White and Fluffy (All things virtual)

Public Folders in Exchange 2013 June 28, 2013

I was told many years ago that Public Folders in Exchange Server were dead, well they’re not, they still exist in Exchange 2013, but now they are improved.

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, the underlying architecture for public folders has changed entirely, without changing the user experience with public folders.

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2013:

• Public folders are stored in a special type of mailbox called a public folder mailbox. In previous versions of Exchange Server, public folders were stored in a separate public folder database. In Exchange Server 2013, the public folder mailboxes are stored in regular mailbox databases. The public folder mailbox stores the public folder hierarchy as well as the public folder contents.

• Public folder mailboxes can be stored in mailbox databases that are part of a DAG. In previous versions of Exchange Server, public folders used a public folder replication process to enable redundancy. By storing the public folder mailboxes in a mailbox database that is part of a DAG, you can provide high availability for the public folder deployment using the same mechanism as the one used for providing high availability for mailboxes.

• Public folders are spread across multiple public folder mailboxes. In previous versions of Exchange Server, you could replicate public folder contents to public folder databases located in different locations to enhance client access to public folder contents. In Exchange Server 2013, you can create public folders and store the public folders in different mailboxes, which can be located on Mailbox servers in different locations.

Now the downside.

Public folders are accessed by clients only for Outlook 2007 or later. Outlook Web App clients cannot access the public folders.

Self Service Distribution Groups in Exchange 2013 June 28, 2013

Many years ago I used to work on an IT support desk and the company I worked for used to recruit graduates, when they started we had to guess which distribution groups to add them to.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just get the managers responsible for the graduates to sort out distribution groups?

Well I can with Self-Service Distribution Groups in Exchange 2013

Assign non-Exchange administrators as distribution group owners. With this option, Exchange administrators with the appropriate permissions create distribution groups, and then assign other users as the owners of the groups. The group owners can manage the group membership by accessing the group properties in Outlook or through the Outlook Web App.  You can only add individual mailboxes as owners of a distribution group. You cannot add groups as owners.

Enable open distribution group memberships. You can configure distribution groups to enable users to either automatically join groups or request to join groups. The configuration options vary depending on whether the distribution group is a security group or not.

For security distribution groups, you can configure the group to require owner approval to join groups. Only owners can remove members from security groups.

For distribution groups that are not security groups, you can configure the group membership as open, which means that anyone can automatically join or leave the group. You can also configure the group to require owner approval to join the group. In this scenario, users can request to join the group, and they will be joined to the group when the owner approves the request.

Enable users to create and manage their own distribution groups. You also can enable users to create distribution groups using the Outlook Web App Options page.

To enable users to create distribution groups, you must change the Default Role Assignment Policy or create a new role assignment policy and enable the MyDistributionGroups role. This option gives users permission to create mail-enabled distribution groups and to manage the groups that they own.

The recipient types in Exchange 2013 June 25, 2013

I’ve been looking at Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 over the last couple of weeks and for my exam I’ve been reading up on the various recipient types. These are the Active Directory Objects that we can send email to.

Types of Exchange Server Recipients

• User mailboxes. A mailbox that you assign to an individual user in your Exchange Server organization. This is the most common type of recipient in Exchange Server 2013.

• Mail contacts. Contacts that contain information about people or organizations that exist outside an Exchange Server organization and that have an external email address. Exchange Server routes all messages sent to the mail contact to this external e-mail address.

• Mail users. Users who have an AD DS user account but have an external email address. All messages sent to the mail user are routed to this external email address. A mail user is similar to a mail contact, except that a mail user has an AD DS user account with a security identifier (SID). This allows the user account to access resources in the AD DS environment.

• Resource mailboxes (room mailboxes and equipment mailboxes). A resource mailbox is configured for objects such as meeting rooms, or resources such as a projector. You can include resource mailboxes as resources in meeting requests, which provides a simple and efficient way of scheduling resource usage.

• Shared mailboxes. A mailbox that is used by multiple users rather than one primary user. Organizations often use shared mailboxes to provide services such as sales, help desk, or general information requests.

• Mail-enabled security and distribution groups. You can use a mail-enabled AD DS security group object to grant access permissions to AD DS resources, and you also can use it to distribute messages. You can use a mail-enabled AD DS distribution group object to distribute messages to a group of recipients.

• Dynamic distribution groups. A distribution group that uses a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query with recipient filters and conditions to derive its membership at the time messages are sent.

• Linked mailboxes. A regular mailbox that is associated with an individual user in a separate, trusted forest. When you create a linked mailbox, a disabled user account is created in the Exchange organization, and a user account from a trusted forest is given access to the mailbox.

• Remote mailboxes. Mailboxes that are located in the Exchange Online environment. In a hybrid Exchange Server 2013 deployment, you can create and manage remote mailboxes in the Exchange Online environment by using the Exchange Administration Center.

• Site mailboxes. Mailboxes that include both an Exchange Server mailbox and a SharePoint site. With site mailboxes, messages are stored in the mailbox, whereas documents are stored on the SharePoint site.