Re: Guideline for Exchange server in branch office

[Lukas Beeler <lukas.beeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 22:48, Roger Vicker, CCP <rv-tech@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Not exactly but lets say the above is so. Plus only a few of the email
> users above are going to be in the new branch office. The rest of the
> organization would continue to access the MAIN mail server from their
> various locations. (No shouting just emphasis.) It is possible that over
> time other branches would go the same way but there will only be one
> internet domain (example.com) for everywhere and the server pointed to
> by the DNS MX entry will not be Exchange.

So you want to do one SBS per branch office? While this is possible, i
wouldn't exactly recommend such a configuration, although it's
possible.

> I would like to setup this branch office's Exchange server for just the
> local users to be able to send and receive their email via Outlook 2007
> via Exchange via the MAIN mail server that is not Exchange.

What you intend to do is called SMTP Namespace sharing, just to make
it easier to google for that.

> > a) retrieve certain mailboxes from the Linux machine using POP3
> This is what I have read so far but seems to be different (missing or
> needs 3rd party) with SBS 2008. BTW the MAIN mail server keeps each mail
> box/address separate. It doesn't aggregate several addresses into one
> POP3 account as it sounds like some of the examples expect Exchange to
> retrieve from.

SBS 2008 comes with a POP3 connector - aggregated mail addresses are
btw. a bad thing when doing POP3 retrieval, so you have a good
configuration on the linux machine right now.

POP3 connectors are a nasty hack, either way, and i would recommend to
avoid them if possible. However, if the Linux machine is not under
your direct control and the current administrator is inflexible, it
might be the easiest way to accomplish what you need.

> No. The MX entry would have to stay as is since the MAIN mail server is
> going to remain as is and continue to serve other mail boxes besides the
> few at the branch.

Okay. As an alernative, why not consolidate all Mail on Exchange,
replacing the Linux machine?

What MTA is currently running on the Linux machine? It might be
possible that it also supports SMTP namespace sharing, making it
possible to forward some mails directly to the SBS machine, without
rewriting the address.