1. What is Exchange Server 2010?

Exchange Server is an email, calendaring and address book systemapplication that runs on Windows
Server 2008 operating system. In Exchange 2010, Microsoft focus on security, scalability, reliability,
mobility and unified communication
2. What are the Exchange Server 2010 editions available and their functionality?
We have to editions introduced in Exchange 2010, Standard and Enterprise Edition.
Standard Edition limited to have 5 databases, can be installed in Windows server 2008 Sp2 X64
Machine and Supports DAG (Standard edition exchange 2010 can be a member of DAG) if it is
installed in Windows Server 2008 SP2 X64 enterprise edition operating system. No size limit for
database, limited only by the hardware
Enterprise Edition Limited to have 100 databases, installed on Windows server 2008 Sp2 X64
Machine and Support DAG. Only be installed in Windows Server 2008 SP2 X64 enterprise edition
operating system. No size limit for database, limited only by the hardware
3. What is same between Exchange Server 2003/2007 and Exchange Server 2010?
Core Infrastructure of Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 versus Exchange server
2010 in same, Microsoft continued to use the JET EDB database as the main
database engine
Exchange 2010 still use the concept of mailbox servers to hold us the user
mailboxes and public folders
Users can access their email using Outlook, OWA and Active Sync Clients
Exchange 2010 uses the VSS API to freeze the exchange database to perform a
backup of exchange server database
Even if transition of mailbox from exchange server 20032007 occurs, older client
access emails using outlook or OWA wont feel much difference on their client
perspective, there is no compulsion of upgrading to Exchange 2010
Exchange Server 2007 5 roles architecture is not changed in Exchange Server
2010. But the MAPI endpoint on Mail Server role is moved to client access
server role, where in Exchange Server 2010, All the Exchange Server clients will
connect CAS to access the mailbox and the public folders access will be directly
threw or to Mailbox Database
4. What is missing in Exchange Server 2010 that are available in previous version?
A few of the missing features that are available in Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 are
Storage Groups and Recovery Storage Groups are removed and the concept of
mailbox database and Recovery mailbox database is available
STM database has been removed, so its just moved to EDB database as like

exchange 2000 and the STM database concept is incorporated with EDB
database
Administrative Group and Routing Groups is been completely removed. Routing
Groups are replaced with Active Directory sites and services to define
organizational Sites and routing of messages to those sites
EXOLEDB, WEBDAV, CDOEX and the Store Events are gone; exchange 2010
uses the new Exchange Web Services as the primary method to provide web
services to client system
Public Folders are still announced in a de emphasized state
Other features like front and back end architecture has been removed, New
Management tools EMC and Exchange Management Shell are introduced.
Normal Permission Model is replaced with powerful or granular permission
model named Role Based Access Control

5. Explain the Exchange 2010 Server roles and their functions in short?
Mailbox Server: This server hosts mailboxes and public folders.
Client Access Server: This is the server that hosts the client protocols, such as POP3, IMAP4,
HTTPS, Outlook Anywhere, Availability service and Autodiscover service. The Client Access
Server also hosts Web services.
Unified Messaging Server: This is the server that connects a Private Branch eXchange (PBX)
system to Exchange 2010.
Hub Transport Server: This is the mail routing server that routes mail within the Exchange
organization.
Edge Transport Server: This is the mail routing server that typically sits at the perimeter of the
topology and routes mail in to and out of the Exchange organization.

6. How the Mail flow has been changed respect to the introduction of Servers roles in Exchange
Server 2010?
An incoming message from the Internet first goes to the Edge Transport server.
The Edge Transport server performs first-level recipient validation, as well as
spam and virus filtering. The message is then passed on to the Hub Transport
server.
The Hub Transport server performs compliance content assessment and then
looks at the internal routing for messages and forwards the message to another
Hub Transport server or directly to a Mailbox server.
The Mailbox server places the incoming message into the users mailbox and
notifies the user that a message has arrived.
The user launches Outlook, OWA, their Windows Mobile device, or another
client system and connects to the client access server. The client access server
confirms the destination point of the users mailbox and provides the user access

to their mailbox data.

In parallel, if a voice mail message comes in for a user, the Unified Messaging
server processes the incoming voice message, and then takes the message and
places the voice message into the users mailbox residing on the Mailbox server
for the recipient
7. What Microsoft tries to focus to deliver on Exchange Server 2010?
Three important focuses on the release of Exchange Server 2010 are
Increase operational flexibility through easier deployment, high availability and
simplified administration
Support to larger and better organized mailboxes using Archive mailbox,
Discovery Mailboxes etc
Provides control with protected communication, built in compliance and
archiving functionality like Retention and Legal hold
8. How to prepare an Exchange Server 2010 Installation?
If we are going to install an new installation or a transition from earlier version, we have to follow the
below steps in preparing an Exchange Server 2010 installation
Run the EXBPA to identify the problems
Check whether all the perquisites and the hot fixes are installed
Active directory to be raised to Windows Server 2003 forest functional level,
better to have Active Directory and Global Catalog Server on 64 bit server with
Windows Sever 2003 Sp1 or later
Remove any Exchange Server 2000 or earlier version prior to the Exchange 2010
installation
If we have Exchange Server 2007 in place, that need to be update with Exchange
Server 2007 SP2
Decide which versionedition of Exchange Server 2010 we are going to install
based on the business requirement
9. What version of Windows Server is supported for Exchange Server 2010 installation?
Windows Server 2008 SP2 or R2 version was the only supported version of Windows Servers to Install
Exchange Server 2010.
Note: Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition was not certified to install Exchange Server 2010 and
also the Windows Server 2008, core edition and web editions are also not supported
10. Why we need to update Exchange Server 2007 to SP2 before installation Exchange Server
2010?
Main reason is, while update Exchange Server 2007 with SP2 will modify the Active Directory Schema
to allow Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 to co exists in same Exchange organization
11. Is it possible to install Exchange Server 2007 in a fresh installation of Exchange Server 2010
environment?
No is the answers and its not possible to install Exchange Server 2007, if Exchange Server 2010 got
installed at the first place.

If we plan to deploy exchange Server 2007 on Exchange Server 2010 deployed environment. We have
to prepare the Exchange environment with Exchange Server 2007 installation media and then if we
install Exchange Server 2010, on the later, we have an option to introduce Exchange Server 2007.
12. What are the Exchange Server 2010 Version or Edition?
We have two Edition introduced in Exchange Server 2010
Standard Edition which provides the basic functionality of Exchange server, limited to have 5
Databases, includes public folder database. Supports DAG and there is no limit for Database Size
Enterprise Edition Designed for large organization with the 100 Database as the limit. Support DAG
and there is no limit for database size
13. Where Exchange Server stores the Exchange related information in Active Directory?
Exchange Server stores the Exchange related information in Active Directory partitions, following are
the details
Domain Partition Mail enable recipient, groups and contact related to domain level are stored
Configuration Partition Stores the Exchange configuration information like, policies, global settings,
address list, connecters and it contains the information related to forest level
Schema Partition stores the Exchange specific classes and attributes
14. What are the types of Active Directory deployment that server supported in Exchange Server
2010 deployment?
Single Forest simplest design, both the AD account and mailbox resides on the same forest
Multi Forest Two or more forest that operate independently from each other in terms of the accounts
of application deployed in each forest
Resource Forest User accounts and groups are deployed in root forest and applications like Exchange
are deployed in special resource forest. Each mailbox exists in resource forest and use the disabled user
accounts that belongs to root forest
15. What will happen if you run the prepare schema and prepare AD switches?
Prepare Schema After running the Prepare Schema switch, the Active directory will contain the
classes and attributes required to support Exchange environment
Prepare AD after running the Prepare AD switch, new container will be created to hold the details of
the information from server to databases to connectors. This process also created universal security
groups to manage Exchange and sets appropriate permissions on objects to allow them to be managed
16. What are the prerequisites to install Exchange Server 2010?
Software:

Windows Server 2008 SP2 or R2 with x64 bit version

.Net framework 3.5 with SP1
Windows Remote Management Shell
Power shell 2.0

Rest of the Windows components related to Exchange Server installation can be installed using the

below command
Setup /mode:install /roles:C,H,T /InstallWindowsComponents
17. How to recover a failed Exchange Server 2010 Server?
Let us assume the functional exchange server 2010 server got crashed due to hardware failure, here are
the steps that need to build the server again
Arrange a new Server with the same operating system as like the failed server
and assign the same drive letter for the databases and the log files directory
Reset the Active Directory Account for failed server
Install and configure the perquisites that are needed to install Exchange Server
2010
Ensure the network connectivity and configure the new computer with the correct
IP address
Join the new computer with the domain controller with the same computer name
as a failed server
Run the setup Mode:recoverserver
Restore databases on the location of the new Disks
If it is non mailbox servers, restore the configuration files from back backup or
from other servers
We will add another 13 important questions and answers on the overview of Exchange Server 2010.
Person who are all viewing this topic are requested to leave your opinion on this topic to increase the
quality of this website.
Update questions and Answers on Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
18. Whats New in Exchange Server 2010 SP1 in Client Access Server Level?
Client Access Server level improvements in Exchange Server 2010 Sp1
Federation certificates, Exchange ActiveSync, SMS Sync, Integrated Rights Management, Microsoft
Office Outlook Web App, and virtual directories.
Federation certificates can be a self signed certificate instead of a certificate issued by a CA to
establish federation trust.
Exchange Active sync devices can be managed using Exchange Control Panel like manage
default access level for all phones, set up and email alert when a device is quarantined and
create and manage active sync device access rules
SMS sync is a new feature is exchange active sync that works with Windows mobile 6.1 with
outlook mobile update and windows mobile 6.5, it will give an ability to synchronize messages
between a mobile phone or a device and exchange 2010 inbox
New outlook feature like OWA themes (27) and an option to customize the themes. User will
have an option to reset the expired password from OWA
Reset OWA Virtual directory wizard will resolve the damaged file on a virtual directory
Client throttling policies will help you manage performance of your Client Access servers. Only
the policies to limit the number of concurrent client connections were enabled by default.
Exchange 2010 SP1 all client throttling policies are enabled by default.

19. What are the new Transport Server level features in Exchange Server 2010 SP1?
Below are the new Transport functionality
MailTips access control over organizational relationships
Enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting features for MailTips and Message
Tracking
Message throttling enhancements
Shadow redundancy promotion
SMTP failover and load balancing improvements
Support for extended protection on SMTP connections
Send connector changes to reduce NDRs over well-defined connections
20. What are the Mailbox Server and database level improvements in Exchange Server 2010
SP1?
New shell command New-MailboxRepairRequest to detect and repair mailbox and database corruption
issues.
New script introduced to control excessive log growth of mailbox database mentioned as TroubleshootDatabaseSpace.ps1
Public Folder client permissions support is added to EMC
21. Inform some High Availability improvements in Exchange Server 2010 SP1
Below are the new features on the high availability
Continuous replication block mode: This mode will allow the passive mailbox copies are up
to date, as the active database is updated; each update written to the database log file is also
shipped to the passive mailbox copies. In the event of a failure, the passive database copy is
updated with the latest log updates which minimizes data loss
Improved client experience for cross-site failover: Admin can now control if Outlook will
redirect cross-site or if it is automatically connected
Improved support for 2-node Datacenter resilient topologies ( Now supports Datacenter
Activation Coordinator mode (DAC) Mode with two servers in a DAG )
Faster failovers with improved post-failover client experience (Failover drives the database to a
clean shutdown by playing all logs. The mount process then simply brings database up, with no
recovery required, which speeds up the failover time. )
Mailbox database redistribution (New script which can move active mailbox databases back to
the copy with the highest activation preference)
22. Inform some Recipient Level improvements in Exchange Server 2010 SP1
In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007, Autodiscover automatically loads any mailbox for which a user has
been granted full access permission. Users cant control or disable this behavior.
Calendar Repair Assistant supports more scenarios than were available in Exchange 2010 RTM.
Mailbox Assistants are now all throttle-based (changed from time-based in Exchange 2010
RTM).
Internet calendar publishing allows users in your Exchange organization to share their Outlook

calendars with a broad Internet audience.

Importing and exporting .pst files now uses the Mailbox Replication service and doesnt require
Outlook.
Hierarchical address book support allows you to create and configure your address lists and
offline address books in a hierarchical view.
Distribution group naming policies allow you to configure string text that will be appended or
prepended to a distribution groups name when its created.
Soft-delete of mailboxes after move completion

23. Inform some Unified Messaging Server level changes in Exchange Server 2010 SP1?
UM reporting The reports for Call Statistics and User Call Logs found in the Exchange
Management Console are displayed in the Exchange Control Panel.
UM management in the Exchange Control Panel You can use the ECP to manage UM
components in a cross-premises environment.
Cross-Forest UM-enabled mailbox migration In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can use the NewMoveRequest cmdlet with the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) to move a UM-enabled
mailbox within a local forest and multiple forests in an enterprise.
Outlook Voice Access improvements Outlook Voice Access users can log on to their Exchange
2010 mailbox and choose the order to listen to unread voice mail messages, from the oldest
message first or the newest message first.
Caller Name Display support Exchange 2010 SP1 includes support for enhanced caller ID
resolution for displaying names for voice mails from unresolved numbers using Caller Name
Display (CND).
Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow cmdlet With this Exchange 2010 SP1 cmdlet, you can test UM
connectivity and call flow.
New UM Dial Plan wizard An additional page has been added to the New UM Dial
Plan wizard that allows you to add a UM server to the dial plan.
Lync Server 2010 Support Migrating SIP URI dial plans and Message Waiting Indicator
(MWI) notifications in a cross-premises environment has been added.
Secondary UM dial plan support You can add a secondary UM dial plan for a UM-enabled
user.
UM language packs added New UM language packs are now available in Exchange 2010 SP1.
In addition, the Spanish (Spain) (es-ES) UM language pack available for Exchange 2010 SP1
now includes Voice Mail Preview, a feature that wasnt available in the Exchange 2010 RTM
release of that language pack.
Call answering rules improvements There are three updates to Call Answering Rules for UMenabled users in SP1.
Unified Communications Managed API/speech platform improvements Beginning with
Exchange 2010 SP1, the UM server relies on Unified Communications Managed API v. 2.0
(UCMA) for its underlying SIP signaling and speech processing.
UM auto attendant update In Exchange 2010 SP1, a UM auto attendant will play only the
holiday greeting on a holiday

Exchange Server 2010 Client Access Server Interview Questions

September 8th, 2011 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1.What is a Client Access Server in Exchange Server 2010?

Client Access server role in exchange server 2010 help all the exchange clients to access their mailbox.
Exchange server clients like outlook, OWA, IMAP, POP3, Exchange Active Sync, ECP, Entourage
clients will connect to client access server first and the request will be passed to respective mailbox
server or mailbox database.
Addition features like auto discover and availability services are handled by client access server role.
2. What are the major changes in CAS in Exchange 2010, when compared with Exchange 2007?
When compared with client access server role in exchange server 2007, exchange server 2010 CAS
server function as a MAPI end point for all the exchange clients by replacing the MAPI end point from
mailbox server role to client access server role.
New high availability model for client access server introduced in exchange server 2010 named client
access server array.
Exchange Control Panel is a new feature supported by client access server role, which will allow users
having permission to manage certain tasks from client machine itself.
3. Name the new features introduced in Exchange 2010 CAS server?
Below are some the new feature introduced in client access server role on exchange server 2010.
RPC Client Access component that serves client request is now part of CAS
server
Client Access Server array high availability option for client access server
Outlook web app feature like conversation view, search folders in OWA and owa
mailbox policies etc
Cross-site POP3 and IMAP4 client connectivity is supported by default in
Exchange 2010
4. Explain client access Proxying and the supported clients?
Client Access server can act as a proxy for other Client Access servers within the organization by
having single internet facing client access server. This is useful when multiple Client Access servers are
present in different Active Directory sites in an organization and at least one of those sites isnt exposed

to the Internet. Proxying will be supported by OWA, ECP and exchange active sync clients
5. Explain what are client access redirection and the supported clients?
Redirection is useful when a user connects to a Client Access server that isnt in their local Active
Directory site or if a mailbox has moved between Active Directory sites. Its also useful if the user
should be using a better URL, for example, one thats closer to the Active Directory site their mailbox
resides in. Redirection will be supported by POP3 and IMAP4 clients.
6. What are the supportable clients available in exchange server 2010?
Exchange Server 2010 client access server supports, Outlook MAPI connection, OWA, ECP, IMAP4,
POP3, Exchange Active Sync, entourage clients and EWS
7. Explain Exchange Active Sync in Exchange Server 2010?
Exchange ActiveSync enables mobile phone users to access their e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks
and to continue to be able to access this information while theyre working offline. The protocol, based
on HTTP and XML, lets mobile phones access an organizations information on a server thats running
Microsoft Exchange. Direct Push is the technology used in synchronizing emails to mobile devices
Feature like support for HTML messages, PIN reset, auto discover over air are the additional
components inactive sync on exchange server 2010.
8. What you know about POP3 and IMAP client with exchange 2010?
POP3 is a client access method which uses outlook as the application to access the email from
exchange server. If profile is configured using pop3, then allowing certain of emails to leave in server
and rest of the emails will get download to the local machine. Email downloaded cannot be accessed
anywhere from OWA etc
IMAP is also client access method to access emails, where the IMAP wont download the emails
locally. Exact sync of the emails and the folder structure in exchange server will be in sync when
profile is configured in outlook IMAP4 configuration.
9. How outlook anywhere works in Exchange Server 2010?
Outlook Anywhere feature, formerly known as RPC over HTTP allow the exchange clients that use
Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2003 connect to their Exchange servers from outside the
corporate network or over the Internet using the RPC over HTTP Windows networking component.
The Windows RPC over HTTP Proxy component, which Outlook Anywhere clients use to connect,
wraps remote procedure calls (RPCs) with an HTTP layer. This allows traffic to traverse network
firewalls without requiring RPC ports to be opened. By default outlook anywhere is not enabled and it
has to be manually enabled.
10. What are the new features in outlook web app?
Lot of new features are there in outlook web app and few are mentioned here
Outlook Web App Mailbox Policies, Conversion view, Chat, Attach message to messages and Standard
version of OWA for all the web browsers.
OWA in exchange server 2010 is by default securely published using self signed certificate.
11. What is the function of availability service in exchange server 2010?

Exchange Server 2010 Availability service makes free/busy information available to Microsoft Office
Outlook 2007 or 2010 and Outlook Web App clients. The Availability service improves information
workers calendaring and meeting scheduling experience by providing secure, consistent, and up-todate free/busy information. By default, this service is installed with Exchange 2010
Outlook 2007 or 2010 and Outlook Web App use the Availability service to perform the following
tasks:
Retrieve current free/busy information for Exchange 2010 mailboxe
Retrieve current free/busy information from other Exchange 2010 organization
Retrieve published free/busy information from public folders for mailboxes on
servers that have versions of Exchange earlier than Exchange 2010
View attendee working hours
Show meeting time suggestions
12. What are the services used by Client Access Server and inform their function?
Service related to client access server are IIS Admin, MSExchange Address Book Service,
MSExchange AD topology, MSExchangeFDS, MSExchange Mailbox Replication, Protected Service
host, exchange rpc, service host, W3svc, Winrm
13. Explain the auto discover functionality in exchange 2010?
Autodiscover is a new service in exchange server 2010 where it will automatically configure user
profile settings for clients running Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010. Autodiscover uses
a users e-mail address and password to provide profile settings to Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010
clients and supported mobile phones. If the Outlook client is joined to a domain, the users domain
account is used.
14. How the autodiscover service works in exchange server 2010?
When a Client Access server role installed on a computer, a default virtual directory named
Autodiscover is created under the default Web site in Internet Information Services (IIS). This virtual
directory handles Autodiscover service requests from Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 clients and
supported mobile phone
Additionally, a new Active Directory object named the service connection point (SCP) is created on the
server where you install the Client Access server role. The SCP object contains the authoritative list of
Autodiscover service URLs for the forest.
When the client connects to Active Directory, the client looks for the SCP object created during Setup.
In deployments that include multiple Client Access servers, an Autodiscover SCP object is created for
each Client Access server. The SCP object contains the ServiceBindingInfo attribute with the fully
qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Client Access server in the form
https://CAS01/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, where CAS01 is the FQDN for the Client Access server.
Using the user credentials, the Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 client authenticates to Active Directory
and searches for the Autodiscover SCP objects. After the client obtains and enumerates the instances of
the Autodiscover service, the client connects to the first Client Access server in the enumerated list and
obtains the profile information in the form of XML data thats needed to connect to the users mailbox
and available Exchange features
15. How Address book service helps the exchange 2010?

In earlier version of version of exchange, Exchange provided a referral service that told clients such as
Outlook where they could find a server running the NSPI service. This referral usually pointed Outlook
to a global catalog server. This has been redesigned in exchange server 2010, where the address book
service in client access server will refer the request to global catalog server.
16. What is RPC client Access and inform its function?
In Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the Client Access server role was introduced to handle incoming
client connections to Exchange mailboxes. Although the majority of types of client connections were
made to the Client Access server, Microsoft Office Outlook still connected directly to the Mailbox
server when it was running internally with the MAPI protocol.
A new service was introduced with Exchange Server 2010 to allow these MAPI connections to be
handled by the Client Access server. The RPC Client Access service provides data access through a
single, common path of the Client Access server, with the exception of public folder requests, which
are still made directly to the Mailbox server
17. Explain Client Access Array in short?
Client Access Array is a new feature in exchange server 2010, where it serves as a single contact point
for all client connections within that Active Directory site. A Client Access server array can include one
or many Client Access servers within a active directory site
18. What are steps to configure a CAS Array?
Steps involved in configuring the client access server array
Create a Client Access array New-ClientAccessArray -Name Name -Site AD site Name
-fqdn Name of the cas array (outlook.domainname.com). Once the cas array is created, create
the address in DNS and associate it with the virtual IP address used for the Client Access array.
Configure load balancing Load balancing is recommended for high availability, failover, and
for spreading the traffic load over multiple servers to help performance
Configure RPC encryption settings
Configure your Mailbox databases
19. Explain the virtual directories in CAS 2010 and what is the function of all those directories?
20. Users are not able to access OWA externally. How you will troubleshoot this?
If users are able to access OWA internally and externally not accessible then below troubleshooting
steps can be followed
Check whether OWA external url is mentioned on the properties OWA virtual directory in exchange
management console
Check whether OWA is externally published
21. Unable to see the free busy information. Inform what you will do, if it is a single user issue
and if it s for multi user issue?
If it is a single user issue We can run the clean free busy switch, if still an issue, we can run the test
email auto configuration to check whether the availability service url is properly resolving in outlook, if
still an issue reconfigure the outlook profile
If it is a multi user issue We can check the availability service is running on client access server or

not, if it running and still an issue we can check whether IIS service is crashed etc. Check for event logs
related to iis related issue, if everything is normal, we can go for restart of availability and IIS server in
client access server
22. One user complaints that he is not able to set OOF in his outlook. He is getting error message
like exchange server is unavailable. How you will troubleshoot?
We can check the below things
Check whether the outlook profile is showing the oof url while doing test email auto
configuration
Check whether ssl certificate is still valid
Check whether he can send oof from owa
Reconfigure outlook profile etc
23. You are checking the client Access redirection functionality and it is not working. What you
will do?
24. Can you inform a feature that is available in Outlook, which is not available in OWA?
25. Outlook 2003 clients are unable to connect to exchange 2010 mailbox. What will be the issue
and how you will troubleshoot?
By default in RTM version of exchange server 2010, rpc client access encryption is enabled on mailbox
database, when outlook 2003 user tries to connect exchange 2010 mailbox he will get an error. To avoid
this encryption needs to be disabled on the mailbox database level.
26. You are not able to open a exchange server 2010 mailbox in outlook 2007 but you are able to
access using OWA. Its a new setup with 3 servers with CAS, mailbox and hub installed
separately. How you will solve it?
May be the newly create user information may take some time to replicate across all the sites
We can check for whether MAPI mailbox feature is enabled on the mailbox properties
If hide from address is option is enable is checked, outlook profile cannot be configured, we can check
that also.
27. What are the URLs provided to auto discover clients?
Below are the urls referenced to outlook clients when outlook profile is configured using auto discover

Availability Service Url: https://servername.domainname.com/ews/exchange.asmx

OOF Url: https://servername.domainname.com/ews/exchange.asmx
OAB URL: Public Folder
Unified Message Service Url:
https://servername.domainname.com/unifiedMessaging/service.asmx
Exchange Control Panel Url: https://servername.domainname.com/ecp
28. Newly created user account is not updating in GAL after one day. What are the
troubleshooting steps you will follow?
If a user account is created newly it will take some time (6 hours to 24 hours) to replicate or update the
new information in address book, if it is still unable to get the new information in address

I will check the event logs for any issue in online maintenance, if no issues then we can check the email
address on the active directory general tab and the primary emails address on the mailbox properties are
same. If it is not same new user account wont appear.
29. Users on a particular database is facing problem in getting the OAB updated. What will be
issue?
For the first attempt, I will check the issue in OWA; if user can see the address book properly then I
will try to manually download the address book in outlook. If still an issue, Each and every mailbox
database will be pointed to offline address book, need to check whether correct offline address is
pointed. If it is pointed and still an issue, need to check whether public folder database is mounted.
30. Is it possible to add another site CAS server as a member of a CAS Array? Why not and when
you can add other site member as a member of CAS Array?
When a Client Access server array is defined in an Active Directory site, it serves as a single contact
point for all client connections within that Active Directory site. A Client Access server array can
include one or many Client Access servers inside the active directory site. After a Client Access server
array is defined within an Active Directory site, all Client Access servers within that Active Directory
site are automatically part of the Client Access server array.
CAS array is bounded within an active directory site, and if we have two AD sites, we can create two
CAS array one on each site.
31. User able set OOO in OWA but not in outlook. How you will help the user?
32. What are the things you will backup in Client Access Server?
As like mailbox server role, we need to keep a copy of client access server role configuration as a
backup. Information like Internet Information Services (IIS) metabase data that a Client Access server
uses to store Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access Virtual Directory configuration data, OWA url
details, authentication settings can be taken as a note or MS released a script to take the CAS server
configuration as backup.
33. Few of Outlook users are prompting for password again and again. What you will do?
Outlook password prompt issues can occurs, one miss configured exchange server environment
We change the auto discover configuration
We can the DNS configuration or the Domain controller and global catalog server assigned for the
mailbox server role
We can check the permission assigned in IIS
We can check whether the local client computer is correctly configured with DNS settings
34. You are able to access OWA intermittently. If you refresh the OWA page, sometimes it will
show the content, sometime it wont. What will be issue?
It may be because of intermittent network connectivity issue. Need to check the internet connectivity or
is the issue with IIS connectivity in client access server etc
35. How you will find a CAS server used by a user. We have 5 CAS servers; you have to inform a
CAS server used by a user?
By default all the mailbox database will have a RPC Client Access Sever property on each mailbox

database, it will be pointed to the client access server which is installed at first in exchange
environment. We can find the mailbox database user and get the details from shell command
If we use the outlook test auto email configuration option, it will show the client access server which is
used to configure the outlook profile in auto discover method
36. While accessing outlook, he is prompted with the certificate warning. How you will fix it?
By design, exchange server 2007 and 2010 will be assigned with the self signed certificate, where the
outlook 2007 client ignore the certificate check and the outlook profile will be configured using
autodisover. This is not the same with outlook 2010, it will check for cert and throw and error with
certificate warning
We can install the certificate from owa to the trusted root container or we can install a valid SAN
certificate for all the services that are used by autodiscover in exchange server 2010.
37. Client Access Server has been crashed where a single CAS server is in place for the whole
exchange environment. What will happen now?
All the exchange server clients connecting the exchange server mailbox will be disconnected. In
exchange server 2010 including the MAPI connection, all the client connection go via client access
server and if it goes down, all the client connection will be dropped.

Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport Server Interview

Questions
September 8th, 2011 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

Please wait for answers which are all not answered here. If you want me to add any questions or
answers, kindly leave your comments
What is Hub Transport Server in Exchange Server 2010?
Hub Transport is the mail routing server that routes mail within the Exchange organization. Without
having the Hub Transport Server the mail routing functionality wont work in exchange server 2010. It
handles all mail flow inside the organization, applies transport rules, applies journaling policies, and
delivers messages to a recipients mailbox. Messages that are sent to the Internet are relayed by the Hub
Transport server to the Edge Transport server role thats deployed in the perimeter network.
What are the changes or new features in Hub Transport Server when compared with exchange
server 2007?
Below are the new features available in exchange server 2010 related to Hub Transport server role
MailTips MailTips provide extra information thats displayed to senders while theyre composing email messages.
Shadow redundancy Messages that are submitted to an Exchange 2010 Hub Transport server are
stored in the transport database until the next hop reports successful delivery of the message. If the next
hop doesnt report successful delivery and it fails, the message is resubmitted for delivery.
Moderated transport Exchange 2010 provides an approval workflow for sending messages to
recipients. When you configure a recipient for moderation, all messages sent to that recipient must go

through an approval process

End-to-end message tracking Exchange 2010 transport provides users with the ability to track
messages from submission to the final destination
Incremental EdgeSync In Exchange 2010, the EdgeSync process has been changed to keep track of
synchronized information and only synchronize the changes since the last replication cycle. This
significantly reduces network traffic and greatly improves synchronization efficiency.
And other features like Transport Rule command improvements New and Set Transport Rule, The
handling of distribution group expansion has improved in Exchange 2010. First, the amount of memory
thats used for caching distribution group membership has been capped by a configurable limit and
Message throttling improvements.
How the mail flow occurs in Hub Transport Server 2010?
Messages are submitted to the Hub Transport server in three ways: through SMTP submission, from the
Pickup directory, or when a user inside the organization sends a message, which is picked up from the
users Outbox by the store driver. The store driver is a software component of the Hub Transport server
that delivers inbound messages to Exchange stores, the databases that contain public folder and
mailbox stores
When messages are submitted to the Hub Transport server, theyre processed by the categorizer. The
categorizer is a component of Exchange transport that processes all inbound messages and determines
what to do with the messages based on information about the intended recipients. In Exchange 2010,
the Hub Transport server uses the categorizer to expand distribution lists and to identify alternative
recipients and forwarding addresses. After the categorizer retrieves full information about the
recipients, it uses that information to apply policies, route the messages, and perform content
conversion. Messages are then delivered locally by the store driver to a recipients mailbox, or theyre
delivered remotely by using SMTP to send messages to another transport server. Messages that are sent
by users in your organization are picked up from the senders Outbox by the store driver and are put in
the Submission queue on a server that runs the Hub Transport server role.
What are the queues available in Hub Transport Server 2010?
There are 5 mail queues available in Hub Transport Server; they are Submission queue, Mailbox
delivery queue, remote delivery queue, Poison message queue, unreachable queue.
Explain Send Connector in Exchange Server 2010?
Send Connector represents a logical gateway through which outbound messages are sent. Exchange
2010 transport servers require Send connectors to deliver messages to the next hop on the way to their
destination. A Send connector controls outbound connections from the sending server to the receiving
server or destination e-mail system.
Send connectors that are created on Hub Transport servers are stored in Active Directory and are
available to all Hub Transport servers in the organization. If a Send connector is configured to send
messages to an external domain, any Hub Transport server in the organization will route a message for
that domain to a source server for that connector to be relayed to the destination domain
Explain Receive Connector in Exchange Server 2010?
Receive connectors represent a logical gateway through which all inbound messages are received. It is
require Receive connectors to receive messages from the Internet, from e-mail clients, and from other

e-mail servers. By default, the Receive connectors that are required for internal mail flow are
automatically created when the Hub Transport server role is installed.
By default two receive connectors will be created automatically with the name shown below, they are
Client Servername This Receive connector accepts SMTP connections from all non-MAPI clients,
such as POP and IMAP.
Default Servername This Receive connector accepts connections from other Hub Transport servers
and any Edge Transport servers you have.
Explain the dumpster changes in exchange server 2010?
Exchange Server 2007 introduced the transport dumpster feature for the Hub Transport server role. An
Exchange 2007 Hub Transport server maintains a queue of messages delivered recently to recipients
whose mailboxes are on a clustered mailbox server. When a failover is experienced, the clustered
mailbox server automatically requests every Hub Transport server in the Active Directory site to
resubmit mail from the transport dumpster queue. This prevents mail from being lost during the time
taken for the cluster to fail over
Exchange Server 2010 introduces the shadow redundancy feature to provide redundancy for messages
for the entire time theyre in transit. The solution involves a technique similar to the transport dumpster.
With shadow redundancy, the deletion of a message from the transport databases is delayed until the
transport server verifies that all of the next hops for that message have completed delivery. If any of the
next hops fail before reporting back successful delivery, the message is resubmitted for delivery to that
next hop
Unable to send email to external domain, what are things you will check?
By default, when exchange server 2010 is installed with the default server roles, internal mail flow
occurs and the external wont. There is no send connector created to sending emails to external domain.
Need to check the following

Send connector to send emails to external domain needs to be created

Exchange Server queues to be viewed to check whether the emails are stored in queue
Check the smart host which is configured to relay the emails to external domain
Any change on the ISP or the MX record configuration to b e checked

Unable to send email to one particular domain, what will be the issue? And how you will
troubleshoot this issue?
If you are unable to send emails to particular domain, need to the following
Is the send connecter configured with * as the address space to send emails to external domain, if it is
there then there is no need to create a separate connector for particular domain
Need to check the check the SMTP codes on the NDR received, based on the NDR we can troubleshoot
further
What happened to routing group connector in Exchange Server 2010? Do we need Routing
Group connector in Co existence environment with legacy version of exchange server?
Routing group and Routing group connector concepts are replaced with Active Directory site based
email routing in exchange server 2010. If we are having a coexistence with legacy version of exchange
server, automatically an routing group connector will be created to establish a mail flow between

exchange 2010 and legacy version of exchange server

How to achieve High Availability of Hub Transport Server?
Deploying more than one Hub Transport server per site provides redundancy. When you install more
than one Hub Transport server in an Active Directory site, the connections are distributed.
What needs to be back up in Hub Transport Server? How to recover a Hub Server failure?
Send connector configuration and the details are to be recorded\noted
Receive connector configuration and the details are to be recorded\noted
Need to have a detail record on the accepted domain and relay domain configured
If the server gets crashed,
We can rebuild a server with the same computer name and IP address configuration,
Apply the same service pack and patches as like before
Recover the server using recover switch, this needs to performed at the command line
installation
Explain a back pressure? When it will occur and what will happen? How to solve this?
Back pressure is a system resource monitoring feature of Microsoft Exchange Transport service that
exists on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport and Edge Transport servers. Exchange
transport can detect when vital resources, such as available hard disk space and memory, are under
pressure, and take action in an attempt to prevent service unavailability.
When back pressure occurred and the level is
Normal Server accepts new connections and messages
Medium Mail from senders in the authoritative domain can flow and the other message will be
queued
High Full back pressure is applied. All message flow stops, and the server rejects all new incoming
MAIL FROM commands.
To solve this issue, we need to make sure the disk space on the queues and queue database disk are
having enough disk space and the hub transport server is having enough memory.
What is an Accepted Domain? What is the use of it?
An accepted domain is any SMTP namespace for which a Microsoft Exchange organization sends or
receives e-mail. Accepted domains include those domains for which the Exchange organization is
authoritative and responsible to receive emails for those accepted domains.
If we look at the use of accepted domain, if company have additional domain names and they cannot
setup exchange server for each and every domain names, they can create accepted domain and point the
MX record to their exchange domain. Also by creating a new email address policy they can easily
change the email address for all users in exchange organization.
What is the use of remote domain?
Remote Domains can be configured to change the settings for message transfer between the Microsoft
Exchange Server 2010 organization and domains outside your Active Directory forest. When you
create a remote domain entry, you control the types of messages that are sent to that domain. You can

also apply message format policies and acceptable character sets for messages that are sent from users
in your organization to the remote domain.
Explain Relay Domain?
Relay domain will allow the exchange server to receive a email for other exchange domain and it will
be forwarded to the relay domain
Two types of relay domain are available internal relay domain and external relay domain.
What is the use of Pick up and Replay directory? How to secure messages in those directories?
How shadow redundancy helps in mail flow?
Shadow redundancy provides the following benefits:
It eliminates the reliance on the state of any specific Hub Transport or Edge Transport server. As
long as redundant message paths exist in your routing topology, any transport server becomes
disposable.
If a transport server fails, you can remove it from production without emptying its queues or
losing messages.
If you want to upgrade a Hub Transport or Edge Transport server, you can bring that server
offline at any time without the risk of losing messages.
It eliminates the need for storage hardware redundancy for transport servers.
It consumes less bandwidth than creating duplicate copies of messages on multiple servers. The
only additional network traffic generated with shadow redundancy is the exchange of discard
status between transport servers. Discard status is the information each transport server
maintains. It indicates when a message is ready to be discarded from the transport database.
It provides resilience and simplifies recovery from a transport server failure
What will happen if the queue database gets corrupt? How you will recover that?
Why the queue database extension mention as .que file?
What is priority queuing in exchange server 2010?
How you will configure the mail flow between edge and hub transport server?
Requirement is to configure the external mail flow happen only through a particular site, how
you will achieve this?
Queues are filling on Submission queue, what are the things you will check? All the stores are
mounted and the exchange server related services are running normal here.
How to force the mail from queue, we dont have option like exchange server 2003 queue viewer?
How the mails the secured in exchange server? What kind of secure communication will occur
between server to server mail flow and server to client mail flow?
Single Mailbox is creating bulk number of email which leads to bulk number of log file creation,
how you will find the mailbox and how you will fix the issue?

Exchange Server 2010 Interview Questions Mailbox Server

Role
October 30th, 2011 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1. Explain the Mailbox Server in Exchange 2010 and its function?

The Mailbox Server role is the heart of your Exchange Server 2010 environment. This is where the
Mailbox Database and Public Folder Database are installed.
In previous versions of Exchange Server, Outlook MAPI connections are connected directly to the
Mailbox Server Role, but with Exchange Server 2010 this is no longer the case, the MAPI endpoint is
moved to client access server role to reduce the load on mailbox server role
The Mailbox Server Role does not route any messages, it only stores messages in mailboxes. For
routing messages, the Hub Transport Server role is needed. This latter role is responsible for routing all
messages, even between mailboxes that are on the same server, and even between mailboxes that are in
the same mailbox database.
2. What are the core changes related to Mailbox Server role in Exchange 2010?
MAPI end point where the exchange clients connect the mailbox server role to access the emails
has been moved to client access server role
Ability to move a mailbox while the end user is still accessing it
Additional parameters added to allow users to create and manage their own distribution groups
in Outlook Web App and Exchange 2010
Ability to send mail to recipients from the Exchange Management Console
In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007, Autodiscover automatically loads any mailbox for which a
user has been granted full access permission (SP1). Users cant control or disable this behavior.
Ability for users to share information, such as calendar free/busy information and contacts with
users who reside in a different organization federated sharing
Deprecated storage groups, which means storage group concepts are removed
Mailbox databases no longer connected to the server object
Improvements in Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) for high availability, performance, and
database mobility
3. What happened to LCR, CCR, SCC and SCR in Exchange Server 2010?
Exchange 2010 includes many changes to its core architecture. Exchange 2010 uses an enhanced
version of the same continuous replication technology introduced in Exchange 2007. Exchange 2010
combines the key availability and resilience features of CCR and SCR into single high availability
solution which handles both onsite data replication and offsite data replication called Database
Availabilty Group. LCR its been completely removed and the CCR and SCR concpets are incorporated
into a single term DAG
Mailbox servers can be defined as part of a database availability group (DAG) to provide automatic
recovery at the individual mailbox database level instead of at the server level. Each mailbox database
can have up to 16 copies.
4. Inform some new features related with Mailbox Server in Exchange 2010?

