Datasheet

Exam Essentials 23
time, convergence occurs as all domain controllers receive and pass replication updates
and the partitions that they hold become closer to matching exactly. In a production envi-
ronment, complete convergence is almost impossible to achieve, but that rarely poses a
problem.
Intersite replication is designed to have the minimum possible impact on the typically
slower WAN links that commonly separate the physical locations that Active Directory sites
represent. As such, the replication traffic is highly compressed and also occurs on a schedule
that is configured on the site link object that is created to connect two Active Directory sites
logically. Conversely, intrasite replication occurs almost immediately after a change to some
bit of Active Directory information has taken place. The domain controller that the change
is made on will wait 15 seconds (to account for any additional changes), and then it will
begin replicating its changes to the other domain controllers within that site.
As you prepare to deploy Exchange Server 2007, you must ensure that the schema
master for the forest has at least Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 applied and that the
domain and forest functional level is set to Windows 2000 native at a minimum. Next you
will want to check to make sure that at least one global catalog at each site that Exchange
Server 2007 will be installed in has Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, or later, applied.
Exam Essentials
Understand Active Directory. Although this book is not trying to prepare you for an exam
related to Active Directory design, support, or administration, it is absolutely imperative
that you understand how Active Directory is designed and how it functions. With Exchange
being completely Active Directory–integrated and –aware, all administrative functions
related to users and mailboxes are tied into Active Directory. To that end, ensure that you
have a good understanding of both the logical and physical structure of Active Directory.
In addition, you should understand the various domain functional levels that are available
in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 and how they will impact your overall
network.
Understand basic message routing. It is helpful, both in preparing for this exam and in
the day-to-day administration of Exchange Server 2007, to understand how messages are
routed within the same site and between different sites. All messages are routed through the
Hub Transport server, even if the originating and destination recipients reside on the same
Mailbox server.
Understand the infrastructure requirements. Exchange is so tightly integrated with Active
Directory that specific requirements need to be met on the versions and placement of domain
controllers. Understand the domain and forest functional levels that need to be set to install
Exchange Server 2007.