70-345 Exam Guide: Designing and Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2016
Exam 70-345, Designing and Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2016, was built for experienced Exchange professionals who design messaging environments, lead deployments, and make decisions about resilience, storage, recovery, and integration. Its objectives test architecture and operational judgment rather than isolated command recall. This guide helps you decide whether 70-345 still fits your certification plan, identify the technical areas that deserve the most preparation, and build a practical study sequence without relying on unauthorized exam content.
What 70-345 was designed to validate
70-345 validated the ability to design and deploy an enterprise Exchange Server 2016 messaging environment, with particular attention to availability, mailbox databases, recovery, and integration. Microsoft described the target audience as IT consultants or senior administrators acting as the technical lead for a team of administrators.
The official objective document specified a minimum of three years of experience designing and managing Exchange servers in an enterprise Exchange 2016 messaging environment. That experience expectation is important: this was not positioned as an entry-level administration exam or as a substitute for hands-on Exchange work.
The exam also expected familiarity with integrating Exchange Server with Skype for Business and Office 365. A candidate therefore needed to reason across service boundaries, not simply configure an isolated Exchange organization.
Who should consider the subject matter
70-345 was most relevant to Exchange architects, senior messaging administrators, consultants, and technical leads responsible for turning business requirements into an Exchange design. It suited people who could explain why a topology, storage layout, recovery plan, or failover arrangement was appropriate.
If your experience is limited to routine mailbox administration, start by checking whether you can design the underlying platform and defend its trade-offs. If you already plan multi-server deployments, troubleshoot database and replication behavior, and document recovery decisions, the objectives align more closely with your work.
Check the exam’s status before studying or scheduling
Treat 70-345 as a legacy exam and verify its current status on Microsoft’s official certification and retirement pages before committing to a study plan. Microsoft’s historical transition guidance listed 70-345 as qualifying for the MS-202 Microsoft 365 Messaging Administrator Certification Transition Exam, and stated that MS-202 retired on September 30, 2019.
Microsoft’s retirement guidance says that retired exams cannot be taken and that an associated certification cannot be earned after retirement, while an already-earned certification remains on the candidate’s transcript. The guidance also notes that retirement information can change, so a current official listing—not a third-party page—is the authority for availability.
The practical decision is straightforward: if Microsoft no longer lists 70-345 as available, do not schedule from a search result or purchase a product marketed as a live-exam shortcut. Use the objective document for historical Exchange 2016 knowledge, then investigate the current Microsoft role-based path that matches your messaging responsibilities.
Microsoft later described role-based certifications as replacements for the older 70-xxx model and mapped Exchange-related older exams to newer messaging certifications. That mapping is useful for career planning, but it does not make 70-345 available again. Check the current certification page for the credential and exams now offered.
A sensible status-check sequence
First, search Microsoft Learn for the exact exam number and title. Second, review Microsoft’s retired-exam guidance. Third, inspect the current messaging certification pages and any official mapping information. Finally, confirm that the credential you intend to earn is still an active target before selecting books, courses, or a test appointment.
Do not confuse an archived objective PDF, an old Microsoft video, or a page retained for reference with a schedulable exam. Microsoft explains that some retired exam detail pages remain available for reference, which is useful for study history but not proof of current delivery.
How the measured skills should shape your preparation
Prepare by connecting each objective to a design decision, an implementation action, and a failure or recovery test. The official material emphasizes mailbox database architecture, high availability, site resilience, and backup and recovery; studying those topics as separate vocabulary lists will leave gaps between design and operation.
The published objective changes became effective on November 10, 2017. Use the objective document associated with the exam as the boundary for historical preparation, and be cautious with later Exchange or Microsoft 365 material that introduces products, features, or terminology outside that scope.
Mailbox database planning and operations
Mailbox database planning, deployment, management, and troubleshooting represented 15–20% of the measured skills. The domain included storage architecture, JetStress validation, database capacity and placement, transaction-log configuration, and virtualization scenarios.
Study this area as an end-to-end capacity problem. Begin with user and workload assumptions, then connect those assumptions to database sizing, disk layout, log behavior, placement, and validation. Your notes should explain what a test such as JetStress is intended to validate and how its results influence a design, rather than merely defining the tool.
A useful exercise is to review a proposed storage design and ask: where are database files placed, where are transaction logs placed, what happens when a volume fills, how does virtualization alter the assumptions, and which evidence would justify the design? This develops the reasoning the objective demands.
