Integrating Network Operating Systems

Both the existing messaging system and the network operating system in a site may impact your site planning. If your organization already has a messaging system, you need to plan how to migrate users from that system to Microsoft Exchange Server.

For information about migration, see Microsoft Exchange Server Migration. If your site has a network other than Windows NT Server, decide how to integrate clients from the other network into your site. You may need to install additional software on your servers to enable the clients to communicate with the servers.

If a client computer is running Novell NetWare software, it can connect to a Microsoft Windows NT Server computer running Microsoft Exchange Server. Because communication between servers and clients is protocol independent, clients can choose from a variety of configurations to integrate Microsoft Exchange Server with NetWare.

To log on to Microsoft Exchange Server computers, users on NetWare networks must have Windows NT user accounts so they can be authenticated in the Windows NT domain. Microsoft Exchange Server provides source extractors that automate the process of migrating user accounts from NetWare to Windows NT Server.

Note   If a Banyan VINES client is running the VINES Internet protocol (IP), it can connect to a Microsoft Windows NT Server computer running Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Outlook supports Banyan VINES networking on clients running Windows® for Workgroups, Windows NT Server, and Windows NT Workstation.