Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

Chapter 21

Understanding the Client Access Server

There is an old saying, “What’s old is new again.” People who have been working with Exchange Server for a long time will see striking similarity between the Exchange Server 2013 architecture and Exchange Server 2003. Once again, the Client Access role is a “simple” proxy to the mailbox backend, where the heavy lifting is performed. However, this similarity is only on the surface, and this chapter will illustrate how while the architecture looks familiar, there are some fundamental improvements to the design.

Similar to previous versions, the Client Access server role brokers all client communications, including Outlook Web App, IMAP4/POP3, Exchange ActiveSync, and Outlook Anywhere. In a change ...