9/11/22, 11:50 PM Exchange Server architecture | Microsoft Docs

Exchange architecture
Article • 03/08/2022 • 6 minutes to read

Exchange uses a single building block architecture that provides email services for
deployments of all sizes, from small organizations to the largest multi-national
corporations. This architecture is described in the following diagram.

Individual components are described in the following sections.

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Server communication architecture

Communication between Exchange servers and past and future versions of Exchange
occurs at the protocol layer. Cross-layer communication isn't allowed. This communication
architecture is summarized as "every server is an island". This architecture has the following
benefits:
Reduced inter-server communications.

Version-aware communications.
Isolated failures.

Integrated design inside each server.

Protocol layer communication between Exchange servers is shown in the following

diagram.

Server role architecture

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Exchange uses Mailbox servers and Edge Transport servers. These server roles are
described in the following sections.

Mailbox servers
Mailbox servers contain the transport services that are used to route mail. For more
information, see Mail flow and the transport pipeline

Mailbox servers contain mailbox databases that process, render, and store data. For
more information, see Manage mailbox databases in Exchange Server.

Mailbox servers contain the Client Access services that accept client connections for
all protocols. These frontend services are responsible for routing or proxying
connections to the corresponding backend services on a Mailbox server. Clients don't
connect directly to the backend services. For more information, see the Client Access
protocol architecture section later in this topic.

In Exchange 2016, Mailbox servers contain the Unified Messaging (UM) services that
provide voice mail and other telephony features to mailboxes.

７ Note

Unified Messaging is not available in Exchange 2019.

You manage Mailbox servers by using the Exchange admin center (EAC) and the
Exchange Management Shell. For more information, see Exchange admin center in
Exchange Server and Exchange Server PowerShell (Exchange Management Shell).

Edge Transport servers

Edge Transport servers handle all external mail flow for the Exchange organization.

Edge Transport servers are typically installed in the perimeter network, and are
subscribed to the internal Exchange organization. The EdgeSync synchronization
process makes recipient and other configuration information available to the Edge
Transport server as mail enters and leaves the Exchange organization.

Edge Transport servers provide antispam and mail flow rules as mail enters and leaves
your Exchange organization. For more information, see Antispam protection in
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Exchange Server

You manage Edge Transport servers by using the Exchange Management Shell. For
more information, see Exchange Server PowerShell (Exchange Management Shell).

For more information about Edge Transport servers, see Edge Transport servers.

High availability architecture

The high availability features in Exchange Server are described in the following sections.

Mailbox high availability

A database availability group (DAG) is the fundamental element of the high availability and
site resilience framework that's built into Exchange Server. A DAG is a group of Mailbox
servers that host a set of databases and provides automatic, database-level recovery from
database, network, and server failures. And DAGs in Exchange 2016 or later have been
improved compared to Exchange 2013. For more information about DAGs, see Database
availability groups.

Transport high availability

The Transport service makes redundant copies of all messages in transit. This feature
is known as shadow redundancy.

The transport service makes redundant copies of all delivered messages. This feature
is known as Safety Net.
In Exchange Server, a DAG represents a transport high availability boundary. You can
achieve site resilience by spanning a DAG across multiple Active Directory sites.
In Exchange Server, transport high availability is more than a best effort for message
redundancy, because redundancy doesn't depend on supported features of the
sending mail server. Therefore, you can say that Exchange Server attempts to
guarantee message redundancy by keeping multiple copies of messages during and
after delivery.
For more information, see Transport high availability.

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Client Access protocol architecture

The Client Access services on Exchange Mailbox servers are responsible for accepting all
forms of client connections. The Client Access (frontend) services proxy these connections
to the backend services on the destination Mailbox server (the local server or a remote
Mailbox server that holds the active copy of the user's mailbox). Clients don't directly
connect to the backend services. This communication is shown in the following diagram.

The protocol that's used by a client determines the protocol that's used to proxy the
request to the backend services on the destination Mailbox server. For example, if the client
connected using HTTP, the Mailbox server uses HTTP to proxy the request to the
destination Mailbox server (secured via SSL using a self-signed certificate). If the client used
IMAP or POP, then the protocol that's used is IMAP or POP.

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In Exchange 2016, telephony requests are different than other client connections. Instead
of proxying the request, the Mailbox server redirects the request to the Mailbox server that
holds the active copy of the user's mailbox. Telephony devices are required to establish
their SIP and RTP sessions directly with the Unified Messaging services on the destination
Exchange 2016 Mailbox server.

７ Note

Unified Messaging is not available in Exchange 2019.

Exchange architecture changes

Server role consolidation: In Exchange 2013 or earlier, you could install the Client
Access server role and the Mailbox server role on separate computers. In Exchange
2016 or later, the Client Access server role is automatically installed as part of the
Mailbox server role, and the Client Access server role isn't available as a separate
installation option. This change reflects the philosophy of Exchange server role co-
location that's been a recommended best practice since Exchange 2010. A multi-role
Exchange server architecture gives you the following tangible benefits:
All Exchange servers in your environment (with the likely exception of any Edge
Transport servers) can be exactly the same: the same hardware, the same
configuration, etc. This uniformity simplifies hardware purchasing, and also
maintenance and management of the Exchange servers.

You'll likely need fewer physical Exchange servers. This results in lower ongoing
maintenance costs, fewer Exchange server licenses, and reduced rack, floor space,
and power requirements.
Scalability is improved, because you're distributing the workload across a greater
number of physical machines. During a failure, the load on the remaining Exchange
multi-role servers increases only incrementally, which ensures the other functions
on the Exchange servers aren't adversely affected.

Resiliency is improved, because a multi-role Exchange server can survive a greater

number of Client Access role (or service) failures and still provide service.

Search improvements: The local search instance is now able to read data from the
local mailbox database copy. As a result, passive search instances no longer need to
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coordinate with their active counterparts to perform index updates, and bandwidth
requirements between the active copy and a passive copy have been reduced by 40%
compared to previous versions of Exchange. Also, search is now able to perform
multiple asynchronous disk reads prior to a user completing a search term. This
populates the cache with relevant information, and provides sub-second search query
latency for online clients like Outlook on the web.

Office Online Server Preview for Outlook on the web document preview: In
Exchange 2013 or earlier, Outlook Web App included WebReady Document Viewing
for the built-in preview of Office and PDF documents. In Exchange 2016 or later,
Outlook on the web uses Office Online Server Preview to provide rich preview and
editing capabilities for documents. While this provides a consistent document
experience with other products like SharePoint and Skype for Business, it does require
you to deploy Office Online Server Preview in your on-premises environment if you
don't already have it. For more information, see Install Office Online Server in an
Exchange organization.

MAPI over HTTP is the default for Outlook connections: MAPI over HTTP was
introduced in Exchange 2013 Service Pack 1, and offers improvements over the
traditional Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP) connection method. In Exchange 2016
or later, MAPI over HTTP is enabled by default, and offers additional controls, such as
the ability to enable or disable MAPI over HTTP per user, and whether to advertise it
to external clients. For more information, see MAPI over HTTP in Exchange Server.

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