Recently I got partially involved in licensing for Exchange 2000 on a particular project. Usually, this is something I have nothing to do with, and I generally thank my lucky stars! But in this case, the licensing requirements of Exchange 2000 Front-end servers was brought up. It turns out an Enterprise license is needed for this. Personally I was shocked. In Exchange 5.5, we used to put OWA on other servers in DMZ's etc for extra security. This cost us nothing extra, yet now we are expected to pay thousands for it.

The reason for this, as I was informed from a certain MS Exchange product specialist at MS - "Front-end servers were only seen to be something that large companies would make use of to spread traffic load"!

What about the little people then? I know of many small companies of under 1000 users, that use OWA on another server, and this has nothing to do with traffic load. It's purely to do with security. So, I thought I would delve further into what we are actually receiving with a front-end server, and how much value we are getting for it. 

Disappointed 

I wasn’t disappointed in regards to the functionality, security and performance benefits gained by this topology, I was disappointed in Microsoft’s unfair pricing for this scenario. In my eyes, I believe Microsoft need to have separate pricing for Front-end Servers. To make this easier to understand, let’s look at Microsoft pricing for Exchange 2000 Servers. You can see this at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/pricing/default.asp 

There’s basically two different Exchange 2000 Servers :- 

• Exchange 2000 Standard @ US$699
• Exchange 2000 Enterprise @ US$3999

To bring this into perspective these two points need to be made clear :- 

• Exchange 2000 Standard Server can only be used as a back-end server in a front-end and back-end configuration
• Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server can be used as a front-end server in a front-end and back-end configuration.

So this means, that if you want to host OWA on another server, you require an Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server license. This stinks for something that with Exchange 5.5 was free! 

OK, I know now some people may think this is OK, but what is really required of a front-end server? 

What extra features are we paying for in a Front-end Server? 

For those that aren’t aware, a Front-end server cannot host any mailboxes! So if this is the case, we obviously aren’t paying for these things that an Enterprise license provides :- 

• An unlimited database size. (Exchange 2000 Standard has a 16GB limit. An Exchange 2000 Front-end Server, doesn’t have a database.)
• Four Storage Groups per Server. (Exchange 2000 Standard has only One Storage Group. An Exchange 2000 Front-end Server, has none.)
• Up to Five Information Stores per Storage Group. (Exchange 2000 standard can only have one Private and one Public Store. An Exchange 2000 Front-end Server can’t have any.)

In fact, if you look at the above alone, an Exchange 2000 Front-end Server pricing should at least be less that an Exchange 2000 Standard Server (US$699), not the US$3999 price tag they put on it. 

The following is quoted from the “Exchange 2000 Front-end / Back-end Topology” White Paper :- 

Not all Exchange services are required on a front-end server, depending on the protocols being exposed. The following list shows the Exchange services required for each protocol; all other Exchange services should be stopped and disabled; 

HTTP: No Exchange-specific services required! 

What? So let me get this straight. OWA with Exchange 5.5 was a series of web pages, and was free. OWA with Exchange 2000 is a series of web pages and costs US$3999! 

The White Paper goes on to say :- 

However, the Windows HTTP service (w3svc) must be running. 

Hang on a minute! Didn’t this service come bundled with the Windows 2000 licence in IIS? Are we paying for this? Again? It continues :- 

Note: The Exchange System Attendant Service (MSExchangeSA) must be running if the administrator wishes to make changes to the HTTP configuration changes on the server. 

So, it’s US$3999 for the Exchange System Attendant Service. But this is only is you need to make a change. That’s a bit sucky! It’s like giving you Internet Explorer, but charging you a bucket load if you want to manually change the proxy settings! 

So far, I can’t see US$3999 value, for a Front-end server that is only going to be used for OWA. OK, maybe US$100, but that’s only cause I’m nice! But what about the other protocol’s I hear someone saying? Let’s take a look at further quotes from the White Paper :- 

POP3 requires: Exchange POP3 (POP3Svc), Exchange Information Store Service (MSExchangeIS), MSExchangeSA

IMAP requires: Exchange IMAP (IMAPSvc), MSExchangeIS, MSExchangeSA 

OK, I give on the POP3 and IMAP Services. Of course they are required. But the White Paper goes on to say this about the MSExchangeIS :- 

By default, IMAP4Svc and POP3Svc have a dependency on MSExchangeIS. In practise, however, these services do not require this dependency when running as front-end services. 

What? Is this some sloppy programming? If it’s not required, why install it? To substantiate the US$3999 charge for 2 protocols? But wait there’s more :- 

You can manually remove this dependency by removing MSExchangeIS from the following registry key: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\

            System\

                        CurrentControlSet\

                                    Services\

                                                IMAP4SCV | POP3SVC\

                                                            DependOnService

 Whoops. Are we paying for an after thought now? So what about the MSExchangeSA service? Here’s what the White Paper says about this :- 

If you run POP3 and IMAP4 in a configuration where you do not have the RPC ports (135 and 1024+) opened between the front-end server and the back-end servers, you must remove the dependencies and must not run the MSExchangeIS service or the MSExchangeSA service on the front-end server. 

Ummm….so neither of these is really required? Let’s face it, if it’s not needed, it’s not needed! So let’s look at what we get for our US$3999 :- 

• OWA (remember, this was free with Exchange 5.5)
• POP3
• IMAP4
• SMTP (OK, I’ve left this out, but hey, isn’t it just the SMTP from IIS; which you already paid for with your Windows 2000 pricing; with a couple more features?)

Dollar for dollar value, you get more than 4 times as much out of Exchange 2000 Standard, yet your asked to pay 5 times more than Exchange 2000 Standard! With a bit off luck, enough people will voice their opinions on this, and MS may change their pricing. We can only hope.