CONFIGURE THE DOMAIN and SERVER TO HOST AND INSTALL
EXCHANGE 2010
Microsoft Exchange Server is a product which provides the mail solution for end users. In this article we
will learn how to install and configure an exchange server 2010 on server 2008.
Active Director must be suitably prepared before it’s possible to introduce Exchange Server 2010. If
Active Directory Domain Services is not prepared properly it’s will not be possible to install Exchange
Server in your organization. The first step preparing to deploy exchange server 2010 is ensuring that
domain and forest are set to appropriate functional level. To introduce Exchange Server 2010 in your
environment, the active directory forest functional level must be configured at Windows Server 2003
functional level or higher. Once you have ensured that forest functional level is configured correctly, you
need to perform three steps to introduce the first Exchange Server 2010 in your environment.
Prepare the Active Directory Schema
Prepare Active Directory
Prepare domains that will host Exchange Server 2010
So first we will look into “Prepare Schema”. If your environment doesn’t have an existing Exchange
Server 2003, the first step you need to take to prepare Active Directory is to run the command
“setup/prepareSchema”
Preparing Active Directory, Once the changes introduced by running setup/prepareSchema is complete;
you need to run the Setup/PrepareAD command. You will need to specify the name of the Exchange
Organization that you are creating if no present organization exists. Running this command will create
following:
Creates the Microsoft Exchange Container if it is not already present.
Creates the containers and objects under the CN=<Organization Name>,CN=Microsoft
Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=<root domain>
Creates the default Accepted Domains entry based on the forest root namespace
Sets permission in the configuration partition.
Creates the Microsoft Exchange Security Groups OU in the root domain.
The final step in preparing Active Directory for introduction of Exchange 2010 is to run the
Setup/PrepareDomain or Setup/PrepareAllDomains. The setup/PrepareAllDomains command will
execute the same function as Setup/PrepareDomain except that it prepares all domains in forest.
(Please note that if your environment has existing Exchange Server 2003,you must run the
setup/PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions command prior to running the Setup/PrepareSchema. Also if
the existing Exchange Server 2003 contains more than one routing group and you are intending to
configure more than one routing group connector between Exchange Server 2003 routings groups and
Exchange Server 2010, you will need to configure Exchange Server 2003 to suppress link state update, by
modifying the registry at Exchange 2003)
You can install Exchange Server 2010 only on the x64 version of the windows server 2008. If you intend
to use Windows Server 2008 rather than Windows Server 2008 R2 , you must install Service Pack2 or
later. The components that you need to install on server 2008 with SP2 are as follows:
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack1
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update for Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008
x64
Windows remote Managemnet (WinRM( 2.0)
Windows Powershellv2
2007 Office System Converter Microsoft Filter Pack. This is necessary only if the server is going
to function with the Hub Transport or Mailbox Server role.
Rather than use the Add Roles and Feature function of Server Manager console, it is possible to use
prepared XML formatted answer file located in the Scripts folder of Exchange Server 2010 installation
media with the ServerManagerCmd.exe command-line utility. You can use the servermanagercmd.exe
command with following syntax:
ServerManagerCmd.exe –ip name.xml –restart
Where name.xml is the prepared XML formatted answer file name.
Now we are ready to deploy Exchange Server 2010 in our environment. To demonstrate this I have used
following servers are role in this lab. Using this I will show you how you can prepare the environment for
and Deploy Exchange Server 2010
Domain - abhi.local
Domain Controller on Windows Server 2008 R2 – DC01.abhi.local with an IP 192.168.1.1
Member Server EX01.abhi.local with an IP 192.168.1.10 where we will host the Exchange Server
2010.
I have already installed the Active Directory server DC01.abhi.local and member Server EX01.abhi.local
and configured the forest functional level to server 2008 R2. Now we have to prepare the active
directory environment for the installation of Exchange Server 2010. Also I have created a user account
name labadmin and added this account to Enterprise Admin, Domain Admins and Schema Admins
group. We will use this account to setup and configure Exchange Servers. So let’s begin for exchange
deployment:
First we need to prepare Active Directory environment for the installation of Exchange Server 2010. To
do this I log into domain controller DC01.abhi.local and run the following command ( you need to
navigate to the directory where exchange 2010 installation files exist)
Setup /PrepareSchema
Please ensure that you do not press any key unless you want to cancel the process. This command
extended the Active Directory Domain Services schema to support Exchange 2010.
Once this complete, run the following command and ensure that you do not press any keys until Active
Directory preparation completes:
Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:abhilocal
Verify that this command has run correctly by examining the contents of the Microsoft Security Groups
OU in Active Directory.
Since in this lab we are going to use the account “abhi.local\labadmin” account to install Exchange 2010,
here we need to add this account in Organization Management Group in the Microsoft Exchange
Security Groups Container.
Now from the elevated command window, run the following command:
Setup /PrepareAllDomains
Verify that the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container has been created and Exchange Install
Domain Servers group located in the container.
Now we have completed our task on domain controller. Our active directory domain will ready to
introduce Exchange Server 2010 in environment.
Log into the member Server EX01.abhi.local and install the required component which need for
Exchange 2010 deployment. I have already mention d the required component earlier in this article. Also
make sure the service “NetTcpSharing” service startup type should be automatic and started.
Once all the required features install on member server and .NetTCPPortSharing service startup set as
automatic and started, run the setup.exe. ( Run Setup.com, if you intend to run the installation from
command or run setup.exe to run in an explorer mode). On the splash screen, choose Exchange
Language Option. Click on the install only languages from DVD menu.
Now click Install Microsoft Exchange. On the introduction page .click Next.
Accept the license agreement page and on the Error Reporting Page, ensure that NO is selected and
then click Next. On the Exchange Server 2010 setup page, Select Typical Exchange Server Installation.
And click Next.
On the Client Settings page, select No when asked whether you have all clients’ computers running
Outlook 2003 or Entourage and then click next.
(Please note that in this lab I don’t have any computers running outlook 2003, otherwise you have to
select outlook 2003 option. Selecting this option will automatically configure a public folder database at
Exchange server 2010)
On the configure client access server external domain page, ensure that the Client access server role will
be internet facing option is not selected and then click Next.
Select I don’t wish To join The program at this time and then click Next. The readiness checks will now
run. Verify that all readiness checks complete successfully.
Now click Install to begin the Exchange 2010 installation. Verify that all stages of the setup are marked
as completed. To view the log file you can click on the View setup log and open in Notepad. On the
Exchange Server splash screen, click Close. At the warning that informs you about critical updates to
Exchange Server, Click Yes. Exchange Management Console will automatically opened at this point.
Close the Exchange Management Console and open an Exchange management shell, and type
PowerShell command in following syntax to check the server
Get-ExchangeServer <servername> |Format-list Name,Domain,Site,fqdn
So in this the lab, command would be like as follows:
Get-ExchangeServer EX01 |Format-List Name,Domain,Site,fqdn
From the output of this command it verified that our Exchange 2010 server has successfully configured
and installed at our environment.
So in this article we learn how to install First Microsoft Exchange 2010 server in our AD domain. Also
please note that The mailbox and Hub transport roles must exist in each Active Directory site for email
messages to flow correctly. One Client Access server must be in each Active Directory site that has a
mailbox server. It’s important to know that we can’t deploy edge transport role on the same server as
other roles because edge server role will not be configured on member server. It must be configured on
workgroup server because of its security functionality. So I have finished this article on how to configure
the server and domain to host the Exchange Server 2010.