What is the preferred ip scheme to test the functionality of a windows 2012 R2 installation with Active Directory and exchange.
Good evening Experts ,
I am testing on my laptop that has the following specs:
What I am testing is an install of server 2012 R2.
The installation was completed using Vmware Workstation V11.
Now I want to install:
1. Active Directory (no problem)
2. DNS (No Problem)
3. DHCP ( No problem)
4. Exchange 2013 ( will ask another question if necessary for this install)
What I need to know from you experts is what is the preferred IP scheme that I need that will closely mimic a live environment, as my final goal is to get the exchange server working to the point where I can associate AD accounts with Exchange accounts that will work going out to the INTERNET. In other words , I would like to create a user along with and exchange account and be able to send and email to my personal comcast.net email account.
Hope I have outlined what I need. Thanks in advance for your responses and potential solutions.
I am testing on my laptop that has the following specs:
What I am testing is an install of server 2012 R2.
The installation was completed using Vmware Workstation V11.
Now I want to install:
1. Active Directory (no problem)
2. DNS (No Problem)
3. DHCP ( No problem)
4. Exchange 2013 ( will ask another question if necessary for this install)
What I need to know from you experts is what is the preferred IP scheme that I need that will closely mimic a live environment, as my final goal is to get the exchange server working to the point where I can associate AD accounts with Exchange accounts that will work going out to the INTERNET. In other words , I would like to create a user along with and exchange account and be able to send and email to my personal comcast.net email account.
Hope I have outlined what I need. Thanks in advance for your responses and potential solutions.
SOLUTION
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Hi,
I would suggest a more simpler way but its a bit of a diversion - use MS Azure and Exchange in the cloud. You can a free 30 / 60 days trial and then set up your complete test environment in the cloud itself with no cost to you for the initial trial period as I mentioned.
On the other hand if you want to go the old way (as in your email) - Just speak to your ISP and ask them for a test Static IP for a month and ask them to DNS forwarding from that public IP to your local outer's outside IP- then simply login into your router console and do a port forwarding to your internal exchange IP and it should all work.
The ISP will also have a facility to do DNS forwarding to your registered domain's DNS. I would suggest you use a new test domain name with mail facility - Godaddy are very good, simple and web based to set up.
If you looking to do internal outlook testing just add an MX record in your local DNS.
Hope using one of these steps helps. Let me know if I can help any further.
Chetan
I would suggest a more simpler way but its a bit of a diversion - use MS Azure and Exchange in the cloud. You can a free 30 / 60 days trial and then set up your complete test environment in the cloud itself with no cost to you for the initial trial period as I mentioned.
On the other hand if you want to go the old way (as in your email) - Just speak to your ISP and ask them for a test Static IP for a month and ask them to DNS forwarding from that public IP to your local outer's outside IP- then simply login into your router console and do a port forwarding to your internal exchange IP and it should all work.
The ISP will also have a facility to do DNS forwarding to your registered domain's DNS. I would suggest you use a new test domain name with mail facility - Godaddy are very good, simple and web based to set up.
If you looking to do internal outlook testing just add an MX record in your local DNS.
Hope using one of these steps helps. Let me know if I can help any further.
Chetan
Chetan's solution will work too,
The private IP does not matter at all. it is private and irrelevant. You should also look at IPv6, but for a test you can let that autoconfigure.
Somewhere you have to have a NAT, port forwarding or conversion from private IP to Public IP. You can do this with NAT in your firewall or with a Web Application Proxy on another server, or if this is a test environment with two network adapters in your Exchange server.
All this stuff is networking stuff, it is more complicated than the Exchange stuff, but necessary to make Exchange work, and very important to understand well in a production environment.
When you have a public IP address you get access to a DNS editor at your ISP (Comcast)
You can configure the MX record yourself. You can go to a site like mxtoolbox.com to check your configuration.
The private IP does not matter at all. it is private and irrelevant. You should also look at IPv6, but for a test you can let that autoconfigure.
Somewhere you have to have a NAT, port forwarding or conversion from private IP to Public IP. You can do this with NAT in your firewall or with a Web Application Proxy on another server, or if this is a test environment with two network adapters in your Exchange server.
All this stuff is networking stuff, it is more complicated than the Exchange stuff, but necessary to make Exchange work, and very important to understand well in a production environment.
When you have a public IP address you get access to a DNS editor at your ISP (Comcast)
You can configure the MX record yourself. You can go to a site like mxtoolbox.com to check your configuration.
Here is a DNS entry for a typical test domain. This domain has 5 public IP addresses. There is a DZC record for proving to Godaddy it is my domain so I can get a certificate for the Exchange server.
