Exchange IMF on 2003: Before or After SMTP Relay?

[mojoxp]

Here's my situation: we currently are running Lotus Domino and are looking to move to Exchange in the next 3 months. We are also looking at using Exchange IMF to filter out SPAM to replace the Linux MXs running SPAM Assassin that were are currently running.

The question is, if we move our MX records over to the Exchange servers, will the IMF run before it relays the messages to the Lotus Domino server or will it simply foward all email? Microsofts documentation doesn't say one way or the other.

[fizban2]

it so would you be using a front end - back end solution? if so and the front server would be the one that gets mail first it would do the message filtering there, then pass the email to the required servers (ie exchange back end or lotus server)

check out this article to see how the filters are applied in exchange 2003 SP2

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/order-...rs-applied.html

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Migrat...-Connector.html

and bravo on the move! keep us up to date on how it goes i would like to geta little info how smoothly it goes for you guys, trying to work my company onto the same track

[mojoxp]

Unfortunately we have limited funding, so we're reusing servers. We have the money to do a front-end/back-end Exchange setup or do a NLB cluster of two servers and have a spam/antivirus device on the "front" doing the SPAM/ AntiVirus. We had a Barracuda box here for the last 30 days to evaluate, but weren't that impressed with it... especially considering how much they want for it.

Right now we have a pair of Exchange 2k3 servers running for one of our Child domains but sitting at the parent domain level. 99% of our mail is going to the Lotus servers on that parent domain. So I'm stuck coming up with someway to either demo IMF, MailEssentials, and/or something else with the caveat that it has to work with our Lotus system: nothing beyond tagging subject lines and blocking obvious spam, but outside the comfort of Exchange & Outlook.

Next year we're going to swap it out for a Exchange 2007 and at that point we also have a big chunk of change to spend on new servers, so I'll get a "proper" setup.

[cluberti]

Personally I would recommend sticking with the Linux MX SpamAssassin/MimeDefang/ClamAV setup, as it is much faster than the Exchange IMF, but to answer your question, yes, the IMF will scan mail before it hits the store as long as it's SMTP mail inbound, rather than inter-Exchange mail.

I've set up more than a few companies and an enterprise or three with Exchange in the back and Debian/Sendmail up front, but you do need to know a bit about Linux in general, and Sendmail, SpamAssassin, MimeDefang, and ClamAV before jumpting into something like that. Exchange 2007's IMF seems to behave much quicker than the 2003 IMF, but that's almost completely due to the fact that the 2007 servers are on beefier hardware, and they're 64bit .

[fizban2]

Unfortunately we have limited funding, so we're reusing servers. We have the money to do a front-end/back-end Exchange setup or do a NLB cluster of two servers and have a spam/antivirus device on the "front" doing the SPAM/ AntiVirus. We had a Barracuda box here for the last 30 days to evaluate, but weren't that impressed with it... especially considering how much they want for it.

Right now we have a pair of Exchange 2k3 servers running for one of our Child domains but sitting at the parent domain level. 99% of our mail is going to the Lotus servers on that parent domain. So I'm stuck coming up with someway to either demo IMF, MailEssentials, and/or something else with the caveat that it has to work with our Lotus system: nothing beyond tagging subject lines and blocking obvious spam, but outside the comfort of Exchange & Outlook.

Next year we're going to swap it out for a Exchange 2007 and at that point we also have a big chunk of change to spend on new servers, so I'll get a "proper" setup.

if you are going the 2007 route why don't you demo 2007 for them? both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions are available for users to test. I have setup both and they both are both testable and able to to shown off (2007 exchange is so much sweeter then 2003 imo) remeber you will have to extend your AD schemes at both the child and parent levels of the domain for exchange 2003. how old are hte servers you will be reusing? are the 64 bit capable? if so it wouldn't be a bad idea to show off some of the 64-bit capabilites of exchange 2007. i guess it all matters how soon you want to migrate to it.