Allrighty, here we go.
This is the first part of the 6 part series that i have put together for Installing the Exchange Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2.
In this section, we will be discussing the 5 server roles that are present in Exchange Server 2010. The five server roles are:
- Mailbox Server Role
- Client Access Server Role
- Hub Transport Server Role
- Edge Transport Server Role
- Unified Messaging Role
Overview of Mailbox Server Role
In Exchange Server 2010, Mailbox server role is one of the roles that you can install and configure on a server running Windows Server 2008 R2. It is the most common role and the heart of the Exchange organization's infrastructure.
Mailbox Server role performs the following functions:
- Host mailbox databases
- Provide e-mail storage
- Host public folder databases
- Calculate e-mail address policies
- Generate address lists and offline address books (OABs)
- Conduct Multi-Mailbox Searches
- Provide content indexing
Overview of Client Access Server Role
The Client Access server role in Exchange Server 2010 is one of five distinct server roles. It is the connection point for all the users to their mailboxes both internally and externally.
Client Access Server role supports following functions:
- Outlook Web Access (OWA) : Allows to access mailboxes from Web browsers.
- Exchange Active Sync : Synchronize data between smartphones and Exchange.
- Outlook Anywhere: Connect to Exchange mailbox externally using outlook without going through the a VPN connection.
- POP/IMAP : Supports these two functions as well.
- Availability Service : Shows free/busy data to Outlook users.
- Autodiscover Service: Helps outlook clients and smartphones to automatically receive profile settings and locate Exchange services.
Overview of Hub Transport Server Role
Once deployed in the Active Directory forest, the Hub Transport Server role takes care of all the mail flow within the organization, applies transport rules, and delivers emails to the recipient's mailboxes.
The Hub Transport will be a part of the domain. You can install the Hub Transport server role on the same hardware with any other internal server role or on a server that's dedicated to the Hub Transport server role. You must deploy a Hub Transport server role in each Active Directory site that contains a Mailbox server role.
Overview of Edge Transport Server Role
Edge Transport is a unique server role that is part of the Exchange server roles in 2010. This server role is not mandatory like the three that we mentioned earlier (i.e Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport). But it is recommended by Microsoft.
The Edge Transport Server role defend the organization from spams and virus attacks, and also denial of service attacks that are frequent nowadays. Agents running on the Edge Transport server provide additional layers of message protection and security.
Overview of Unified Messaging Role
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging (UM) combines voice messaging and e-mail messaging into a single messaging infrastructure. Unified Messaging puts all e-mail and voice messages into one Exchange 2010 mailbox that can be accessed from many different devices.
Unified Messaging Server performs the following functions:
- Provides a universal mailbox.
- Takes care of Email, voicemail and incoming fax.
- Access to inbox, calendar, contacts and more all through phone.
Now that you have the understanding of the Server roles in Exchange Server 2010, lets move on to the second part of this series which will cover prerequisites for installing Exchange Server 2010.
