The Exchange Organization Hierarchy

Exchange 2000 Server has been redesigned to reflect more accurately how most customers use Exchange in their network environments, and to allow administrators to maintain their servers based on business need, rather than on physical location.

Routing Groups

Exchange 2000 Server has grouped servers into different categories based on different criteria. A routing group, the simplest of these designations, is a group of servers that are constantly communicating information to each other using reliable LAN connectivity. Information from one server to another server in the same routing group flows directly and immediately using Exchange's native SMTP protocol, not through a connector or on a schedule.

Routing groups also host connectors, either to other routing groups or to other messaging systems. Exchange routing groups can be connected with a Routing Group connector, which uses native SMTP to route messages between routing groups, or with another type of connector such as an X.400 connector, or by using the Internet.

Administrative Groups

In Exchange 2000 Server, an administrative group is a collection of servers and routing groups that share an administrative security context. Any server or routing group that you want to be administered by a specific set of administrators can be placed in its own administrative group. Only the authorized administrators can make changes to the configuration of those servers and routing groups.

Although servers are divided into routing groups, and routing groups are collected into administrative groups, these divisions are not necessarily hierarchical. A server, for instance, may be administered by the Sales administrative group, even though its routing group is a part of the New York administrative group. In this case, authorized administrators of the Sales group can make changes to the server configuration, while administrators for the New York group can make changes to the routing group as a whole.

Related Topics