High availability and site resilience
The objectives included planning and managing high-availability solutions using Database Availability Groups, DAG networks, file-share witnesses, mailbox database copies, and Azure DAG members. They also covered site-resilient DAG configuration, quorum planning, Datacenter Activation Coordination, alternate file-share witnesses, and site recovery testing.
Do not study DAGs as a collection of configuration commands. Build a topology diagram that identifies servers, networks, database copies, witness placement, and the failure boundaries. Then annotate the diagram with quorum assumptions, activation behavior, and the changes required when a primary site is unavailable.
Your design review should distinguish server failure, database-copy failure, network partition, witness loss, and complete site loss. For each condition, record the expected operational response and the evidence you would seek during a recovery test. This is more valuable than memorizing a single preferred topology.
Backup, recovery, and service restoration
The recovery objectives included planning around recovery point objectives and recovery time objectives, lagged database copies, and recovery of Exchange servers, databases, mailboxes, public folders, and items.
Start with business requirements. A recovery point objective describes how much data loss the organization can tolerate; a recovery time objective describes how quickly service must be restored. Use those requirements to evaluate whether backup, replication, lagged copies, or a combination is appropriate.
Create a recovery matrix with the object being restored, the available recovery source, the expected dependencies, and the validation step. Include whole-server, database, mailbox, public-folder, and item-level scenarios because the objective explicitly spans these recovery scopes. Then add the operational decisions: who authorizes recovery, how service is verified, and how the organization returns to normal protection.
Exchange integration and deployment context
Microsoft’s objective document required familiarity with integrating Exchange Server with Skype for Business and Office 365. Treat integration as part of deployment design: identify identity, connectivity, namespace, coexistence, and operational ownership questions before considering individual settings.
For study, write a short deployment brief for an organization that uses Exchange 2016 alongside collaboration services and Office 365. Identify the assumptions that must be validated, the dependencies that could interrupt messaging, and the tests that would confirm successful integration. Avoid turning this into a product-feature inventory; focus on architecture and administrative responsibility.
A preparation strategy that matches the exam’s seniority
A strong plan moves from requirements to architecture, from architecture to implementation, and from implementation to controlled failure testing. Senior-level preparation should produce design artifacts—topology diagrams, storage assumptions, recovery matrices, and test plans—that expose weak reasoning before you attempt assessment questions or schedule an exam.
Use Microsoft’s official preparation guidance as a resource-selection framework. Microsoft identifies study guides, self-paced learning paths, exam-preparation videos where available, instructor-led training, and Practice Assessments as preparation options. Because 70-345 is a legacy exam, confirm which resources still apply rather than assuming a current role-based study guide maps perfectly to its older objectives.
Keep a distinction between knowledge acquisition and readiness checking. Reading documentation can reveal a missing concept; a scenario review can reveal whether you can choose among competing designs; a lab or written simulation can reveal whether you can execute and verify the choice. Use all three, but do not treat a score on any practice resource as proof of exam readiness.
Build an objective-to-evidence study sheet
Create one row for each objective area and add four columns: what the feature does, what design decision it supports, what can fail, and how you would validate or recover it. For mailbox databases, include storage, capacity, logs, JetStress, placement, and virtualization. For DAGs, include networks, witnesses, copies, quorum, site activation, and recovery testing.
This format prevents a common mistake: knowing terminology without knowing when to use it. It also gives you a revision tool that is specific to the exam’s technical scope rather than a generic Exchange checklist.
Use a lab only when it answers a question
A lab is most useful when it tests a hypothesis. For example, draw a DAG design, identify its witness and network assumptions, then test a controlled member or database-copy failure and document what changed. Similarly, model a storage layout and record which measurements would validate it instead of assuming that a familiar disk arrangement is adequate.
If you cannot maintain a suitable environment, use design reviews and recovery runbooks as substitutes. State the assumptions explicitly, trace dependencies, and ask another technically experienced person to challenge the plan. Do not claim that a lab reproduces the live exam; it is a way to deepen understanding of the measured skills.
A practical study roadmap
Use the roadmap as a sequence of decisions, not a fixed calendar. Spend more time on the domain where you cannot explain the design rationale or recovery consequence. The official material gives a particularly clear weighting signal for mailbox database work, while the other objective areas require broad coverage across availability, resilience, recovery, and integration.
Because no current delivery schedule or live blueprint is established by the supplied evidence, avoid assigning unsupported study-hour targets or assuming that an old exam format still applies. Set milestones based on demonstrated capability: explain, design, implement in a lab or simulation, break, recover, and document.
