1. Explain About Messaging Environment.

MTA Mail Transfer Agent

MUA Mail User Agent

MDA Mail Delivery Agent

Spam Server

Proper Domain Name

Public DNS Server

2. How Servers are placed in Your Organization?

Two ISP for Redundant Purpose

Firewall for Security Purpose

Gateway Spam Server to scan all incoming and Outgoing Mails

Exchange Server

Relay Server.

3. How will you identify the server for Exchange Server Environment?

Hardware Requirement:

Processor - x64 architecture-based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture

Memory - 2 GB of RAM per server plus 5 megabytes (MB) of RAM per mailbox

Hard Disk Space - Minimum 1.2 GB on the drive on which you install Exchange.

Software Requirement:

OS: Windows 2008 / 2003 with SP1 64 Bit OS.

Domain Controller: AD with minimum DFL as Native Mode.

Web Server: IIS 6.0 or 7.0 with Dot Net Frame work 2.0 SP1

DNS Server

Windows Power Shell

4. What are the server considerations for Exchange 2007 and 2010?
Roles Processor Memory HDD Space
Edge Transport
2*Processor
Core
Min 2GB /Server
Min 1 GB HD
Space
Hub Transport
4*Processor
Core
Min 2GB / Server
Min 1 GB HD
Space

5. Explain Mail Routing in Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007?

A Mail Exchanger Record (MX Record) is a special DNS record specifying how e-mail should be routed.
When a message should be sent to that domain, a DNS lookup into the destination DNS domain occurs
and will look for an MX record and a responding A Record. The E-Mail will then be sent to the specified
Exchange Frontend or Backend Server for message delivery.

6. What is administrative Group?

The Administrative Groups container allows you to create multiple administrative groups. If you aren't
familiar with administrative groups, they allow you to designate administrative control over subsets of
your Exchange organization. Beneath each defined administrative group are four sub-containers:
Servers, System Policies, Routing Groups and Folders. The Servers sub-container holds each of the
individual servers within the administrative group. You can then drill down into each server to access
things like storage groups, queues and protocols.

7. What is Routing Group?

The Routing Groups sub-container lets you manage routing groups. Routing groups in Exchange 2003
work similarly to sites

8. What is difference between Edge Transport Server and Hub Transport Server Role?

The Edge Transport role is installed on the edge of the network and therefore is installed on a
standalone server that is not a member of the Active Directory domain. Because the server is not a
member of the Active Directory domain, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) is used to sync AD
with the Edge Transport server. ADAM and a component called EdgeSync are used to perform
scheduled one-way synchronization of the configuration and recipient information from Active
Directory. This allows the Edge Transport to perform recipient lookups and Spam filtering. The Edge
Transport role performs a number of functions including Anti-spam and Anti-virus protection. The
Edge Transport uses connection filtering, content filtering, recipient filtering, Sender ID, sender and IP
reputation to reduce the amount of Spam delivered to the end users inbox.

Hub Transport

The Hub Transport role is responsible for all internal mail flow. This role is similar to the bridgehead
server in an Exchange 2000/2003 organization. In fact it originally was called the Bridgehead Role
until it was changed. nbound mail is accepted from the Edge Transport and passed on to the user's
mailbox and all outbound mail is relayed from the Hub Transport to the Edge Transport and out to the
Internet. 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 Server
4*Processor
Core
Min 2GB / Server
Min 1 GB HD
Space
Mailbox Server
4*Processor
Core
Min 2GB / Server + 5MB for
Additional Mail Box
Min 1 GB HD
Space
Unified Messaging
4*Processor
Core
Min 2GB / Server
Min 1 GB HD
Space
Multi Role (All Roles Ext
Edge)
4*Processor
Core
Min 4GB / Server
Min 1.5 GB HD
Space
9. How will you subscribe on Edge Transport Server?

The Edge Subscription process is the procedure that an administrator follows to establish an Edge
Subscription for an Edge Transport server. You subscribe an Edge Transport server to an Active
Directory service site to associate the Edge Transport server with the Exchange organization. After the
Edge Transport server is subscribed, the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service periodically replicates
recipient and configuration data from Active Directory to the Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM)
instance on a computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed.

