We recently finished migrating one of the sites in our mixed-mode Exchange Server organization so that the site no longer contains any Exchange Server 5.5 servers. Can we safely remove that site's Site Replication Service (SRS) instance?
The Exchange 2000 Server SRS exchanges site topology information with Exchange 5.5 sites. Each Exchange 5.5 site has an instance of the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC), which maintains the internal tables that track how that site communicates with other sites. The KCC map includes information about which site members are bridgeheads, which connectors exist, and what address spaces they cover. To share information, the KCCs use the Exchange 5.5 Directory Services API, which Exchange 2000 doesn't support. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the Exchange 2000 directory team created the SRS, which can request data from an Exchange 5.5 KCC and translate it into an appropriate format and structure for the Exchange 2000 routing engine.
If you have even one Exchange 5.5 server in your organization, you need the SRS. This requirement is simple enough if you have a small number of sites; where people sometimes get in trouble is when they have large organizations with multiple administrative groups. Just because you've removed all the Exchange 5.5 servers from a mixed-mode administrative group doesn't mean you can remove the SRS. Before you remove the SRS, you must ensure that it's no longer needed. The safest way to do this is to make sure that the site has a directory replication connector that points to another site's SRS. Be sure you read and understand the recommendations in the Microsoft article "XADM: Preparing a Mixed Mode Organization for Conversion to Native Mode" (Q272314, http://support.microsoft.com) before removing any SRS instances to ensure that you don't have directory replication problems between Exchange 2000 and your remaining Exchange 5.5 servers.
How can I force a user to view a Web page before using Outlook Web Access (OWA)? We want users to view and agree to a set of terms and conditions before they can use OWA services.
As long as your Web page can redirect users to the correct location, you can use any kind of Web page you want. For example, you can construct a Web page that requires users to click a button (or take some other action to show that they agree to the terms of use), then automatically redirects the user to whatever location you specify.
How many subfolders can a public folder contain?
The Exchange Server Information Store (IS) doesn't impose a fixed limit on the number of subfolders you can create in a public folder. I've seen sites with thousands of subfolders, and you could probably jam several tens of thousands of folders into one container before the system stopped working. However, long before you reached the breaking point, you'd probably observe three major problems. First, if you replicate the folders, you'll experience increased overhead because the system will be busy replicating all the folder contents. If you don't replicate the folder contents, Exchange will still replicate the hierarchy, and you'll be vulnerable to losing data if a server fails. Second, users will have a hard time completing their work if they have to search through 20,000 folders to find the documents they need. Third, you will have to address document management. Keep in mind that Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server is a much better document management solution than Exchange's public folder system.
As we migrate users from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server, we want to give Exchange 2000 users access to the Exchange 2000 version of Outlook Web Access (OWA). What's the best way to accomplish this?
You have a couple of choices for granting Exchange 2000 users full access to an Exchange 2000 OWA server. You can make the Exchange 2000 OWA box visible on the Internet so that users can connect to the appropriate server. Of course, this approach requires that users know which server houses their mailbox—an assumption you can't always make. An alternative is to replace the default.asp page on the Exchange 5.5 OWA server with a page that accepts the user's credentials, looks up the name of the user's home server in the directory, then redirects the user to the appropriate OWA page: either the existing Exchange 5.5 OWA page for users homed on an Exchange 5.5 server or the Exchange 2000 OWA page for those users you've already migrated.
Do limits exist for how many user accounts I can list in an Exchange 2000 Server distribution group?
Microsoft recommends that you limit a distribution group list to no more than 5000 objects. Remember, Active Directory (AD) replicates attributes, so when you add a new member to a distribution group, AD replicates that membership attribute. As a result, having 5000 or so members in one distribution group list really chokes replication traffic. If you need to use large distribution groups, however, don't despair. You can create a top-level distribution group and add other distribution groups to it. When the membership of a nested distribution group increases or decreases, AD must replicate those changes but only has to replicate the top-level distribution group if you add or remove nested groups.
How can I let all users use Exchange Instant Messaging (IM) internally but let only some users send IM traffic to outside contacts?
Although the Exchange IM service and client don't provide this feature, you can use a firewall or proxy server to let only users you specify send traffic to the outside world. By controlling who can use the proxy, you can control who sends IM traffic. Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 provides a terrific tool for restricting access that lets you configure a rule set to easily block traffic to MSN (or other messaging systems).
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