Here you set some criteria for naming the four key Exchange organizational components: Organization • Administrative groups • Servers • Recipients •
Your goal should be to establish a logical and consistent set of naming conventions that fit in well with your real−world organizational structure and culture.
Naming the Organization, Administrative Groups, and Servers
Heres one easy and usually safe naming convention that you can use:
Organization
The master company name, for example, Barry Gerber and Associates
Administrative Group
A geographic location or a department, for example, Los Angeles or Sales
Server
Generic naming, for example, EXCHANGE01
Names for organizations and administrative groups can be up to 256 characters long, but I strongly suggest that you keep names to around 32 characters, just so that you can see them in the tree of the Exchange Server 2003 System Manager. Server names are set when you install Windows Server 2003. They are limited to a maximum of 63 characters, but you should limit them to 15 characters if preWindows 2000/XP clients will access them.
For most names, almost any character is permitted. However, for organization, administrative groups, and server names, I strongly suggest you use only the 26 uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet, and the numerals 0 through 9. Dont use spaces, underscores, or any accented letters.
Naming Recipient Mailboxes
You also need some criteria for naming mailboxes. There are four key names for each Exchange mailbox: First • Last • Display • Alias •
Mailbox administrators create and modify these names in the Windows 2003 Active Directory Users and Computers Microsoft Management Console snap−in.
The first and last names are entered when creating the users Windows 2003 login account. The display name is created from the first and last name (as well as the middle initial or name, if present). The alias name is created from the users Windows 2003 logon name, which is entered when the users Windows 2003 account is created.
The first and last names and the display name are Windows 2003 objects that are also used by Exchange. The alias is an Exchange object that is used in forming some Exchange e−mail addresses, for example, the users Internet address.
You can change the default rules for constructing mailbox names, and you can manually change these names. In Figure 5.1, you can see the first and last names as well as the display name for my Exchange 2003 mailbox. Figure 5.2 shows the alias name for my mailbox.
Figure 5.1: Display names are created using first and last names when a Windows 2003 user account is created.
Figure 5.2: The alias name for an Exchange 2003 mailbox Display Names
The Outlook client global address book shows the display name for each mailbox (see Figure 5.3). You need to decide on a convention for display names. Options include: first−name−space−last−name (as in John Smith) or last−name−comma−space−first−name (as in Smith, John). The default is first−name− space−last name. Ill show you how to change this default in Chapter 11, Managing Exchange Users, Distribution Groups, and Contacts.
Figure 5.3: The Exchange client global address book shows each mailboxs display name.
Display names can be up to 256 characters long. Display names are only a conveniencetheyre not a part of the mailboxs e−mail address. However, they are the way in which Exchange users find the people they want to communicate with, so dont scrimp when setting them up. You might even want to include department names or titles in display names so that users arent faced with ambiguous selections, as they might be if they encountered a list of 25 recipients named John Smith. You can also create custom address lists ordered by attributes of users. For example, you can create an address list that includes only users in a specific department.
Practically speaking, display name lengths should be limited only by your users willingness to read through lots of stuff to find the mailbox theyre looking for.
Full−blown arguments have sprung up around the metaphysics of display name conventions. Ill leave the decision to you, although I prefer the convention Last_Name, First_Name (as in Doe, Jane). Its easier for me to find Jane Doe among a list of the Does than among a list of the Janes.
Warning Something as apparently simple as changing the default order of last and first name in display names isnt all that simple with Exchange 2003. In Exchange Server 5.5, you made the change in the Exchange Administrator program. With Windows Server 2003/Exchange Server 2003, you have to edit the Active Directory Schema. Why? Display names arent just for Exchange mailboxes anymore. Theyre also used whenever end users or system administrators go looking for a specific Windows 2003 user in Active Directory. Thats why its an Active Directory issue. Editing Active Directory is somewhat akin to editing the Windows registry. Its not a job for amateurs, and its a job that may be done by someone not directly involved in day−to−day Exchange Server 2003 management. In addition, the decision to change the display name default for an Active Directory namespace is no longer simply an Exchange Server issue. Its an organization−wide issue because these changes affect more than electronic messaging. Alias Names
For some messaging systems, the users mailbox is identified by an alias name, which is part of the mailboxs address. Either Exchange itself or the gateway for the foreign mail system constructs an address using the alias. For other messaging systems, the mailbox name is constructed from other information. Figure 5.4 shows the two addresses that Exchange built for me by default for the Internet and for X.400. My Internet addresses use the alias bgerber. X.400 addresses do not use the alias. Instead, they use the full first and last name
address is also used for internal Exchange message addressing.
Figure 5.4: Exchange Server uses the mailbox alias or the first and last names to construct e−mail addresses. Aliases can be up to 63 characters long. Thats too long, of course, because some people in foreign messaging systems will have to type in the alias as part of an electronic messaging address. Try to keep aliases short10 characters is long enough.
For some foreign messaging system addressing schemes, Exchange must remove illegal characters and shorten the alias to meet maximum character−length requirements. For example, underscores become question marks in X.400 addresses. Do all you can to ensure that aliases are constructed using less−esoteric characters.
Alias naming conventions are a religious issue too, so youll get no recommendations from me.