The Microsoft Exchange Server protocols documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are used by Microsoft Exchange Server to communicate with other Microsoft products.

The documentation is designed to describe each protocol in detail as it is used by Microsoft Exchange Server. Each protocol specification documents the technical requirements, limitations, dependencies, and Microsoft-specific protocol behavior.

The documentation also includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of interprotocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information, such as common data types and error codes.

The documentation set contains:

• Overview documents

• Glossary

• Exchange Server protocols

• Reference documents

In addition to being available on this Web site, the Microsoft Exchange Server protocols documentation set is also available as a download package in .zip file format:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Protocol Documentation

Note that interdocument links are functional only if all PDF files are located in the same directory. An error message appears if you click a link to a document that is in a different folder.

In This Section

Exchange Server Protocols Overview

Exchange Server Protocols Glossary

Exchange Server Protocol Documents

Exchange Server Protocols References

Related Sections

Windows Protocols

Microsoft Office Protocols

Microsoft Office File Formats

SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocols

Microsoft SQL Server Protocols

Microsoft Computer Languages

Microsoft Standards

Microsoft Interoperability

Microsoft Protocol Programs

Additional Resources

Open Specifications Forum Group	Participate in the top-level forum group.
Using the Open Specifications	Ask questions about the Open Specifications documents, their organization, language conventions, and references.
Windows Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Windows protocols described in the Open specifications.
File Services	Discuss technical content and implementation of Server Message Block (SMB) protocols described in the Open specifications.
Using the Office Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft Office protocols described in the Open specifications.
Using the Exchange Server Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Exchange Server Products and Technologies protocols described in the Open specifications.
Using the SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the SharePoint Products and Technologies protocols described in the Open specifications.
Office Binary File Formats	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Office binary file formats described in the Open specifications.
Using the Microsoft SQL Server Protocols	Discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft SQL Server protocols described in the Open Protocol Specifications.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Language Specification	See this forum to discuss technical content and implementation of the Microsoft VBA language specifications described in the Open Specifications.