Below are few new features related to mailbox server role in exchange server 2010.
MAPI connections to Mailbox Database is completely removed and the MAPI connection comes
through Client Access Server, but Public Folder access directly comes to Mailbox Database
New concept of High Availability concept called Database Availability Group
Mailbox Database can be replicated up to 16 copies in different Server with in a DAG
Database Availability Group Member Server can hold other server roles
5. Can you explain the changes related to mailbox server in Exchange 2010 SP1?
Some of the changes introduced in exchange server 2010 sp1 related to mailbox server roles are
You can now have a users primary mailbox and archive mailbox on separate databases.
In Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007, Autodiscover automatically maps to any mailbox
for which a user has full access permissions.
Importing and exporting mailbox data has been improved so that you can import or export .pst files in
an asynchronous process using the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service.
When a mailbox move is completed, the mailbox on the source database is not deleted .
Exchange 2010 SP1 now soft-deletes the mailbox on the source database, so you can recover the
mailbox in the event of a Mailbox server failover or data loss.
A new cmdlet has been added that you can use to modify the mailbox folder permissions. The SetMailboxFolderPermission cmdlet updates folder-level permissions for all folders within a users
mailbox.
6. How the address book gets generated? What is the role of mailbox Server in address book
generation?
Its the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service running on the mailbox server role that first
produces the OAB data. The specific mailbox server that produces the initial data depends on which
server has been configured to generate the OAB. It is possible to navigate to the \Program
Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ExchangeOAB folder to view the actual OAB files. Before the
OAB data is written to the files found in the Exchange OAB sub-folders, it is actually constructed in
the %TEMP% folder first.
The OAB files generated on the mailbox server, still need to be distributed to the client machines, Since
the client machines do not connect to the mailbox server to download the OAB when considering webbased distribution, clearly another process is involved which is performed by the Client Access Server
role.
7. What is a move request and how it work? What are services involved in moved request?
The whole approach to moving mailboxes in Exchange 2010 revolves around the feature known as
move requests. A move request is created by the Exchange administrator using either the Exchange
Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell.
Moving mailboxes within the same forest is referred to as a local move request.
Moving mailboxes across forests are referred to as remote move requests.
Move requests are processed by two services:

Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service: When you use the move request cmdlets to move
mailboxes, MRS processes the move process. As stated earlier, MRS resides on an Exchange 2010
Client Access server and is the service that moves mailboxes from the source database to the target
database. In Exchange 2007, the mailbox move is performed by the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. By using a
service as the agent of the move, mailboxes can be moved while simultaneously remaining accessible
to users. During the move, you can view, cancel, and manage the move request from any Exchange
2010 server in the organization.
MRS constantly checks for all move requests in its own Active Directory site. In addition, theres a
sharing mechanism between all instances of MRS so that no two servers will attempt to perform the
same move request.
All MRS instances in an Active Directory site work together so that database and Client Access server
throttling is handled across all instances of MRS. MRS throttling is controlled by a configuration file.
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Proxy Service: In addition to MRS, the MRSProxy service is
installed on every Exchange 2010 Client Access server. MRSProxy helps to facilitate cross-forest move
requests and runs on the remote forests Exchange 2010 Client Access server. However, MRSProxy is
disabled by default. You need to turn on the MRSProxy service on the remote forest.
8. What is a DAG and Explain DAG in simple?
A DAG is the base component of the high availability and site resilience framework built into
Exchange 2010. The database availability group (DAG) is a set of up to 16 Microsoft Exchange Server
2010 Mailbox servers that provide automatic database-level recovery from a database, server, or
network failure. Mailbox servers in a DAG monitor each other for failures. When a Mailbox server is
added to a DAG, it works with the other servers in the DAG to provide automatic, database-level
recovery from database, server, and network failures.
9. Explain how the DAG works?
A DAG is designed to use the built-in continuous replication feature to replicate mailbox databases
among servers in the DAG.
How Database replication Work: It exactly works the same way as CCR and SCR Concept in Exchange
Server 2007, where we will seed the database and then the log shipping process will take into effect to
update the database of passive server storage group from the active server storage group by replicating
the log file via Microsoft Exchange Replication Service
How the Failover occurs for DAG: It exactly works the same way as CCR and SCR Concept in
Exchange Server 2007, same working process has been carried out here in the DAG Concept. Where
we will have majority node configured. Example two or more Exchange Server configured as DAG
and all of them will have their own information about the availability and active partner status apart
from this we will have one more server which can be exchange server or any member server in which
we will create one folder called as FSW (File Share Witness) and then we will set the appropriate
permission.
How Active and Passive node role are decided in Exchange Server 2010: As you know that Exchange
Server 2010 is no more the part of the cluster resource model where we need to setup the cluster
resource for exchange. Instead of that Exchange Server 2010 has its own mechanism which will
configure the cluster base HA by associating the exchange database with Windows Failover Clustering.
This new component is called as Active Manager. The Active Manager replaces the cluster resource

model and fail-over management feature which was there in previous versions of Exchange Server.
Active Manager will run on all member servers which are part of DAG.
10. What are Primary Active Manager and Standby Active Manager?
DAG consists of two types of manager:
Primary Active Manager (PAM) This active manager will decide which server is going to hold the
primary active database and will keep the track of rest of the passive server database. It will also hold
the specific exchange related clustered quorum information.
Standby Active Manager (SAM) It will keep a track of server or database failure, if detected it will
update the PAM so that PAM will decide who is going to own the primary database role.
11. Explain the Log file shipping Process in DAG?
Replication of the log shipping and seeding still uses the same technology which is called Continuous
Replication however it runs at the database level. Exchange 2010 uses TCP/IP for copying of log files
and seeding. The DAG uses 64327 ports for replication by default, but you can change the port.
The basic arrangement for log shipping is simple: A transaction log file is generated on a source server
and is pushed to the servers that contain database copies in Exchange 2010. It is the Microsoft
Exchange Replication Service that is responsible for transferring data.
12. What is Incremental Reseeding?
In Exchange Server 2007 whenever the existing log files of active node is out of sync from the passive
node we need to delete the database on the passive node and then we need to start the replication
process from the scratch which will increase the network bandwidth consumption and till the data gets
completely replicated we are under risk. Now with the incremental reseeding function what going to
happen is whenever the log files are out of sync the database will be compared with the active node and
only the missing changes will be written on the passive node of the database.
Log File encryption and Compression- This is the new settings which are enabled by default in
Exchange Server 2010 HA and the default setting is set for inter-subnet. So the data replication between
the servers is compressed and encrypted
13. What are the advantages over the legacy High Availability Solution?
Cost -One of the major key benefit is cost involvement has been reduced. If we want to have HA in
Exchange 2007 we need to have atleast 4 servers where we need to have two servers dedicated only to
MBX server role, with exchange server 2010 you dont require any dedicate servers. Administrator can
configure DAG on any server which can also have the CAS & HUB Server deployed on it.
Easy Deployment - We dont require having Windows Cluster setup, we just need to install failover
cluster component in the OS, while configuring DAG, it will automatically create a cluster group where
cluster task is being eliminated
Incremental Deployment We can go for HA whenever we require it. Let say we are having simple
exchange setup, later we decided to have HA, all we have to do is bring another and configure DAG
between the existing one and new one.
No more requirement of moving the entire server databases to another node in the case of single
database issue. One of the major improvement what we have in Exchange server 2010 is database has
been moved from Server Level to Organization Level which means if we have single database issue

only the single database will be taken over by the another node instead of entire database.
Backup less solution If we are going with Exchange Server 2010 HA then we are going to have copy
of the same database on multiple servers which will reduce the burden of backing the database on daily
basis but for this it is recommend to have atleast 3 copy of the same database.
14. How the Calendar repair assistant component works in Exchange 2010?
The interesting aspect about CRA is that, most of the time it runs without any administrator
intervention. This simplifies collaboration within an organization. In Exchange 2010, the Calendar
Repair Assistant was developed to work on the mailbox server side. CRA runs within the Exchange
Mailbox Assistant service and detects and fixes any discrepancies using a special algorithm for
comparing the organizers and the attendees items respectively. Most importantly, CRA runs in silent
mode on the users outlook calendar, meaning that the user will only be notified about adjustments in
his/her calendar items. CRA is configured to run by default on every mailbox but can also be disabled
for specific user accounts.
CRA can be configured to run on a specific time schedule. When CRA runs, it compares the organizers
calendar item to the attendees calendar item by running consistency checks. If any of the
organizers/attendees check operations fails due to inconsistencies, a fix is performed on the respective
calendar item. Corrections are merged so as not to override item properties or data. An E-mail
describing what was fixed is then placed in the attendees deleted items folder.
15. Explain Exchange Search? What is difference between Exchange Search and Store Search?
Exchange Search is different from full-text indexing available in Exchange Server 2003. Improvements
were made to performance, content indexing, and search. New items are indexed almost immediately
after theyre created or delivered to the mailbox, providing users with a fast, stable, and more reliable
way of searching mailbox data. In Exchange 2010 and Exchange Server 2007, content indexing is
enabled by default on all mailbox databases, and theres no initial setup or configuration required.
16. What is Single Item Recovery? What are the changes in Dumpster 2.0?
Exchange Search allows you to quickly search text in messages through the use of pre-built indexes.
Exchange Store Search, however, is based on a sequential scan of all the messages in the search scope
instead of using the pre-built indexes The following list describes some of the other differences
between Exchange Search and Exchange store search:
Exchange Search is faster than Exchange store search
Exchange Search is based on words, phrases, and sentences. Exchange store search is based on a
stream of bytes. This means that Exchange Search will ignore punctuation and spaces, and is also not
case sensitive, whereas Exchange store search will find only an exact match of all characters.
Exchange Search searches within attachments types that are supported by the installed filters. Exchange
store search does not search within attachments.
Exchange Search uses its full-text index to locate records. Exchange store search performs a serial scan
of the entire folder.
Exchange Search is not case sensitive. Exchange store search is case sensitive.
Exchange Search can be used only for text searches. Exchange store search supports the full set of
MAPI restrictions, which includes non-text property types such as date and time.

17. Explain the 3 folders in Dumpster 2.0 in Exchange 2010?

Deletions, Versions and Purges are the 3 folders in Dumpster 2.0
Deletions - This subfolder contains all items deleted from the Deleted Items folder. (In Outlook, you
can soft delete an item by pressing Shift+Delete.) This subfolder is exposed to users through the
Recover Deleted Items feature in Outlook and Outlook Web App.
Versions - If either litigation hold or single item recovery is enabled, this subfolder contains the original
and modified copies of the deleted items. This folder isnt visible to end users.
Purges - If either litigation hold or single item recovery is enabled, this subfolder contains all items that
are hard deleted. This folder isnt visible to end users.
18. What is the use of email address policy and how long it will take the newly created email
address to appear in GAL and OAB?
For a recipient (which include users, resources, contacts, and groups) to send or receive e-mail
messages, the recipient must have an e-mail address. E-mail address policies generate the primary and
secondary e-mail addresses for your recipients so they can receive and send e-mail. By default,
Exchange contains an e-mail address policy for every mail-enabled user.
The default policy specifies the recipients alias as the local part of the e-mail address and uses the
default accepted domain. The local part of an e-mail address is the name that appears before the at sign
(@). However, you can change how your recipients e-mail addresses will display. For example, you
can specify that your recipients e-mail addresses display as firstname.lastname@contoso.com.
Furthermore, if you want to specify additional e-mail addresses for all recipients or just a subset, you
can modify the default policy or create additional policies.
By default, Exchange OAB generation server will generate OAB update files everyday at 5:00 AM and
Outlook clients update the OAB file every 24 hours (if it is running time after last OAB downloading).
19. What happen to import and export-mailbox commands?
Importing and Exporting Mailbox Data in Previous Versions of Exchange i.e Exchange Server 2007
and the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Exchange 2010 use the Import-Mailbox and ExportMailbox cmdlets to import and export .pst files. That is now replaced by Import and Export Requests
What are the limitations in using export-mailbox or import-mailbox cmdlets:
You must install Outlook on an Exchange server dedicated to importing and exporting mailbox data. As
a result, you must purchase both an Exchange and an Outlook license solely for this purpose.
The .pst file must reside on the server dedicated to importing and exporting mailbox data.
The import or export operation is performed by the related cmdlet, and content in the .pst file moves
through the dedicated server. Therefore, you cant shut down the session until the import or export is
complete.
20. What is advantage of Import and Export request command?
The following are advantages to using import and export requests in Exchange 2010 SP1:
A .pst provider is included in Exchange 2010 SP1 that can read and write .pst files.
Import and export requests are asynchronous. The process is performed by MRS, which takes
advantage of the queuing and throttling frameworks.

The .pst files can be imported directly to a users personal archive.

Multiple .pst files can be imported or exported at the same time.
Import and export cmdlets can be run against any Exchange 2010 SP1 server in your organization.
The .pst files can reside on any shared network drive accessible by your Exchange servers.
21. Explain the OAB generation in Simple?
Offline Address book allows user to download the address book offline into the local machine. It helps
to query the address book when you are not connected to the network. Its a complete copy of the
global Address book.
Lets understand how the OAB is generated, synchronized and available for distribution for the outlook
users.
One Mailbox Server in the Organization is identified as OAB Generation Server. This is first mailbox
server in the organization or any mailbox server assigned with the OAB generation role during the later
stage.
OABGen service running on the mailbox server helps to generate, creates and updates OAB files.
OABGen service is part of the System Attendant Service. All OAB Generated file by default will be
located at path \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ExchangeOAB.
OABGen communicates with the active directory and generates the address book for mailbox, contact
and other exchange resources in the Exchange organization.
OAB files in the mailbox server are compressed file with the extension .LZX format.
There are two ways for Distribution in Exchange 2010. They are through web based distributions and
through public folder distribution.
Web based distribution is only supported with outlook 2007 clients and higher.
OAB distribution through public folder is supported by any version outlook.
OAB files are generated in Exchange 2010 Mailbox servers and outlook do not connect directory to the
mailbox servers. The solution approach is to use Client Access Server role with web based distribution.
On the Client Access Role server, a virtual directory called OAB runs with in the default web site. This
virtual helps in distributing the OAB
Microsoft Exchange File Distribution Servers polls the OABGen Server and copies the OAB data from
the mailbox servers to CAS server. Once this is complete OAB data is copied then, only if there is any
update that data is synchronized with CAS server. The synchronization or pol frequency is 8 hrs by
default and you can change it if required using PowerShell cmdlets.
22. What happened to public folders in Exchange Server 2010?
In Exchange Server 2010, public folders are an optional feature. If all client computers in your
organization are running Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Office Outlook 2007, there are no dependencies on
Public Folders. For features such as free and busy information and offline address book (OAB)
downloads. Instead of using public folders for OAB downloads free/ busy information in Exchange
2010 are serviced by the Auto discover service, the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, and
the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service.

23. What is a disabled mailbox and soft deleted mailbox? How the soft deleted mailbox retain in
mailbox server?
A disconnected mailbox is a mailbox object in the Exchange store that isnt associated with an Active
Directory user account. Disconnected mailboxes remain in the Exchange database for the duration
specified in the deleted mailbox retention settings for the mailbox database. By default, disconnected
mailboxes are retained for 30 days. During this retention period, a mailbox can be recovered by
connecting it to a new or existing Active Directory user account.
There are two types of disconnected mailboxes:
Soft-deleted mailboxes when mailboxes are moved from a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service
Pack 1 (SP1) database to any other database, Exchange doesnt fully delete the mailbox from the source
database upon completion of the move. Instead, the mailbox in the source mailbox database is switched
to a soft-deleted state. With soft-deleted mailboxes, you can use the MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet set
to access mailbox data during a mailbox restore operation. Soft-deleted mailboxes are retained in the
source database until either the deleted mailbox retention period expires or until the RemoveStoreMailbox cmdlet is used to purge the mailbox.
Disabled mailboxes When a mailbox is disconnected or removed using the Disable-Mailbox or
Remove-Mailbox cmdlet, Exchange retains the deleted mailbox, and the mailbox is switched to a
disabled state. With disabled mailboxes, you can recover mailbox data without having to restore the
entire mailbox database. Disabled mailboxes are retained in the mailbox database until the deleted
mailbox retention period expires or until the mailbox is permanently deleted. For more information
24. You have connected a disconnected mailbox, but the problem is archive mailbox does not
appear after connecting the mailbox? How you will restore the archive mailbox of a disconnected
user?
If we want to connect a disconnected personal archive to the current owner of the mailbox with the
personal archive, we just need to use the Archive parameter:
Connect-Mailbox Identity <MailboxID> -Database <DatabaseID> -Archive
Because we are connecting a disconnected personal archive, use the DisplayName with the Online
Archive - prefix.
25. What are the requirements to configure a Database Availability Group?
General Requirement
Member must be in same AD domain
Not supported for mailbox role on AD Server i.e DC
Software requirement
Require WFC (failover clustering) but there is no prerequisite setup before deploying DAG
All the member of a DAG should run the same version OS
OS should be running with Windows 2008 EE or Windows 2008 EE R2
26. Explain Dial Tone portability and Database portability in Exchange Server 2010?
Dial Tone portability In the case of a complete server failure, an empty dial tone mailbox database
can be created on a new server, enabling users to send and receive e-mail while recovery is underway

Database portability- Database portability is a feature that enables a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
mailbox database to be moved to or mounted on any other Mailbox server in the same organization. By
using database portability, reliability is improved by removing several error-prone, manual steps from
the recovery processes. In addition, database portability reduces the overall recovery times for various
failure scenarios.
Note: Database portability is for Exchange 2010 mailbox databases only. Public folder databases are
not portable
27. A database has been corrupted in a 2 node DAG, you have to bring the database up and
running, how you will achieve it?
If we are talking about logical corruption then yes it will replicate but this will not make the database
go offline it gets solved with Mailbox Repair Request.
Command: New-MailRepairRequest
More serious corruption is caused by faulty hardware and is often causing bits on disk being changed.
These are not replicated since replication has already taken place. Database can still be running or may
cause a failover when this happens. Reseed from a good copy to replace the bad copy is the solution
here.
28. Newly created users are not visible in outlook, what you will do?
Method 1: Run Outlook in Online mode
Method 2: Use GAL instead of OAB-select All Contacts in the Drop-down list in Address Book in
Outlook.
Method3: Force the OAB update
Right click the OAB file in EMC and then select Update; wait for about 15-30 minutes
Restart File Distribution Service in CAS server role, wait for another 15-30 minutes
In Outlook clients, click Send/Receive and then select Download address book
29. What are the services related to mailbox server role and inform its function?
Below are the services available and running on Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Server
Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology- MSExchangeADTopology
Provides Active Directory topology information to Exchange services. If this service is stopped, most
Exchange services are unable to start. This service has no dependencies
Microsoft Exchange Information Store- MSExchangeIS
Manages the Exchange Information Store, This includes mailbox databases and public folder databases.
If this service is stopped, mailbox databases and public folder databases on this computer are
unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start. This
service is dependent on the RPC, Server, Windows Event Log, and Workstation services.
Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission Service- MSExchangeMailSubmission
Submits messages from the Mailbox server to Exchange 2010 Hub Transport servers, This service is
dependent upon the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service.

Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants - MSExchangeMailboxAssistants

Performs background processing of mailboxes in the Exchange store. This service is dependent upon
the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service.
Microsoft Exchange Replication Service -MSExchangeRepl
Provides replication functionality for mailbox databases on Mailbox servers in a database availability
group (DAG). This service is dependent upon the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology
service.
Microsoft Exchange Replication Service MSExchangeRepl (Optional)
Provides replication functionality for mailbox databases on Mailbox servers in a database availability
group (DAG). This service is dependent upon the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology
service.
Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access MSExchangeRPC (Optional)
Manages client RPC connections for Exchange. This service is dependent upon the Microsoft
Exchange Active Directory Topology service.
Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer MSExchangeSearch(Optional)
Drives indexing of mailbox content, which improves the performance of content search. This service is
dependent upon the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology and Microsoft Search (Exchange
Server) services.
Microsoft Exchange Server Extension for Windows Server Backup - WSBExchange(Optional)
Enables Windows Server Backup users to back up and recover application data for Microsoft
Exchange. This service has no dependencies.
Microsoft Exchange Service Host MSExchangeServiceHost
Provides a host for several Exchange services. On internal server roles, this service is dependent upon
the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service.
Microsoft Exchange System Attendant- MSExchangeSA
Forwards directory lookups to a global catalog server for legacy Outlook clients, generates e-mail
addresses and OABs, updates free/busy information for legacy clients, and maintains permissions and
group memberships for the server. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it
will fail to start. This service is dependent on the RPC, Server, Windows Event Log, and Workstation
services.
Microsoft Exchange Throttling- MSExchangeThrottling
Limits the rate of user operations. This service is dependent upon the Microsoft Exchange Active
Directory Topology service.
Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search MSExchangeTransportLogSearch(Optional)
Provides remote search capability for Microsoft Exchange Transport log files.
Microsoft Search (Exchange Server)- msftesql-Exchange
This is a Microsoft Exchange-customized version of Microsoft Search. This service is dependent on the

RPC service.

Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport Server Interview

Questions
October 2nd, 2011 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

What is an Edge Transport Server in Exchange Server 2010?

Edge Transport role in Exchange Server 2010 is the mail routing server that typically sits at the
perimeter of the topology and routes mail in to and out of the Exchange organization
What are the changes are improvements in Edge Transport Server when compared with Exchange
2007?
What are the prerequisites to install an Edge Transport Server?
Edge has to be installed Perimeter Network without joining the server to Domain Server
ADLDS role to be intalled
Other prerequisites like framework 3.5 sp1 and Windows Powershell 2.0 to be installed
How high availability can be achieved for Edge Transport Server?
To Achieve High Availability for Edge Transport Server, we can install more than one Edge Transport
server in the perimeter network. Deploying more than one Edge Transport server provides redundancy
and failover capabilities for inbound message flow. We can load-balance SMTP traffic to Exchange
organization between Edge Transport servers by defining more than one mail exchange (MX) resource
record with the same priority in the Domain Name System (DNS) database for your mail domain. We
can achieve consistency in configuration between multiple Edge Transport servers by using cloned
configuration scripts.
Whats new when compared with Hub Transport server?
When comparing with Hub Transport Server, Edge Server is different with the below details
Edge Server is deployed at the perimeter to provided more security to Exchange Organization
Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus components are installed by default, were we have to configure
manually in Hub Transport Server
Address rewriting option is only available in Edge Transport Server
Edge Transport rules can be created to control the mail flow that are sent to or received from
internet
When you will go for address rewriting and how it works?
Address rewriting option in Edge Transport Server roles is to present a consistent appearance to
external recipients of messages from your Exchange 2010 organization. We have to configure the
Address Rewriting agent on the Edge Transport server role to enable the modification of the SMTP
addresses on inbound and outbound messages.
Address rewriting is especially useful when a newly merged organization that has several domains
wants to present a consistent appearance of e-mail addresses to external recipients.

