How to Prepare For MS-203: Microsoft Microsoft 365 Messaging

Microsoft-MS-203

Preparation Guide for MS-203: Microsoft Microsoft 365 Messaging

Introduction

This certification is for messaging administrators who deploy, configure, manage, troubleshoot, and monitor recipients, permissions, mail protection, mail flow, and public folders in hybrid and cloud enterprise environments. Messaging Administrators are responsible for managing hygiene, messaging infrastructure, hybrid configuration, migration, transport, mailboxes, and client access. These individuals collaborate with the Security Administrator and Microsoft 365 Enterprise Administrator to implement a secure hybrid or cloud-only topology that meets the business needs of an enterprise. The people who attempt this exam should have a working knowledge of authentication types, licensing, and integration with Microsoft 365 applications.

The ideal candidate for MS-203: Microsoft Microsoft 365 Messaging exam can look forward to build solutions to simplify, expertly automate, and completely transform workflow tasks and processes for their businesses which may have products or services in the solution domain. The ideal candidates may be expected to be skilled in roles such as business analyst tasks, such as data modeling, basic UX design, requirements analysis, process analysis, etc.

The ideal candidates will use tools of Power Platform to solve their business problems. They may have prior experience with Visual Basic for Applications, Excel pivot tables, Teams, and other tools. Those taking the exam should have a basic understanding of Machine Learning data models, customer interface, and workflow processes, and should be aware of the capabilities and limitations of available tools and understand how to apply them.

Certification Path

There is no pre-requisite certification to sit for this exam. This is a Microsoft Associate Certfication and will give you Microsoft 365 Certified: Messaging Administrator Associate certification title.

Introduction to Exam MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging Exam

This exam will provide an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of Exchange Server and Exchange Online technologies. The certification also lets you showcase your skills to manage messaging hygiene, infrastructure and hybrid configuration and migration. As an Associate Messaging Administrator you will learn to implement and manage incidents, disaster recovery, high availability, and client access.

MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging certification exam is intended for all candidates who may have both technical or non-technical backgrounds and familiarity with business operations. Background experience in software engineering is definitely not required; but, some basic experience with Exchange Server and Exchange Online technologies would be helpful.

Common areas that are discussed in MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging certification are as follows. The percentages right next to the skills is the percentage of the exam questions that you will have to answer in order to secure your certificate. These will be discussed in details here as well.

• Understanding organizational settings and resources (30-35%)
• Planning and managing the mail architecture (20-25%)
• Planning and implementing a hybrid configuration and migration (20-25%)
• Securing the messaging environment (20-25%)

Understanding organizational settings and resources (30-35%)

The following will be discussed in this section:

• Managing Global Address List (GAL) which is an electronic shared address book accessed over LDAP protocol, CardDAV or some other electronic means
• Managing Offline Address Book (OAB) which is a copy of an address list collection
• Managing address book policies which allows users to segment users into specific groups to provide customized views of the organization’s global address list (GAL)
• Managing email address policies to define the rules that create email addresses for recipients in your Exchange organization
• Configuring organizational sharing to setup an organization and share emails and calendars
• Managing any additional Exchange third party add-ins
• Plan namespaces to connect to the client access endpoint that is closest to the Mailbox servers hosting the data
• Configure virtual directories and URLs to access Exchange services from inside the network and from the Internet
• Configure global Outlook Web App (OWA) policies to control the availability of settings and features in Outlook on the web
• Configure Autodiscover to automatically configures account settings
• Troubleshoot client access connectivity problems
• Manage Exchange certificates lifecycle
• Manage archive mailboxes and ove messages to Exchange Online Archiving ‘.pst’ files into the archive, for easy online access. You also can move email items from the primary mailbox to the archive mailbox automatically, using Archive Polices, to reduce the size and improve the performance of the primary mailbox.
• Manage resource mailboxes schedule and track events held in a single location such as a conference room or allocate equipment such as beamer or car to personnel
• Manage groups (Distribution, Security, and Office 365) and send notifications to a group of people. Security groups are used for granting access to resources such as SharePoint sites
• Manage mailboxes via mailbox delegation
• Manage mailbox permissions to allows users to use mailbox policies in a way you or your organization sees fit.
• Configure mailbox policies and how to define transport rules and DLP policies.
• Manage shared mailboxes to enable multiple users in your business to share onging projects and activities
• Evaluate license options for Exchange Server and about standard and enterprise server licenses and CALs to see which is best for your business.
• Manage mail users and their applicable policies
• Configure mobile device mailbox policies and apply a common set of security and mobile device settings to a group of users
• Configure mobile authentication methods that users must use for different actions
• Configure and manage Outlook mobile with an app configuration policy for managed devices or managed apps
• Manage mobile device access to automatically sync mail, calendar, notes, and tasks from Exchange with specific e-mail clients present on the devices
• Configure and manage ActiveSync to see which mobile devices can synchronize with Exchange Server. You do this by monitoring new mobile devices as they connect to your organization

Planning and managing the mail architecture (20-25%)

The following will be discussed in this section:

• Plan connectors to control inbound and outbound mail flow in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.
• Create and configure connectors and route mail to and receive mail from recipients outside of your organization, a partner through a secure channel, or a message-processing appliance.
• Configure connectors between tenants to manage mail traffic between Office servers and tenants
• Manage transport rules mail flow rules in Exchange Online to look for specific conditions on messages that pass through your organization and take action on them.
• Manage domains and SMTP name spaces (also known as address spaces) that you configure in an Exchange organization to receive email messages.
• Manage hybrid mail flow to combine on-premises and Exchange Online protection gateways which are mandatory to understand the functionality of mail flow scenarios in order to troubleshoot if any issue arrives
• Validate inbound and outbound mail flow
• Trace a message via a delivery report feature in Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 which you can use to track delivery information about messages sent by and received from specific user mailboxes
• Analyze a message trace to troubleshoot and track the health of their organization’s mail flow
• Analyze message headers to scan all incoming messages for spam, malware, and other threats
• Analyze Non-Deliverable Reports (NDRs) for an error code that indicates why your email wasn’t delivered, solutions to help you get your email delivered, a link to more help on the web, and technical details
• Investigate transport logs to investigate an issue
• Monitor Mail Flow
• Working with Microsoft Exchange Databases
• Considerations for Databases and Logs
• Using iSCSI for Accommodating Database Storage
• Implementing iSCSI for Mailbox Database Storage

Planning and implementing a hybrid configuration and migration (20-25%)

The following will be discussed in this section:

• Evaluate and configure hybrid free/busy access (NOT: ADFS, WAP and Not Azure AD
• Connect, IdFix because they belong to the Modern Desktop Admin)
• Decide between Exchange Classic Hybrid and Exchange Modern Hybrid
• Manage the Edge server role
• Configure Organization Configuration Transfer (OCT)
• Plan and configure the environment by using the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW)
• Deploy the Exchange Hybrid Agent
• Evaluate migration methods, including cutover, staged, PST Imports, IMAP, G-Suite
• Configure migration endpoints in Microsoft 365, including tenant-to-tenant
• Manage mailbox migration request batches
• Migrating from non-Microsoft messaging systems (NOT: not on-prem solutions)
• Troubleshoot mailbox migration
• Move content between public folder mailboxes
• Create additional public folder mailboxes
• Implement public folder Top Level Hierarchy (TLH)
• Implement mail-enabled public folders
• Plan and configure public folders
• Manage hold and discovery for public folders
• Plan a public folder migration to Microsoft 365
• Understanding Assigning Role
• Admin Roles with AzureAD
• Role Groups in Exchange Online
• Working with RBAC roles for eDiscovery

Securing the messaging environment (20-25%)

The following will be discussed in this section:

• Manage role groups
• Assign user accounts to admin roles
• Manage user roles
• Manage a delegated Role-based Access Control (RBAC) setup
• Plan RBAC roles for eDiscovery
• Plan for message hygiene
• Manage connection filters
• Configure malware filters
• Configure spam filters
• Monitor quarantined items
• Manage protection for phishing
• Plan and configure Spam Confidence Levels (SCL)
• Configure and manage ATP safe attachments
• Configure and manage ATP safe links
• Configure and manage ATP anti-phishing
• Configure retention policies
• Configure data loss prevention policies
• Configure and analyze audit logs
• Manage journal rules
• Manage content search
• Manage litigation, in-place, and retention holds
• Understanding the Exchange Transport Architecture
• Mail Flow Transport Rules in On-Premise Exchange
• Mail Flow Transport Rules in Exchange Online
• Accepted Domains with Exchange On-Premise
• Domains in Exchange Online

Who should take the MS-203: Microsoft Microsoft 365 Messaging

MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging certification is for people who want to validate their skills and knowledge to deploy, configure, manage, and monitor messaging infrastructure, permissions, client access, mail protection, and mail flow in both on-premises, hybrid, and cloud enterprise environments. Background knowledge of messaging is not required; however, some general Exchange Online knowledge or experience would be beneficial.

How much MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging Exam Cost

The price of the Microsoft Mobility and Devices Fundamentals exam is $165 USD, for more information related to exam price please visit to Microsoft MS-203 Training Website as prices of Microsoft exams fees get varied country wise.

How to book the MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging

These are the following steps to register for the MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging exam.

• Step 1: Visit to Microsoft Learning and search for MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging
• Step 2: Sign up/Login to Pearson VUE account.
• Step 3: Select local centre based on your country, date, time and confirm with a payment method.

What is the duration, language, and format of MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging

• Languages in which this exam is available in: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish
• Length of Examination: 50 mins
• Number of Questions: 100 to 120 questions (Since Microsoft does not publish this information, the number of exam questions may change without notice)
• Passing Score: 70%
• Type of Questions: This test format is multiple choice

Average Salary of MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging Certified Professionals

The average salary of a MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging certified messaging adminstrator in:

• United State - 91,860 USD
• India - 7,50,250 INR
• Europe - 85,711 EURO
• England - 61,420 POUND

The benefit of obtaining the MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging Certification

This certification will build awareness of exchange policies and routing for the people who attempt it and will allow them to learn and identify Exchange services and how to manage and configure mailboxes throughout the organization. You will learn about the different transport components of Exchange, how the message routing works, and how to configure the message flow for your organization. You will examine the tasks that messaging administrators must complete to configure message transport. You will also review the message transport options and learn how to configure domains and connectors and how to implement an approval workflow for messaging. You will also learn how to manage transport rules, which are a very powerful configuration to control the message flow in your organization. Through MS-203 practice test, users will be able to get an idea of the upcoming exam before hand. This will also allow them to be familiar with the format and the in depth request for questions for MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging certification.

Difficulty in Attempting MS-203: Microsoft 365 Messaging Exam

If the user has successfully passed the MS-203 practice exam and has been through MS-203 dumps then the certification exam will not be too much difficult as the user has shown aptitude for understanding complicated processes.

For more info read reference:

Microsoft MS-203 Official Certification Learning Site

Training and Certification Guide

Exam policies and FAQs