Overview

What is an Exchange server? The obvious answer is that it is a server running the Exchange Server software. However, there are many Exchange Server components, and it is rare to find them all installed and operational on a single hardware platform. It is much more common to deploy specialized servers, each using one or more of the Exchange Server components. This allows you to tailor each dedicated server to meet specific requirements. For example, you can configure one dedicated server to handle user mailboxes and a separate server to handle only connectivity to other messaging environments.

There are several reasons for using dedicated servers, including:

• To isolate services that use excessive hardware resources so that these services will not negatively impact other messaging services

• To support a number of users or services, or both, that exceeds the capacity of a single server

• To separate services with conflicting hardware configuration or tuning requirements

• To limit the number of servers and services exposed to the Internet or other external networks

• To provide redundancy for various messaging services

• To isolate certain groups of users, such as accounting or human resources, from other users for legal reasons

The number of dedicated servers you elect to deploy will depend primarily on the set of services you choose to offer, the number of users you have, and your network topology. Some of the more common types of dedicated Exchange servers are:

• Mailbox servers. A dedicated mailbox server is one that supports only user...