Installing Exchange has been a pretty straightforward task; however there have been some changes in the install process for Exchange 2007. Part two of this article will cover the GUI and CLI installation options.
If you missed the previous article in this series please read Installing Exchange 2007 (Part 1).
Introduction
Installing Exchange 2007 is just as easy as previous versions, and
once you have prepped AD, the rest is pretty straight-forward. That
doesn’t mean you should throw in the CD and start clicking Next! Be sure
to review the prerequisites in the first part of this series to reduce
any confusion that may lead to errors or worse.
GUI Installation
With all the prerequisites taken care of we can begin the Exchange
2007 installation. The GUI-based installation is pretty
straightforward. Insert the CD and run Setup.exe from the root of the
disc. You will need certain permissions depending on your current
configuration and how you prepared the domain. You will need Enterprise
and Local Administrator privileges, and if you have not already prepared
the domain you will also need Schema Administrator permissions as
well. If you already have an Exchange 2007 server in the domain you will
also need to be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrator
group.
The Welcome screen will appear and you will see right away if you have the required software prerequisites. Figure 1
shows that the .NET Framework 2.0 is installed (it is grayed out) and
MMC 3.0 is also installed but Microsoft Shell (MSH) is missing. If you
are missing either of these components, you can simply click on the item
to install it.
Figure 1: Prerequisites
Once the install wizard starts you can read over the Introduction
then read and accept the EULA. Next you have the option of enabling
Error Reporting, make your choice and then click next. You will be given
two install choices; Typical and Custom (see Figure 2).
The typical install will install all the roles with the exception of
the Edge Transport role. If you wish to customize the installation,
choose the Custom install option. Here you can also change the install
location if you wish to do so.
Figure 2: Install Options
When you choose the custom option and click next you will be given a
number of selections and you can choose which role, or roles, to
install. You can also select to install Active or Passive Mailbox server
clusters, or just install the Management Console (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Server Roles
Before you can continue, you will have to provide the name of the
Exchange Organization and be asked if you have any computers running
versions of Outlook 2003 or earlier (see Figure 4). This option will create Public Folders if you select yes, but choosing no will not create any Public folders.
Figure 4: Outlook Versions
You will need to be aware of a few things when choosing what roles to
install where. If you are running a multi-site AD environment you need
to install a Hub Transport and Mailbox server in each AD Site. You also
must install a Client Access server in each site that contains a Mailbox
server. Finally, all the roles can be installed on the same server
(except Edge Transport) or on individual servers.
The installation will now run a set of pre-checks to determine if the
domain and server are ready to accept an Exchange 2007 server. Figure 5
shows an example of some common errors you will see if IIS is missing,
or if the domain is not at the required functional level (notice the
Install button is grayed out).
Figure 5: Failed Readiness Check
When all of the Readiness Checks pass, the Install button will appear and you can press it to start the installation (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Successful Readiness Check
You can watch the install progress and depending on the roles
installed it can take a while. Once complete, click Finish and you are
ready to begin configuring your Exchange 2007 server (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: Install Progress
Process Description 2
Exchange 2007 Installation on Windows Server 2008 (Part 1)
Recently, I decided to install Exchange 2007 on a VM for training purposes. The setup was as follows:
1. Virtualbox - for virtualizing two machines.
2. Windows Server 2003 - AD/DNS and Exchange Client.
3. Windows Server 2008 - Exchange 2007
The networking for these machines actually was really difficult and involved
much more work than should have. My plan was to have the machined
network be on its own internal subnet, yet have access to the internet
via a bridged interface. However, I was unable to easily get the
Virtualbox host interface to easily give 192 addresses to the internal
VM's while maintaining an external 10 dot IP address. In the end
(against my better judgment) I gave the internal VM's a 10 dot ip
address and attached another nick to the host machine and bridged that
interface with the VM's. Needless to say the VM's were completely
updated and locked down as soon as possible. On my
Server 2003 VM I ran dcpromo and configured AD and DNS. The domain I
named "test.local", an oversight considering my eventual plan was for
Exchange to accept and send mail to external addresses. Next I
installed Windows Server 2008. (Note: With Virtualbox and Exchange 2007
do not choose dynamically expanding storage. Exchange will complain
about not having enough mailbox space.) Once Server 2008 was installed
and joined to the domain, it was time to install the pre-requisites for
Exchange. The nice part about the Exchange install (and new Microsoft
product installations in general) is that Microsoft has become
"Information heavy". Error messages have (in general) become much more
detailed and often contain directions and links to fixing the problem.
