Topic Last Modified: 2005-05-06
The following checklist outlines the physical and logical factors you should take into consideration when assessing your current environment before deploying Exchange.
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Physical plant
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Data center floor space
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Rack space
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Network sizing
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WAN (may need to provision higher bandwidth connections)
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Degree of separation between physical sites (latency introduced)
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LAN upgrades
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Backbone
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Modem pools or alternate dial-up
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Hardware needs
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Servers
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Memory
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Processor
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Storage
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High bandwidth network interface cards (NICs)
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Routers
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Memory
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Processor
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Switches
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Firewalls
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Power
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Power grid Service Level Agreement (SLA)
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Projected power draw
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Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or other power-insulating device (generators, etc.)
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Designated "hot" site
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Staffing
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Training on newly introduced technologies and procedures
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Augmentation
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Administrators
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Support staff
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Geography
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Time zone issues
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Languages
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WAN
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Encapsulation upgrade (asynchronous transfer mode [ATM], etc.)
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Optimization (permanent virtual circuit [PVC] for frame relay)
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Overall quality of connections
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LAN
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Encapsulation change (token ring to Ethernet)
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Layer 2 device removal or upgrade
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Network
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TCP/IP end-to-end
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IP Hop count between endpoints
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Subnetting considerations (Microsoft® Active Directory® directory service site considerations)
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Device configuration
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Routers and open ports
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Switches
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Firewalls and open ports
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Ports and layer 4 protocols enabled on filtering or blocking devices
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All encryption and decryption operations
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All format-change operations (for example, other mail gateways and X.400 connectors)
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remote procedure call (RPC) connectivity
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network basic input/output system (NetBIOS)
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Public key infrastructure (PKI)
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Virtual private network (VPN)
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Shared dependencies between Internet Information Services (IIS), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
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DNS
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Windows® Internet Name Service (WINS)
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Network operating system
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Shared dependencies between DHCP, NTLM, NTLMv2, and LM
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Windows NT® Server version 4.0 domain structure: Trusts, primary domain controllers, backup domain controllers
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Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server™ 2003 Active Directory
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Forest structure
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Domain structure
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Migration
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Site structure
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Security
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Kerberos
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Migration
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Security principles
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Security identifier (SID) history
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Directories
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Migration
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Active Directory Connector
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Meta directories
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Administration
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Migration
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Permissions delegation
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Management
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For more information see Understanding Your Current Network Environment.