Connecting to Other Sites

You can configure sites to exchange directory information, public folders, and messages. This section explains how to locate the connections in your site and how this affects your server planning.

When you plan your site, remember that you can limit the volume of information exchanged between sites. You may want to do so if the available connection speed between sites is too slow for the data volume.

If you have more than one site in your organization, you must configure at least one connector to connect with other sites. You also need to determine which servers should host those connections. When planning connections between sites, you should consider the following factors:

Redundant connections   Redundant connections prevent a single failure from interfering with mail delivery. For example, if a site has more than one server, you may want to configure more than one connector from different servers in this site to another site. If a server is down, the backup connector on the other server can handle the traffic. You may also want to configure multiple routes for the message, in case the network is down.

Bandwidth between sites   You can configure one or more messaging bridgehead servers to connect to other sites. If the available bandwidth between sites is high, you should configure multiple servers in the site to connect with other sites. If bandwidth is low, you can configure a single messaging bridgehead server to control network traffic between the sites.

Message traffic   Traffic between sites can consist of directory and public folder replication messages, mail sent from one site directly to another, and pass-through traffic. Pass-through traffic, which originates in another site and is destined for a third site, increases the load on the servers that it passes through.