How easy is it to manage Microsoft Exchange

[Gardinho]

To understand, install and be able to contribute to free systems.

 

Your job sounds different to mine. My boss doesn't care for me contributing to free systems. I'm required to install and maintain a robust and reliable network, whilst keeping the school at the forefront in ICT using the latest technology. I understand that we need to find the most cost effective solution for the school, but the pros outweigh the cons for me.

 

Absolutly , but I figure you might as well either hire someone who knows how to set up your own email server or simply pay for a service where it all just happens for you instead of paying for an email server and then paying again for someone to run it.

 

I never considered this as I like to have total control of the email system. There is so many benefits to in-house administration, let alone the features for the end user. Things like centralised address lists and groups, sharing calendars and tasks, group enabled access, meeting planner, out of office assistant, integration with active directory and outlook (you can create about 1000 email accounts in less than a minute), the list just goes on and on...

 

It's an interesting debate, I'm sure there are benefits and arguments for both. All I can say is that we have been running an internal exchange server here for 7 years (100% uptime, might I add). The staff here utilise and enjoy nearly all of the features.

 

For the benefit of the original poster, could someone with experience of a different email service please list some pros to their product of choice? All I can think of is the cost and the responsibility of managing the school email system.

[AngryTechnician]

I have Exchange 2010. It took some careful going over of the docs to get installed, but it installed perfectly with no hassles. Since then (18 months ago) I have had very few issues with it and have barely had to touch it apart from some tinkering with the spam filter settings and adding new users. The only issues I did have were with installing one of the hotfix rollups, which didn't install correctly because Microsoft give out incomplete instructions.

 

Personally, I would still look seriously at a cloud solution. The only reason I haven't switched is because the vast majority of our staff email is sending attachments to one another, and I don't want our Internet connection (which is not a leased line) to be continually tied up with traffic that doesn't actually need to leave the site at all. If you're determined to have Exchange, definitely look at Live@edu. It doesn't entirely remove the need for on-premises servers because you need a server to handle the account and password sync, but it does remove the need for a lot of storage for the mailboxes (and backup for them). If you're not hell-bent on Exchange, there is still much to be said for Google Apps, despite the Live@edu fanbase here.

[Gardinho]

Live@edu on cloud computing looks great. I'd definitely consider that. Is that going to be replaced by Office 365?

[PiqueABoo]

Yes, or rather in principle they will be migrated to "Office365 for Education" at some date I haven't heard yet (and wouldn't trust in any case).

 

Exchange is very easy to setup and run except when it goes wrong it can be very fiddly and a pain in the backside to get working again!

 

Depends on your requirements i.e. exactly what you want to set up, but provided that's not too special and you treat your Exchange boxes with respect i.e. not for anything else at all, they tend to just work.

 

The very real, significant problem with that is that owing to lack of practice and familiarity with the underlying technology/tools a lots of techs haven't got a clue what to do if theirs breaks.... keeps me in work I suppose, but I don't really need it on top of everything else and those lengthy DB scanning/fixing resolutions are a bit of a pain.

 

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Back in the day when Exchange was more sensitive and there were very few books/guides, what seemed like half of the MS book I had was about disaster recovery... how you should practice this and that on your lab bench etc. There was a point to that and it hasn't gone away.

 

If you have got Exchange then: How patched is it? Is it on a decent UPS? Are the UPS settings sensible e.g. allow for how long it takes to shut down gracefully and don't try to start it up again until there enough battery oomph for the normal startup time and another graceful shutdown (plus wriggle room)? When was it last backed up? Have you verified, as in actually tried from start to finish, restoring a DB to recovery storage with your current backup s/w?

[glennda]

but I don't really need it on top of everything else and those lengthy DB scanning/fixing resolutions are a bit of a pain.

 

they are what i mean by it being a pain in the backside getting up and running again - but as i said it normally trundles along fine!

[mattx]

I think it would be great if people could just get up of their seats and actually engage in a 'conversation ' - remember those ?

I'm sure the way schools are carrying on a the moment kids in 20 years time will start to lose the use of their tongue.

E-mail this, E-mail that - pathetic, yet another way in which teachers don't have to engage the kids.

I have no problem in E-mail for staff etc - makes perfect sense but for the kids it's pointless and really I can't see how it benefits them apart from excuses for not doing homework..... must be spam, contain a virus, wrong format, computer at home does not work, ISP not working etc etc etc.

[PiqueABoo]

Put the twittering classes in charge of educational "vision" and of course all the tosh they waste half their paid work and home lives on, the social networking banality (thank you Helen Wright!) is suddenly absolutely, extremely, definitely very important. History will look back and laugh.. well assuming we haven't produced so many generations of slackers that they're incapable of keeping the lights on.

[Gardinho]

 

If you have got Exchange then: How patched is it? Is it on a decent UPS? Are the UPS settings sensible e.g. allow for how long it takes to shut down gracefully and don't try to start it up again until there enough battery oomph for the normal startup time and another graceful shutdown (plus wriggle room)? When was it last backed up? Have you verified, as in actually tried from start to finish, restoring a DB to recovery storage with your current backup s/w?

 

Our exchange server is virtual, built on VMware ESXi. The hosts are each connected to smart UPS batteries. You can either use a script, or Vsphere management assistant to safely shut all of your servers down before the UPS runs out of battery.

 

We backup daily using Veeam for our entire virtual estate. It's first class. You can restore individual emails, entire mailboxes or the entire virtual server in a matter of minutes.