Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed

During setup Exchange features are easily configured through the use of the Configure Email and Internet Connection Wizard. The wizard configures the following settings by default.

• Deleted Items RetentionSet to 30 days. Changes can be made as well by running the Backup Configuration Wizard. Here you can change the value or turn the value on or off.

• Circular LoggingEnabled to save drive space. It is recommended that you use this configuration only if a backup solution has not been selected. Circular logging is disabled after the Backup Configuration Wizard has been run.

• Idle User SessionsThe timeout interval is set to 10 minutes.

• SMTP ConnectorThe connector is created and configured with any send/receive options you select for Internet email.

• Default Recipient PolicyThe default policy is created and set to your domain name. It also applies the policy to all for SMTP email addresses.

• The Microsoft Connector for POP3 MailboxesThe connector is installed. Through the CEICW or the POP3 Connector manager you can define POP3 mailboxes that are to be downloaded to Exchange mailboxes.

• Maximum Number of Concurrent ConnectionsFor Message Delivery the maximum number of concurrent connections is set to 500.

• Outbound ConnectionsLimited to 10.

• Email Attachment TypesAttachment filtering can be utilized.

• Mail ClientsClients assigned an address within the specified local IP range are allowed to relay mail through the SMTP virtual server.

In addition to these settings, you should also be aware of the mailbox management process in Exchange and what it does for your mail server. By default, the mailbox management process is set to Never Run. However, the mailbox management process can perform some important tasks and should be enabled on the SBS server.

One of the most important tasks handled by the mailbox management process is the online defrag of the mail databases. Through the course of normal operation, mail data is added and removed from the mail database, and over time a large amount of unused space becomes scattered across the database. The online defrag process rearranges the storage within the database so that all the empty database records are moved to the end of the database file. You can also start the mailbox management process manually by right-clicking on the server object in Exchange System Manager and selecting Start Mailbox Management Process. This can be helpful when troubleshooting Exchange-related issues as discussed in Chapter 13, "Exchange Disaster Recovery."