The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service is the data synchronization service that runs on a Hub
Transport server. The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service that is running on the Hub Transport
servers in the Active Directory site to which the Edge Transport server is subscribed periodically
performs one-way replication of recipient and configuration data to ADAM. The Microsoft Exchange
EdgeSync service copies only the information that is required for the Edge Transport server to perform
anti-spam configuration tasks, and information about the Send connector configuration that is
required to enable mail flow between the Exchange 2007 organization's Hub Transport servers and the
Internet through one or more Edge Transport servers.

10. There are 2 sites having 2000 users in total, how will you design the exchange
infrastructure for this scenario?

(Talk about IP addressing, DNS setting, AD requirement, Exchange server identification, placing the
exchange server on the environment, RAID levels required for OS, RAID level required for Exchange
(for t-log,Mail database), Backup solution and Antivirus solution for exchange and OS)

11. Exchange Server Roles Installation? What order do you follow and why?

Active Directory Schema & Domain Preparation

Hub Transport

Client Access Server Role

Mail Box Server Role

Unified Messaging Role

Edge Transport Role

12. Offline Defragmentation? (eseutil)? On What Scenario will you run a offline
defragmentation? When will you recommend to run offline defragmentation?

Eseutil /d Database Path. We need to dismount the database before defragmentation.

13. What is White Space?

Exactly white space is referred to the free space upon the database which can hold the new mailbox
data. As Exchange database is divided into 3 parts i.e. Data, Recoverable items & Free Space. We may
call the free space as White Space. To calculate white space use the command Get-MailboxDatabase -
Status | Select-Object Server,Name,AvailableNewMailboxSpace

14. What is Offline Defragmentation?

You need to take your databases offline in order to run ESEUTIL on them. So - you are looking at
downtime. 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. Not only are the used pages
read, but they are renumbered/rechecksummed too. All secondary indexes in the database are
discarded as well.

15. How do you check the database consistency?

Using the command CHKSGFILES

16. What is Recovery Storage Group?

Exchange administrator, the option of mounting a second copy of a mailbox database (typically a
mailbox database restored from backup) so that you can extract data from one or more mailboxes in
the respective database without affecting the production databases if you need to do so during
working hours.

17. Difference between LCR and CCR and SCC?

18. What is circular logging? When and why or in which scenario will you enable circular
logging?

Circular logging allows Microsoft Exchange to overwrite transaction log files after the data that the log
files contain has been committed to the database. Circular logging is not recommended in production
environments.

19. How do you enable message tracking (ex 2k3, 2k7 and 2010)? Where are these logs
stored?

Message tracking records the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) transport activity of all messages
that are transferred to and from an Exchange 2007 computer that has the Hub Transport, Mailbox, or
Edge Transport server role installed. You can use message tracking logs for message forensics, mail
flow analysis, reporting, and troubleshooting.
By default, message tracking is enabled on all Exchange 2007 computers that have the Hub Transport,
Mailbox, or Edge Transport server roles installed.

1. Open the Exchange Management Console. Perform one of the following steps:
On a computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed, select Edge Transport, and
then in the action pane, click the Properties link that is directly under the server name.
On a computer that has the Hub Transport server role installed, in the console tree, expand
Server Configuration, and select Hub Transport. In the action pane, click the Properties link
that is directly under the server name.
2. In the Properties page, click the Log Settings tab.

3. In the Message tracking log section, perform one of the following steps:

Select Enable message tracking log to enable message tracking.
Clear Enable message tracking log to disable message tracking.
4. Click Apply to save changes and remain in the Properties page, or click OK to save
changes and exit the Properties page.

Logs will be stored on the location in which we specify while creating storage group.

20. What is LLR?

In Exchange 2007, an internal component of Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) called LLR enables you
to recover Exchange databases even if one or more of the most recently generated transaction log
files have been lost or damaged. By default, LLR is enabled on all Exchange 2007 mailbox servers. LLR
enables a mailbox database to mount even when recently generated log files are unavailable. One
cause of unavailable log files is a lossy failover in a cluster continuous replication (CCR) environment,
which is also known as an unscheduled outage.