However the problem often arises that the messages are much more
verbose, and yet still as worthless. If you did not know the prereq's
for an exchange install when you insert the install disc it has a list
for you to follow, as shown below.
On
a lot of servers, .Net framework and Microsoft Management Console will
already be installed. Next, Powershell will need to be installed.
Powershell is a very handy server management tool. Windows is
apparently going the way of linux for the ability to manage server
without wasting the server's resources by forcing it to display a GUI.
After installing Powershell you should be all set for starting the actual exchange install. However, first, Exchange 2007 will test to make sure that your domain passes all of the requirements for installation. For more information follow Microsoft's requirement list, found here. When the Exchange installer ran on my server, it discovered I had unmet requirements. The requirements I needed were IIS. I installed the following:
Next,
I could chose from several different types of scans. I chose the
Health Check, which I believe is something you should run the instant
you add an Exchange server. If this was a production environment, I
would perform the Performance Baseline Check as well to have something
to compare future performance against.
After installing Powershell you should be all set for starting the actual exchange install. However, first, Exchange 2007 will test to make sure that your domain passes all of the requirements for installation. For more information follow Microsoft's requirement list, found here. When the Exchange installer ran on my server, it discovered I had unmet requirements. The requirements I needed were IIS. I installed the following:
- The default IIS 7 package
- IIS 6 Managment Tools
- Static and Dynamic Compression
- Basic and Digest Authentication
I am unsure why this error occurred, and why this was not able to install correctly without forcing me to correct it manually.
Now I had to add some mailboxes. As far as I can tell in Exchange 2007, adding users in active directory does not add them to Exchange 2007, so I added them under Recipient Configuration -> Mailbox -> New Mailbox. Adding them here would add them in Active Directory, and would give them an Exchange mailbox. Quick and easy... I am not sure why adding them in Active Directory does not add them automatically to Exchange. I believe this should be a feature.
I tested this from a remote machine, and this worked fine, I was able to successfully log in and send and receive emails. (Note: To run in "full blown" mode, OWA requires Internet Explorer. Firefox (and I assume other browsers) can run OWA in "Lite" mode. I recommend using IE, as the web interface is quite beautiful when using IE, as shown below.
One
thing I noticed (and this I did not know about) was that if you have a
Sharepoint server you can access the documents using the "Documents" tab
in OWA. Very handy feature, if my Sharepoint Server was up and running
I would have tested that feature, as I'm curious as to how exactly that
works. Apparently you are also able to access Windows File Shares from
that interface.
Next, I was able to install Outlook 2003 on my DC. I started up Outlook 2003, specified that I was connecting to an Exchange server and everything set up correctly, and worked excellently right out of the box, as shown below.
At this point in time I was quite satisfied that at least Exchange was working with minimal amount of work on my part. Then, after getting Outlook 2003 working, I decided to move to Outlook 2007.
Next, I was able to install Outlook 2003 on my DC. I started up Outlook 2003, specified that I was connecting to an Exchange server and everything set up correctly, and worked excellently right out of the box, as shown below.
At this point in time I was quite satisfied that at least Exchange was working with minimal amount of work on my part. Then, after getting Outlook 2003 working, I decided to move to Outlook 2007.
I
installed Outlook 2007 on the DC as well, and when I started the
program, it found my user name in the Exchange Mailboxes, and
automatically filled in my user name and password. I clicked next, and
then it prompted me enter a password to connect to the Exchange Server.
However, no matter what combination of user names, passwords, and
domains, I was unable to log on. So I finally clicked "cancel", and
then Outlook displayed the error "The connection to Microsoft Exchange
is unavailable.
Outlook
must be online and connected to complete this action." After clicking
"okay" another dialog box comes up. That dialog box has you resolve the
name for the server.
After
making sure everything was correct, I clicked "Check Name", however
Outlook was unable to resolve the name. Nslookup queries proved
successful, and considering that Outlook 2003 worked fine, this was an
interesting error.
Next, I attempted to manually connect to the exchange server. However, this also proved impossible.
My next post will cover everything that was attempted to resolve the problem, and more about Exchange Server 2007.
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