Stage one: confirm the target
Verify whether 70-345 is currently offered and whether it still supports the credential you want. If it is retired, identify the current Microsoft messaging certification instead. Save the official objective document only as historical study material and do not confuse it with a current exam guide.
Write down your reason for studying: legacy Exchange architecture, workplace responsibility, migration preparation, or a current certification goal. That decision determines whether you should prioritize the old objective set or move directly to a current role-based syllabus.
Stage two: map the architecture
Draw an Exchange 2016 deployment with mailbox servers, databases, database copies, DAG networks, witnesses, storage, and external or integrated services. Label each component’s purpose and failure boundary. Then produce a second diagram showing a site-resilient arrangement and the assumptions behind quorum and activation.
At this stage, do not chase every administrative command. If you cannot explain why a component exists or what happens when it fails, return to the relevant concept before adding configuration detail.
Stage three: work the high-risk scenarios
Review storage and database placement, transaction-log behavior, JetStress validation, virtualization assumptions, DAG membership, witness selection, quorum, Datacenter Activation Coordination, alternate witnesses, and site recovery testing. Convert each topic into a scenario with a stated requirement and at least one constraint.
For every scenario, write the rejected alternatives as well as the chosen design. Senior-level questions often test whether a proposed solution satisfies all constraints, so learning to identify an attractive but unsuitable option is part of preparation.
Stage four: rehearse recovery and integration
Build a recovery matrix covering Exchange servers, databases, mailboxes, public folders, and items. Add recovery point and recovery time requirements, lagged-copy considerations, dependencies, validation steps, and the process for returning to normal protection.
Then review Skype for Business and Office 365 integration considerations. Focus on the interfaces between systems and the operational checks that would confirm a healthy deployment. Keep the exercise tied to Exchange 2016 objectives rather than drifting into an unbounded survey of Microsoft 365 administration.
Stage five: perform a readiness review
Close the preparation cycle with a timed, closed-notes design review using original scenarios. For each answer, explain the requirement, selected architecture, trade-off, failure behavior, and validation method. Mark any response that depends on memorized wording rather than reasoning, then revisit the underlying objective.
Use official preparation resources where they are still available. Microsoft says Practice Assessments can help identify areas needing additional preparation, and its exam sandbox can demonstrate the general exam experience. Neither resource provides permission to use leaked content, and neither replaces mastery of the technical objectives.
Common mistakes that waste preparation time
The most damaging mistakes are treating an archived exam as current, studying isolated commands, and using unauthorized question collections as a substitute for technical understanding. A better approach is to verify status, organize study around design decisions, and test whether you can explain and recover the systems described by the objectives.
A page on dumpsboss.co should not encourage exam dumps, leaked questions, or memorization claims. Unauthorized content can be inaccurate, outdated, or contrary to certification rules. It also teaches candidates to recognize wording instead of designing a reliable messaging service. Use legitimate documentation, training, labs, and original practice scenarios instead.
Mistake: ignoring the retirement question
Candidates sometimes spend weeks preparing before checking whether the exam can still be scheduled. Make status verification the first task. Microsoft’s retirement guidance says candidates cannot take a retired exam or earn the associated credential after retirement, while previously earned credentials remain on the transcript.
The corrective action is to verify the exact exam number on Microsoft Learn and compare it with the current certification path. If the objective is professional knowledge rather than a credential, continue with the historical topics but describe the outcome accurately.
Mistake: memorizing a topology
A topology that is appropriate for one site layout, storage design, or failure model may be unsuitable for another. Instead of memorizing that a particular witness or DAG arrangement is always correct, identify the assumptions that make the arrangement work and the failure mode it is meant to address.
In review sessions, change one constraint at a time: move the witness, remove a network path, lose a site, or alter recovery requirements. Explain how the design response changes. This develops transferable reasoning without pretending to recreate live exam questions.
Mistake: separating availability from recovery
High availability reduces service interruption, while backup and recovery address restoration, data protection, and scenarios that replication alone does not solve. Studying DAGs without recovery planning leaves an important gap, especially because the objectives include both site recovery testing and recovery of several Exchange object types.
Pair every availability design with a recovery plan. State what happens when copies are unavailable, when data must be recovered to an earlier point, and how the organization verifies that the restored service is usable.
Mistake: treating percentages as a complete plan
The documented 15–20% allocation for mailbox database planning, deployment, management, and troubleshooting is a useful prioritization signal, not a reason to neglect the remaining objectives. Availability, site resilience, recovery, integration, and deployment decisions are interconnected.