What is a backup pressure? What will happen when back pressure occurs? What is the event id?
Back pressure is a system resource monitoring feature of the Microsoft Exchange Transport service that
exists on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport and Edge Transport servers. Exchange
Transport check for system resource like available hard disk space and memory, are under pressure, and
take action in an attempt to prevent service unavailability.
When backpressure is applied on a Transport Server, it will act based on these 3 resource utilization
Normal The resource isnt overused. The server accepts new connections and messages
Medium The resource is slightly overused. Back pressure is applied to the server in a limited manner.
Mail from senders in the authoritative domain can flow.
High The resource is severely overused. Full back pressure is applied. All message flow stops, and
the server rejects all new incoming MAIL FROM commands
15005, 15006, 15007 are the event ids related to back pressure
What is an Edge Subscription? When it will occur?
How recipient lookup happening with Edge Server and the Active Directory?
Edge Transport server role is a Standalone Server and doesnt have access to Active Directory. All
configuration and recipient information is stored in Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
(AD LDS). To perform recipient lookup tasks, the Edge Transport server requires data that resides in
Active Directory. This data is synchronized to the Edge Transport server using EdgeSync.
What is EdgeSync?
EdgeSync is a collection of processes that are run on a computer that has the Hub Transport server role
installed to establish one-way replication of recipient and configuration information from Active
Directory to the AD LDS instance on an Edge Transport server.
What information is shared while Edge Sync occurs?
EdgeSync service copies only the information thats required for the Edge Transport server to perform
anti-spam configuration tasks and the information about the connector configuration thats required to
enable end-to-end mail flow. The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service performs scheduled updates
so that the information in AD LDS remains current.
Explain Pickup and Replay directories in Edge Transport server?
What is a send connector and receive connector in Edge Transport Server?
Explain the Transport Logs and Transport Database in Exchange server 2010?
Exchange 2010 Hub or Edge Transport server has a database for transport feature, below two databases
are available in Edge Transport Server
Message queue database A queue is a temporary holding location for messages waiting to enter the
next stage of processing. Each queue represents a logical set of messages that a transport server
processes in a specific order
IP filter database The IP filter database stores the IP Allow lists and IP Block lists that are part of
connection filtering
Transport log function will function same as the transaction log file mechanism in Mailbox Database

What is a shadow redundancy?

Shadow redundancy is a new feature in Exchange 2010 to provide redundancy for messages for the
entire time theyre in transit and this technique is similar to the transport dumpster. With shadow
redundancy, the deletion of a message from the transport databases is delayed until the transport server
verifies that all of the next hops for that message have completed delivery. If any of the next hops fail
before reporting back successful delivery, the message is resubmitted for delivery to that next hop
What are the ports to be opened at the firewall to HUB and Edge to communicate while edge
synchronization?
What are the post installation tasks after completing Edge Transport Server installation?
What is pipeline tracing? When you will go for pipe line tracing?
What is an accepted domain and remote domain?
What are the queues available in Edge Transport server?
What you will do, if no one able to send emails to external domain? While there is no problem in
sending and receiving email?
User mentioned that they are not able to send email to particular domain? How you will
troubleshoot it?
You are assigned with the task to configure mail flow between Edge and Hub Transport Server?
What are steps you will follow?
You are asked to customize a DSN Message, how you will perform the customization?
Can you explain the connectors that are available in Exchange server 2010?
What is a foreign connector in Exchange server 2010?
How you will install Anti Spam Agents in Edge Transport Server? What are the Anti Spam
agents available?
How to configure an edge transport server using a cloned configuration?
Explain how the mail flow occurs externally, if Edge Transport Server present in the Exchange
organization?
It appears like the Transport Database is corrupted and you have to perform the correction,
what you will do?
You install and edge transport server and create an send connector to send emails externally,
there is no problem in sending emails externally, but you are not receiving external emails, what
needs to be done?
Is that edge transport server really needed? What can be done if you dont have an edge
transport server

Exchange server 2010 Interview Questions High Availability

June 20th, 2010 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1. What are the vision and Goals of Exchange Server 2010 high availability?
Vision deliver a fast, easy to deploy and operate, economical solution that can provide high
availability solution for exchange server
Goals Achieve below details
1. Deliver a high availability and site resilience that is native to exchange
2. Enables less expensive and less complex storage
3. Simplify administration and reduce support cost
4. Increase end-end availability
5. Support exchange server 2010 online
2. What are the high availability solutions introduced in Exchange Server 2010?
1.
2.
3.
4.

Unified technology for high availability and site resilience

New framework for high creating high available mailboxes
Evolution of continuous replication
Can be deployed on a range of storage option

3. What are the High Availability features introduce in Exchange Server 2010?
Mailbox resiliency unified high availability and site resiliency
Database Availability Group a group of up to 16 Mailbox servers that holds the set of replicated
databases
Mailbox database copy a mailbox database (.edb files and log file) that is either active or passive
copy of the mailbox database
Database Mobility the ability of a single mailbox database to be replicated to and mounted on other
mailbox servers
RPC Client Access Service a Client Access Server feature that provides a MAPI endpoint for
outlook clients
Shadow redundancy a transport feature that provides redundancy for messages for the entire time
they are in transit
Incremental deployment the ability to deploy high availability or site resilience after the exchange
is installed
Exchange third party replication API an exchange provided API that enables use of third party
replication for DAG
4. What is high availability?
High Availability is a solution that provide data availability; service availability and automatic recover
from site failures
5. What is disaster recovery?

It is a procedure used to manually a recover a failure

6. What is site resilience?
Site Resilience is a disaster recovery solution used for recovery from site failure
7. What is switch over and failover?
A switch over is a manual activation one or more databases when failure occurs
A failover is an automatic activation of one or more databases after failure
8. What are the concepts deprecated in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Storage groups
2. Database identified by the servers which they live
3. Server names as part of database name
Clustered Mailbox server
1.
2.
3.
4.

Pre-installation of failover cluster

Running setup in failover mode
Moving a CMS identity between servers
Shared storage

Two high availability copy limits

Private and public networks
9. Explain new features in Exchange Server 2010 High Availability?
1. No need to failover a server if a single database fails
2. Failover and switchover occurs at the database level and not the server level
3. With the new HA feature; we can have 100 databases per server
4. Databases are tied to specific server can be float across servers in organization
10. Give an idea on Exchange server 2007 High Availability Architecture changes?
In exchange server 2007 HA, there are four HA features available, they are LCR, SCR, SCC and CCR.
The concept of LCR and SCC has been completely removed in Exchange server 2010. The concept of
SCR and CCR are incorporated with the new HA feature (Database Availability Group) in Exchange
Server 2010.
11. What is Auto Database Mount Dial in Database Availability Group?
If the Mailbox Database on a DAG is replicated to other server and if a failure occurs, an automatic
recovery will occur or a manual recover needs to be performed by administrator. Auto Database Mount
Dial is a predefined settings that are used when Automatic recovery occur if any failure happen to the
replicated databases on a DAG.
The settings are nothing but a option that informs, how many logs can be ignored while activating a
passive copy, if any failure occur to the active copy.
Default Auto Database Mount Dial Settings
1. Good Availability (Default) 6 or fewer logs can be missing when mounting a passive copy
2. Best Availability 12 or less logs

3. Loss less Zero logs missing

4. Best effort there is no specification; it will mount the passive copy. It will be used when
switch over occurs
12. What are the continuous replication modes available in Database Availability Group?
There are two types of replication modes in Exchange server 2010 SP1 release
File Mode it is the normal or default mode of continuous replication to ship the log files. Passive
copy ask for the logs from the active copy by informing that I have these many logs and send me new
logs if you have.
Block Mode on the initial stage of replication, file mode will occur and once the passive copies is
similar to active copy and copy queue length is zero, then block mode starts. Block level (log buffer
data shipping) log shipping
13. What is a quorum?
Quorum is a cluster component and if we take a 5 node cluster, quorum is the component to ensure that
only one node is active or functioning at a time
Quorum is that data that is shared between the voters, representing configuration information. It is
number of voters that is required for a solution to be running
In simple: When a majority of voters can communicate with each other, the cluster has quorum
When a majority of voters cannot communicate with each other, the cluster does not have quorum
14. What are Witness, Witness Server and Alternate Witness Server?
Below are the details of Witness, witness Server and Alternate Witness Server
Witness:
A witness is a file share on a server that is external to the DAG that participates in quorum by providing
a weighted vote for the DAG member that has a lock on the witness.log file. Witness is configured for
all the DAG but it is used only when the DAG have the even number of members.
Witness Server:
Witness Server is a normal server, which is external to the DAG that holds a file share having the
Witness log file in that. Witness server does not maintain a full copy of quorum data and is not a
member of the DAG or cluster. Witness Server should be located on the same active directory forest.
There is no restriction for this server to be only a Hub Transport server.
Alternate Witness Server:
As the name implies, the alternate witness server is not the alternate server for the existing witness
server. It is the witness server used by the DAG, when a data centre switcher happened.
DAG does not have the ability to automatically switch over the alternate witness server, if the active
data centre goes down. Exchange admin has to involve in activating the alternate witness server.
It will not provide redundancy for witness server or file share witness server recover.
15. What is Active Manager? What are the types of Active Manager available?
In Exchange 2010, we dont have the cluster model to achieve the High Availability. Active Manager is

the new exchange server DAG component that manages the high availability platform. The failover and
the switchover are managed by Active Manager.
Active Manager runs on every mailbox server
Active Manager holds the information of, in which server the active copy of a database is mounted and
it will store this information in cluster database and it will share the same information to other active
manager running on other mailbox servers in a DAG
There are 3 types of Active Manager available in Exchange 2010
1. Standalone Active Manager AM runs on each mailbox server
2. Primary Active Manager AM runs on the DAG that holds the cluster resource group
3. Standby Active Manager AM runs on every other node on the DAG

Exchange Server 2010 Interview Questions Federation

June 20th, 2010 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1. What is federated sharing?

Federated Sharing allows easy sharing of availability information, calendar, and contacts with
recipients in external federated organizations
2. What are the options shared in federated sharing?
1. Free busy information
2. Calendar and contact sharing
3. Sharing policy
3. How federated sharing works in Exchange server 2010?
4. Explain the operation of federation?
5. What are the benefits of federation?
Allow users to act on behalf of specific user
Specific user identified by E-mail address
User not prompted for credentials
Reduces explicit trust management
No AD trusts, service to cloud accounts to manage
Minimizes certificate exchanges
Verifies domain ownership
6. Explain the federation commands in Exchange server 2010?
Establish federation trust = New-federation Trust

 Install signing certificate on CAS servers

Exchange certificate with federation gateway
Prove domain ownership = domainname.com IN TXT AppId = xxxxxxxx
Create DNS TXT record
Add domain to trust = set-federatedOrganizationIdentifier
Add-federatedDomain
Must be accepted domain
7. How to establish federated sharing in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Create trust with certificate exchange
2. Prove domain ownership
3. Add domains
8. What is Microsoft Federation Gateway?
Exchange Server 2010 uses Microsoft Federation Gateway (MFG), an identity service that runs in the
cloud, as the trust broker. Exchange organizations wanting to use Federation establish a Federation
Trust with MFG, allowing it to become a federation partner to the Exchange organization. The trust
allows users authenticated by Active Directory , known as the identity provider (IP), to be issued
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) delegation tokens by MFG. The delegation tokens allow
users from one federated organization to be trusted by another federated organization. With MFG
acting as the trust broker, organizations are not required to establish multiple individual trust
relationships with other organizations. Users can access external resources using a single sign-on (SSO)
experience
9. What is Federation Trust?
A Federation Trust is established between an Exchange organization and MFG by exchanging the
organizations certificate with MFG, and retrieving MFGs certificate and federation metadata. The
certificate is used for encrypting tokens
10. What is Sharing Policy?
Sharing policies allow you to control how users in your organization can share calendar and contact
information with users outside the organization. To provision recipients to use a particular sharing
policy
11. Prerequisites to create a Sharing Policy
A federation trust has been created between your Exchange 2010 organization and Microsoft
Federation Gateway, and the Federated Organization Identifier is configured.
Although you can create a sharing policy for any external domain, recipients from the specified
domain can access your users information only if they have a mailbox in an Exchange 2010
organization and their domain is federated

Exchange Server 2010 Installation and Configuration Interview

Questions
October 2nd, 2011 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1. What is an Exchange Server 2010?

Exchange Server 2010 is the latest version of Microsoft email and calendaring software with the option
like Unified Communication, Secured email transfer, anywhere access, highly available and an option
to federated the company information with partners
2. What are the server roles available in Exchange Server 2010?
As like exchange server 2007, we have the same 5 server roles in Exchange Server 2010. They are
Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Unified Messaging and Edge Transport Server roles.
3. Inform the prerequisites in common to install a Exchange server 2010?
Active Directory Prerequisites:
Domain Controller and Global Catalog Server Installed with Windows Server 2003 Sp2 or
Later
Domain and Forest Functional Level Windows Server 2003 or later
Software Prerequisites:

Windows Server 2008 Sp2 or later

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update
Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing serviceto be started and
The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-Typical.xml Restart

4. What are requirement to install Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools?

Exchange Management Tools Can only be installed in Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 64 bit
Machine and we need .Net framework 3.5 SP1 and IIS installed.
5. What are the permissions needed to install Exchange server 2010?
To install Exchange Server 2010 on an existing exchange environment, we need Schema admin,
domain admin and enterprise admin. If it is a new installation, we have to install the role ADDS first
and then install exchange 2010
6. What are the perquisites to install Mailbox Server Role in Exchange 2010?
After installing the Client Access Server and the Hub Transport Server, we have to install Mailbox
Server Role and the Prerequisites to install Mailbox Server roles are

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update

Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing to be started and

 The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-MBX.xml Restart
7. What are the perquisites to install Client Access Server Role in Exchange 2010?
Client Access Server needs to be installed in the first place and the prerequisites to install client Access
Server are

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update

Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing to be started and
The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-CAS.xml Restart

8. What are the perquisites to install Hub Transport Server Role in Exchange 2010?
After client Access Server role installation, Hub transport Server role can be installed with the below
prerequisites

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update

Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing to be started and
The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-HUB.xml Restart

9. What are the perquisites to install Unified Messaging Server Role in Exchange 2010?
Unified Messaging Server roles it is an optional server role, after installing MB, CAS and HUB we can
have this server role by having the prerequisites in place

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update

Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing to be started and
The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-UM.xml Restart

10. What are the perquisites to install Edge Transport Server Role in Exchange 2010?
Edge Transport Server roles its an optional server role and if you are planning to have this server role,
we have to install the below prerequisites and the computer should not be joined with Domain and
ADLDS role needs to be installed

Dot Net Framework 3.5 SP1 with family Update

Windows Remote Management 2.0 and Windows Power shell 2.0
Microsoft filter Pack
NetTCPPortsharing to be started and
The Roles and the features required to install exchange can be installed by run this shell
command ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-Edge.xml Restart

11. If it possible to perform an in place upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 from legacy version?
In place upgrade to Exchange server 2010 from Exchange server 2003 or Exchange server 2007 is not
possible, either we have to perform a transition or migration.
12. Inform the exchange server 2010 server roles installation order?
Exchange Server 2010 has to be installed in this order

Client Access Server

Hub Transport Server
Mailbox Server Role
Unified Messaging Server Optional - we can install edge server role if there is a requirement
Edge Transport Server Optional we can install edge server role if there is a requirement

13. You are having a single exchange server 2003 environment, your task is to implement
exchange server 2010. Give an Idea on the implementation?
If we are having exchange server 2003 and we planned to have exchange server 2010 in place
Domain and Forest functional Level Needs to Upgraded to Windows Server 2003
Domain Controller and Global Catalog Server needs to be update with Windows Server 2003
Sp2
Exchange 2003 function should not be mixed mode, it has to be native mode
We need a 64 bit server to install Exchange Server 2010 with the prerequisites installed
First install Client Access Server and configure the OWA, OAB and Outlook Anywhere virtual
directories
Install Hub Transport Server and there is no need to create any routing group connector from
Exchange Server 2003 Bridge Head to Exchange Server 2010. Also, there is no modifying any
changes on SendReceive Connector.
Install Mailbox Server role and perform mailbox move and Public folders replication. Set a
OAB generation server and the distribution methods
Lot of task are to be performed, above point are just an rough idea, kindly follow the below
article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff805040.aspx
14. You are having a single exchange server 2007 environment with all the server roles installed,
your task is to implement exchange server 2010. Give an Idea on the implementation?
Its the same process as mentioned for the above question. Kindly follow the below mentioned article
to perform a move from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2010 implementation
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff805041.aspx
15. What are the active directory requirements to implement exchange server 2010?
Below are the active directory requirements to implement Exchange Server 2010
Active Directory Prerequisites
Domain Controller and Global Catalog Server Windows Server 2003 Sp2
Domain and Forest Functional Level Windows Server 2003
16. What happened to public folders in Exchange server 2010?

Public folders are still announced as de emphasis state, which mean, we can have a public folder
database, if any outlook 2003 client are used, to have the free busy functionality and the OAB
distribution, we need the Public folder database in Exchange Server 2010
17. Inform the post installation steps in configuring Hub Transport Server if the Hub Transport
Server is going to send external emails?
After installing Hub Transport server there were few post installation tasks that are the be followed,
they are
Configuring Send Connector By default external emails wont go out, because of there is no send
connector created while installing Hub Transport Server. We have a created a new send connector with
* as Address Space
Configuring Receive Connector By default external emails will not come inside, because of the
restriction set initially when Hub Transport Server is installed. Set anonymous authentication of the
default receive connector to receive external emails
Configuring Anti Spam Agents Unlike Edge Transport Server, Anti spam agents are not installed by
default. We have to manually install anti spam agents
Configure Accepted domain and email address policy We can create the necessary email address
space as accepted domain and set an email address policy to use that new accepted domain email
address as the primary email address for all the users.
18. How you will install Edge Transport Server?
To install Edge Transport Server, we need to follow few things
The Edge Transport Server should not be member of your domain and it has to be in DMZ
ADLDS role needs to be installed
Prerequisites like .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 needs to be installed and Net TCP port sharing must
be started
Install the Edge Transport Server by choosing custom installation
Create and Edge Subscription from Edge Transport Server an Import that to Hub Transport
inside domain.
19. Explain the services installed with respective server roles?
Following are the services installed in Exchange Server 2010
Mailbox Server related Services IISAdmin, MSExchangeADTopology, MSExchangeIS,
MSExchangeMailboxAssistants, MSExchangeMailSubmission, MSExchangeRepl, MSExchangeRPC,
MSExchangeSA, MSExchangeSearch, MSExchangeServiceHost, MSExchangeThrottling,
MSExchangeTransportLogSearch, W3Svc, WinRM
Client Access Server related Services IISAdmin, MSExchangeAB, MSExchangeADTopology,
MSExchangeFBA, MSExchangeFDS, MSExchangeMailboxReplication,
MSExchangeProtectedServiceHost, MSExchangeRPC, MSExchangeServiceHost, W3Svc, WinRM
Hub Transport Server related Services IISAdmin, MSExchangeADTopology,
MSExchangeEdgeSync, MSExchangeServiceHost,
MSExchangeTransport,MSExchangeTransportLogSearch, W3Svc, WinRM

20. What are the exchange server admin tools available in Exchange Management Tools?
Below are the tools available in Exchange Management console under tools option
Configuration Management Tools

Best Practices Analyzer

Details Templates Editor
Public Folder Management Console
Remote connectivity Analyzer
Role Based Access Control user editor

Mail flow Tools

Mail flow troubleshooter

Message Tracking
Queue viewer
Routing Log viewer
Tracking log explorer

Performance Tools
Performance Monitor
Performance Troubleshooter
Unified Messaging Tools
Call Statistics
User call logs
21. How you will patch a client Access Array Server?
Lets take, if we are having 2 servers in a CAS array, we can patch the CAS array members by
following the below method

Issue a stop or drain stop to a first server of a client access array

Set the default state to be in Stopped State
Disable forefront protection
Disable monitoring
Update the server, once update is completed and back to normal, enable forefront option, enable
monitoring and set the default state to be state
Follow the same for the second server
22. How you will patch or install updates on the DAG member servers?
Follow the below steps perform windows or exchange patching on DAG servers

On a DAG, make sure which node is holding the active copy of the mailbox database
Perform a move of Active mailbox Database from the active node to passive node
Verify all the databases are mounted on Passive Node
Make sure no backups are in progress
Stop all the mailbox server related services

Disable monitoring
Update the active node (now it is passive) and reboot the server
Move all the active copy from passive copy (its active now) to active server
Verify all the database are mounted successfully on Active node
Enable monitoring
Perform update on passive server

23. Exchange server 2010 is installed with the Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport and Unified
Messaging Server roles, Management find that Unified Messaging Server role is not needed, since
it is a small environment. How you will remove Hub Transport Server?
We can easily uninstallremove a server role by Program and features console. Only option to
addremove a server role its from Programs and Feature Exchange Server 2010 click change to
addremove a server role
24. How to configure Database Availability Group?
Make sure all the prerequisites to configure are installed correct on the member server and install
mailbox server role is installed and the DAG can be easily configured using below 3 steps
Create the Database Availability Group
Add members to the DAG
Add copies of databases
Note: Though we have an option to configure DAG on Exchange 2010 standard edition, if the first
member server on a DAG is a standard edition, then only the standard edition server exchange 2010
servers can be added on a DAG. Same version of members servers can only be added as member
servers in DAG.
25.

How to configure Client Access Server Array?

