Preparation Guide for Exam 70-285

Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization

Published: August 8, 2006
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Audience ProfileAudience Profile
Credit Toward CertificationCredit Toward Certification
Preparation Tools and ResourcesPreparation Tools and Resources
Skills Being MeasuredSkills Being Measured

Exam News

Exam 70-285 became available March 26, 2004.

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Audience Profile

The Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 credential is designed for IT professionals who work in the typically complex computing environment of medium to large companies.

A candidate for this exam should have at least one year of experience designing and planning Exchange messaging systems in environments that have the following characteristics:

250 to 5,000 or more users

Three or more physical locations

Network services and resources such as multiple versions of Exchange Server, Active Directory, proxy server, firewall, other messaging systems, DNS, Internet, intranet, and mobile clients that use a public infrastructure

Three or more domain controllers

Two or more Exchange Server computers

Connectivity requirements such as connecting branch offices and individual users in remote locations to the corporate network and connecting corporate networks to the Internet

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Credit Toward Certification

When you pass the Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE): Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

Elective credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

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Preparation Tools and Resources

We make a wealth of preparation tools and resources available to you, including courses, books, practice tests, and Microsoft Web sites. When you are ready to prepare for this exam, here's where you should start.

Instructor-led Course for This Exam

Course 2008: Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization

Microsoft Press Self-Paced Training Products

Currently, a corresponding Microsoft Press title is not available.

Microsoft Certified Practice Tests

MeasureUp: Visit the MeasureUp Web site to take a practice test.

Self Test Software: Visit the Self Test Software Web site to take a practice test.

Microsoft Online Resources

TechNet: Designed for IT professionals, this site includes How-tos, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much more.

MSDN: The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles, newsgroups, chats, and more.

Training & Certification Newsgroups: A newsgroup exists for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) worldwide.

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Skills Being Measured

This certification exam measures your ability to analyze business requirements for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 organization and design an appropriate messaging infrastructure based on these requirements. Before taking the exam, you should be proficient in the job skills listed in the following matrix. The matrix shows which Official Microsoft Learning Products may help you reach competency in the skills being tested in the exam.

KEY:The course provides a general introductory overview of this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work. = The course provides a general introductory overview of this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work.    The course includes some material to prepare you for this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work. = The course includes some material to prepare you for this task. You will need to supplement the course with additional work.    The course includes material to prepare you for this task. = The course includes material to prepare you for this task.
Skills measured by exam 70-285Course 2008
Designing an Upgrade or Migration and Coexistence Strategy  

Design an upgrade strategy from previous versions of Exchange. Considerations include upgrading from Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 5.5, whether to upgrade the existing organization or create a new organizational structure, and designing connection agreements.

Upgrade from Exchange Server 5.5.

Upgrade from Exchange 2000 Server.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design coexistence and migration of Exchange Server 2003 with other messaging systems. Considerations include cc:Mail, MSMail, previous versions of Exchange, Lotus Notes, X.400 messaging systems, PROFS, SNADS, and Groupwise.

Plan for coexistence/migration with foreign mail systems, such as Notes, cc:Mail, GroupWise, MS Mail, PROFS, TAO, and SNADS.

Plan for coexistence with Exchange Server 5.5.

Plan for coexistence with Exchange 2000 Server.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design the integration with the existing or planned Active Directory. Considerations include potential changes to the current or planned Active irectory structure, and inter-organizational connectivity and synchronization.

Identify any changes needed to the Active Directory.

Design inter-organizational connectivity and synchronization.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Designing the Exchange Server 2003 Infrastructure  

Design an Exchange Server 2003 administrative model. Considerations include business factors, existing and planned administrative model, organizational unit (OU) structure, policies, administrative group placement and boundaries, and permissions.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Designate and design servers. Server configurations include server placement, connectors, client computer access, and multiple protocols.

Design server placement.

Design Server Specialization.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design Exchange Server 2003 Public Folder Infrastructure. Considerations include company structure, geographical structure, maintenance policies, permissions, replication and indexing.

Determining Public Folder Referrals.

Design Public Folder Security.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design the storage strategy. Considerations include optimal database sizing, logging strategy, stores and storage group configurations.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design servers to achieve fault tolerance and increased performance. Considerations include server scalability, storage fault tolerance, front-end back-end topology, and clustering.

Determine approach for scalability.

Hardware fault tolerance (RAID).

Design the front-end/back-end servers.

Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) Clustering.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design a backup and recovery solution. Considerations include planning backup scope, defining the backup schedule, media storage and rotation, backup type, recovering the entire messaging system, individual databases, and servers; re-associating user mailboxes with accounts; and designing mailbox stores to support recovery.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Designing Connectivity for Exchange Server 2003  

Design an Exchange Server 2003 routing group topology.

Plan traffic flow. Considerations include ADC computer and bridgeheads, routing group boundaries, bandwidth, public folder replication, and existing network connections.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design Exchange 2003 Connectors.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design Exchange 2003 Virtual (protocol) Server Strategy.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design a fault-tolerant DNS solution.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design Client strategy for Exchange Server 2003. Considerations include hardware, operating system, access method, existing message store requirements, and existing message clients.

Design a strategy for mail access. Messaging clients include MAPI, IMAP4, POP3, RPC over HTTP, and HTTP mail.

Plan deployments of messaging clients. Considerations include policies and profiles.

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Designing the Security Strategy  

Design an authentication and encryption strategy. Considerations include user authentication and encryption requirements, such as S/MIME, IPSec, NTLM, Digest authentication, and SSL.

Outlook Web Access (OWA)

Outlook Mobile Access (OMA)

Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Design protection from external threats. Considerations include protection from unsolicited commercial e-mail, viruses, spoofing, and firewalls.

Block SMTP Relay

Virus protection

Protect from unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam)

Protect from spoofing

Firewall configuration

Content filtering

Blacklists

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Protect the Exchange Server 2003 infrastructure against internal attacks.

Physical security of the computer

Virus protection

Permissions

Internal firewall

The course includes material to prepare you for this task.

Note: This preparation guide is subject to change at any time without prior notice and at Microsoft's sole discretion. Microsoft exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation items. Microsoft does not identify the format in which exams are presented. Please use the exam objectives listed in this preparation guide to prepare for the exam, regardless of its format. Learn more, and download samples, on the Testing Innovations page.


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