Use the weighting to protect study time for database work, then use scenario coverage to ensure that every other documented domain receives attention. Never compare an unlabeled percentage with another number; always keep the percentage attached to its official domain.
Scheduling and delivery decisions when an official listing exists
Only schedule after Microsoft confirms that the exam is active and provides a registration route. Microsoft’s registration guidance says candidates begin from the certification or exam details page, select the exam provider, and complete scheduling through the provider. For a current Microsoft certification, the available provider and delivery options shown on that page control the decision.
Microsoft states that candidates can generally choose an online proctored exam or a local test center when those options are offered. An online appointment requires a system pre-check and a testing area that meets security requirements; a test center provides a pre-configured environment. These are general Microsoft scheduling rules, not evidence that 70-345 itself is presently deliverable.
Appointment checks worth completing
Use the Microsoft Learn profile associated with registration and ensure the legal name matches the identification requirement described by Microsoft’s scheduling guidance. Request any needed accommodation before scheduling so the provider has time to review it.
Microsoft’s current guidance says certification exams can be scheduled no more than 90 days in advance and that, through Pearson VUE, a candidate can have a maximum of two Microsoft Certification exams scheduled at a time. Confirm the live policy during registration because these rules apply to the current program and do not establish availability for a retired exam.
Online or test center
Choose a test center if you want a controlled, pre-configured environment and do not want to manage the computer and room checks. Choose online delivery only when the provider offers it and your equipment, connection, room, and identity documents satisfy the current requirements.
If an online option is absent from the provider’s listing, Microsoft says it is not available from that exam provider. Do not infer availability from another exam, another country, or an old forum post.
How to use official resources without losing focus
Start with the official objective document because it defines the historical scope. Use Microsoft’s preparation guidance to locate study guides, learning modules, videos, instructor-led training, Practice Assessments, and the exam sandbox where applicable. Then choose only the resources that answer a gap identified in your objective-to-evidence sheet.
The Microsoft Ignite exam-preparation session for 70-345 was intended for people experienced with Exchange Server 2016 and reviewed exam topics and test-taking techniques. It can provide historical orientation, but it should not override the objective document or be treated as evidence of current exam delivery.
Practice Assessments, when available for an exam, are intended to help candidates assess knowledge and identify areas needing further preparation. Microsoft also notes that Practice Assessments may be available in multiple languages and that the exam may not be available in the same languages. Confirm language availability on the relevant current page rather than assuming that an assessment language matches an exam language.
A resource-selection rule
For each resource, write the objective it supports before you begin. If you cannot name the objective, defer the resource. This prevents broad Exchange reading from consuming the time needed for storage design, DAG behavior, recovery planning, and integration scenarios.
Prefer material that makes you produce something: a diagram, capacity assumption, runbook, test case, or explanation. Passive reading is useful for orientation, but deliverables expose whether you can apply the concept.
Your final decision checklist
Before you invest further, answer four questions: Is 70-345 currently schedulable according to Microsoft? Is the associated credential still the outcome you need? Can you explain the major objective areas through design and recovery scenarios? Have you replaced any unauthorized shortcut material with evidence-based preparation?
If the first answer is no, redirect certification preparation to the current Microsoft messaging path while retaining the Exchange 2016 architecture topics that support your work. If the first two answers are yes, use the official listing for registration and keep preparing against the exact objectives and policies shown there.
A candidate ready for this subject can justify storage and database placement, explain transaction-log and capacity considerations, design and test DAG and site-resilience behavior, plan recovery against business objectives, and account for Skype for Business and Office 365 integration. That standard is more durable than recalling a collection of alleged exam answers.
Next actions for this week
Verify the official status and target credential. Download or review the objective document. Create the objective-to-evidence sheet. Draw the first deployment and site-resilience diagrams. Mark the mailbox database domain for deliberate study because it represents 15–20% of the measured skills. Finally, select one recovery scenario and write the validation steps.
At the end of the first study cycle, review what you can explain without notes. Use the results to reorder your work rather than following a rigid checklist. The purpose of the plan is to expose and close genuine capability gaps.
Conclusion
70-345 is best understood as a historical Exchange Server 2016 design and deployment exam centered on architecture, resilience, storage, recovery, and integration. Its supplied evidence supports a demanding senior-administrator profile, not a memorization-based approach. Verify whether Microsoft still offers the exam before scheduling; if it does not, move to the current role-based messaging route. Either way, use the objectives to build designs, test failure responses, and document recovery decisions—preparation that remains useful beyond any single certification label.
