Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server Introduction

The Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport server role performs an important job in the organization. The Edge Transport server is specifically designed to handle internet email flow, protect from viruses and spam, and apply important business rules to email entering or leaving the network.

But despite this specialized role most businesses do not deploy an Edge Transport server in their Exchange organization. This can be for one of several reasons, such as having an existing email security server or appliance running in the network, integrating an email security product on their internet-facing Hub Transport server, or simply for reasons of cost.

However the Edge Transport server is certainly a useful role to deploy, and in this upcoming series of tutorials we’ll walk through the process of installing an Edge Transport server and explore some of the features of the Edge Transport server role.

Where to Deploy Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport Servers

The Edge Transport server is designed to operate in perimeter networks, in other words a DMZ. Of course you could place it in the internal network if you wanted to, but this detracts from some of the security benefits of deploying in a DMZ.

Unlike other Exchange server roles the Edge Transport server does not need to be a member of an Active Directory domain, so locating it within a DMZ does not create any difficult firewall configurations. There are only a few firewall ports that need to be open for the Edge Transport server to do its job.

For this tutorial series the Edge Transport server is being deployed in a DMZ that is secured by a 3-legged ISA Server 2006 firewall.

 

Preparing the Server to Install the Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport Server Role

The Edge Transport server role has the same basic operating system requirements as other server roles. Edge Transport servers can be deployed on the following operating systems:

  • Windows Server 2008 64-bit Standard or Enterprise, with Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise

For this demonstration Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Service Pack 1 is being used to run the Edge Transport server role.

To install the Edge Transport server pre-requisites open an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt and run the following command.

PS C:\> Import-Module ServerManager

Next run this command to install the required roles and features for the Edge Transport server.

PS C:\> Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,ADLDS -Restart

Note that using the -Restart parameter will cause the server to restart automatically to complete the installation of the roles and features.

Category: Exchange Server 2010