Part - 3: Exchange Interview Question & Answer

EXCHANGE SERVER

DS PROXY

DSProxy is the component in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 that provides an address book service to Microsoft Outlook clients. Although the name implies that this component provides only proxy services, DSProxy provides both of the following services:

1.	DSProxy emulates a MAPI address book service and sends proxy requests to an Active Directory server.
2.	DSProxy refers Outlook client queries to an Active Directory server.

DSAccess

The Exchange components that need to interact with Active Directory use DSAccess to retrieve Active Directory information rather than communicating directly with domain controllers and global catalog servers

Forestprep

When you use the /ForestPrep option, the Exchange Setup program extends the Active Directory schema to add Exchange-specific classes and attributes.

To verify that the setup /forestprep command completed successfully on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server in an Exchange 2000 environment, use either of the following methods:

•	Look for event ID 1575

DomainPrep:

DomainPrep creates the groups and permissions necessary for Exchange servers to read and modify user attributes in Active Directory. You must run DomainPrep before installing your first Exchange server in a domain

MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface)  

It is an extensive set of functions that developers can use to create mail-enabled applications. Enables an application to send and receive mail over a Microsoft Mail message system

Recovery Storage Group:

Recovery Storage Group is a new feature in Exchange 2003.  The biggest advantage of this method is that it reduces the impact of restoring a single mailbox from backup.

Exmerge tool:

ExMerge is to recover the mailbox data from the Recovery Storage Group.  Since ExMerge creates a .pst file.

List the services of Exchange Server 2003?

Microsoft Exchange Event

 Monitors folders and triggers events for server applications compatible with Exchange Server 5.5.

Microsoft Exchange IMAP4

It is a method of accessing electronic mail that are kept on a mail server.

 Microsoft Exchange Information Store

The information store, which is the key component for database management in Exchange Server, is actually two separate databases. The private information store database, Priv.edb, manages data in user mailboxes. The public information store, Pub.edb, manages data in public folders.

Microsoft Exchange Management

Provides Exchange management information using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). If this service is stopped, WMI providers implemented to work in Microsoft Exchange Management, like message tracking and Directory Access, will not work.

Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks

You use Exchange X.400 services to connect to Exchange 5.5 servers and other connectors (custom gateways).

Microsoft Exchange POP3

POP3 is a Client/Service protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server.

Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine

The Exchange Routing Engine uses Link State information for e-mail routing. The Routing Engine will forward this information to the Advanced Queuing Engine. The default size of routing table log file is 50 MB and default age is seven days.

Microsoft Exchange Site Replication Service

Provides directory interoperability between Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange 2003. Site Replication Service (SRS) acts as a directory replication bridgehead server for an Exchange site. SRS runs on Exchange 2000 and serves as a modified Exchange 5.5 directory. SRS uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to communicate to both the Active Directory® directory service and the Exchange 5.5 directory. To Exchange 5.5, SRS looks similar to another Exchange 5.5 configuration/recipients replication partner.

Microsoft Exchange System Attendant

 Provides monitoring, maintenance, and Active Directory lookup services (for example, monitoring of services and connectors, proxy generation, Active Directory to metabase replication, publication of free/busy information, offline address book generation, mailbox maintenance, and forwarding Active Directory lookups to a global catalog server). If this service is stopped, monitoring, maintenance, and lookup services are unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it cannot start.

What are the Exchange Server 2003 - Troubleshooting Eseutil commands?

Eseutil /mh

Here is a simple switch to verify the state of an Exchange database.  All that eseutil /mh does is to determine whether the last shutdown was clean or dirty.  Eseutil /mh is ideal to practice getting to the right path and executing eseutil without doing any harm to the mailstore databases.

Eseutil /ml
Similar to the /mh, except this switch performs an integrity check on log files, for example, E00.log.

Eseutil /mm
Dumps metadata from the database file (not the logs).  Specialist use only, I find the output fascinating but not very useful.

Eseutil /mk
Provides information about the checkpoint file.  Handy for troubleshooting backup / restore problems.  Where /mh used priv1.edb, remember to substitute the name of the checkpoint file E00.chk with /mk.

Eseutil /k to check for damaged headers

Eseutil /cc for troubleshooting

Eseutil /d to defrag the .edb database

Example: eseutil /d  e:\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb (Or other path to your store)

Eseutil /r to repair Exchange 2003 log files

Eseutil /p will attempt to repair a corrupted store database

Eseutil /y Copies a database, streaming file, or log file

Eseutil /g Verifies the integrity of a database

Eseutil /m Generates formatted output of various database file types. e.g. /mh

Isinteg Utility (Information Store Integrity Checker) finds and eliminates errors from the public folder and mailbox databases at the application level. it can recover data that Eseutil cannot recover.

Offline Storage Files (.OST) file

Microsoft Exchange Server locally stores its data in OST file on your storage Device. An OST file is a component Of Microsoft Exchange Server and can’t be used with Microsoft Outlook.

At the time of when exchange server crashes or when mailbox is deleted from the exchange server, OST file gets inaccessible and remains on the users computer holding large part of emails, calendar, journals, notes, contacts, tasks etc.

Advanced Queuing Engine (AQE)

The Advanced Queuing Engine (AQE) is responsible for creating and managing message queues for e-mail delivery. When AQE receives a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mailmsg object, this object will be forwarded to the Message Categorizer. The Advanced Queuing Engine then queues the Mailmsg object for message delivery based on the Routing information provided by the Routing Engine process of Exchange Server 2003.

Outbound Mail Flow in Exchange Server 2003

Outbound mail flows through an Exchange Server deployment in the following manner:

1.       Mail messages are sent from a client (Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Outlook Web Access, for example) and are submitted to the local Exchange store.

2.       The Exchange store submits the message to the Advanced Queuing Engine.

3.       The Advanced Queuing Engine submits the message to the message categorizer.

4.       The message categorizer validates the recipients of the message, checks for proper recipient attributes, applies limits and restrictions, flags the message for local or remote delivery, and then returns the message to the Advanced Queuing Engine.

5.       If for local delivery, the Advanced Queuing Engine submits the message to the Local Delivery queue, and the Exchange store receives the message from the Local Delivery queue. For more information about the Advanced Queuing Engine,

6.       If for remote delivery, the Advanced Queuing Engine submits the message to the Routing Engine. The Routing Engine determines the most efficient route for mail delivery, returns the message to the Advanced Queuing Engine, and, in turn, submits the messages for remote delivery. The messages are then sent via SMTP to a remote SMTP host or to the Internet.

The following are the minimum requirements for outbound mail flow:

·         Exchange Server must have access to the Internet on port 25. This access should not be blocked by firewalls or other network settings. Anonymous connections should be allowed.

·         The Exchange Server SMTP virtual server should be configured to use the default settings.

·         The public mail exchanger (MX) resource record configured on your public Domain Name System (DNS) service should be accessible to all other Internet domains. The MX record should point to the Exchange server and must be identified before messages can be sent or received.