Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24seven

I recently started in the world of system administration with a background in QA on Unix. After I successfully migrated a network to Active Directory and Exchange 2003, I ran into a lot of little snafus, and did an exhaustive search for a book that would simply help me get the job done on a day to day scenario, and I just found fluff. Fortuantely, I came across this book, and oh boy, I am oh so amazed. What this book will do for you is provide real world solutions to common day Exchange problems. It does do some concept material, but really this is not a general concept book. If you do not or refuse to understand essential networking, mail SMTP concepts, and/or Active Directory (LDAP and Kerberos), then well, there's not much this book or any other book can do to help you. Noting some reviewers' grief: (1) You can back up a mailstore by backing up the database files. The database files are clearly documented throughout the book. Also, you might want to try out the ntbackup utility. In the dicussion of backup, the author does list solutions of third parties for brick-by-brick backup solutions. (2) For initial deployment scenarios, this book doesn't cover explicitly or extensively. A quick search on Microsoft had some wonderful material including using ADC (Active Director Connector) for Exchange 5.5 integration and migration. I feel saddened by users suffering with Exchange, for gone are the days when things were simple. If those users had URLs or e-mail addresses, I would have tried to contact them to offer free assistance... Re-cap: Yes this book works for noobs, if they are resourceful, like everything else in the life of a system administrator. The book focuses more on real world usage, and less on initial deployment or migration from older Exchange 5.5.

This book is the best of the best exchange 2003 book that describes the admin tasks an Exchange Admin *MUST* know for a day to day production. This book is not for beginner as stated Jim MmcBee in the main desctiption of his book, but this book is rather for exchange ( & Active Directory) admin with a good knowledge of exchange & AD. As stated M. Timmons earlier, you may know for example how to automatically purge transaction logs by backing them up: Jim will just point u with advices to follow in order to have your system running smoothly, you will have to know the "How to..". Jim focused on interaction between AD & Exchange with a really good experiences. I highly recommend this one for any experienced admins exchange that want to know the Real World Best Practices of a day to day exchange administration.

I had the Exchange 2000 version of this book and I think the Exchange 2003 version is even better. Unlike the previous book, which I bought after buying 2 other books, this was the first and only book I have bought on Exchange 2003. The authors recommendations and guidance have never failed to be accurate and helpful. The level of detail that I have found in this book is more than enough for what I have needed to keep my Exchange servers healthy and running. The chapter on how the Exchange databases work, how to back them up, perform maintenance, and how to repair them (if ever necessary) was great. Barry Gerber and Jim McBee clearly know their stuff when it comes to running Exchange servers. The chapter on customizing Exchange was useful and has covered most of the questions that my boss has asked me but I did not know the answer to. Most importantly, when I have had any problems sending e-mail to the Internet, the advice in this book on how to troubleshoot outbound SMTP problems has been even better than the Microsoft knowledge base. I am surprised at the reviewer that gave this book low marks and then admitted that he did not know enough about Exchange to have purchased the book in the first place. If you don't know anything about Exchange, then this book is not for you. If you are looking for step by step instructions on how to install Exchange or get migrated from another mail system then you should keep looking. But if you are looking for a book to help you keep your Exchange system healthy and available and to help you troubleshoot any potential problems, then this is the book for you.

This book will not bore you about some philosophy, nor will it cover exam questions for passing some test. I've searched countless books, and this book had material in it that was exactly related to what I was doing at work. It is very uncanny, in that many situations co-workers and I have opened the book, and magically the page we first looked at was exactly related to our project on hand. Some of these choice topics are mail aliases (or Exchanges equivalent of them), de-fragmentation, journaling, scripting, spam/virus filter options, enigma of message queues, Outlook 2003 features, etc. The material is so accurate, we've even found tidbits on tweaking the registry or Active Directory LDAP data to configure changes. There's excellent coverage of OWA, securing message content, performance, disaster recovery practices, and more. I can sum it up in that this book is very no non-sense practical, insightful, empowering, and well written. It covers not only the scope of Exchange, but also real world problems and solutions, relating to and around Exchange 2003.

I'm kind of surprised no one has reviewed this book yet, given that most Sybex publications are well written and this one appears to be a strong seller. So, here I go... I was recently thrust into the world of Exchange and needed something to get me up to speed. I have had a little experience with Exchange 5.5 but nothing that I think would qualify me as an Exchange administrator. Although, I have over 4 years of experience working with sendmail and qmail. I would not recommend this book to beginners (you should have a good understanding of email systems before you read this). The above Editorial Review does a good job of summing up what this book covers, so rather than bore you with details again just read it. I find the most value of this book in the real world examples that it provides. You will also find plenty of references to KB articles, websites and tools that will help you manage Exchange 2003. The author also has a website with a lot of helpful information. As with all technical books that I've read, there are typos and sometimes (rarely) the info just doesn't seem to make sense or agree with examples. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to more effectively manage, fine tune and troubleshoot Exchange 2003. On the other hand, do not buy this book if you are looking for information on migrating to Exchange 2003, it's not covered. I feel much more confidant about supporting Exchange 2003 after reading this book.