To configure Client Access Server array, make sure the following 5 steps are followed
You must configure internal DNS entry for the name of the CAS array. This name must be
unique for the internal network.
You must configure Network Load Balancing. In this case i use Windows Network Load
Balancing technology.
Create the new Client Access Array.
Configure a mailbox database to use CAS Array ( RPC client Access Server property on
Mailbox Database)
Verify the Auto discover services is working with CAS Array
26. How to install Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1?
Prepare the Active Directory Schema with Exchange Server 2010 SP1 installation media
Addition Patches are required to install Exchange Server 2010 SP1, get the details from MS site
and install all the perquisites before installation of Exchange 2010 SP1
Install the SP1 using this order -> Edge Transport Server -> Client Access Server -> Hub
Transport Server -> Mailbox Server and then the Unified Message Server role
If you are having DAG, Active the Passive copy on the second server and set the auto activation

on the first server in block block, then upgrade with SP1. Move back the mailbox database to
first server and update the second servers. change the auto activation as before.
If Client Access Server Array is used, remove the first node from NLB update it with SP1 and
add it back to NLB. remove the second node from NLB -> Update it with SP1 and add it back
to NLB

Exchange Server 2010 Interview Question Management Tools

June 20th, 2010 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

1. Whats new in Exchange Management Console?

In Exchange Server 2010 management console, the following are the new features included
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Built on remote power shell and RBAC

Multiple forest support
Cross premises Exchange 2010 Management includes Mailbox move
Recipient bulk edit
PowerShell command logging

2. What is Exchange Control Panel?

ECP its a new and simplified web based management console and its a browser based management
client for end user, administrators and specialist, ECP can be accessible via URL, browsers and outlook
2010, ECP deployed as part of the client access server role, Simplified user administration for
management tasks and its RBAC aware
3. Who can use ECP and what are the manageable options?
Specialist and administrators administrator can delegate to specialist e.g. help desk operators
Change user name password etc., department administrator change OU and e-discovery
administrators legal department.
End users comprehensive self-service tools for end users fetch phone number, changing name and
create groups
Hosted customers tenant administrators and tenant end users
4. What is ROLA BASED ACCESS CONTROL?
RBAC is new authorization model in Exchange Server 2010, easy to delegate and customize
permission; this replaced the permission model used in Exchange Server 2007. Your role is defined by
What you do RBAC includes self administration, used by EMC, EMS, and ECP
5. Who are all affected by RBAC in Exchange Server 2010?
Administrator Role Groups and Universal security groups
End User role assignment policy we can set read /write
6. How to delegate a Role ?
1. Create the management role

2. Change the new management roles entries by removing old entries

3. Create a management scope if required
4. Assign the new management role
7. What is Remote power shell in Exchange Server 2010?
In Exchange 2010, the management architecture is based on Remote PowerShell included with
Windows PowerShell 2.0. Remote PowerShell provides an RBAC-based permission model making it
possible to grant much more granular permissions (Exchange 2007 used ACLs), standard protocols that
makes it easier to manage Exchange 2010 servers through firewalls, and explicitly separates client
and server portion of the cmdlet processing
8. What are the supportable OS platforms to install Exchange Management console?
In Exchange server 2010 all functions are 64 bit only, admin tools requires 64 bit OS, Exchange
management tools can be installed in 64 bit OS like vista, server 2008 and windows 7,
Remote PowerShell management can be installed in x86 and x64 bit OS

Exchange Server 2010 Interview Question Archiving

June 20th, 2010 | Posted by rajkumar in Exchange Server 2010

This topic holds the interview questions and answers on Archiving features in Exchange Server 2010
1. Why Archive?
1. Growing E-Mail Volume everyone wants to have more E-mail because of this the storage,
Backup disk should be increases
2. Performance and storage issue increase in Storage costs
3. Mailbox quota users are forced to manage quota
4. PSTs quota management often results in growing PSTs outlook Auto Archive
5. Discovery and Compliance issues PSTs difficult to discovery centrally, regulatory retention
schedules contribute to further volume/storage issues
2. How Archiving improved in Exchange Server 2010?
Archiving improved by providing larger mailbox architecture, simple migration of PSTs back to server,
discovery options both from the online mailbox and the archive mailbox, retention policies and legal
hold polices to retain the email for business needs.
Large mailbox Architecture maintains performance and provides option for DAS-SATA storage to
reduce costs
Archiving enables simple migration of PSTs back to server. If the archiving option is enabled for a user,
a new Mailbox will be created to the user name archive in which the user can set retention policies to
move the mails to archive mailbox or the admin can set retention policies for the user mailbox.
Archiving simplifies discovery, retention and legal hold
3. What are the archiving options introduced in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Personal Archive secondary Mailbox Node, they are the PST files of primary Mailbox
available on the server

2. Retention Policies folder/item level policies and archive/delete policies

3. Multi-Mailbox search Role based GUI, admin can assign this permission to legal team
4. Legal Hold monitor or control a user from delete a mail by legal hold and searchable with
Multi Mailbox Search
5. Journaling Journal de-duplication (unwanted journaling on distributed mails). One copy of
journal per database and
6. Journal decryption HT role will do the decryption and send the decrypted copy for
journaling
4. What is personal archive in Exchange Server 2010 archiving?
It is a Secondary mailbox that is configured by the administrator, this appears along with users primary
mailbox in outlook or OWA, and the PST files can be dragged and dropped to personal archive
Mailbox. Mails in Primary mailbox can be moved automatically using Retention policies. Archive
quota can be set separately from primary mailbox
5. What are retention policies? And what we can do with retention policies in Exchange Server
2010?
Retention policy is an option to move/ delete certain mails by applying rules. We can set retention
policies at Item or Folder level. Policies can be applied directly within e-mail. We can set expiration
date stamped directly on e-mail. Policies can be applied to all email within a folder. We can configure
delete policy to delete the mail after certain period and Archive policies to move certain mails with the
certain period to archive mailbox
6. What are the Retention Policies in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Move Policy automatically moves messages to the messages to the archive Mailbox with the
options of 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years and never 2 years is default. Move mailbox
policies helps keep mailbox under quota. This works like outlook Auto Archive without creating
PSTs
2. Delete Policy automatically deletes messages. Delete policies are global. Removes unwanted
items
3. Move + Delete policy automatically moves messages to archive after X months and deletes
from archive after Y Months. We can set policy priority: Explicit policies over default policies;
longer policies apply over shorted policies
7. What is Multi Mailbox Search?
This option delegated access to search to HR, compliance, legal manager. Administrator has to provide
access permission on to use this feature, this will provide an option to search all mail items ( email, IM
contacts, calendar) across primary mailbox, archives. The filtering option in Multi Mailbox search
includes sender, receiver, expire policy, message size, send/receive date, cc/bcc, regular expressions,
IRM protected Items
8. What are E-Discovery features?
Following are the E-Discovery features introduced in Exchange Server 2010
1. Search specific Mailboxes or DLS
2. Export search results to a mailbox or SMTP Address

3. Request email alert when search completes

4. Search results organized by per original hierarchy
Lot more will be added in the original release
9. What is Legal Hold and what are the features in Legal Hold?
New feature in Exchange Server 2010 to monitor or control a user from deleting a Mail or Mailbox, the
features available in Legal Hold are
1. Copy edited and deleted item this option is in Exchange server 2007 to hold the auto deleted
items
2. Set duration for auto delete indefinite or specify time period
3. Auto alert notification sends alerts to users that they are on hold, eliminates manual process
4. Search dumpster use multi mailbox search to retrieve deleted/edited items indexed in
dumpster folder
10. What is journaling and what are the journaling features in Exchange Server 2010?
Journaling is an option to track mails from particular user or from a group of users. The New Features
in Journaling for Exchange server 2010 are
1. Transport Journaling ability to journal individual Mailboxes or SMTP address and also this
gives a detailed report per To/Cc//Bcc/Alt-Recipient and DL expansion
2. Journal report de duplication reduces duplication of journal reports. Exchange server 2010
creates one report per message
11. What is journal decryption?
Journal decryption is a new feature in Exchange Server 2010, if a user sends an encrypted message to
recipient and if journaling was enabled for that user, then the Hub transport Server decrypts the
message and sends that decrypted message for journaling. The intended recipient will receive the
encrypted message
12. What is Set Quota in Archive management?
With Mailbox quota Management, we can assign mailbox size for a user. This option can be enabled
from the properties of the user account, and the default settings to Mailbox quota is 10 GB
13. Inform some new features related to archiving in Service Pack 1?
Users primary and archive mailboxes can be located on the same or separate mailbox databases
Mailboxes can be moved together or separately
Different storage hardware
Separate Database Availability Groups can used for normal mailbox and Archive mailbox
Different backup and recovery windows
14. Do we have an option to configure Retention Policies from Exchange Management Console?
In exchange server 2010 Sp1, we can create and manage Retention Policies in the Exchange
Management Console. In Previous version this can be managed only using EMS.
Also, we have an optional retention tags available in Exchange Server 2010 Sp1.
15. what are the updates in exchange server 2010 related to Journaling?
Transport Journal: Journal achieved to individual mailboxes or SMTP address. We have an option to

get a Detailed reports per To/CC/BCC/Alt-Recipient and distribution group expansion

Exchange Server 2010 Interview Questions And Answers Archiving

Filed under: Interview Questions and Answers exchange2k10 @ 4:06 am

This topic hold the interview questions and answers on Archiving features in Exchange Server 2010
1. Why Archive?
1. Growing E-Mail Volume everyone wants to have more E-mail because of this the storage, Backup disk

should be increases
2. Performance and storage issue increase in Storage costs
3. Mailbox quota users are forced to manage quota
4. PSTs quota management often results in growing PSTs outlook Auto Archive
5. Discovery and Compliance issues PSTs difficult to discovery centrally, regulatory retention schedules

contribute to further volume/storage issues

2. How Archiving improved in Exchange Server 2010?
Archiving improved by providing larger mailbox architecture, simple migration of PSTs back to server, discovery
options, retention policies and legal hold.
Large mailbox Architecture maintains performance and provides option for DAS-SATA storage to reduce costs
Archiving enables simple migration of PSTs back to server. If the archiving option sin enabled for a user, a new
Mailbox will be created to the user name archive in which the user can set retention policies to move the mails to
archive mailbox or the admin can set retention policies for the user mailbox.
Archiving simplifies discovery, retention and legal hold
3. What are the archiving options introduced in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Personal Archive secondary Mailbox Node, they are the PST files of primary Mailbox
2. Retention Policies folder/item level and archive/delete policies
3. Multi-Mailbox search Role based GUI, admin can assign this permission to legal team
4. Legal Hold monitor or control a user from delete a mail by legal hold and searchable with Multi Mailbox
Search
5. Journaling Journal de-duplication (unwanted journaling on distributed mails). One copy of journal per
database and
6. Journal decryption HT role will do the decryption and send the decrypted copy for journaling
4. What is personal archive in Exchange Server 2010 archiving?

It is a Secondary mailbox that is configured by the administrator, this appears along with users primary mailbox in
outlook or OWA, and the PST files can be dragged and dropped to personal archive Mailbox. Mails in Primary
mailbox can be moved automatically using Retention policies. Archive quota can be set separately from primary
mailbox
5. What are retention policies? And what we can do with retention policies in Exchange Server 2010?
Retention policy is an option to move/ delete certain mails by applying rules. We can set retention policies at Item or
Folder level. Policies can be applied directly within e-mail. We can set expiration date stamped directly on e-mail.
Policies can be applied to all email within a folder. We can configure delete policy to delete the mail after certain
period and Archive policies to move certain mails with the certain period to archive mailbox
6. What are the Retention Policies in Exchange Server 2010?
1. Move Policy automatically moves messages to the messages to the archive Mailbox with the options of 6

months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years and never 2 years is default. Move mailbox policies helps keep mailbox
under quota. This works like outlook Auto Archive without creating PSTs
2. Delete Policy automatically deletes messages. Delete policies are global. Removes unwanted items
3. Move + Delete policy automatically moves messages to archive after X months and deletes from archive

after Y Months. We can set policy priority: Explicit policies over default policies; longer policies apply over
shorted policies
7. What is Multi Mailbox Search?
This option delegated access to search to HR, compliance, legal manager. Administrator has to provide access
permission on to use this feature, this will provide an option to search all mail items ( email, IM contacts, calendar)
across primary mailbox, archives. The filtering option in Multi Mailbox search includes sender, receiver, expire
policy, message size, send/receive date, cc/bcc, regular expressions, IRM protected Items
8. What are E-Discovery features?
Following are the E-Discovery features introduced in Exchange Server 2010
1. Search specific Mailboxes or DLS
2. Export search results to a mailbox or SMTP Address
3. Request email alert when search completes
4. Search results organized by per original hierarchy
Lot more will be added in the original release
9. What is Legal Hold and what are the features in Legal Hold?
New feature in Exchange Server 2010 to monitor or control a user from deleting a Mail or Mailbox, the features
available in Legal Hold are
1. Copy edited and deleted item this option is in Exchange server 2007 to hold the auto deleted items
2. Set duration for auto delete indefinite or specify time period
3. Auto alert notification sends alerts to users that they are on hold, eliminates manual process

4. Search dumpster use multi mailbox search to retrieve deleted/edited items indexed in dumpster folder

10. What is journaling and what are the journaling features in Exchange Server 2010?
Journaling is an option to track mails from particular user or from a group of users. The New Features in Journaling
for Exchange server 2010 are
1. Transport Journaling ability to journal individual Mailboxes or SMTP address and also this gives a detailed

report per To/Cc//Bcc/Alt-Recipient and DL expansion

2. Journal report de duplication reduces duplication of journal reports. Exchange server 2010 creates one

report per message

11. What is journal decryption?
Journal decryption is a new feature in Exchange Server 2010, if a user sends an encrypted message to recipient and if
journaling was enabled for that user, then the Hub transport Server decrypts the message and sends that decrypted
message for journaling. The intended recipient will receive the encrypted message
12. What is Set Quota in Archive management?
With Mailbox quota Management, we can assign mailbox size for a user. This option can be enabled from the
properties of the user account, and the default settings to Mailbox quota is 10 GB

What is Storage Group?

Storage Group is a grouping of Mailbox and/or Public Folder Databases, which shares a single backup schedule
and a single set of Transaction log files. Storage Groups are managed using their separate server process and the
idea behind splitting databases up in Storage Groups is primarily to reduce the overhead that results from
multiple sets of transaction log files.

What are the storage group and database size limitations in Exchange 2007,
compared with Exchange 2003?
Exchange Server 2003 Standard edition supported 1 Storage Group and 2 Stores one Mailbox and one Public
Folder Store (when excluding the Recovery Storage Group of course). Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
supported a total of 4 Storage Groups each containing a maximum of 5 store databases per Storage Groups (thus
maximum 20 databases per server). The limit of a database size in Exchange Server 2003 Standard edition was
16 GB (although raised to 75 GB when Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 was applied). There was no limit on a
database size when talking about Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise edition (well actually there is a 16 Terabyte
limit but this limit is caused by hardware).
Exchange Server 2007 comes in two flavours, a standard edition and an enterprise edition, just like previous
versions of Exchange. The Mailbox Server when talking about the Exchange Server 2007 Standard edition
supports a total of 5 Storage Groups and 5 databases. Unlike Exchange 2003 and previous versions of Exchange
theres no longer a database storage limit in the standard edition. The Mailbox server in the Exchange 2007
Enterprise edition supports up to 50 Storage groups and a maximum of 50 databases per server. Exchange 2007
allows you to create up to 5 databases in each Storage Group as is the case with Exchange 2003, but best practice
is to create 1 database per Storage Group. So why should you have a one to one relationship between storage
groups and databases? Well primarily because youll be up and running a lot faster considering disaster recovery
scenarios, etc.
No Storage Groups In Exchange 2010 Exchange 2010 has only mailbox databases and they are
organizational objects in EMC. Mailbox databases no longer connected to the server object they become
*Peers*. Database management has also been moved from Server configuration node in exchange console EMC.
The mailbox databases are placed in the Organization Configuration ->Mailbox location in the console rather
than the server level in exchange 2007. The database names has to be unique through out the exchange

organization as well. This means that we cant have duplicate mailbox database names like in 2007 (in different
storage groups, of course).
As there are no storage groups, this will also mean that the database will have its own logs as well
One of the goals of ESE in Exchange 2010 is to reduce the cost of maintaining and managing a database.
Database maintenance is comprised of several tasks that manage and keep the integrity of your mailbox
database.
Database maintenance is divided into the following:
Store mailbox maintenance
ESE database maintenance
In Exchange 2007, ESE database maintenance was disk-intensive. In Exchange 2010, improvements have been
made to increase performance. In Exchange 2010, on large or very heavy profile servers, the store mailbox
maintenance task only lasts approximately 45 minutes, while ESE database maintenance usually took from six to
eight hours per
night to complete on large Exchange 2007 databases (2 GB quotas). In Exchange 2010, improvements have been
made to support both large mailboxes as well as to support JBOD storage and storage without the use of RAID.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes many improvements to the Exchange database architecture:
Public folder reporting has been enhanced.
Databases are no longer associated with storage groups. Storage groups have been removed.
Investments in store schema and Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) optimizations have reduced IOPS by 70
percent.

Describe the differences in the permission model between Exchange 2003 and
Exchange 2010.
Exchange 2003 Security and Permissions Model
To help simplify management of permissions, Exchange Server 2003 provided predefined security roles that
were available in the Exchange 2003 Administrative Delegation Wizard. These roles were a collection of
standardized permissions that could be applied at either the organization or the administrative group level.
In Exchange 2003, the following security roles were available through the Delegation Wizard in Exchange
System Manager:
Exchange Full Administrator
Exchange Administrator
Exchange View Only Administrator
This model had the following limitations:
A lack of specificity. The Exchange Administrator group was too large, and some customers wanted to manage
their security and permissions model at the individual server-level.
A perception that the Exchange Server 2003 security roles only differed in subtle ways.
There was no clear separation between administration of users and groups by the Windows (Active Directory)
administrators and Exchange recipient administrators. For example, to perform Exchange recipient related tasks,
you had to grant Exchange administrators high level permissions (Account Operator permissions on Windows
domains).
Exchange 2007 Security and Permissions Model
To improve the management of your Exchange administrator roles, which were called "security groups" in
Exchange 2003, the following new or improved features have been made to the Exchange security and
permissions model:
New administrator roles that is similar to the built-in Windows Server security groups.
You can use the Exchange Management Console (formerly Exchange System Manager) and the Exchange
Management Shell to view, add, and remove members from any administrator role.

What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP1?

You can install Exchange 2007 SP1 on a computer that is running the Windows Server 2008 operating system
Improvement in Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA)

Recover Deleted Items

Local Distribution List
S/MIME feature
Public Folder
Rules
Monthly view
New themes

What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP2?

You can deploy Exchange Server 2010 in your organization once all of the Client Access servers in your
organization have been upgraded to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 includes a VSS plug-in for Windows Server Backup to support Exchange
backups. Once SP2 is installed, you can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore your Exchange 2007
SP2 databases.
New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the
activities occurring on their Exchange servers.

What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP3?

Windows Server 2008 R2 Support
Exchange Server 2007 SP3 supports all Exchange 2007 roles on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.
Windows 7 Support
Exchange 2007 SP3 supports the installation of the Exchange 2007 management tools on a computer that is
running Windows 7. Additionally, Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support for the installation of the Exchange
2007 Management Tools together with the Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools on the same Windows 7based computer.
Improved Password Reset Functionality
Exchange 2007 SP3 introduces password reset functionality for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.
Updated Search Functionality
Exchange 2007 SP3 includes updates to the Exchange Search (MS-Search) component.
Support for Right-to-Left Disclaimer Text
Exchange 2007 SP3 includes support for Right-to-Left text in e-mail message disclaimers in a right-to-left
language, such as Arabic.

What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2010 stores work? Name some of
the changes in comparison with Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007.
The following is a list of core store functionality that's included or has been changed in Exchange 2010:
Deprecated storage groups
Mailbox databases no longer connected to the server object
Improvements in Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) for high availability, performance, and database mobility
Flattened Outlook store schema
Enhanced reporting with public folders
In Exchange 2010, the store schema has been changed to remove the dependency of mailbox databases on the
server object. In addition, the new schema has been improved to help reduce database I/O per second (IOPS) by
refactoring the tables used to store information. Refactoring the tables allows higher logical contiguity and
locality of reference. These changes reduce the store's reliance on the secondary indexes maintained by ESE. As
a result, the store is no longer sensitive to performance issues related to the secondary indexes.
Store resilience and health has also been improved by adding several features related to detecting and correcting
errors and providing alerts, such as the following:
Mailbox quarantine on rogue mailboxes
Transport cut-off to databases with less than 1 GB of space
Thread time-out detection and reporting

Name the system prerequisites for installing Exchange 2007 in your existing Active
Directory forest.
Windows Server 2003/R2 x64 SP2
Windows Server 2008 x64
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.0/Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 (with update/SP1)
Microsoft Windows PowerShell
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0
Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) service must not be installed.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service must not be installed.
IIS (for OWA)

Name the system prerequisites for installing Exchange 2010?

