Cloud Communications

Four Steps Admins Should Take to Prepare for Exchange 2013

By Erin Harrison Executive Editor, Cloud Computing

The latest version of Exchange Server will be shipping in just a couple of months – and with many notable changes in Exchange 2013, system administrators undoubtedly need to prepare for its arrival.

The new version promises several new changes and improvements made by a large team of engineers. In a recent blog post, GFI outlined four critical steps admins should take to prepare for the new Exchange, which are as follows:

1.      Exchange Administration Center. According to Paul Mah at GFI, the most dramatic difference in Exchange 2013 is the Exchange Management Console, which will be replaced by the Exchange Administration Center (EAC).

“Browsers supported by EMC (News - Alert) include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome… Going for a fully web-based interface means that administrators can now deploy their Exchange Server in a secure datacenter that is physically hard to access and still perform their work as if it is down the hall in the server room,” Mah said.

2.      Change in Architecture. According to GFI, the most notable change in Exchange Server 2013 will be the reduction of server roles to just two: Client Access server and Mailbox server. He said there are many other changes under the hood too, which include a much reduced IOPS load (up to 50 percent), as well as optimization for multiple databases per volume in order to increase aggregate disk utilization.

3.      PowerShell cmdlets. Based on PowerShell version 3.0, PowerShell in Exchange Server 2013 adds more than a hundred new cmdlets. A number of cmdlets have been dropped in Exchange 2013, though they mostly have to do with a major change in how public folders are now handled. One of the advantages offered by PowerShell 3.0 is its simplification that makes it easier to use even as it allows for more comprehensive management of servers.

4.      Change in Public folders. Exchange 2013 has changed how public folders operate, and will store them in mailbox databases. According to Mah, this means that public folders can now take advantage of Database Availability Groups (DAG) for replication and high availability. In addition, mailbox quotas apply to them too, and a public folder that has grown too large will need to be moved to another mailbox.

“As a result, administrators will do well to more carefully plan their public folder deployment in Exchange Server 2013,” Mah said.

To read more about preparing for Exchange 2013, check out theblog post in full.

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