Understanding When to Switch an Exchange Organization to Native Mode Operation

Once you switch an Exchange 2000 organization from mixed mode to native mode, the organization is no longer interoperable with Exchange 5.5 systems. Exchange organizations operating in native mode can contain Exchange 2000 servers. You can switch an Exchange organization to native mode only when all of the Exchange servers in it are running Exchange 2000.

Switch your Exchange organization to native if any of the following apply:

• You no longer have Exchange 5.5 servers in your organization.
• You have no plans to add Exchange 5.5 servers to your organization in the future; for example, as a result of a merger or the acquisition of a company with Exchange 5.5 servers.
• Your organization will never require interoperability between your Exchange 2000 servers and previous versions of Exchange (connectors can provide connectivity between your servers; however administration of servers is limited to Exchange 2000 servers).
• Your organization does not use any connectors or gateway applications that run only on Exchange 5.5.

  Important   Once you switch from mixed mode to native mode, the change cannot be reversed and the organization is no longer interoperable with Exchange 5.5 systems.

  Always reboot your Exchange servers after switching to native mode.

Advantages of Native Mode

Running an Exchange organization in native mode gives you the full flexibility of Exchange 2000 when you manage your messaging system.

The advantages of native mode include:

• Greater flexibility for defining routing groups and administrative groups.
• Ability to move mailboxes between servers in the same administrative group.

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