What this book covers

Chapter 1, PowerShell Key Concepts, introduces several PowerShell core concepts such as command syntax and parameters, working with the pipeline, and flow control with loops and conditional logic. The topics covered in this chapter lay the foundation for the code samples in the following chapters.

Chapter 2, Exchange Management Shell Common Tasks, covers day-to-day tasks and general techniques for managing Exchange from the command line. Topics include configuring manual remote shell connections, exporting reports to external files, sending e-mail messages from scripts, and scheduling scripts to run with the Task Scheduler.

Chapter 3, Managing Recipients, demonstrates some of the most common recipient-related management tasks, such as creating mailboxes, distribution groups, and contacts. You'll also learn how to manage server side inbox rules, Out of Office settings, and import user photos into Active Directory.

Chapter 4, Managing Mailboxes, shows how to perform various mailbox management tasks that include moving mailboxes, importing and exporting mailbox data, and detecting and repairing corrupt mailboxes. In addition, you'll learn how to delete and restore items from a mailbox and generate some basic reports.

Chapter 5, Distribution Groups and Address Lists, takes you deeper into distribution group management. Topics include distribution group reporting, distribution group naming policies, and allowing end users to manage distribution group membership. You'll also learn how to create Address Lists and Hierarchal Address Books.

Chapter 6, Mailbox and Public Folder Databases, shows how to set database settings and limits and configure Public Folder replication. Report generation for mailbox database size, average mailbox size per database, and backup status are also covered in this chapter.

Chapter 7, Managing Client Access, introduces the concept of Client Access Arrays and covers the creation and configuration of this key component in Exchange 2010. We'll also take a look at controlling connections from various clients, including ActiveSync devices.

Chapter 8, Managing Transport Servers, explains various methods used to control mail flow within your Exchange organization. You'll learn how to create send and receive connectors, allow application servers to relay mail, and manage transport queues.

Chapter 9, High Availability, covers the implementation and management tasks related to Database Availability Groups (DAGs). Topics include creating DAGs, adding mailbox database copies, and performing maintenance on DAG members.

Chapter 10, Exchange Security, introduces the new Role Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions model. You'll learn how to create custom RBAC roles for administrators and end-users, and also how to manage mailbox permissions and implement SSL certificates.

Chapter 11, Compliance and Audit Logging, covers the new compliance and auditing features included in Exchange 2010. Archive mailboxes and Discovery Search are covered here, as well as administrator and mailbox audit logging.

Chapter 12, Server Monitoring and Troubleshooting, shows you how to monitor and report on service availability and resource utilization using PowerShell core cmdlets and WMI. Event log monitoring and Exchange server role troubleshooting tactics are also covered.

Chapter 13, Scripting with the Exchange Web Services Managed API, introduces advanced scripting topics that leverage Exchange Web Services. In this chapter, you'll learn how to write scripts and functions that go beyond the capabilities of the Exchange Management Shell cmdlets.

Appendix A, provides a list of commonly-used automatic shell variables and type accelerators, along with a listing of scripts that are installed with Exchange 2010.

Appendix B, includes additional information about Advanced Query Syntax (AQS), which is used to perform queries when performing discovery searches, item restores, and item removal.