Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Tony Redmond's Guide to Successful Implementation

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More useful things to Know about Exchange

One of the essential truths about living in the Internet world is that while

information may be at our fingertips, too much information exists for any

one human to make sense of it all. The information relating to Exchange is

clearly a very small part of the overall knowledge pool, but it is advanta-

geous for an administrator to know where to find help to get their job

done. This chapter covers some of the places where you can go to get help

and some of the tools that do not come with the Exchange kit that make

Exchange easier to work with. It is by no means an exhaustive list as new

items appear all the time. Think of it as a “tried and trusted” list that is

worthy of your investigation.

10.1 Automated analysis

Exchange is a complex product that requires administrators to have substan-

tial knowledge of the environment that a server operates within—network

connections, Windows configuration, third-party products, the Exchange

organization, and operational procedures all influence how efficiently and

effectively a server operates. It is genuinely difficult, even for the most experi-

enced Exchange administrator, to keep up to date with every technical devel-

opment that affects Exchange, including updates to Microsoft’s knowledge

base, new patches, independent commentary, and other sources of data. The

result is that there is a huge difference in how administrators manage servers

and management disciplines range from the very good to the very bad.

Administrators are not solely to blame for this somewhat confused state

of affairs. Microsoft owns much of the responsibility as it would seem appro-

priate for them to incorporate automated management in Exchange to drive

down the cost of owning and operating the software. I have frequently been

critical of Microsoft in the way that they develop administration utilities for

products like Exchange where it seems that developers like to complete fea-

tures that users see. However, when it comes to building management utili-

ties, less eagerness seems to exist within the development team to ensure that