To setup an Exchange Server for an Crm dev environment or not?

The short answer is NO.

* An exchange server is expensive to setup and run. More often than not you will not need it for a dev environment.
* Instead you can use outlook
* Pop3 server. But no need to setup an POP3 email server as you can just use Gmail's pop3 server.
* Even with nothing setup and just see if an email is in the pending state.
* Even you do need to point to an exchange server. Multiple Crm deployments can share the same Exchange server. You probably can use the Intergen old exchange server.

--------------My conversation with Sophie-------------

Sophie Khun-HammondHey Kelvin
i don't think you need to set up an exchange server
instead install the email router


5:41 p.m.Kelvin Shenbut where should I point the router to?
Intergen Exchange server?


5:41 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondin order for emails to be sent from CRM it has to either use the email router or outlook client
what are the clients using at the moment for their outgoing emails?


5:43 p.m.Kelvin Shenbut do you need to point the email router or outlook client to something?


5:43 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondif you are using outlook client, it will use your outlook to send emails
if you choose email router, the email router will send the email but it will still send as the user
the email router must point to the smtp server
or pop server


5:44 p.m.Kelvin ShenBut outlook need to point to an exchange server to do the job.


5:44 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondno
it will use Outlook to send the email
so whether your outlook is hooked to exchange or through pop it will send the email out through that way
so for example, my personal Outlook is using my gmail - i've installed the crm outlook client for this outlook
this means CRM will use my outlook to send my email through gmail


5:46 p.m.Kelvin Shenso I will need to setup either a pop server or an Exchanger server. Correct?


5:46 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondno
first you need to tell me what setting the outgoing email is set to for the user
is it Outlook or email router?


5:47 p.m.Kelvin ShenI'm setting up the dev envrionment for AMI Insurance who is using crm 2011 online.


5:48 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondOk but you need to tell me what their user setting is for outgoing emails
are they using the outlook client in general?
if they are, then they should use Outlook for their outgoing emails


5:49 p.m.Kelvin ShenI am not sure how their email is hooked up in the cloud but I just need to setup something similar so I can test thing when doing development. including sending emails.


5:49 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondBefore you spend time setting up something that may not be needed, you need to first find out whether or not they are using the outlook client
if they are using the outlook client, then their Outgoing email setting for their user settings should be set to Outlook
if that's the case, you do not need to install the Email router or exchange
I don't think you would need to test it either as it's an out of the box feature
if an email is sent from within CRM it will synchronize to outlook and then will send out from there
then you will be able to see the email sent from the user's sent items box
Do you know if they are using the Outlook client?


5:54 p.m.Kelvin ShenSure, I don't need to test the crm email itself. But let's say in the future I am asked to create a workflow which sends email. It will be nice to see the email actually going out to an testing address before I deploy the workflow to UAT.
I will find it out if they are using Outlook. At least some of them should.


5:55 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondIf they want you to create a workflow that sends out as say the CRM service, then you will need to install the email router
and link it to the exchange of the crm service account
but i wouldn't go that far into installing the email router unless they actually want a workflow like that
otherwise you may be wasting your time
the email router can be installed once and have different deployments. So you can point it to Prod and Dev


5:57 p.m.Kelvin ShenGood point!


5:58 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondSo first find out exactly what they want and then decide whether or not to install the email router


5:58 p.m.Kelvin ShenDo we have a old not used exchange server in Intergen?


5:58 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondno, i wouldnt recommend using a test exchange
you can just use their prod exchange and point it to their test environment
that way the settings are pretty much correct when it works, and all you have to do is copy the settings to the prod deployment under the same email router server


5:59 p.m.Kelvin ShenBut the dev environment is host by us.


5:59 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondHave you configured the email router before?


5:59 p.m.Kelvin ShenIt is indepent from uat and prod environment.


5:59 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondoh i see


5:59 p.m.Kelvin ShenYeah


6:00 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondhmm i don't think you need to go as far as setting up the email router
you can tell if your workflow has sent the email by looking at the activities area
it will have emails pending send
if they can't be sent


6:01 p.m.Kelvin Shenno, I didn't realise before we can share exchange server from different crm dev envrionment until you pointed out just now.
Yeah, that is a good idea too. Thanks


6:02 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondjust be careful that you don't spend too much time on something that isn't required
can i ask you what the client has requested ?


6:03 p.m.Kelvin ShenSo the Crm email router can not talk in Pop protocal.


6:04 p.m.Sophie Khun-HammondYes email router can be configured for pop


6:04 p.m.Kelvin ShenIn MS, we will setup a dev environment for support during the handover process. So if a case coming in in the future, the developer will have the environment already setup for them to do the job.


6:05 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondbut in Dev if you are developing something, i don't think you need to test to make sure the email is sent, but more for if the workflow has fired to create the email message in CRM


6:05 p.m.Kelvin ShenI am setting up an environment for this purpose now.


6:05 p.m.Sophie Khun-Hammondok, then i don't think you need to set up the email router at all
hope this helps


6:07 p.m.Kelvin Shenyeah, definitely. I am still absorbing it. Thanks