Email server-Microsoft Exchange Server

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It is undeniable that email has become a de facto standard for global communication. In many enterprises, e-mails have become standard and formal communication means, surpassing telephone or face-to-face meetings.

We tried Microsoft's "Exchange Server 2000" email server software and decided to see what the software is different from other email server software we have tested. Honestly, this software is not that impressive.

The first thing we have noticed is that Exchange 2000 needs to be integrated with the Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory. Therefore, an enterprise must run a domain and make exchange one of the controllers of the domain or a member server for that domain. This requirement automatically removes the possibility of organizations making exchange a separate email server, because you need to run Windows 2000 and an Active Directory domain.

We chose to create a separate domain controller on the test server and install exchange on that server.

When we installed exchange on that test server for the first time, the software almost crashed the Active Directory to the point where it was not working. We even have to downgrade this server to a member of a working group, and the activity directory cannot be deleted. We had to reformat the server and start all over again.

This may happen very occasionally during the installation process, because our second installation won't have any faults and it will be completed smoothly.

After the installation, we found that the exchange management tool is very large, troublesome to use, and occupies a large storage space. We found that the only useful thing is its application in large enterprises. Exchange is indeed not made for small businesses.

The exchange service makes the test server with MB of memory unavailable. We also managed to run DNS and DHCP services on this dual-CPU server. As a result, the huge workload caused the server to be congested. Every time we access this server, the virtual page file pops up and the disk array strip out of control.

Whether you believe it or not, the test server actually exceeds the system requirements of Exchange 2000. However, the server is still running too slowly and cannot work effectively. Like other software provided by Microsoft, the system requirements for exchange software provided in the list are too low.

Because of these limitations, we feel that our test of exchange does not show the highest performance of the software.

However, for enterprises looking to transition from an earlier version of exchange to Exchange 2000, because the software has functions such as Outlook Web email access (network mail access) that can rival hotmail.com and Yahoo.com, it is good to upgrade to Exchange 2000. The integrated schedule and Calendar feature makes outlook and Exchange 2000 one of the best combinations of large workgroup running on the Windows 2000 platform.

Advantages: many functions are suitable for large service systems. The integration of Active Directory reduces the workload of user management and creation.

Disadvantage: because its service and management applications require a large amount of memory capacity, this software requires a high-performance server and must be used together with the Active Directory and Windows 2000.

Editor's note: Exchange has released a new version, and the current Exchange 2003 has improved a lot compared with its predecessor, according to a Microsoft Service Engineer, "he personally thinks that Exchange 2003 is a truly available version ". However, its basic features-the Windows Active Directory is required, and the DNS and high-performance servers supporting the SRC record have not changed. Fortunately, today, when the price of hardware is high, it is not difficult to solve the problem of high requirements on system hardware. Think about the need for G-memory games, its requirements are nothing. Considering its close relationship with cooperation tools such as outlook and a variety of powerful enterprise-level functions, it should be said that it is an enterprise-level mail server suitable for enterprise applications of medium and higher sizes.

Version
Latest Version	Version 2003
Release Date	2004-1-30
Score (out of 5)	4.5
Description	Email and Enterprise Collaboration servers closely integrated with Windows servers and active Directories
Download:	Http://www.microsoft.com/excha...
Platform	Alpha, Intel, Pentium
Supported Operating Systems	Windows Server 2003
Price	For more information, see here.
Company	Microsoft Corp.
Home Page	Http://www.microsoft.com/excha...

Server features

Management Gui settings Graphical interface Installation Remote Management SNMP settings/monitoring Cutting-edge technologies/scalability supported . NET technology compatibility 64-bit Port Cluster Support IPv6 support J2EE 1.4 Certification J2EE 1.4 Compatibility Other features Multiple logs Support for Microsoft ISAPI Virtual Server Web-based user interface Programming/script Contains source code Have your own APIs Have your own script/batch processing language Support for external scripts/batch processing languages

Security Active Directory Authentication Anti-Spam Function Anti-Virus Function Built-in Firewall Built-in Proxy Server Built-in user access control mechanism LDAP Authentication Other/system authentication SSL (hardware) SSL (software) Supported Commercial support available Forum Support Free phone support Gsa scheduled Email list support Service Level Agreement provision