1- General Prerequisites:
Make sure that the functional level of your forest is at least Windows Server 2003, and that the Schema Master is
running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later.
The full installation option of Windows Server 2008 SP2-64bit or Windows Server 2008 R2-64bit must be used
for all servers running Exchange 2010 server roles.
Both Windows Server 2008 SP2-64bit or Windows Server 2008 R2-64bit Standard & Enterprise are supported
and we can use them to install Exchange 2010.
DNS must configure correctly in your Active Directory forest. All servers that run Exchange Server 2010 must
be able to locate Active Directory domain controllers, global catalog servers, and other Exchange servers.
For all server roles other than the Edge Transport server role, you must first join the computer to the appropriate
internal Active Directory forest and domain.
2- Operating System Components Prerequisites:
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0
Windows PowerShell V2
IIS 7
ASP.NET
In addition to the above, we need to install the following windows components (features):
RSAT-ADDS (requires a reboot)
Web-Server
Web-ISAPI-Ext
Web-Metabase
Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
Web-Basic-Auth
Web-Digest-Auth
Web-Windows-Auth
Web-Dyn-Compression
Net-HTTP-Activation
RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy
3- Software Prerequisites:
For Hub Transport or Mailbox server role, Microsoft Filter Pack is required to be installed. You can download
the Microsoft Filter Pack from the Microsoft website.

How would you easily install all the Windows Server 2008 R2 roles and features
required for Exchange 2010?
Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 allows us to install all Operating System prerequisites using just the
Exchange Setup wizard. When we use the Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Setup wizard, there is a new option called
Automatically install Windows Server roles and features required for Exchange Server. Just by clicking on that

option will be installed all prerequisites automatically.

Installing Exchange Server 2010 Pre-Requisites on Windows Server 2008
First, install the following software components.
1. .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
2. .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update
3. Windows Remote Management and Windows PowerShell 2.0
4. 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack (for Hub Transport and Mailbox Server roles only)
Run the following from an elevated command prompt.
C:\>sc config NetTcpPortSharing start= auto
Next we need to install the operating system components. The Exchange source files contain a series of
ServerManagerCmd.exe answer files in XML format that can be used to install the operating system prerequisites for each of the server roles.
Each file relates to a specific Exchange 2010 deployment scenario.
exchange-all.xml all server roles
exchange-base.xml only the requirements for Forest and Domain prep operations
exchange-cadb.xml Central Admin Database role
exchange-cas.xml Client Access Server role
exchange-eca.xml Central Admin role
exchange-edge.xml Edge Transport Server role
exchange-hub.xml Hub Transport Server role
exchange-mbx.xml Mailbox Server role
exchange-typical.xml Typical Exchange server (Client Access, Hub Transport, and Mailbox Server roles)
exchange-um.xml Unified Messaging role
Execute any of the answer files using ServerManagerCmd.exe and the -inputPath parameter (that can be
shortened to -ip). Here I am installing the pre-requisites for a Typical Exchange 2010 server.
servermanagercmd -ip exchange-typical.xml restart
-restart option used to restart server automatically

How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if theyre right?
Run Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool.

Looking to install Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. What SP version do

you need? And for R2?
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 required for installation on Windows Server 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 SP3
required for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Whats a Rollup Update? Whats the latest RU for Exchange 2007 2010?
An update rollup is a tested, cumulative set of hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates that are
packaged together for easy deployment. A rollup generally targets a specific area, such as security, or a
component of a product.
At the time of this writing, Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 and Update Rollup 10 for
Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 are available.

How can you easily integrate a RU in the Exchange 2007 2010 installation media?
The Exchange installation folder includes an Updates folder. When you perform a new Exchange installation,
you can copy an update rollup to the Updates folder. In this scenario, the update rollup package is applied during
the installation of Exchange. The Updates folder supports only new installation of Exchange server.

Name a few reasons for using 64-bit hardware and OS version for Exchange 2007
2010.
64-bit hardware provides the system architecture that is required to support the increased memory, storage, and
enhanced security requirements in a more cost-effective manner. Trends indicate that demands on messaging
systems will continue to grow and 64-bit servers provide the system architecture to meet these demands while
reducing costs within organizations through server and disk storage consolidations. With a larger addressable

space, the Exchange servers can utilize more memory thereby reducing the required input/output per user
(IOPS), enabling the use of larger disks as well as low cost storage such as SATA2 drives.

Exchange 2007 came in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Name a couple of reasons
for ever needing the 32-bit version.
You need exchange 2007 32bit to export mail box into PST file.

Wanting to manage Exchange 2007 2010 from a remote computer, name a few of
your management options.
There are a few options for managing Exchange 2007 servers remotely. First off, you can install the Exchange
2007 management tools onto a separate machine from your Exchange server, as long as that machine is running
either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later, Windows Server 2003
R2, or Windows XP SP2 or later. Note that installing any of the server roles (client access, mailbox, edge, and so
on) on 32-bit hardware is not supported in production environments, but is supported for installing the
management tools on a
32-bit machine. Also note that as of the initial release of Exchange Server 2007, the management tools are not
supported on Windows Vista.
In some organizations, the IT department creates a single server to be the management server, installing all the
necessary management tools for various products on this server. Then the administrators who need to use those
tools access the management server via Terminal Server so they can perform remote administration. In other
settings, users install the management tools on their own desktops.
From the console or shell you can perform operations on the servers in your organization. In the console, the
servers are visible so you can perform operations on any of them remotely. In the shell, many of the tasks
support a filtering flag like -server if you want to scope an operation to a single server. There are a few
exceptions, however, for commands that must be run locally, such as the Get-NetworkConnectionInfo command.

What is the GAL?

The Global Address List (GAL) also known as Microsoft Exchange Global Address Book is a directory service
within the Microsoft Exchange email system. The GAL contains information for all email users, distribution
groups, and Exchange resources.

What is the OAB? When is it used?

An Offline Address Book is a container that stores a collection of Offline Address Lists. Outlook users can
choose which offline address lists they want to download. Users who work offline connect to Exchange Server
computers and download Offline Address Lists to obtain information about other users in their organization.
When an Administrator creates an Offline Address Book, the address list will be converted to a separate set of
files and stored in an Exchange Public Folder. Offline Address Books typically contain at least one address list
that represents the global address list (GAL). Users who are working offline with their Outlook clients can use
this global address while they are on the road.

What is PowerShell and why do we care?

Windows PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system
administration. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell helps IT professionals and power users
control and automate the administration of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows.
Built-in Windows PowerShell commands, called cmdlets, let you manage the computers in your enterprise from
the command line.
The Exchange Management Shell, built on Windows PowerShell technology, provides a powerful command-line
interface for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that enables automation of administrative tasks. With the Shell,
you can manage every aspect of Exchange. You can enable new e-mail accounts, configure SMTP connectors,
store database properties, store transport agents, and more. The Shell can perform every task that can be
performed by the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Web interface in addition to tasks that can't
be performed in those interfaces. In fact, when a task is performed in the console and the Web interface, those
interfaces use the Shell to perform the task.

Name major benefits of PowerShell v2 over V1

PowerShell Remoting : Using WS-Management, PowerShell 2.0 allows scripts and cmdlets to be invoked on a
remote machine or a large set of remote machines.
Background Jobs : Also called a PSJob, it allows a command sequence (script) or pipeline to be invoked
asynchronously. Jobs can be run on the local machine or on multiple remote machines. A PSJob cannot include
interactive cmdlets.
Transactions : Enable cmdlet and provider developers to perform transactional operations. PowerShell 2.0
includes transaction cmdlets for starting, committing, and rolling back a PSTransaction as well as features to
manage and direct the transaction to the participating cmdlet and provider operations. The PowerShell Registry
provider supports transactions.
ScriptCmdlets: These are cmdlets written using the PowerShell scripting language. NOTE: The preferred name
for script cmdlets is now Advanced Functions.
SteppablePipelines: This allows the user to control when the BeginProcessing(), ProcessRecord() and
EndProcessing() functions of a cmdlet are called.
Modules : This allows script developers and administrators to organize and partition PowerShell scripts in selfcontained, reusable units. Code from a module executes in its own self-contained context and does not affect the
state outside of the module. Modules can define a restricted runspace environment by using a script. They have a
persistent state as well as public and private members.
Data Language : A domain-specific subset of the PowerShell scripting language, that allows data definitions to
be decoupled from the scripts and allow localized string resources to be imported into the script at runtime
(Script Internationalization).
Script Debugging : It allows breakpoints to be set in a PowerShell script or function. Breakpoints can be set on
lines, line & columns, commands and read or write access of variables. It includes a set of cmdlets to control the
breakpoints via script.
Eventing: This feature allows listening, forwarding, and acting on management and system events. Eventing
allows PowerShell hosts to be notified about state changes to their managed entities. It also enables PowerShell
scripts to subscribe to ObjectEvents, PSEvents, and WmiEvents and process them synchronously and
asynchronously.
Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) : PowerShell 2.0 includes a GUI-based
PowerShell host (formerly known as Graphical Windows PowerShell) that provides integrated debugger, syntax
highlighting, tab completion and up to 8 PowerShell Unicode-enabled consoles (Runspaces) in a tabbed UI, as
well as the ability to run only the selected parts in a script.
Network File Transfer : Native support for prioritized, throttled, and asynchronous transfer of files between
machines using the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).
New Cmdlets : Including Out-GridView, which displays tabular data in the WPF GridView object.
New Operators : -Split, -Join, and Splatting (@) operators.
Exception Handling with Try-Catch-Finally : Unlike other .NET languages, this allows multiple exception types
for a single catch block.
Nestable Here-Strings : PowerShell Here-Strings have been improved and can now nest.
Block Comments : PowerShell 2.0 supports block comments using <# and #> as delimiters.
New APIs : The new APIs range from handing more control over the PowerShell parser and runtime to the host,
to creating and managing collection of Runspaces (RunspacePools) as well as the ability to create Restricted
Runspaces which only allow a configured subset of PowerShell to be invoked. The new APIs also support
participation in a Windows PowerShell managed transaction.

In the installation folder root you see setup.com and setup.exe. Which would you
use and when?
Setup.com is used for all preparation work; basically it calls different backend procedures. Setup.com is also
used in disaster recovery to reinstall all ex2k7 roles. Setup.exe is used for GIU installation.

What are the Exchange 2007/2010 server roles?

Exchange 2007 introduces a new concept to Exchange organizations, the concept of server roles. Similar to how
a Windows server can host one or more roles. Server roles allow an administrator to split the functions of an

Exchange
server and place each role, or a combination of roles, on different servers in the organization. With current
Exchange servers you can make a server a Front-End server, or a Back-End server and that is about it. Exchange
2007 introduces five roles to the Exchange organization.
Edge Transport - The last hop of outgoing mail and first hop of incoming mail, acting as a "smart host" and
usually deployed in a perimeter network, Edge Transport provides mail quarantine and SMTP service to enhance
security. One advantage of this role is that is does not require Active Directory access, so it can function with
limited access to the corporate network for increased security.
Hub Transport - The Hub Transport role handles mails by routing them to next hop: another Hub Transport
server, Edge server or mailbox server. Unlike Exchange 2003 Bridgehead that needs Exchange admin defined
routing groups, Exchange 2007 Hub Transport role uses AD site info to determine the mail flow. The Hub
Transport and Edge Transport servers are very similar and in fact, one can forgo the Edge Transport server and
configure the Hub Transport to accept mail from, and send mail to, the Internet.
Client Access - The Client Access server role provides the other mailbox server protocol access apart from
MAPI. Similar to Exchange 2003 FrontEnd server, it enables user to use an Internet browser (OWA), 3rd party
mail client (POP3/IMAP4) and mobile device (ActiveSync) to access their mailbox.
Mailbox - The Mailbox server role is responsible for hosting mailbox and public folder data. This role also
provides MAPI access for Outlook clients. Note that there is also a variation of this role called Clustered
Mailbox role, for use with high-availability MSCS clustering of mailbox data. When Clustered Mailbox role is
selected, other server roles cannot be combined on the same physical server.
Unified Messaging - This role enables end users to access their mailbox, address book, and calendar using
telephone and voice. IP-PBX or VoIP gateway needs to be installed and configured to facilitate much of the
functionality of this server role.

What are the benefits of using roles, vs. the way Exchange 2000/2003 worked?
Server role is a logical concept used to organize Exchange 2007 services and features across one or more
servers. While Exchange 2003 provided primitive server roles called BackEnd server and FrontEnd server,
Exchange 2007 has more granular divisions.
Dividing Exchange features among several server roles has advantages:
More flexible deployment topology: For a small or medium company that has only hundreds of mailboxes and
all users are centralized, customer can install all required roles on one physical server. For a large enterprise
where tens of thousands of mailboxes span multiple physical locations, customer can choose to deploy each role
on a separate server or even multiple servers per role to provide better performance and fault tolerance.
Better hardware utilization and scalability: Because each role only installs binaries and runs services for a
specific feature set. Unlike older versions of Exchange, configuring a server that has only one or two roles will
reduce Memory, CPU and disk space requirements for this server. In addition, roles are scalable so admin can
load balance work of one role to multiple servers.
Easy to maintain: Upgrading, applying hotfix, or other server changes that could cause server outage can be
isolated to one server role. This reduces maintenance down time and end user impact. Admin can also install or
uninstall roles on a server as needed.

What are the Exchange 2003 equivalents of the various Exchange 2007-2010 roles?
Exchange 2007 Exchange 2003
Edge Transport
Hub Transport Bridgehead server
Client Access Front-End server
Mailbox Back End server
Unified Messaging

The main differences

between Exchange 2007
and Exchange 2010.

Exchange 2007

Exchange 2010

Feature
Database
Storage Groups
Public Folders
Web Services

DR Technologies

Jet EDB database

Yes
Automatically created
ExOLEDB, CDOEX, WebDAV,
EWS
Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007,
Outlook 2010
SCC, CCR, SCR

Outlook clients connect to

Mailbox Server

Desktop Clients

Jet EDB database

None, only data stores
Manual creation
Exchange Web Services (EWS)
Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010
Database Availability Group
(DAG)
Client Access Server

Exchange Mailbox Database De fragmentation

Exchange Server Database Defragmentation Process
Database white Space:
The database size on the physical disk is not just the number of users multiplied by the user
quota. When the majority of users are not near their mailbox quota, the databases will consume
less space, and white space is not a capacity concern. The database itself will always have free
pages, or white space, spread throughout. During online maintenance, items marked for removal
from the database are removed, which frees these pages. The percentage of white space is
constantly changing with the highest percentage immediately after online maintenance and the
lowest percentage immediately before online maintenance.
The size of white space in the database can be approximated by the amount of mail sent and
received by the users with mailboxes in the database. For example, if we have 100 2-GB
mailboxes (total of 200 GB) in a database where users send and receive an average of 10 MB of
mail per day, the white space is approximately 1 GB (100 mailboxes 10 MB per mailbox).
White space can grow beyond this approximation if online maintenance is not able to complete a
full pass. It is important that our operational activities include enough time for online maintenance
to run each night, so that a full pass can complete within one week or less.
Methods to recover white space:
The Eseutil utility can perform an offline de fragmentation, which releases unused hard drive

space from Exchange Server databases to the file system. Eseutil requires free hard disk space
equal to at least 110 percent of the database size (to create a temporary database that is used in
the de fragmentation).
If no local drive has sufficient space for an offline de fragmentation, we can use one of the three
following options, which are expanded on in the "More Information" section of this article:
Offline de fragmentation with redirected temporary database. Redirect the temporary
database to another logical drive, such as a mapped network drive or a temporarily
installed hard disk.
Moving information to another server and recreating empty databases. Move all of the
information that either one or both of the information store databases contain to another
server. Stop the service, delete the databases, and then restart the service to recreate
empty databases.

Offline Defragmentation on another computer. Move the database files to another

computer, and then perform the offline defragmentation on that computer.

Recommendations for Database Defragmentation:

1. If we have deleted a large amount of data out o the store and want to reclaim the hard
drive space for whatever reason. This includes situations when databases reach the 16 GB
limit on Standard versions of Exchange server.

2. When we add more no of new users due to a merger or acquisition or when we delete
many objects from the store it can be necessary to do an offline defrag.
2. If we had to run a hard repair of the database ( eseutil /p - and that's another thing that
we do NOT recommend unless this is a last possible thing to do). After running a repair,
you should always offline defrag the database to get a new database file that has not been
repaired.
3. If we are experiencing a specific issue and have found a reference that says offline defrag
will fix it.
4. If we are working with PSS and resolving the issue requires an offline defrag.
5. As a general rule, only defrag to reclaim space if we're going to reclaim more than 30% of
the space. we can look for Event 1221 after nightly online defrag to get a conservative
estimate of how much free space is in the database.
What really happens when we do an offline defrag:
1. We need downtime to take your databases offline in order to run ESEUTIL on them.
2. Defrag actually works by reading the original database, and copying used database pages

into the brand new database file. When that is all done, we actually delete the original
database file and rename the new one and copy it into original database file's place.

3. Not only are the used pages read, but they are renumbered /recheck summed too. All
secondary indexes in the database are discarded as well.

How to find the white space of exchange database:

1. Event ID 1221:
Event: 1221
Source: MSExchangeIS Public
Type: Information
Category: General
Description: The database "<storage_group>\<mailbox_store> (<server_name>)" has <nnn>
megabytes of free space after online de fragmentation has terminated.
2. ESEUTIL Filedump Mode:
We can do a space dump with ESEUTIL /MS to determine the space.

The Eseutil utility can perform an offline defragmentation, which releases unused hard drive space
from Exchange Server databases to the file system.

References:
how to run defrag:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998863%28v=exchg.80%29.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996139%28v=exchg.65%29.aspx
Database repair:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259851
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192185
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328804
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=255035

Exchange Server 2007/2010 interview questions

and answers
Exchange General
1. What is the server roles in Exchange 2007?
2. What are the Exchange 2003 sever roles equivalents of the various
Exchange server 2007/2010 roles?
Exchange server 2003
Front End Server (SMTP Service)
Front End Server
Backend End Server

Exchange server 2007/2010

HUB Transport Server
Client Access Server
Mailbox Server
Edge Transport Server (NEW)
Unified Messaging

3. Name the system prerequisites for installing Exchange 2007?

4. Why doesnt we install Outlook on the same machine running

Exchange 2007/2010?
5. Where does Exchange store its configuration settings?
6. How do you prepare the AD for Exchange 2007?
7. How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
8. What are in the installation folder root setup.com and setup.exe. Which
would you use and when?
9. What is PowerShell in Exchange server and Name one major benefit of
PowerShell v2 over V1?
10. Whats the difference between the Enterprise and Standard editions
of Exchange in relation with the number and size of the stores on the
server?
11. What is Cached Mode in Outlook 2007/2010?
12. What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
13. What are E-Discovery features?
14. In Exchange 2007, what are the minimum requirements for
implementing a high availability topology, in relation to the server roles
and server numbers?

Exchange Recipient Level

1. What are the different Exchange Recipient types?
User mailbox: This mailbox is created for an individual user to store mails,
calendar items, contacts, tasks, documents, and other business data.
Linked mailbox: This mailbox is created for an individual user in a separate,
trusted forest. For example AD account is created in A.COM and Mailbox is created
in B.COM Exchange Server.
Shared mailbox: This mailbox is not primarily associated with a single user and
is generally configured to allow logon access for multiple users.
Legacy mailbox: This mailbox is resides on a server running Exchange Server
2003 or Exchange 2000 Server.
Room mailbox: This mailbox is created for a meeting location, such as a meeting
or conference room, auditorium, or training room. When we create this mailbox,
by default a disabled user object account is created.
Equipment mailbox: A resource mailbox is created for a non-location specific
resource, such as a portable computer projector, microphone, or a company car.
When we create this mailbox, by default a disabled user object account is created.
Equipment mailboxes provide a simple and efficient way for users to use
resources in manageable way.
2. What is the difference between mail user and mail contact?

Mail user: This is an Active Directory user that represents e-mail address outside
your Exchange organization. Each mail user has an external e-mail address to
which all messages sent to the mail user are routed.
Mail contact: This is an Active Directory contact that contains e-mail address
information about people or organizations that exist outside your Exchange
organization. Each mail contact has an external e-mail address. All messages sent
to the mail contact are routed to this external e-mail address.
3. What is the difference between Distribution group and Dynamic
Distribution group?
Mail-enabled (Universal distribution group): This is an Active Directory
distribution group object that can be used only to distribute messages to a group
of recipients.
Mail-enabled (Universal security group):A mail-enabled Active Directory
security group object that can be used to grant access permissions to resources in
Active Directory, and can also be used to distribute messages.
Mail-enabled (Non-universal group): This is an Active Directory global or local
group object. Mail-enabled non-universal groups are de-emphasized in Exchange
2007 and can exist only if they were migrated from previous versions of
Exchange. You cannot use Exchange 2007 to create new non-universal distribution
groups.
Dynamic distribution group: A distribution group that uses recipient filters and
conditions to derive its membership at the time messages are sent.

