Step by Step guide on how to install Exchange Server 2010 - Part 1: Install

adiloadilo
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Step by Step guide on how to install Exchange Server 2010- Part 1: Install
April 8, 2010 by adiloadilo

Introduction

It has been a long time since; I wrote an article or a tutorial for any Microsoft products. I noticed that exchange 2010 is out so why not give a try and check out the new features included.

I will be using a complete copy of exchange 2010 from MSDN Library for my tutorial. Please get your own copy or download an evaluation copy from Microsoft at:

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/default.aspx

ok, so pull up your chair, get your cup of coffee and let`s have fun

The Lab

Below is the Exchange Server 2010 Lab setup; all the servers are virtualized using VMWARE.

1.A windows 2008 R2 Domain controller with all FSMO Roles installed, including certificate server (DC01), this will be my domain controller and will not host any exchange services. It is not recommended to install exchange on a domain controller but Microsoft do support it.

2.Windows Domain : Faleh.net

3.A windows 2008 R2 server with exchange recommended requirements (Exch01)

4.This server will hold all roles.

All Exchange and windows 2008 requirements can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/system-requirements.aspx

This is a simple virtualized Lab, on an actual production environment you may have different roles installed and you may need a separate server for each role depending on designed infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Before installing an Exchange Server 2010, there are prerequisites that need to be installed on the server that is going to have Exchange installed.

These pre-requisites can be installed either using a script or using the Graphical User Interface.  Details can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354.aspx
Please note the different sections for Windows 2008 Server and Windows 2008 R2
 
There are different scripts for different installation scenarios.

In addition, before you begin your Exchange 2010 install, be aware of the following:

For e-mail messages to flow correctly, you must install both the Mailbox server role and the Hub Transport server role in the same Active Directory site.
You can install the Mailbox server role, the Hub Transport server role, the Client Access server role, and the Unified Messaging server role on the same computer or on separate computers.
Step by Step:

ok let`s take care of requirements first:

1. Prepare the forest and organization in Active Directory

First we need to prepare our Schema. Since this is a new setup and not an upgrade or migration, I will perform the preparation on the domain controller in My Case: DC01

As we are preparing active directory schema we need Schema admin rights. The account running the preparation must be a member of schema admins group on active directory.

Open a command prompt on the domain controller with elevated privilege (Run as command).

Run Setup from the directory where your Exchange 2010 installation files are located. Here is the cmdlets

Setup /PrepareSchema or Setup /ps

And here is the screenshot showing that preparation was complete on my domain controller.
  040810-0328-stepbystepg13.png
If you get to this part then you are done with prerequisites, let`s start our install.

Run setup.exe from you installation folder or CD, an install menu will appear:

As you can see .Net framework 3.5 and windows power shell are already installed, so the option is grayed out. If they are not installed you can still install them here.
[embed=image 285400 ]
Choose your Exchange 2010 language bundle; in my case I selected all languages from DVD.

Now select Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange

Click next and accept the Terms in the license agreement, well you know what happens if you don`t.
step2Click next and choose to either participate in Error reporting or no.
image8.jpgClick next and Select Typical Exchange Server Installation.
step3Ok let me explain: some exchange roles cannot co-exist on the same server, for example Edge Transport and unified Messaging Role. If you need these roles you have to select “Custom Exchange Server Installation”. Notice that if you choose “Edge Transport” or “Unified Messaging Role” you will not be able to install other roles on same server and vice versa.

In my case I will not be installing Unified Messaging or Edge Transport. These roles require more customization and can be added anytime after first install, I will be skipping them for now.

Click next and Rename “First Organization” to your organization name. I will rename this to “New York” as I like to name my organization unit according to location.
 step4Now Click next, and choose if you need to enable Public Folders or no.  In earlier versions of Exchange, we used to have those nice public folders.  On exchange 2007 and 2010 we can install exchange without public folder database.  For more info about public folders and reason why it was omitted on latest versions of exchange, check:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397221.aspx

For my case I won`t be using Public Folders so I selected No confirming that I do not have any outlook 2003 clients. Notice, I can still add public folders after install.
 step6Now Click next and enter your Public Client Access server address, this is the address that all external users will use to access Outlook web access, active sync etc.
 step7Confirm your FQDN and hit next
 
Choose if you would like to join Customer Improvement Program, I selected No for that option

Now Click Next to start the check

Exchange setup will run readiness check and verify that it is ready for install.
 step9If all is ok you will get a confirmation like the one below, if you are missing something exchange setup will let you know.
The yellow warning in my case is indicating that setup will run setup /preparead for me.

You can run this before running exchange setup; I prefer running it with the GUI interface.

Ok if exchange readiness check is ok, Install Button will be enabled. If you are missing something exchange setup will not continue and will prompt to you to install missing requirements with a retry button enabled.

If you get a screen like the one above you are good to go. Hit Install and go enjoy your coffee as this may take few minutes.

This was a simple step by step install for a single server running all roles except unified messaging and Edge Transport role.  Exchange setup is still a complicated task. If you are installing in a production environment, this may involve designing and planning your exchange infrastructure before implementing any roles. In some cases you may have a migration from earlier versions of exchange; you may have to do a migration from other mail servers. All these cases involve more design, planning and time. This is beyond the topic of this tutorial, I will try and cover configuration of exchange in future Tutorials.

I hope you found this article informative for you and thank you for reading.
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adiloadilo
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Comments (4)

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Commented:
thanks , I will add more in the prerequisite section ,

I did not install exchange on the domain controller :) but i guess it is not clear , I will modify the article to clear that
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Commented:
ok , I am posting the modifications , i had problem converting to html from word , also to upload the pictures one by one :)  . I wish there was a way to insert html code directly .

Thanks

Commented:
FYI the setup /ps command should/can be done from the exchange server not the DC

Commented:
Good day!
During the preparation of the organization setup / preparad stops execution by 63%
Account is Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins groups.
What could be the solution?

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