Exchange Server Tips for New Trainers

Teaching Exchange Server for the first time?

Trying to think of a way to spice up your delivery of Microsoft’s Official Curriculum?

I’ve attached a list of tips that I wish someone had told me when I first started teaching MS Exchange Server.  These are just a few ways I keep the classes’ attention, while making sure individual students can relate to the terminology and concepts.

1.   Make the terminology familiar

Exchange Organization – The Local Postal System

Core Components – We all know how exciting they can be, and how often we have to refer to them during the delivery of the course material.    If the Exchange Organization can be compared to the Postal System, then the core components can be parts or workers in that very organization.

a)  Information Store – Priv.edb and Pub.edb become the Post Office Boxes and Bulletin Boards 

b)  Directory Service – The Postal System’s giant Address Book that gives us the names and addresses of every person on every postal route maintained by the organization.

c)  Message Transfer Agent – The Mailman (or if you want to be politically correct…the Letter Carrier)

d)  System Attendant – The Boss – responsible for overseeing all other components

2.   Use Real-life Scenarios  

Multiple-Server Message Flow –  The MTA’s are unionized so they can’t cross over onto each other’s territory, therefore they have to pass the message off to the next MTA.

Address Space – a highway sign that tells you that you can “get there from here”. You can take Highway #1 from Toronto to Vancouver  just like you can take the Site Connector to North America from the Paris Server in Europe-Africa to get to the Vancouver Server in the North America site.

3.   Repeat, repeat, repeat…

• Where do you go to force directory replication between two servers in a site?
• Where do you go to force directory replication between two sites?
• Where do you go to enable circular logging?
• Where do you go to configure old log files to be removed?

I give my students a hands-on quiz with numerous questions like the ones above.  It gives them the opportunity to explore each and every object and tab within the Exchange Administrator program. 

Then I repeat, repeat and repeat again throughout the course delivery, asking them to identify where each task can be accomplished or each object configured.

I hope this helps you and your students have fun with Exchange!!

ccreary@OutlookExchange.com