How to manage Exchange 2003 Servers

Managing Exchange Server deals with lot of day to day activities related to exchange server administration. Exchange Admin has to prepare a daily task to maintain all the servers. If we look at the daily tasks, here I listed few basic tasks

1. Check the Event Viewer for any error or alerts
2. Check the Disk Space on database and log drives
3. Backup completion check
4. Internal and External OWA connectivity
5. Internal and External mail flow

Also, we have several tools available to monitor and manage Exchange servers. The below option describes some common Exchange management tools.

1. Exchange System Manager
2. Active Directory Users and Computers
3. Adsiedit
4. LDAP Viewer

Step by step procedure to Manage Exchange Server 2003
Exchange System Manager
The System Manager tool is installed by default and is the primary tool you use to monitor and manage your Exchange Server 2003 configuration. Use System Manager to:

• Change server settings
• Change database settings
• Move databases
• Create additional databases
• Enable message tracking

System Manager runs on Windows 2003 or Windows 2000 SP3 as long as Active Directory Users and Computers are running on the machine. You can also use System Manager on a Windows XP machine with SP1 as long as SMTP service is running on the machine during the installation of the tools.
By default System Manager looks like this,



You can do the following steps,
1. Enabling Administrative Groups
By default Administrative Groups are disabled, you can enable by
Go to Start -> All programs -> Microsoft Exchange -> System Manager ->right click the exchange system Manager and go to properties,



2. Enabling Routing Groups
By default Routing Groups are disabled, you can enable by
Go to Start -> All programs -> Microsoft Exchange -> System Manager ->right click the exchange system Manager and go to properties,



A warning of restarting Exchange System Manager will show when you apply these settings



After enabling Administrative Group and Routing Group, the system manager window will look like this; the first server in your organization will come under the first Administrative Group



Active Directory Users and Computers
Active Directory Users and Computers is the primary tool you use to manage users in an Exchange Server 2003 environment. Use Active Directory Users and Computers to:

• Create recipients
• Modify recipients
• Hide recipients
• Manipulate additional recipient options

Active Directory Users and Computers runs on Windows 2003, Windows 2000 SP3, or Windows XP.
Following figure shows the diagram of Active Directory Users and Computers



Notes:
1. If you open the properties of the existing user the Exchange features tabs will not be there, to have the exchange properties, right click the user Accounts and click exchange tasks to create a Mailbox, after creating a Mail box you will have the New Exchange features tab



To get the Exchange Feature, right click an existing user, select Exchange tasks, on the welcome page click next



Select create Mailbox



Review the Mailbox location, alias name and the Administrative Group, click Next



Click finish to end the user mail box creation for existing user



Following figure shows the user properties after creating a Mailbox for existing user.



ADSIEDIT (for security reason, without knowing about the Active Directory Partition)
Adsiedit is the tool you use to modify advanced properties in Active directory. Use Adsiedit to:

• Grant advanced security permissions
• Add, modify, delete, and organize user accounts, computer accounts, security and distribution groups

Adsiedit runs on any Windows 2003, Windows 2000 SP3 or Windows XP machine that is part of the domain.
Install Adsiedit using the Support Tools available on the Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 CD
To run ADSIEDIT
Go to start ->Run ->adsiedit.msc



It will open up the ADSI edit window



For example if we are planning to edit the name of the first Administrative Group.
Navigate – configuration partition -> Services -> Microsoft Exchange -> Exchange Organization Name ->Administrative Group
From here you can create a New Administrative Group and edit the Name of First Administrative Group etc



LDAP Viewer
The LDAP viewer allows you to view advanced properties of recipients such as:

• The SMTP addresses of users
• The date and time of a user’s last log on
• SID of an object
• Object history
• How an object was migrated

Following figure shows the LDAP viewer



Important Notes:

• Because of Exchange System Manager and the Active Directory Users and Computers are snap-ins, you can create custom MMCs for both of them. You do this by typing MMC.exe at the command line to run the Microsoft Management Console.
• Exchange System Manager can only be used to administer Exchange Server 2003.
• Use Active Directory Users and Computers to move mailboxes within an organization. Use the migration wizard and other migration tools to move mailboxes between organizations.