Exchange CAS Role

1. What is OWA?
OWA refer to Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 by you access your e-mail
from any Web browser. Outlook Web Access contains many new features such as
meeting booking, Microsoft SharePoint Services and Windows file share
integration, and a rich user experience from any computer that has a Web
browser.
2. What is the Exchange ActiveSync?
Exchange ActiveSync is a feature which synchronize you email data between your
mobile device and Exchange server. Using Active sync you can synchronize email, contacts, calendar and tasks. Mobile devices running Windows Mobile
software and Windows Mobile 5.0, are all supported.
3. What is Availability service

The Availability service provides free/busy information using secure, consistent,

and up-to-date free/busy data to users that are running Outlook 2007. Outlook
2007 uses the Autodiscover service to obtain the URL of the Availability service.
4. What is Autodiscover service?
This service enables Outlook clients and some mobile devices to receive their
necessary profile settings directly from the Exchange server by using the clients
Active Directory domain credentials or users SMTP domain.
5. What is Outlook Anywhere and describe the method for enabling
Outlook Anywhere?
Outlook Anywhere feature (previously known as RPC over HTTP) provide a facility
to connect your Internet-based Microsoft Outlook clients to connect to your
Exchange Server 2007. This featureeliminates the need to use virtual private
networks (VPNs) if Exchange server 2003 with Sp1 and Exchange 2007.
Outlook Anywhere can be enabled by using the
Exchange Management Console
Open Exchange Management console tree > expand Server Configuration > then
click Client Access.
In the action pane, click Enable Outlook Anywhere.
Exchange Management Shell
Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server: <ServerName> -ExternalHostName:
<ExternalHostName> -ClientAuthenticationMethod:Basic
-IISAuthenticationMethods <MultiValuedProperty> -SSLOffloading:$false
Requirement of Outlook anywhere
Install a valid Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate from a trusted certification
authority (CA).
Install the Windows RPC over HTTP Proxy component
6. What are the certificates can be installed on Exchange 2007 and Name
a few commercial CAs?
Wildcard Certificate: Exchange Server support certificates with wildcard names,
such as *.nakshatrait.com. This is an acceptable domain. Please make sure that
some legacy clients and mobile devices do not support wildcard names on a
certificate.
SAN Certificate: This is the most widely used certificate type such as it has one
common name like webmail.nakshatrait.com and some additional domain name
refer to Exchange other services like Autodiscover.nakshatrait.com,
pop.nakshatrait.com, imap.nakshatrait.com.
7. How to Determine When to Use Certificates Issued by Public CAs and
When to Use Self-Signed Certificates?
Whenever your users are access Exchange components that require
authentication and encryption from outside your corporate firewall, it is time to
deploy a certificate issued by a public CA. Let users are accessing Exchange
ActiveSync, POP3, IMAP4, and Outlook Anywhere. so in this case you require a

certificate that is issued by a public CA.

A self-signed certificate used by Exchange 2007 component that uses Kerberos,
Direct Trust, or NTLM authentication. These are all internal Exchange 2007
components, to the fact that the data paths are between Exchange 2007 servers
and within the corporate network that is defined by Active Directory.
8. Named the Exchange 2007 components use certificates?
SMTP
EdgeSync synchronization
POP3 and IMAP4
Unified Messaging
Autodiscover
Client Access applications such as Outlook Anywhere, OWA, and Exchange
ActiveSync

Exchange Transport Role

1. Where does Exchange 2007 get its routing topology from?
Exchange 2007 uses the Active Directory site topology to determine how messages are transported in
the organization. The Hub Transport server uses the Active Directory Topology service to retrieve the
Exchange organizations configuration information. Unlike earlier versions of Exchange, Exchange
2007 does not use a link state routing table and does not try to calculate an alternative route when a
connection is unavailable.
2. What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options?
3. Whats a Smart Host? When would you configure and use it?
4. What is Send Connector?
Send Connector
5. What is Receive Connectors? Provide two default receive connector names?
Receive Connector: By default, when you install the Hub Transport server role, two Receive connectors
exist. No additional Receive connectors are needed. The default Receive connectors do not require any
additional configuration changes.
Default Receive connector:
(A) Client <Servername>: This Receive connector accepts SMTP connections from all non-MAPI
clients, such as POP and IMAP. This connector work on port 587.
(B) Default <Servername>: This Receive connector accepts connections from Edge Transport servers
to receive messages from the Internet and from other Hub Transport servers. This connector work on
port 25
Whats the major issue blocking you from receiving e-mail from the world, considering youve
enabled the right port(s) on the firewall, and properly configured MX records for your
domain(s)?
6. Whats the difference between the Client and the Default Receive Connectors?
Youre looking to troubleshoot e-mail delivery issues. Name 4 options/tools/logs that are built into
Exchange 2007/2010 that can help you in your task.

7. How to enable Anti-Spam features on the HT role and what is the recommendation?
8. Where does Edge role store its settings?
Edge Transport server role installed doesnt have access to Active Directory. The Edge Transport server
stores all configuration and recipient information in ADAM. Because Active Directory and ADAM
both use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and because both directory services use the
Exchange 2007 schema, you can replicate data from Active Directory to ADAM.
Types of Data Replicated to ADAM
A. Edge Subscription information
Provision and maintain the credentials to help secure the LDAP connection.
Arbitrate the synchronization lock and lease process.
Optimize the EdgeSync synchronization process
B. Configuration information
Hub Transport servers
Accepted domains
Message classifications
Remote domains
Send connectors
Internal SMTP servers
Domain Secure lists
C. Recipient information
Recipients
Proxy addresses
Safe Senders List and Safe Recipients List
Per recipient anti-spam settings
D. Topology information
Notification of newly subscribed Edge Transport servers. This data is refreshed every five minutes.
9. How to enable high-availability and load balancing on Edge servers?
10. What is Edge subscription and process to enable Edge subscription?
Exchange 2007 Edge Transport server role is always deployed in organizations DMZ (perimeter)
network. Edge Transport server handles all Internet mail flow. It also provides some additional
protection and security provided by a series of agents running on the Edge Transport server. These
agents protect messages against viruses and spam and apply transport rules to control message flow.
This is an optional process, subscribing an Edge Transport server provide anti-spam features, recipient
lookup or safelist, or secure SMTP communications.
Edge Subscription Process
A. Make sure that the Hub Transport servers and the Edge Transport server can resolve the each other
FQDNs by using DNS.
B. Run the New-EdgeSubscription cmdlet in the EMS on the Edge Transport server to export the Edge
Subscription file.
C. Copy the Edge Subscription file to a Hub Transport server.
D. Run the New-EdgeSubscription cmdlet in the EMS or EMC to import the Edge Subscription file.
11. Whats the default replication interval for Edge sync and what is the step to force replication?

When the Exchange Edge server starts, the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service starts and establishes
a synchronization schedule.
Configuration data is synchronized to ADAM once every hour.
Recipient data is synchronized to ADAM once every four hours.
You cannot modify the synchronization intervals.
Steps to Sync Edge sync replication
Use the EMS to immediately start synchronization of data from the Active Directory service to the
subscribed Edge Transport servers. Run the below command on the HB transport server.
Start-EdgeSynchronization -Server <Hub Transport server name>
12. What ports required to open between the DMZ holding the Edge role and internal network?
13. How to configure E-mal routing to be able to send e-mail externally (to the Internet) and what
do you need to do?
14. What are the default connectors created during the Exchange Edge subscription?
When we do the EdgeSync synchronization process, it creates two send connector which then
replicated to ADAM.
A Send connector that is configured to relay e-mail messages from the Exchange organization to
the Internet.
Connector Name: EdgeSync <Site Name> to Internet
A Send connector that is configured to relay e-mail messages from the Edge Transport server to
the Exchange organization.
Connector Name: EdgeSync Inbound to <Site Name>
Name
Address Space
Source Servers

Enabled

EdgeSync <Site Name> to Internet EdgeSync Inbound to <Site Name>

SMTP:*;100
SMTP:;1
Edge Subscription name
Edge Subscription name
Note:
The name of the Edge Subscription is
the same as the name of the subscribed
Edge Transport server.
TRUE
TRUE

DNS Routing Enabled

TRUE

TRUE
Domain Secure Enabled
(Mutual Auth TLS)
15. What is Accepted Domains and difference?

FALSE

Exchange Mailbox Role

What is OAB? OAB? When it is used and what are the OAB distribution options?
What is the GAL and when would you decide to create more than one GAL?
What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2007 stores work?

Whats a Recovery Storage Group? How do you work with one?

Can you use Exmerge in Exchange 2007/2010? Why?
How do you export a mailbox content in Exchange 2007/2010?
Whats a Dial Tone recovery?
Describe the concept behind Log Shipping.
Whats the difference between LCR, CCR and SCR and SCC?
What are the high availability solutions introduced in Exchange Server 2010?
What id DAC and when it need to enable?
Whats the major difference in store high availability in Exchange 2007?
What Exchange edition version do you need for LCR? What Windows edition version do you
need for LCR?
How do you recover from a store corruption when using LCR? Name the procedures you would
use.
What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2010 stores work? Name some of the changes
in comparison with Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007.

Exchange Tools, Backup

1. What is Eseutil and Isinteg, Name a few scenarios for using both tools?
Eseutil
Isinteg
Scenario when you need there utilities.
When there is a logical corruption in database.
When you have enough free white space in Exchange database.
When your Exchange database disk going to full and need to free disk space.
For more details go to URL
2.

What backup solutions are you familiar with in Exchange 2007/2010?

3. What built-in tool do you have to allow you to manage Exchange store recoveries?
4. What the difference is between online and offline defrag?
5. What are streaming backups and VSS backups?
6. How would you backup Exchange 2007/2010 on a Windows Server 2008/R2 machine
without using 3rd-party tools?
7. Whats a Brick-Level backup?
8. What is ROLA BASED ACCESS CONTROL?

Exchange 2010 Interview Questions

1. What are the new features introduced in Exchange Server 2010 on overview perspective?
1. Protection and compliance
2. Anywhere Access
3. Flexible and reliable

2. Whats new in Protection and compliance?

Email Archiving
Protect Communication
Advanced Security
3. Whats new in anywhere Access?
1. Manage Inbox Overload
2. Enhanced Voice Mail
3. Collaborate efficiently
4. Whats new in Flexibility and reliability?
Continuous Availability
Simplified Administration
Flexible deployment of Exchange Server 2010
5. Explain the E-Mail Archiving feature in Compliance?
We can set email retention mail policy from end user level
Message expiration
We can search for individual or Multi user mailboxes from compliance officer perspective
6. Exchange the protection features in Exchange Server 2010?
Hub Transport Server provides
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Automatically protect Messages with the centralized Rights Management Service

Automatic Content Based Protection
Transport rule action to apply template to E-Mail or Voice Mail
Support for scanning of attachment
Internet confidential and DO NOT Forward E-Mail Polices
Information Protection Cross PC, Web and Mobile devices

7. What are the Advanced Security features in Exchange Server 2007?

Exchange server 2010 comes up with the advance security feature of stopping malicious software and
spam from enter into the message environment
1. We can have Forefront Security to have this advance security, which has
2. Multiple scan engines throughout the corporate infrastructure
3. Easy to use management console provides central configuration and operation
8. Whats New in Anywhere Access?
Manage inbox overload using enhanced conversation view and filtering the messages
Mail Tips if no permission to send mail, popup will show mail tips to reduce NDRS
Can access Voice Mailbox with features like
1. Audio play back
2. Text preview
3. Quick option to add the user to contacts and phone number

Auto attend we can manage auto attend, define personalized voice menu
9. What are the supportable clients for Exchange Server 2010?
Desktop office 2007 and entourage MAC
WEB OWA, OFFICE outlook web access, IE, Firefox and safari
Mobile office outlook mobile, windows mobile, and Exchange active sync for third partys
10. What are the outlook features now introduced to mobile devices?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Auto complete cache used email address in OWA in cache will be shared mobile
Conversation view if any change in messages on outlook that will be applied to Mobile
Contact to see the availability of the users
Voice Mail Preview see voice mail
Send and receive text message in OWA and mobile
Admin can control which mobile devices can connect
Downloadable mobile devices

11. What is universal Inbox In OWA?

Its provides a solution to have one E-Mail inbox for EMail, Text messages and Voice messages
Can have multiple E-Mail accounts in one OWA window
12. What is federation?
Federation is new feature in Exchange server 2010 to share the company users calendars to the
partners. A trust relationship to be made to have this feature
13. What is continuous availability feature in Exchange Server 2010?
In Exchange Server 2007, we have server to server failover scenarios, and we need to use failover
clustering to configure the HA options which is very difficult to manage
In Exchange Server 2010, HA modified to Database level which provides quick recoverability in disk
and database failures. We can have multiple database copies up to 16 mailbox copies in a database
availability group. Admin have replicate mailbox copies up to 16 replicated copies. Capabilities of
having CCR and SCR into single platform
14. Continuous availability in user level?
If a mailbox move is happening, the users will be stay online and there wont be be any discontinuity in
sending or receiving mails
15. Explain the administration option in Exchange Server 2010?
Exchange Server 2010 provides simplified administration by providing options like
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Compliance office can easily search for mailboxes

HR can easily update the user information
Help desk can easily manage mailbox quotas
User can easily track the status of the message easily
User can easily create own Distribution group
User can modify the contact information

16. What are the storage options supported in Exchange Server 2010?

Exchange Server 2010 can support the DAS and Also JBOD disks its because of the HA option
depends only on the Database level

Exchange Server 2010/2007/2003 Comparison

This post contains the information on comparison of Exchange Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007 and
Exchange Server 2010. Part one holds the comparison information on basic things on Exchange
Servers
Exchange Server
2003
Exchange
October 2003
Server Release
Date

Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Server 2010

December 2006

Second Half of 2009

1. Windows
Server 2000
SP3
2. Windows
Server 2003
3. Windows
Server 2008

1. Windows
Server 2003
SP2 -64 bit
2. Windows
Server 2008
SP1 64 bit
3. Windows
Server 2008 R2
64 bit

1. Windows Server
2008-64 bit SP1
2. Windows Server
2008 R2/later64 bit

Management
Tools in Client
Operating
System

1. Windows 2000
professional
2. Windows XP
Professional

1. Windows XP
professional
2. Windows vista
32 bit

1. Windows vista
64 bit
2. Windows 7 64
bit

Supported
Domain
Infrastructure

1. Windows 2000
SP3
2. Windows 2003

1. Windows 2003
2. Windows 2008

1. Windows 2003
SP2
2. Windows 2008

Supportable
Windows
Server
Operating
System to
install
Exchange
Server

Domain &
Forest
functional
Level
Standard

Windows 2000 Mixed Windows 2000 Native Windows 2003 Native

or higher
or higher

1. One storage

1. 5 Storage

1. No storage

Edition

Enterprise
Edition

Hardware
Requirement to
install
Exchange
Server

group
2. 2 Databases
max per Server
3. 16 GB DB Size
and 72 GB with
SP2
4. x.400
connectors not
included

groups
2. 5 Databases
max per Server
3. 16 TB size per
SG
4. No clustering
support only
Log Shipping
5. Upgrade to
Enterprise
Edition without
uninstall

Group concepts
2. 5 Databases per
Server
3. Upgrade to
Enterprise
Edition without
uninstall

1. Four Storage
group
2. 20 Databases
3. 16 TB DB size
limited by
hardware
4. Clustering
Supported
5. x.400
connectors
included

1. 50 Storage
Groups
2. 50 DB max per
Server
3. 16 TB size per
SG
4. Clustering
Supported

1. No Storage
Group Concepts
2. 50 Databases
Per Server
3. Upgrade to
Enterprise
Edition without
uninstall

1. Processor
Pentium with 1
GHZ speed
2. RAM 512
3. Disk Space
500 MB and
200 MB for
system files
4. File System
NTFS
5. CD/DVD drive
6. High resolution
Monitor

1. Processor 64
bit processor
Intel EM64T &
AMD64
2. RAM 2 GB +
5 MB per
Mailbox
3. Disk Space - At
least 1.2 GB on
the drive to
install
Exchange and
200 MB for
system drive
450 MB if Hub
Transport
Server
4. File Format
NTFS
5. CD/DVD drive

1. Processor 64
bit processor,
Intel EM64T
and AMD64
2. RAM 4 GB +
5 MB per
Mailbox
3. Disk Space - At
least 1.2 GB on
the drive on
which you
install Exchange
and 200 MB of
available disk
space on the
system drive 500 MB if Hub
Transport
Server
4. File Format
NTFS

Prerequisites to
install
Exchange

Permission
Required to
install
Exchange

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

ASP .Net
IIS
SMTP
NNTP
WWW

1. Enterprise
Admin
2. Schema Admin
3. Domain Admin
4. Local Machine
Admin

6. High
Resolution
Monitor

5. CD/DVD drive
6. High Resolution
Monitor

1. ASP .Net
Framework 2.0
2. IIS
3. WWW
4. MMC 3.0
5. Windows
Power Shell
6. No SMTP and
NNTP

1. .Net framework
3.5
2. IIS
3. Windows
Remote
management
4. Windows power
shell V2

1. Enterprise
Admin
2. Schema Admin
3. Domain Admin
4. Local Machine
Admin

1. Enterprise
Admin
2. Schema Admin
3. Domain Admin
4. Local Machine
Admin

Two New Security

groups are created

Domain Prep

Whats New in
Exchange
Server Release

4 New Security Groups Domain Prep will

will be created
create the following
Security Groups
1. Exchange
1. Exchange
Enterprise
Organization
1. Exchange All
Server
Administrator
Hosted
2. Exchange
2. Exchange
Administrator
Domain Server
Enterprise
2. Exchange
Administrator
Organization
3. Exchange
Administrator
Recipient
3. Exchange
Administrator
Enterprise
4. Exchange View
Administrator
Only
4. Exchange
Administrator
Recipient
Administrator
5. Exchange View
Only
Administrator
1. Outlook
Anywhere
(OWA)
2. Mailbox can

1. Anywhere
Access
2. Outlook Voice
Access

Protection &
Compliance
1. E-mail

3.
4.
5.
6.

sync with
Blackberry
Device.
Calendar
Sharing.
MAPI & POP3
Client support
Recovery
Storage Group
Direct
push/Remote
wiping

3. Unified
Archiving
Messaging
2. Protect
4. Outlook
Communication
Experience
3. Advanced
from desktop to
Security
mobile
5. High
Anywhere Access
Availability
options
1. Manage Inbox
overload
2. Enhanced Voice
mail
3. Collaboration
Flexibility &
Reliability
1. Continuous
Availability
2. Simplified
Administration
3. Deployment
Flexibility

Only have

Exchange
Server Roles

Options that
are deemphasized

1. Front-End
Server and
2. Back-End
Server
Architecture

1. Anonymous
Access to IIS
Metabase
2. Public folders
Mail
3. MSDAIPP

5 Server Roles are

No Change in Server
introduced, depending Role Architecture
on their functions, they
1. Client Access
1. Client Access
Server
Server
2. Hub Transport
2. Hub Transport
Server
Server
3. Mailbox Server
3. Mailbox Server
Role
Role
4. UM Server role
4. UM Server role
5. Edge Transport
5. Edge Transport
Server
Server
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Public folders
CDOEx
WebDAV
ExOLEDB
Store events
IMF

1. Public Folders

What are
options
removed from
old version

Exchange
Infrastructure

1. Connectors for
Lotus cc:Mail
and MS Mail
2. Real-time
Collaboration
Features
3. M: Drive
4. Key
Management
Service
5. Exchange
Instant
Messaging

1. Administrative
Groups
2. Routing Groups
3. Co-existence
with Exchange
Server 5.5
4. Outlook Web
Access to
public folders
5. Outlook Mobile
Access
6. Mailbox
Recovery
Center

1. Recovery
Storage Groups
2. Streaming
database
3. Storage Group
4. Administrative
and Routing
Groups
completely
removed
5. CDOEx
6. WebDAV
7. ExOLEDB
8. Store events
9. Front-End and
Bridge head
servers
10.
Storage
groups
11.
Database
identified by the
servers which
they live
12.
Server
names as part of
database name
13.
Clustere
d Mailbox
server

1. Can be
deployed in
Exchange 5.5
org
2. Can be
deployed in
Exchange
Server 2000
org
3. Exchange
2003, 2000 and
5.5 can coexist
in same
Exchange org
4. Exchange 2000
can be directly

1. No Exchange
Server 5.5
2. To upgrade
Exchange
Move to
Exchange
Server 2003
and Exchange
Server 2007
3. co existence
with Exchange
Server 2000
and Exchange
Server 2003
4. No IN-place
Upgrade

1. No Exchange
5.5
2. No In-place
Upgrade
3. Co-existence
with Exchange
Server 2003 and
Exchange
Server 2007
4. Upgrade
Exchange
Server 2003 to
2007 and to
Exchange
Server 2010

upgraded to
Exchange
Server 2003

5. Migration
options for
Lotus Notes
and GroupWise

Exchange
Server Mailbox
Store Size
limits

1. Standard
Edition 16 GB
and 75 GB with
SP2
2. Enterprise
Edition 16 TB
Limited by
Hardware

1. Mailbox Store
Size Limited by
hardware

1. Up to 10 GB
support for
single Mailbox
2. Mailbox store
Size limited by
Hardware

1. Exchange
Management
Console
2. Exchange
Management
shell
3. EBPA
4. Database
Recovery
Management
5. Database
Troubleshooter
6. Mail flow
Troubleshooter
7. Message
Tracking
8. Queue Viewer
9. Performance
Monitor

