Email storage is more than a convenience issue for users as organizations need to comply with myriad legal and security considerations Fortunately for organizations that have moved to Exchange 2003 Microsoft has stepped up to the plate and added features and enhancements that help with the daytoday problems IT managers face
However even with the latest technology it is important to remember to document document and document all procedures processes and daily activities Exchange administration can be difficult Daily routines are often filled with problems that need fixing and users who need help Urgent tasks overwhelm important tasks Lowurgency chores such as documenting procedures making sure users know what is expected of them and planning for problems never make it to the front burner
However the increasing complexity of Exchange environments means we can no longer afford to put off important tasks Our lives end up being a whole lot simpler if everyone knows what to do and what is expected of them
This article covers the areas you need to document to help make your life simpler as well as meet legal and security requirements Youll also learn about the tools that will keep data safe and if something goes wrong you are in a position to recover the data
Best Practices Policies and Procedures
Successful Exchange management is more than getting through the day without annoying users The best approach to email administration is to look at the big picture and start managing email systems actively As mentioned previously the bigpicture approach requires documentation of policies and procedures which many Exchange Administrators overlook
The process of documentation formalizes and standardizes how IT departments are supposed to do their jobs This in turn helps reduce downtime and errors It also helps when problems occur as formalization and standardization reduce the unknowns when troubleshooting The process of developing and implementing policies that affect an Exchange environments operation as well as how people use the system will involve many people beyond the messaging group For example defer security and legal requirements to the legal department and senior executives
Your role in these matters is to advise on the technology required to meet legal and security requirements and monitor enforcement For mundane matters such as email storage limits attachment sizes and public folder creation it is your responsibility to define limits based on your infrastructure As always prepare to deal with exceptions Exceptions should always be well documented and understood as they often prove to be the source of problems
Creating procedures is a very different process and is one for which the Exchange team is solely responsible Procedures define the tasks we do and how we carry them out Typically Exchange related procedures can be grouped into four categories Backup and restoration Monitoring and analysis System administration and Change and configuration management We cover backup and restore in a later section because of its importance If all else fails and you have a welldocumented and tested backup and restoration procedure users will spare their wrath
The purpose of monitoring and analysis is to measure and understand your hardware and software systems Monitoring and analysis are central to maintaining a healthy system and preparing you for future changes For example without the hard numbers provided by monitoring and analysis it becomes difficult to justify spending money on new hardware or hiring another administrator A historical record helps you understand your hardware and software and what is normal behavior This of course allows you to spot signs of trouble as they occur rather than waiting until users complain or systems crash
Monitoring and analysis can be divided further into performance monitoring and availability management Performance monitoring covers all of the fundamental measurements required to know how your system is performing and identify when there might be a problem Examples of counters to measure in Performance monitor include CPU utilization memory usage pages per second average disk queue length and message queue length This information allows you to identify bottlenecks and pinpoint trends Availability management is about maximizing system up time and is tied closely to performance monitoring Availability reliability and timetorepair are the key measurements to track
System Administration procedures are tasks completed regularly Regardless of the tasks frequency the goal is to document the procedure so every administrator understands what needs to be done and how it should be done Daily tasks include reviewing event logs checking that backups completed adding or deleting users and reviewing alerts generated by performance monitor Less frequent tasks include security reviews testing backups monitoring tape rotation and database maintenance Because many system administration tasks are repetitive one of your goals should be to automate as many of them as possible This will help reduce errors and increase your availability to handle unexpected problems A key part of good system administration involves understanding the tools that you have at your disposal and how and when they should be used Change management involves documenting and monitoring how and when changes are made to your Exchange environment This includes research review and rollback plans The goal of successful change management is to modify your Exchange environment without impacting users during or after the change Changes are usually measured by their scope and potential impact High Impact is defined typically as a companywide impact and may require input from colleagues outside the messaging team An example is a migration from Exchange 5 5 to Exchange 2003
Medium impact changes affect one or more of the critical systems within the messaging environment A great example of this is the patching and update process
Lowimpact changes are modifications in policies and settings that do not have any significant impact on your environment Configuration management is tied to change management and is the process of maintaining records on software and hardware systems Much of the information gathered as part of this process is critical if you are subject to an audit such as financial legal or security
Data Backup and Recovery
Fortunately many vendors want to tackle the problems we face Recent thirdparty software enhancements include software that allows for improved pattern recognition for searching email and improved auditing capabilities to show that data has been accessed by authorized personnel only Several Exchange backup vendors tackle the issue of granular recovery in a most effective method These tools will allow you to mount backups and restore to live Exchange environments without interruption to service
On the hardware side some vendors advocate diskbased backup solutions Tape has many disadvantages The biggest of course is restoration speed With the price of Networked Attached Storage NAS and Storage Attached Networks SAN coming down these solutions become very attractive as a mediumterm storage solution When incorporated into your environment correctly disk storage is cost effective and provides multiple layers of redundancy
Some vendors provide blocklevel backup tied to policy implementations that prevent data from being deleted in contravention of company policies When tied with the ability to create secure audit trails these solutions provide a comprehensive solution to regulatory compliance However it is unlikely that tape will disappear because it still plays an important role for longterm storage Moreover unless you are backing up over a WAN tape offers a good method of getting oodles of data off site This of course is necessary for any adequate disaster recovery plan
The downside to many spinning spindles is cost Some organizations dont have the budget to replace hardware that seems to work properly by outward appearance Unfortunately most of us wont have the funding we want for the latest technology so it is important not to overlook the fundamentals Regardless of the tools you use the procedures you follow and the standards you set that are more important than technology In fact the fundamentals of any wellrun Exchange environment are universal
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