AD and workgroups 1

[mspain]

Hi all,

I need a little help understanding something. I originally had one server running Win2k3 with AD and Exchange 2003. All my clients are part of a workgroup and do not belong to a domain but they were able to access their Exchange accounts just fine as long as they logged onto their computers with the same user name and password as setup in AD.

Then, I got another server and moved just my Exchange server over to that while keeping AD on the old server. When my clients tried to connect, they would be prompted for their user name and password and they could only connect if they enterd their username in the format: user@domain.com or domain\user.

I then decided to install AD on this server and once I did that my clients were able to access the Exchange server once again without being prompted for a username and password.

My question is why? I was hoping someone could explain to me how AD behaves like this.

Thanks for any input!

 

[markdmac]

I then decided to install AD on this server and once I did that my clients were able to access the Exchange server once again without being prompted for a username and password.

Please clarify what you mean by this.

As was already explained in the original thread, Exchange requires AD, this is a requirement for installation. Outlook connecting to an Exchange Server is disigned for domain use and not workgroup use. Connecting Outlook to an Exchange server from a NON AD machine with Outlook 2003 is designed to be done using Outlook over HTTP or OWA.

The question that still baffles me is why you don't join your computers to the domain. You are making a great deal MORE work for yourself by maintaining this unsupported configuration.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[ncotton]

Outlooks runs Excange on Active Directory. If it cannot connect to the Exchanger Server, it wont work.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[ncotton]

OMG! Whats going on. Sorry Mark.....AGAIN....your posts aren't showing up till after I reply. LOL....

<Refreshes PROXY>

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[markdmac]

And here I was thinking you just liked repeating what I already said.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[mspain]

Mark, I know Exchange needs AD. It was originally installed on a server that was a domain controller. I know this is not the best setup so I wanted to move the Exchange Server to a server that was not a domain controller. When I did that I got the problem that we discussed at length before. So, I decided to try to make the server I had just moved Exchange to a domain controller as well. When I did that everything worked as I wanted it to.

 

[markdmac]

And that would not have been necessary if your workstations were members of the domain.

It seems you are focused ont he server side of this but that is not where your problem is. As you know having Exchange on a DC is not optimal. Rather than keeping that, I would roll back to a non DC state (you would need to rebuild it again) and make your workstations members of the domain. All will work very happily from there.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[ncotton]

As Mark said, (they are appearing now), I can't see any reason why you cant run with a domain structure? Is there any particular reason?

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[mspain]

Yes, I could run in a true domain structure; there is nothing stopping me from doing this I understand that.

But, I was trying to model this setup after another network that is setup like this for testing purposes and I would just like to know how and why it works like this. That's all.

Thanks for any input.