Interacting with Active Directory

 

When you make changes to your Exchange organization or to an individual user account, you frequently interact with data in Active Directory. This interaction occurs through one of two MMC snap-ins, Exchange System Manager or Active Directory Users and Computers. The following figure shows how these two tools interact with Active Directory.

Note

In addition to Exchange System Manager and Active Directory Users and Computers, there are other tools that are useful for Exchange administration. For more information, see "Tools That Are Used with Exchange."

Where Exchange System Manager and Active Directory Users and Computers get information

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As this figure shows, all the information that you see (read) and work with (write) using Active Directory Users and Computers is stored in Active Directory. Most, but not all, of the information that Exchange System Manager reads and writes also comes from Active Directory. However, in addition to data in Active Directory, Exchange System Manager draws information from other sources, such as:

  • MAPI   Exchange System Manager uses MAPI to gather data from the Exchange store to display mailboxes.

    Mailbox data gathered using MAPI and displayed in Exchange System Manager

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  • Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)   Exchange System Manager uses the data supplied by WMI to display cached directory information (DSAccess, a cache of directory information that reduces the number of calls to your global catalog server) and queue information.

  • Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)   Exchange System Manager uses the data supplied by WebDAV to display public folders using the Exadmin virtual directory.

    Note

    The location of the Exadmin virtual directory is in Internet Information Services (IIS) under the default Web site. If the default Web site service is stopped, you will not be able to display public folder information in Exchange System Manager.