1. New Exchange
Management
Console
2. Exchange
Control Panel
3. Role Based
Access Control
4. Remote Power
Shell

Exchange
Server
Management
and Monitoring
Tools

1. Exchange
System
Manager
2. Mailbox
Recovery
Center
3. Recovery
Storage Group
4. Improved Error
Reporting
5. New Public
folder admin
tool
6. DNS resolver
7. Jet stress
8. EBPA
9. Message
Tracking center
10.
Deliver
y Status
notification
11.
Outlook
2003
performance
Monitoring
12.
Messag
e tracking tool
13.
Multi
Mailbox Move
14.
Exchdu
mp.exe

Administrative
Roles

Storage Groups

Database per
storage Group

Individual
Database Size

1. Exchange Full
Admin
2. Exchange
Administrator
3. Exchange view
only

1. Exchange
Organization
Administrators
2. Exchange
Recipient
3. Administrators
4. Exchange
Server
Administrators
5. Exchange
View-Only
Administrators

1. Exchange
Organization
Administrators
2. Exchange
Recipient
3. Administrators
4. Exchange
Server
Administrators
5. Exchange ViewOnly
Administrators
6. RBAC

1. 1 storage
Group for STD
Edition
2. 4 Storage
Group for ENT
Edition

1. 5 Storage
Groups Standard
Edition
2. 50 Storage
Groups Standard
Edition

1. Storage Group
concepts
removed

1. 2 DB for STD
edition
2. 5 DB for ENT
edition
1. 16 GB for
standard
Edition
2. 16 TB for
Enterprise
Edition
limited by
hardware

Two types of
Clustering option,
Exchange
Clustering

1. Network Load
Balancing
2. Clustering

5 Database for
Standard Edition
50 Database for
Enterprise Edition

5 Database for
Standard Edition
150 Database for
Enterprise Edition

1. 16 TB for
1. Limited by
standard
Hardware
Edition and 50
GB by default
edit the registry
to get 16 TB
Support
2. Limited by
Hardware
1. Single Copy
Cluster
2. Cluster
Continuous
Replication

1. Clustering
Options
removed
2. Database
Availability
Groups

Public Folders

File Structure

Transactional
Log

Public Folder Exists

1. ESE Database
Engine
2. PRIV.EDB
3. PUB.EDB
4. .stm
5. .chk
6. E00.log
7. E0000000.lob
8. Temp.EDB

5 MB in Size

Public Folders are De

Emphasized
1. ESE Database
Engine
2. .CHK
3. E00.log
4. E0000000.log
5. .EDB
6. Temp.EDP
7. .JRS

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

ESE Database
.CHK
E00.log
E0000000.log
.EDB
Temp.EDP
.JRS

Streaming files are

combined with EDB
1 MB in Size

1 Mb in Size

Retention
Period

Deleted Item Retention Deleted Item retention

14 Days
14 days
Deleted Mailbox
Deleted Mailbox
Retention 30 days
Retention 30 days

Routing
Groups

Routing Groups Newly Routing Groups Exists Routing Groups Exists

introduced
in Co existence of
in Co existence of
Exchange Server 2003 Exchange Server 2003

Administrative Newly Replace by Active

Administrative
introduced
Directory sites and
Groups
Services

Clustering/Hig
h Availability

1. 4 to 8 node
clustering with
windows server
2003
2. Faster cluster
Failover
3. Improved
public folder
replication
4. Support for
VSS

1. Local
Continuous
Replication
2. Cluster
Continuous
Replication
3. Single Copy
Cluster
4. Standby
Continuous
Replication

Deleted Item Retention

14 days
Deleted Mailbox
Retention 30 days

Removed From
Exchange Server 2007

1. LCR and CCR

are removed
2. CCR and SCR
introduced as in
build
technology
3. Mailbox
Resilience
4. Database
Availability
Group
5. Mailbox
Database Copy

6. Database
Mobility

Recovery
options

1. Deleted Item
Retention
2. Mailbox
Retention
3. Restore
Mailbox Store
4. Recovery
Storage group
5. Recovery
Forest and
Server
6. Soft Recovery
& Hard
Recovery

1. Deleted Item
Retention
2. Mailbox
Retention
3. Dial Tone
Recover
4. RecoverCMS
CAS
5. Cloned
Configuration
ET
6. Recovery
Storage Groups

1. Deleted Item
Retention
2. Mailbox
Retention
3. Dial Tone
Recover
4. RecoverCMS
CAS
5. Cloned
Configuration
ET
6. Recovery
Storage Groups

Recovery Storage
Recovery Storage
Removed from
Recovery
Groups exists in
Groups exists in
Exchange Server 2010
Storage Groups
Exchange Server 2003 Exchange Server 2003
Disclaimer
Compliance

Security
features

1. Sender filtering
2. Recipient
filtering
3. Connection
filtering
4. Intelligent
Message
filtering
5. Block E-Mail
attachment
6. Block List
Services
7. Install X.509
cert
8. TLS encryption
for
Inbound/Outbo
und mails
9. IPSEC between

Journaling
Disclaimer

1. Antivirus and
Anti spam
enhancement
2. Forefront
Security
3. IP allow and
deny list
4. IP allow and
deny list
providers
5. Sender ID
filtering
6. IP DNS Block
list
7. Outlook safe
senders
8. Attachment
filtering
9. Sender

Journaling
Disclaimer
Mail Tips
1. Antivirus and
Anti spam
enhancement
2. Forefront
Security
3. IP allow and
deny list
4. IP allow and
deny list
providers
5. Sender ID
filtering
6. IP DNS Block
list
7. Outlook safe
senders
8. Attachment
filtering
9. Sender

FE and BE
10.
Kerbero
s support for
outlook
11.
Attachm
ent blocking

reputation
10.
Content
Filtering
11.
Server
to server TLS
encryption
12.
SSL cert
auto installed
13.
Secure
RPC for
outlook
14.
HTTPS
access for
outlook
anywhere

reputation
10.
Content
Filtering
11.
Server to
server TLS
encryption
12.
SSL cert
auto installed
13.
Secure
RPC for outlook
14.
HTTPS
access for
outlook
anywhere

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Labels: Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010 Interview Questions

1. What are the new features introduced in Exchange Server 2010 on overview perspective?
1. Protection and compliance
2. Anywhere Access
3. Flexible and reliable
2. Whats new in Protection and compliance?
Email Archiving
Protect Communication
Advanced Security
3. Whats new in anywhere Access?
1. Manage Inbox Overload
2. Enhanced Voice Mail
3. Collaborate efficiently
4. Whats new in Flexibility and reliability?
Continuous Availability
Simplified Administration
Flexible deployment of Exchange Server 2010
5. Explain the E-Mail Archiving feature in Compliance?
We can set email retention mail policy from end user level

Message expiration
We can search for individual or Multi user mailboxes from compliance officer perspective
6. Exchange the protection features in Exchange Server 2010?
Hub Transport Server provides
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Automatically protect Messages with the centralized Rights Management Service

Automatic Content Based Protection
Transport rule action to apply template to E-Mail or Voice Mail
Support for scanning of attachment
Internet confidential and DO NOT Forward E-Mail Polices
Information Protection Cross PC, Web and Mobile devices

7. What are the Advanced Security features in Exchange Server 2007?

Exchange server 2010 comes up with the advance security feature of stopping malicious software and
spam from enter into the message environment
1. We can have Forefront Security to have this advance security, which has
2. Multiple scan engines throughout the corporate infrastructure
3. Easy to use management console provides central configuration and operation
8. Whats New in Anywhere Access?
Manage inbox overload using enhanced conversation view and filtering the messages
Mail Tips if no permission to send mail, popup will show mail tips to reduce NDRS
Can access Voice Mailbox with features like
1. Audio play back
2. Text preview
3. Quick option to add the user to contacts and phone number
Auto attend we can manage auto attend, define personalized voice menu
9. What are the supportable clients for Exchange Server 2010?
Desktop office 2007 and entourage MAC
WEB OWA, OFFICE outlook web access, IE, Firefox and safari
Mobile office outlook mobile, windows mobile, and Exchange active sync for third partys
10. What are the outlook features now introduced to mobile devices?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Auto complete cache used email address in OWA in cache will be shared mobile
Conversation view if any change in messages on outlook that will be applied to Mobile
Contact to see the availability of the users
Voice Mail Preview see voice mail
Send and receive text message in OWA and mobile
Admin can control which mobile devices can connect
Downloadable mobile devices

11. What is universal Inbox In OWA?

Its provides a solution to have one E-Mail inbox for EMail, Text messages and Voice messages
Can have multiple E-Mail accounts in one OWA window
12. What is federation?
Federation is new feature in Exchange server 2010 to share the company users calendars to the
partners. A trust relationship to be made to have this feature
13. What is continuous availability feature in Exchange Server 2010?
In Exchange Server 2007, we have server to server failover scenarios, and we need to use failover
clustering to configure the HA options which is very difficult to manage
In Exchange Server 2010, HA modified to Database level which provides quick recoverability in disk
and database failures. We can have multiple database copies up to 16 mailbox copies in a database
availability group. Admin have replicate mailbox copies up to 16 replicated copies. Capabilities of
having CCR and SCR into single platform
14. Continuous availability in user level?
If a mailbox move is happening, the users will be stay online and there wont be be any discontinuity in
sending or receiving mails
15. Explain the administration option in Exchange Server 2010?
Exchange Server 2010 provides simplified administration by providing options like
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Compliance office can easily search for mailboxes

HR can easily update the user information
Help desk can easily manage mailbox quotas
User can easily track the status of the message easily
User can easily create own Distribution group
User can modify the contact information

16. What are the storage options supported in Exchange Server 2010?
Exchange Server 2010 can support the DAS and Also JBOD disks its because of the HA option
depends only on the Database level

Technical Interview Questions - Exchange Server 2007/2010

What are the Exchange 2007/2010 server roles?

What are the benefits of using roles, vs. the way Exchange 2000/2003 worked?
What are the Exchange 2003 equivalents of the various Exchange 2007/2010 roles?
Name the system prerequisites for installing Exchange 2007/2010 in your existing Active
Directory forest.
You have an Exchange 5.5 organization and finally decided to move forward and upgrade to
Exchange 2007/2010. What's your next obvious step?
You're looking to install Exchange 2007/2010 and Outlook on the same machine. Should you do
that? Why?
Where does Exchange store its configuration settings?
How do you prepare the AD for Exchange 2007/2010? Name 2 methods.

What permissions do you need to prepare the AD for Exchange 2007/2010?

How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
In the installation folder root you see setup.com and setup.exe. Which would you use and when?
How would you easily install all the Windows Server 2008/R2 roles and features required for
Exchange 2007/2010?
How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if they're right?
.....
What is the latest Exchange 2007 Service Pack? Name a few changes in functionality in that SP.
Looking to install Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. What SP version do you need? And
for R2?
What's a Rollup Update? What's the latest RU for Exchange 2007/2010?
How can you easily integrate a RU in the Exchange 2007/2010 installation media?
Name a few reasons for using 64-bit hardware and OS version for Exchange 2007/2010.
Exchange 2007 came in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Name a couple of reasons for ever
needing the 32-bit version.
....
Wanting to manage Exchange 2007/2010 from a remote computer, name a few of your
management options.
Name a few changes that were made in Exchange 2003 Management Console (EMC) when
compared to Exchange 2003 System Manager (ESM).
What's PowerShell and why do we care?
Name one major benefit of PowerShell v2 over V1.
What are the different Exchange Recipient types?
What are resource mailboxes? When would you use them?
What are Dynamic Distribution groups?
What type of groups would you use when configuring distribution groups in a multiple domain
forest?
How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes in your organization?
How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes on a specific Exchange
server?
Describe the differences in the permission model between Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010.
....
What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2007 stores work?
What's the difference between the Enterprise and Standard editions of Exchange in relation with
the number and size of the stores on the server?
What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2010 stores work? Name some of the changes
in comparison with Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007.
What's the major difference in store high availability in Exchange 2007?
What's the major difference in store high availability in Exchange 2010?
What is the GAL?
When would you decide to create more than one GAL?
How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?

 What is the OAB? When is it used?

What are the OAB distribution options?
You are at a client's location, and you see no Public Folders on any of the Mailbox servers. How
can that be?
You don't have any Public Folder, but now you've got a bunch of laptop users that use Outlook
2003. What issues would you see? How would you fix these issues?
.....
In Exchange 2007, what are the minimum requirements for implementing a high availability
topology, in relation to the server roles and server numbers?
In Exchange 2010, what are the minimum requirements for implementing a high availability
topology, in relation to the server roles and server numbers?
Describe the concept behind Log Shipping.
What's the difference between LCR, CCR and SCR?
What's SCC?
You've installed Exchange 2007 RTM and are looking to enable SCR but cannot find the option
to do so in the EMC or in PS. Why?
Describe DAG in Exchange 2010.
Considering DAGs in Exchange 2010, why does Microsoft claim that you can run "Raidless"?
Would you run "Raidless" even when implementing DAGs in Exchange 2010? Why?
Would you run "Backup-less" even when implementing DAGs in Exchange 2010? Why?
How do you enable LCR?
Why does Microsoft suggest using NTFS mount points when using LCR?
What Exchange edition version do you need for LCR? What Windows edition version do you
need for LCR?
How do you recover from a store corruption when using LCR? Name the procedures you would
use.
....
What are streaming backups?
What are VSS backups?
How would you backup Exchange 2007/2010 on a Windows Server 2008/R2 machine without
using 3rd-party tools?
What's a Brick-Level backup?
What backup solutions are you familiar with in Exchange 2007/2010?
What's a Recovery Storage Group? How do you work with one?
Can you use Exmerge in Exchange 2007/2010? Why?
How do you export a mailbox content in Exchange 2007/2010?
What's a Dial Tone recovery?
What built-in tool do you have to allow you to manage Exchange store recoveries?
What's the difference between online and offline defrag?
In Exchange 2010, is there any change in the way online and offline defrags are used (or should
be used)?
What is Eseutil?

What is Isinteg?
Name a few scenarios for using both tools?
What are the major considerations for using these tools?
...
Where does Exchange 2007/2010 get its routing topology from?
What protocol is used for the Mailbox to HT transport?
How would you achieve incoming mail redundancy?
Name all the client connection options in Exchange 2007/2010.
What happened to OMA?
Name some of the major changes in OWA in relation to Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003?
And in relation to Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007?
What's the ECP in Exchange 2010 OWA?
A user opens an OWA session from an external computer. Which role does that user connect to?
What are the major changes in Outlook 2010 in relation to Exchange 2010, when compared to
Outlook 2007/Exchange 2007?
What's a mailbox move request in Exchange 2010?
What is Online Mailbox Move in Exchange 2010?
Describe the issues you're facing when attempting to obtain a digital certificate for Exchange
2007.
What's one of the changes that was made to the digital certificate request process in Exchange
2010 in relation to Exchange 2007?
What are SAN certificates?
Name a few commercial CAs you could use to obtain digital certificates.
What is Cached Mode in Outlook 2007/2010?
What are the benefits and "issues" when using cached mode? How would you tackle those
issues?
What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
What is Outlook Anywhere?
Describe the method for enabling Outlook Anywhere.
You've just bought a new Internet domain name, and are looking to set up an Exchange
organization to receive e-mail for that domain. Name ALL the steps you would need to take in
order to successfully be able to work with that domain name.
You've installed Exchange 2007/2010 and now you need to be able to send e-mail externally (to
the Internet). What do you need to do?
What's Accepted Domains?
Where in EMC would you look to configure Send Connectors?
What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options.
What's a Smart Host? When would you use it?
Wanting to configure a Send Connector to the world, what address would you use?
What are Receive Connectors?
In Exchange 2007/2010, what's the major issue blocking you from receiving e-mail from the
world, considering you've enabled the right port(s) on the firewall, and properly configured MX

records for your domain(s)?

What's the difference between the "Client" and the "Default" Receive Connectors?
You're looking to troubleshoot e-mail delivery issues. Name 4 options/tools/logs that are built
into Exchange 2007/2010 that can help you in your task.
...
You're looking to enable Anti-Spam features on Exchange. Which role would you use to do so?
Let's say you're wanting to use Anti-Spam features on the HT role. You're looking to enable
these features but cannot find them. What do you need to do?
Where does Edge role store its settings?
You have a need to enable high-availability and load balancing on your Edge role. How do you
achieve that?
What's Edge synchronization?
What's Edge subscription?
How do you enable Edge subscription?
What's the default replication interval for Edge sync?
What ports do you need to open between the DMZ holding the Edge role and your internal
network?

Microsoft Exchange Server Interview Questions 2007/2010

What's the difference between online and offline defrag?
Online:
Exchange database online defragmentation occurs automatically as part of the database
maintenance process. Online defragmentation detects and removes database objects that are
no longer being used
Offline:
you must defragment the Exchange database offline to reduce the physical size of the
Exchange database.
eseutil /d Database_Name [options]
What are resource mailboxes? When would you use them?
SCR:
SCR enables a separation of high availability (comprised of service and data availability) and
site resilience.
What is CCR (Cluster Continuous Replication)?
It is a high availability feature of Exchange 2007. It keeps a copy of storage
group on another server and sinking the log files both. Also, it removes the need
of SAN and low cost. No single point of failure
What is LCR (Local Continuous Replication)?
The LCR feature makes it possible to create and maintain an exact copy (replica) of
databases in a storage group on an Exchange 2007 Server to a second set of disks in the
server or to a NAS/SAN
What are the Exchange 2007/2010 server roles?
Edge Transport , Hub Transport, Client access, Mailbox, unified messaging
What's a Recovery Storage Group?
RSGs enable you to recover data from a backup or copy of a database without
disturbing user access to current data.

How do you use Exmerge in Exchange 2007/2010?

Using ExMerge we can import or export PST files.
You can recover single mailbox

What's a Dial Tone recovery?

A dial tone recovery involves creating an empty database on a server to replace a failed database. This empty,
or dial tone, database allows users to send and receive e-mail while the failed database is recovered.

What built-in tool do you have to allow you to manage Exchange store recoveries?
Exmerge / Recovery storage group
What is Isinteg?
The Information Store Integrity Checker (Isinteg.exe) finds and eliminates errors from the
public folder and mailbox databases at the application level. These errors can prevent the
information store from starting or prevent users from logging on and from receiving, opening,
or deleting mail. Isinteg is not intended for use as a part of routine information store
maintenance. It is provided to assist in disaster recovery situations and other referential
integrity issues.
What is Online Mailbox Move in Exchange 2010?
That allows end-users to be online in their email accounts. On completing the move users just needs to reopen
their Outlook clients.

What is the GAL?

The Global Address List or GAL is a University wide directory of Exchange users available
through Outlook or OWA.
How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?
You could do this by editing the Default Global Address List object in ADSEdit. The attribute that holds the query is the
purportedSearch attribute.

Where does Edge role store its settings?

The Edge Transport server uses Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) to store the
required Active Directory data, which is data such as Accepted Domains, Recipients, Safe
Senders, Send Connectors and a Hub Transport server list.
What's Edge synchronization?
The process that the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service performs to propagate data from
Active Directory to the subscribed Edge Transport server. Configuration data is synchronized
one time each hour. Recipient data is synchronized one time every four hours.
You can use the Start-EdgeSynchronization cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell to
start immediate synchronization.
How do you enable Edge subscription?
Open the Exchange Management Shell on the Edge Transport server, and enter this
command:
New-EdgeSubscription file "C:\subscription.xml"
Answer Y
Transfer EdgeSubscription.xml to the Hub Transport server
Open Exchange Management Console
In the left tree choose Organization Configuration and then Hub Transport
In the Actions pane click New Edge Subscription
Choose active directory site, if you have multiple sites though, then you should make the
Edge Transport server a member of the site that has the fastest (or most reliable) network

connectivity to the perimeter network.

Use the Browse button to browse for and select the subscription.xml file.
Verify that the Automatically Create A Send Connector for this Edge Subscription checkbox is
selected, then click the New button to import the XML file and create the Edge Subscription.
What's
the
default
replication
interval
for
Edge
sync?
By default, configuration data is synchronized to AD LDS once every hour , and recipient data is synchronized to AD
LDS once every four hours . You can change these intervals using the Set-EdgeSyncService cmdlet.

What's Edge subscription?

The Edge Subscription is the record of an Edge Transport server that has been subscribed to an Exchange organization. The
ADAM directory service on a subscribed Edge Transport server is updated with information from Active Directory by the
Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service.

What is Eseutil?
It is a tool that you can use to verify, modify, and repair an Exchange database file. When a database is corrupt or damaged,
you can restore data from backup or repair it using Eseutil.

Where does Exchange store its configuration settings?

At configuration partition in the active directory

How would you verify that the schema is updated?

You can verify that you are ready to start installing Exchange 2007 by looking for the
following.
The Microsoft Exchange Systems Objects container contains a global group called Exchange
12 Domain Servers
The ESUG has the Exchange 12 Domain Servers global group as a member.
The ESUG will have permissions to the Manage Auditing and Security Log settings on all DCs
in all domains that the commands were run against
What are the different Exchange Recipient types?
http://www.scripts4it.com/interview-questions/exchange-2007-2010/what-are-the-different-exchangerecipient-types
How many storage groups Exchange 2007 supports?
In the standard edition of Exchange 2007, you can have up to 5 databases spread over 5
storage groups. With enterprise edition, you can have 50 databases spread over 50 storage
groups