Exchange Transport Agents Evaluation Criteria

Application Domain

Transport agents are applications that run on the Exchange server that enable you to intercept e-mail messages to read, write, and modify the message content. These applicationscan also, for example, scan the message for a virus, run the message through a spam filter, and log traffic for inbound and outbound messages.

Major Objects

The Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Transportnamespace contains types that support the extension of transport behavior in Exchange 2010. You can use the types in this namespace to specify how the Exchange 2010 transport handles messages by implementing transport agents that act on SMTP, routing, and delivery events. You can use the classes in the Microsoft.Exchange.Data namespaces to read, write, and modify e-mail message content types such as iCalendar, TNEF, vCard, and MIME formatted content.

Data access model

The message data is accessible as a hierarchical set of data objects.

Threading Models

Event processes should not spawn any additional threads.

Application Architectures

Transport agents applications run on the Exchange server and may also consist of a background service that performs additional tasks.

Remote Usage

Transport agents run on the Exchange server and do not support remote usage.

Transactions

Transport agents do not support transactions.

Management Capabilities

Transport agents do not by themselves generate Windows Event Log entries. The code that executes in response to a transport agent can generate Windows Event Log events and information for Windows Performance Counters.

Availability

Transport agents ship with Exchange 2010.

Languages and Tools

Transport agents are based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Any .NET Framework language can be used to develop transport agent applications.

Managed Implementation

Transport agent applications can be used with managed code.

Scriptable

No.

Test/Debug Tools

No special debugging tools are needed to debug applications that use transport agents.

Expert Availability

Developers who have significant previous experience with transport agents are uncommon.

Available Information

Information about the transport agents is available in the SDK, forums, and blogs. For information specific to the transport agents, see the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Agents SDK, developer forums, or the Exchange Server Developer Center.

Developer / Deployment Licensing

Refer to your Exchange and MSDN subscription licensing agreements to determine whether additional licenses are required for the computers on which your transport agent applications are developed and deployed.

Design-Time Permissions

The developer must have permissions to access the data in the Exchange store.

Setup Permissions

Setting up applications that use transport agents must be performed by a user who has sufficient permission to register the application.

Run-Time Permissions

Running applications that use transport agents requires permissions to write into the folders where the events are run.

Built-in Security Features

Transport agents provide no built-in security features.

Security Monitoring Features

None.

Server Platform Requirements

Transport agents are run on Exchange 2010, which must run on the Windows Server 2008 platform. Earlier versions of Exchange have different requirements.

Client Platform Requirements

Not applicable; transport agents are not a client-side technology.

Deployment Methods

Transport agent applications are installed by using an Exchange Management Shell script.

Deployment Notes

None.