|
For a PDF version of this article, click
here.
There are situations where Exchange 5.5 will need
to coexist with other directories for extended amounts of time. It is
estimated that over 20 million Exchange 5.5 seats will remain in that
environment for years to come. This is a troubling thought for Microsoft
and indeed for those procrastinating companies since Exchange 5.5
support is over.
Having said that, the estimate remains and so does
the problem of coexistence. In this example, we have an Exchange 5.5
organization that will need to stay synchronized with several other
Active Directory environments running Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003.
To support this requirement, we need to ensure we have selected the
fields and formats needed to allow message flow to work across different
system types.
The first thing we need to do is map out the
directory requirements:
From the AD Domain to Exchange 5.5
a) Mail-enabled Contacts --> Exchange 5.5
custom recipients
Name, Address, Company, title and Phone
Number Fields
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
b) Mailbox-enabled Users --> Exchange 5.5
custom recipients
Name, Address, Company, title and Phone
Number Fields
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
c) Mail-enabled groups --> Exchange 5.5
custom recipients
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
From Exchange 5.5 to the AD Domain
a) Exchange 5.5 custom recipients -->
Mail-enabled Contacts
Name, Address, Company, title and Phone
Number Fields
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
b) Exchange 5.5 custom recipients -->
Mailbox-enabled Users
Name, Address, Company, title and Phone
Number Fields
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
c) Exchange Distribution Lists --> Mail-enabled
Contacts
SMTP, X.500 and X.400 addresses
Ownership and Support
While building the system, we found many more
useful fields and attributes that should be added and we created
intelligent discovery and join rules as well as highly detailed
projection rules. This basic list you see above expanded to include
hundreds of fields.
As you can imagine, there are many products
available to perform this type of directory synchronization. HP offers a
product called LDSU and less-expensive offerings such as SimpleSync are
also available. We chose Microsoft’s Identity Integration Server 2003
because of its support for AD, Exchange and ability to synchronize with
Lotus Notes, SQL and DBMS.
The most important aspect of MIIS is your test
environment. It is from this environment that you test new scripts,
attribute flows, join rules, etc. For us, we have built an entire lab
environment that includes MIIS, Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2003 (on
Windows 2000 Server) in virtual images that can be transported, copied
and distributed to those who need a better understanding of the systems.
There are three servers in this test environment.
All are patched to the current date and homogenized with test data.
MIIS
The MIIS virtual machine has all the required
components installed locally to fully manage and run the MIIS
environment. SQL Server 2000 Enterprise, SP3 is installed and fully
patched. Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003, SP1 is also
installed. In order to manage and maintain MIIS, Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET 2003 is installed as well.
Active Directory
On this image, we have Exchange Server 2003 as well
as the domain services for the Alpineskihouse.com domain. Windows Server
2000 in installed as is the Support Tools (ADSIEdit is handy for this
type of work)
Exchange 5.5
The MIIS virtual machine is running Windows 2000
Server and Exchange 5.5. It is a domain controller as well as the global
catalog server for EX5.com
|