There is a long and complicated TXT record for calendar federation with Microsoft. There is an autodiscover record, essential for easy access to email outside the local network. there is an MX record (there is also another backup low priority one further down the list.
I'm not sure what your objective is, but there is a lot to do to get a real email server working well.
Each ISP has a different interface for DNS, so yours may or may not look like this.
DNS.jpg
There is a long and complicated TXT record for calendar federation with Microsoft. There is an autodiscover record, essential for easy access to email outside the local network. there is an MX record (there is also another backup low priority one further down the list.
I'm not sure what your objective is, but there is a lot to do to get a real email server working well.
Each ISP has a different interface for DNS, so yours may or may not look like this.
DNS.jpg
ASKER
My Goodness,
I didn't know it would be so involved. I am only doing this in a test environment for proof of concept. Is there an exchange tutorial that will take me through the steps I need to get this up and running. As much value I attribute to your responses, I need a bit more hand holding in the form of a step by step. Keep in mind , simply installing exchange is simple , but making it functional both inside my network and outside is what I am needing some guidance on. I hope you can push me in the right direction.
I didn't know it would be so involved. I am only doing this in a test environment for proof of concept. Is there an exchange tutorial that will take me through the steps I need to get this up and running. As much value I attribute to your responses, I need a bit more hand holding in the form of a step by step. Keep in mind , simply installing exchange is simple , but making it functional both inside my network and outside is what I am needing some guidance on. I hope you can push me in the right direction.
Hi,
I have a couple of documents we had created when we helped a client test exchange 2013 before deploying it a month or so ago for them. Its a complete working setup for testing known as POC - Proof of Concept Document and its designed to be as simple as possible.
Give me time till evening GMT and I will send it here.
Chetan
I have a couple of documents we had created when we helped a client test exchange 2013 before deploying it a month or so ago for them. Its a complete working setup for testing known as POC - Proof of Concept Document and its designed to be as simple as possible.
Give me time till evening GMT and I will send it here.
Chetan
It's complicated,
The internal stuff is easy, you have nearly finished it. The IP scheme you choose as you want. Probably 192.168.168.x is easiest as it is a class C.
But you have to remember that as soon as you get into the public domain you have to keep proving you're not a spammer, or distributing viruses by email.
And that as soon as you put your server out on a public IP address the bad guys will start attacking it.
To do OWA and SMTP you have to open up the server somewhat and within a few seconds a bad guy will attack it if it is not properly protected.
So you have to do and understand networking, firewalls, public DNS, fixed IP addresses.
Wait and see what Chetan has
The internal stuff is easy, you have nearly finished it. The IP scheme you choose as you want. Probably 192.168.168.x is easiest as it is a class C.
But you have to remember that as soon as you get into the public domain you have to keep proving you're not a spammer, or distributing viruses by email.
And that as soon as you put your server out on a public IP address the bad guys will start attacking it.
To do OWA and SMTP you have to open up the server somewhat and within a few seconds a bad guy will attack it if it is not properly protected.
So you have to do and understand networking, firewalls, public DNS, fixed IP addresses.
Wait and see what Chetan has
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Nice post - Black Thanos now you see both solutions are complex. Do take time to think about why you need to do this and what your objective are.
ASKER
Thank you Carol and Chetan.
The both of you have given me the means and tools to perform a proof of concept (POC) for myself. All knowledge is valuable to me , thank you very much. My only objective here is to master the complex part of establishing an exchange server for public use, as I may be called upon to do this in a real environment.
Regards,
Regis AKA Black Thanos
The both of you have given me the means and tools to perform a proof of concept (POC) for myself. All knowledge is valuable to me , thank you very much. My only objective here is to master the complex part of establishing an exchange server for public use, as I may be called upon to do this in a real environment.
Regards,
Regis AKA Black Thanos
ASKER
I purposefully asked the question in my original post so that I would get a discussion on exactly what you posted above.
1. One . I wanted to see if I should acquire a public address from comcast.
2. Email communication wont work without an MX record, but I am unsure who to contact to set that up once I get the public address established.
Carol,
My questions to you are:
1. Once I get a public address for my comcast modem/router , what internal IP scheme would you suggest; i.e 172.x.x.x, 192.x.x.x, 10.x.x.x. or something else.
2. Also , you wrote:
"You should have a fixed public IP address in a business range and an MX record and appropriate reverse DNS entry for the domain that you want to send mail from."
Once I obtain a fixed public address , the question still becomes how do I configure the MX record for Exchange.
I hope I have been clear enough.
Regards,
Regis