Exchange 2003 & WINS   

Hi,

     We will be migrating from Lotus Notes to Exchange and in our test lab I 
ran the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and it brought up the issue that I 
wasn't using WINS servers.

      I thought we didn't need WINS anymore and that DNS performed all name 
resolution in AD & Exchange?

      The analyzer brought me to two links, one of which said 'Microsoft 
doesn't support implementations of Exchange in large environments without 
WINS'  (Technet) and 'Installations of Exchange 2003/2000 in large and 
subnetted organizatinos without WINS have not been fully tested' (kb837391).

      Is everyone who runs Exchange with severs at many remote sites also 
running WINS?  Is it definately required or else certain functionality will 
be lost?  Thanks.

Riley

date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 07:49:01 -0700   author:   rileymartin

Re: Exchange 2003 & WINS   

On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 07:49:01 -0700, rileymartin
 wrote:

>Hi,
>
>     We will be migrating from Lotus Notes to Exchange and in our test lab I 
>ran the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and it brought up the issue that I 
>wasn't using WINS servers.
>
>      I thought we didn't need WINS anymore and that DNS performed all name 
>resolution in AD & Exchange?
>
>      The analyzer brought me to two links, one of which said 'Microsoft 
>doesn't support implementations of Exchange in large environments without 
>WINS'  (Technet) and 'Installations of Exchange 2003/2000 in large and 
>subnetted organizatinos without WINS have not been fully tested' (kb837391).
>
>      Is everyone who runs Exchange with severs at many remote sites also 
>running WINS?  Is it definately required or else certain functionality will 
>be lost?  Thanks.

You'll need netbios, thats for sure. You should have a WINS server
setup if you anything other than a small, flat network.




>
>Riley

date: Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:57:57 -0400   author:   Andy David {MVP}

Re: Exchange 2003 & WINS   

I'm having trouble finding descriptive documents that say in good detail what 
netbios is still needed for with Exchange.

From what I read it's only needed if you have older Outlook clients, running 
setup for clustering or changing passwords through outlook web access.  Do 
you have any information on what Exchange functions 'really' need netbios and 
what won't work without WINS?  Thanks.

"Andy David  {MVP}" wrote:

> On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 07:49:01 -0700, rileymartin
>  wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >     We will be migrating from Lotus Notes to Exchange and in our test lab I 
> >ran the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and it brought up the issue that I 
> >wasn't using WINS servers.
> >
> >      I thought we didn't need WINS anymore and that DNS performed all name 
> >resolution in AD & Exchange?
> >
> >      The analyzer brought me to two links, one of which said 'Microsoft 
> >doesn't support implementations of Exchange in large environments without 
> >WINS'  (Technet) and 'Installations of Exchange 2003/2000 in large and 
> >subnetted organizatinos without WINS have not been fully tested' (kb837391).
> >
> >      Is everyone who runs Exchange with severs at many remote sites also 
> >running WINS?  Is it definately required or else certain functionality will 
> >be lost?  Thanks.
> 
> You'll need netbios, thats for sure. You should have a WINS server
> setup if you anything other than a small, flat network.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >Riley
>

date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 10:02:01 -0700   author:   rileymartin

Re: Exchange 2003 & WINS   

rileymartin  wrote:
> I'm having trouble finding descriptive documents that say in good
> detail what netbios is still needed for with Exchange.
>
> From what I read it's only needed if you have older Outlook clients,
> running setup for clustering or changing passwords through outlook
> web access.  Do you have any information on what Exchange functions
> 'really' need netbios and what won't work without WINS?  Thanks.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837391

If absolutely necessary, you can probably live without it, but why? Since 
network browsing is still something most people want, and NetBIOS works far 
more efficiently if you use WINS (& disable the computer browser service on 
all workstations via GPO), I just don't see the downside. A lot of people 
tend to freak out about this, but it really isn't a big deal to set up, and 
there's minimal overhead.


>
> "Andy David  {MVP}" wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 07:49:01 -0700, rileymartin
>>  wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>     We will be migrating from Lotus Notes to Exchange and in our
>>> test lab I ran the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and it brought
>>> up the issue that I wasn't using WINS servers.
>>>
>>>      I thought we didn't need WINS anymore and that DNS performed
>>> all name resolution in AD & Exchange?
>>>
>>>      The analyzer brought me to two links, one of which said
>>> 'Microsoft doesn't support implementations of Exchange in large
>>> environments without WINS'  (Technet) and 'Installations of
>>> Exchange 2003/2000 in large and subnetted organizatinos without
>>> WINS have not been fully tested' (kb837391).
>>>
>>>      Is everyone who runs Exchange with severs at many remote sites
>>> also running WINS?  Is it definately required or else certain
>>> functionality will be lost?  Thanks.
>>
>> You'll need netbios, thats for sure. You should have a WINS server
>> setup if you anything other than a small, flat network.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Riley

date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 13:19:27 -0400   author:   Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

Re: Exchange 2003 & WINS   

WINS will be needed. It will be more hassle without it. Lotus Notes doesn't 
require WINS.



"rileymartin"  wrote in message 
news:DC968AD2-A04F-4D45-AE03-6BEDDA9EA3D6@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
>     We will be migrating from Lotus Notes to Exchange and in our test lab 
> I
> ran the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and it brought up the issue that 
> I
> wasn't using WINS servers.
>
>      I thought we didn't need WINS anymore and that DNS performed all name
> resolution in AD & Exchange?
>
>      The analyzer brought me to two links, one of which said 'Microsoft
> doesn't support implementations of Exchange in large environments without
> WINS'  (Technet) and 'Installations of Exchange 2003/2000 in large and
> subnetted organizatinos without WINS have not been fully tested' 
> (kb837391).
>
>      Is everyone who runs Exchange with severs at many remote sites also
> running WINS?  Is it definately required or else certain functionality 
> will
> be lost?  Thanks.
>
> Riley
>

date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:04:58 +1100   author:   Andrew Sword [MVP]