Exchange 2007 Live

After some interesting learning we now have Exchange 2007 on Server 2008 live and running and we're happy with it. As I've mentioned before, there is a surprising amount of command line. Even the GUI interface displays what the equivalent command line code is to execute a given task, it's almost as though MS is pointing us in the direction for future products. It's that or they're incredibly far behind on implementing a full set of GUI tools for administering Exchange.

IIS is quite a lot changed too as the layout will be quite unfamiliar to most who are coming from IIS 6 (this is now v. 7.0). It actually reminds me of the UNIX/Linux GUI Webmin for administering Apache.

With that said, we're becoming comfortable administering the combination now and it's pretty tidy. One issue that cropped up today which I'm not finding an immediate answer is that my Mac Entourage users reported a 'not connected' status. No amount of client reconfiguration or toggling online/offline brought it back. After hours I restarted the server (there were a couple of minor patches too, though they didn't require reboot) and the clients were up and running again afterward. Next time I'll take a closer look at the logs and see if I can restart part of the Exchange services instead of bouncing the whole server.

We added our first couple of users late last week and they like the web interface somewhat better but not noticeably. More important to us was bringing 'Outlook Anywhere' online so we could give them the full Outlook experience without having to do a VPN to let them use the default MAPI connection. Getting OA running was a little bit of a kludge since there are some well-reported bugs with the Server 2008 implementation of IPV6 and it bombs out on a single server deployment. I guess it works fine on installations with multiple Exchange servers (separate mailbox/hub/client access configurations). Maybe this is why Small Business Server has yet to arrive with Server 2008?

Also desired for this was the Exchange ActiveSync. We brought the first iPhone online Friday morning using the new iPhone software with the built-in Exchange ActiveSync client. It was super easy to configure and it's fast and smooth. It's really a much nicer user experience than anything I've seen on a Windows/Palm-based device--it's actually functional and it's easy to get the contents of the subfolders. There are also some device management options inside of Exchange for wiping and disabling cameras and such. I've not tested these yet but it's far less granular than what RIM offers. I don't expect to see hyper-managed organizations deploying ActiveSync-based devices in the near future. As a mobile device goes, it's going to take quite a product to beat the iPhone however. A portion of the appeal is with the new 'App Store'. I believe a big part of Apple's success comes from a great user experience and making the user feel involved in the way the product works, such as adding applications and customizing the layout and feel. While there are more applications for RIM products and MS-based devices, the delivery of them is haphazard and the quality control isn't there. Some people bemoan Apple for requiring developers to sell their wares through Apple's App Store but as someone who has seen, used, and tried to support various poorly-written RIM and MS handheld applications, I appreciate Apple's approach.

In sum, it was a steep learning curve in getting familiar with Server 2008 and Exchange 2007 but we like it a lot. It's still foreign compared to the previous iterations but I think we'll be as or more comfortable in the next few months. The elegance of operation and peace of mind of knowing you're on the current version make the learning curve well worthwhile.