Active Directory, 3rd Edition

Chapter 17. Integrating Microsoft Exchange

Exchange^[*] has been the driving reason behind many companies' move to Active Directory. Starting with Exchange 2000, Exchange requires an Active Directory infrastructure, and the dependencies it places on AD are not small. In fact, the Exchange schema extensions roughly double the size of the default Active Directory schema. There are also restrictions on the location of your domain controllers relative to the Exchange servers. For these reasons and the critical nature of email, calendar, and collaboration services, all of which Exchange can provide, it is clear that Exchange can be one of the most significant application you integrate into Active Directory.

In this chapter, we will briefly touch on some of the important issues regarding the integration of Exchange with Active Directory. We'll cover how to prepare the forest for Exchange and describe some of the changes this causes. Finally, we will review the Active Directory Connector (ADC), which aids in the transition from Exchange 5.5 to newer versions of Exchange.

A Quick Word About Exchange/AD Interaction

Here are a few key points to note about Active Directory, Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange Server 2000, and Exchange Server 2003:

• Exchange 2000 can run only on Windows 2000.

• Exchange Server 2003 can run on Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.

• Exchange 5.5 can run in a Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Active Directory forest.

• Exchange 2000 can run in a Windows Server 2003 or Windows ...