Article - Domain Controllers are critical to Exchange, Know Which DC is Used for Communication

Hello All,

A working Active Directory foundation is required for Exchange Server, so have you ever wondered which Domain Controller (DC) was being used by your Exchange Server. Now you can. Read on if you're interested.

I recently read an article about how Exchange Server knows what Active Directory servers are available. For Exchange 2000, 2003, and 2007, the answer lies with an Exchange process called "Directory Services Access", aka DSAccess. It polls all DC every 15 minutes and makes optimizations based on the results. You can read the summary article here (via SearchExchange.org) or a full detailed technical article here (via MSExchange.org) or another one from SearchExchage.org here. Start with the summary, and then the technical articles.

Tidbit - Under 2000 and 2003, DSAccess ran under the Exchange service called System Attendant. Exchange 2007 changed that, and now it runs under a separate Windows service running on your Exchange Servers called "Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service".

Until next time... may your email flow well.
-Ben