Nothing can make an IT professional sweat quite like Exchange administration. If an Exchange server goes down, irate users will let you hear about it.
Since e-mail is one of the most highly valued services that IT departments provide, and since it's critical that Exchange servers are kept up and running continuously, you're likely to find that Microsoft's Exchange server administration exam is among the hardest certification exams you'll ever encounter. This is especially true if you don't specialize in Exchange administration but must operate Exchange servers in addition to the regular IT tasks you fulfill.
Here are 10 tips you can use to help focus and concentrate your studying as you prepare for Microsoft exam 70-224: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server.
#1: Start with the requirements
There are three different Exchange 2000 server platforms:
Make sure that you know Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server adds collaboration features to Exchange 2000. Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server isn't an e-mail platform by itself.
Know the differences in capability between Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server. For starters, the standard Exchange 2000 Server is limited to a database size of 16 GB and a single mailbox store, whereas Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server's database size has no limit, and multiple mailbox stores are supported.
Memorize the system requirements for Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server. Both platforms require a minimum of 128 MB of RAM, although 256 MB of RAM is recommended. Both server distributions also require 500 MB of free disk space on the hard disk where Exchange 2000 is installed, as well as 200 MB of free space on the system drive. Both platforms also require a 166-MHz or faster processor.
Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server requires the same minimum amount of RAM and identical processor requirements. However, Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server requires only 10 MB of free space on the hard disk where Exchange 2000 is installed and 5 MB of free space on the system drive.
#2: Know how to upgrade from Exchange 5.5
Worldwide, countless organizations are going to be migrating their Exchange 5.5 servers to Exchange 2000. Thus, it's likely you'll encounter many questions testing your ability to upgrade a 5.5 server to the 2000 platform. Be sure that you know how to troubleshoot common upgrade errors too.
For example, you can upgrade only Exchange 5.5 Servers that are running Service Pack 3 (or higher). In addition, the server you're migrating to must be running a Windows 2000 server platform with Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 installed.
Understand the three different upgrade processes that can be used:
During an in-place upgrade, you take an existing Exchange 5.5. Server offline and install Exchange 2000 on it. Of course, an organization's e-mail service will be interrupted when an in-place upgrade is used.
In organizations where downtime isn't possible, a moving mailboxes upgrade can be used. The moving mailboxes method involves moving mailboxes and public folders from an existing Exchange 5.5 server after the Exchange 2000 server is built and moved to the Exchange 5.5 site.
Another method that eliminates downtime is the swing server upgrade. Exchange 2000 is installed on a new server, that server is joined to an existing Exchange site, and mailboxes are moved from the Exchange 5.5 server to the new Exchange 2000 server. Once those steps are completed, the server running Exchange 5.5 is then upgraded to Exchange 2000.
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