Excahnge Domain 2

[TekSolutions]

I am about to do my first exchange install. I want to make sure I do it correctly from the start. I will have a new (to me any way) DC as well as a new Exchange server.

Should my Active Directory domain be the same as the email domain? If it matters I do have a website that is hosted elsewhere with the same domain name.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Internal domains can match your external domain name as long as you only point your internal systems to an internal DNS server that is kept separate from the public DNS. It's called "split DNS" in which you use the same name internally and externally, but you maintain separation between the private and public records.

Some people swear by not doing it this way and have you use yourdomain.local or company.ins or something like that for the internal, but you can do it either way. There are actually some advantages to be had by using the same name internally.

As long as it's understood that your website is at "

http://www.yourdomain.com"

and your mail servers and AD servers use different names, you shouldn't have a problem with having a public web server. You would just define the "www" record in the internal DNS using the public IP address so that internal systems could find the public website.

Honestly though, there is a lot to know about AD and Exchange and DNS to execute an Exchange setup properly, so I'd buy some kind of guide or hire someone to mentor you through the process.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[TekSolutions]

Is the Split DNS in addition to the DNS settings with register (Go Daddy) or instead of.

Can you recommend a good guide?

 

[ShackDaddy]

You would maintain your public DNS namespace on GoDaddy, so any records you want to create to tell the world what your PUBLIC ip address is, you'd create there.

Your INTERNAL namespace and the DNS records for your PRIVATE addresses would be maintained on your internal AD/DNS server and those addresses/records would never be published at GoDaddy's DNS.

You may put some of your public IP addresses in your internal DNS if you want users to be able to reach servers that are not in your internal network but which still use the public DNS domain, like

http://www.yourcompany.com.

I don't know of a good guide besides just a good book on DNS, like the one called DNS & Bind that's published by OReilly's. But I've had that for more than 15 years.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[TekSolutions]

So I can just use Go Daddy's DNS servers for external requests instead of running my own external DNS server. I will just have to add a

http://www entry

on my internal DNS for my website and mail.

 

[ShackDaddy]

That's right. Well, you'd only need the internal DNS entries if your website and mail are hosted externally. I assume your website would be, but you would have Exchange internally, right?

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[TekSolutions]

Correct Exchange would be internal, Website is hosted by Go Daddy

Are there any good books about Exchange?

 

[ShackDaddy]

For Exchange 2007 I really liked the "How To Cheat at Configuring Exchange 2007" but they didn't make the book for Exchange 2010.

Avoid anything written by William Stanek, since nearly everything he writes seems to be recompiled documentation and no field experience.

I like this Exchange 2010 Best Practices book that Joel Stidley worked on here, and I reference it quite a bit:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2010-Practices/dp/0735627193

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com