondary servers. On failovers, Exchange does not require any administration intervention.