Configuring Exchange Server 2003 System Policies

A system policy is a collection of configuration settings that you apply to one or more servers, mailbox stores, or public folder stores. For example, to enable message tracking across multiple servers, you can define a single policy, instead of performing the lengthy task of setting individual policies to enable message tracking on each server. After defining and implementing the policies, you can change the configuration of all the servers in the organization by editing the policies and applying the changes.

The system policies that you create for an administrative group typically apply to objects in that group. However, a system policy can apply to objects outside its own administrative group. For example, you can implement consistent message tracking options for all servers by creating a server policy in a central administrative group and applying it to all servers in your organization.

Policies appear in the System Policies container under an administrative group.

System Policies container

There are three types of system policies:

• Public folder store policies   Allow you to configure settings across public folder stores.

• Mailbox store policies   Allow you to configure settings across mailbox stores.

• **Server policies   **Allow you to enable message tracking options on servers.

Of the three types of system policies, this topic discusses only server policies in more detail.