Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2010-01-20

Because organizations tend to group their management tasks around a core set of server roles, Exchange 2010 maps Exchange Server management to this same approach.

A server role is a unit that logically groups the required features and components needed to perform a specific function in the messaging environment. The requirement of a server role is that it is a server that could be run as an atomic unit of scalability. A server role is composed of a group of features.

Server roles, the primary unit of deployment, enable administrators to easily choose which features are installed on an Exchange server. Logically grouping features in server roles offers the following advantages:

The following figure illustrates a domain with each server role deployed.

A domain with each server role deployed

Exchange 2010 includes the following server roles: