The Client Access Server role is the main entry point for all client connections into your Exchange organization. Although there are some exceptions where clients may directly make a connection to the Mailbox server, it's in general the first point of ingress into your organization's Exchange environment. This makes it not only a critical but also highly visible part of your Exchange infrastructure. A minor problem with one of these components could potentially knock out all client connections, possibly preventing your users from accessing their mailbox or other Exchange-related services.

This chapter explains how to configure the Client Access Server role, starting with the critical, required, services, such as Outlook Anywhere, Exchange Web Services, and Autodiscover, and ending with some less commonly used protocols, such as POP and IMAP.