Tony Redmond@12Knocksinna

Everything that you wanted to know about Exchange 2013

Where we are

• Exchange 2013 at RTM – now on countdown to “General Availability”

• Exchange 2010 SP3 and Exchange 2007 SP3 RUx required for co-existence

– AD schema update required

• TMG and other on-premises security products

Exchange 2013

• First version engineered from scratch to work as well for the cloud as it does for on-premises servers

– Positive feedback loop from “the service”

• Builds off basic architecture implemented in Exchange 2010, with some important differences

• RTM not the finished version; like Exchange 2010 expect feature completion in SP1

• Some features require Outlook 2013 or SharePoint 2013

Server roles

• Mailbox (back end)

• CAS (front end)

• Most servers install both roles

• Transport functionality mostly in mailbox, but SMTP capability also in CAS

• No Edge server at RTM – use Exchange 2010 (upgraded to SP3)

Connectivity

• The end of RPC/TCP; everything is HTTP-based

• Café = Client access and front end server (aka CAS)– Performs no processing or rendering of data; simply an authentication and

redirection server

– CAS proxies incoming client connections to appropriate mailbox server via HTTPS (no RPCs) using mailbox GUID as endpoint (no server FQDNs used)

– CAS load balancing at layer 4, not 7 = much simpler

• CAS not tied to mailbox server by location – possible to have CAS in one datacenter proxy connections to mailbox server in another

Store

• Re-engineered in managed code

– Worker process per database to isolate failures and other issues

• Continued focus on reducing I/O

– Multiple databases per disk

• More automation – database reseeds

• Better site failover capabilities

Management

• EAC: browser-based evolution of ECP is the only administration console– EAC runs on multiple devices (phones, pads, PCs)

– Common across cloud and on-premises

– Exchange-only, no dependencies, scaled for speed

– Uses same RBAC control model as Exchange 2010 ECP

– Missing – PowerShell learning tools (may reappear in SP1) and context-sensitive menus

• Exchange Management Shell – 200 new cmdlets

• Managed Availability – stop administrators getting out of bed at night

Modern public folders• Modern = stored in Exchange mailbox databases and protected by

the DAG

• Single hierarchy master held in first public folder mailbox configured in the organization

• Copies of public folder hierarchy stored in other public folder mailboxes, but these are read-only– Single master model replaces multi-master model

• Content of public folders distributed across public folder mailboxes

• Can only be accessed by Outlook 2013; OWA support in Exchange 2013 SP1

Modern public folders• Migration means:

– Identifying current set of public folders

– Weeding out unwanted public folders

– Using supplied scripts to move content to Exchange 2013 public folders

– Switch over to modern public folders (after all users are moved to Exchange 2013 mailbox servers)

– Deleting Exchange 2010 public folder databases

Site mailboxes• Document collaboration through close

integration with SharePoint 2013 and Outlook 2013

• Takes advantage of SharePoint facilities such as document versioning

• Confused with email, public folders, and site mailboxes? You’re not alone!

Clients• Outlook 2013 exposes all new functionality

– Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 also supported; Outlook 2003 is not

• Redesign (again) of Outlook Web App

– Includes offline access (for modern browsers), but lacks completeness (e.g. reading pane movement, access to site mailboxes)

Compliance• Data Leak Protection (DLP) – monitor and prevent users

sending confidential data to places that they shouldn’t

– Similar to transport roles; DLP templates provided by Microsoft and third parties

• Multi-mailbox search expanded over SharePoint and Lync

• Litigation and retention hold model extended (“in-place hold”) to allow for greater flexibility

Search• Based on FAST technology (aka “Windows Search

Foundation platform”), replacing Exchange-specific content indexing service

• Capable of searching across Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, and Lync 2013

– Including public folders (new) and site mailboxes

– Requires 10-15% of available memory on a mailbox server

• Exchange 2010 mailboxes searched with Exchange 2010 search option

Deployment• Update Active Directory schema

• Decide on operating system strategy

• Figure out namespace and certificate requirements

• Deploy Exchange 2013 CAS servers to manage namespace in Internet-facing sites (plus at least one mailbox server)

• Deploy Exchange 2013 mailbox servers

• Move mailboxes

• Decommission old Exchange servers

• Have coffee

Summary• Exchange 2013 core is solid

– It’s the stuff around the edges (like clients) that cause concern

• No real experience yet of messy public folder migrations

• Most companies will find it best to wait until Exchange 2013 SP1 appears