Motorola’s Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync Implementation

Motorola’s Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync Implementation

One of the most important benefits of a successful pilot is that it proves the environment. This allows the project team to demonstrate the production feasibility of Exchange Server 2003 and ActiveSync. As a result, the issues encountered during the pilot are likely to have already been addressed or determined to have a minor impact on a wider deployment.

1. 
   Exchange
   

Exchange configuration	Test	Production
Exchange 5.5 sites or Exchange 2000 or 2003 administration groups	8	93
Mailbox servers running Exchange 5.5 SP4 on Windows NT 4.0 SP6A	9	177
Mailbox servers running Exchange 2000 SP4 on Windows 2000 SP3	7	9
Mailbox servers running Exchange Server 2003 on Windows Server 2003 SP0	2	2
Dedicated hub or bridgehead servers running Exchange 5.5 SP4 on Windows NT 4.0 SP6A	2	22
Dedicated conferencing and Instant Messaging servers running Exchange 2000 SP3 on Windows 2000 SP3	2	8

2. 
   Active Directory
   

Active Directory configuration	Test	Production
Native mode root domain controllers running Windows 2000 SP3	1	5
Child domains	2	9
Domain controllers running Windows Server 2003 SP0	1	17
Domain controllers running Windows 2000 Server SP3	4	139
Domain controllers that are global catalog servers	4	113
Domain controllers running the Active Directory Connector	2	15
Active Directory Connector connection agreements	36	502
Trusting Windows NT 4.0 resource domains	1	8
Domain controllers running Windows NT 4.0 SP6A	2	63
Total objects	40,000+	480,000+
Users and mailboxes	14,000+	280,000+
Computers	70+	45,000+
Groups and distribution lists	900+	43,000+
Public folders	2,000+	33,000+
Organizational units	100+	13,000+
Subnets	20+	7,000+
Active Directory sites	9	187

Motorola used new prototype and production Motorola MPx200 phones running Smartphone 2002 as devices in the test and production environments. Motorola also used a Pocket PC Phone edition device running Smartphone 2002 as a reference device with a commercial history of about a year.

1. 
   Internet connectivity and security
   

• 
  Motorola used separate external DNS names for wireless mail connectivity in the test and production environments to allow independent testing without affecting production users.
  
• 
  Motorola opened port 443 to the IP addresses corresponding to these names.
  
• 
  Motorola has a proprietary cache system for Internet–facing Web servers, which includes SSL termination and acceleration.
  
• 
  Motorola initially installed a free-of-charge test certificate from Thawte on the lab system for SSL termination. The corresponding test root certificate was installed on the wireless devices. Following a successful test, a production Thawte certificate was installed for SSL termination. This matches one of the preinstalled certificates on the Smartphone 2002 operating system.
  
• 
  Motorola used ISA Server 2000 SP1 running on Windows 2000 Server SP3 as a proxy to direct incoming Web requests to Exchange. Motorola installed the ISA feature pack, which includes URLScan 2.5.
  

2. Infrastructure Changes to Support Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync

• 
  You will need a new externally addressable DNS name, such as wireless-mail.myco.com.
  
• 
  You need to open port 443 SSL HTTPS in your firewall to the IP address corresponding to this name.
  
• 
  You will need a certificate for SSL termination. Although you can turn off SSL on a device running Smartphone 2003, avoid doing so. An SSL–encrypted connection is always preferable.
  
• 
  You may have rules regarding incoming connections from the Internet into your intranet. If you use a proxy server such as ISA Server 2000 with the feature pack installed, you can use the URLScan feature to check for valid commands and filter out buffer overflow attacks. You can also implement custom content inspection and filtering.
  

2. Additional Benefits of an Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync–Enabled Infrastructure

User benefits:

• 
  Mail traffic compression (with Outlook 2003)
  
• 
  Access from Outlook 2003 to Exchange 2003 without a virtual private network (VPN)
  
• 
  Full featured Outlook Web Access with comparable features to Outlook 2003
  

• 
  Recovery Storage Groups allow rapid restore of a subset of the Exchange Server 2003 database.
  
• 
  Many-to-one clustering (7 active, 1 passive).
  
• 
  Easier to move users between servers.
  
• 
  Control public folder search order.
  
• 
  Admin tools work with Exchange Server 2003, 2000, and 5.5.
  
• 
  Improved queue management.
  
• 
  Kerberos support.
  
• 
  More secure Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 (when Exchange Server 2003 is installed on Windows Server 2003).
  

User benefits:

• 
  Changed passwords are immediately globally accessible.
  

• 
  Delegated administration allows administrators to manage a subset of users, groups, and computers.
  
• 
  Use Group Policy to allow settings made in one place to propagate to thousands of users or computers.
  
• 
  Overcome Windows NT 4.0 domain SAM size limitations, and support millions of users and computers in each domain.
  
• 
  Multimaster replication allows changes to be written to any domain controller (not just the primary domain controller (PDC)).
  
• 
  An opportunity to collapse legacy domains.
  
• 
  Supports secure dynamic DNS.
  
• 
  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory compliant with version 3 enables many business applications.
  
• 
  Manage a set of domains as a single directory.
  

• 
  Browse the Web and your Exchange 2003 e-mail, calendar, and contact information using Pocket Internet Explorer.
  
• 
  Wirelessly synchronize your Exchange 2003 e-mail, calendar, and contact information.
  
• 
  Listen to music and view video clips using Microsoft Windows Media® Player.
  
• 
  Expanded storage using Secure Digital (SD) card.
  

• 
  Allow mobile users to have full corporate e-mail access while on the move.