How to Install MS Exchange Server 2007 on a new Server under a New Active Directory Domain/Forest - Part II

This is Part II of the Article Series of "How to Install MS Exchange Server 2007 on a new Server under a New Active Directory Domain/Forest". In this article we will start with Updating Active Directory Domain with Exchange Organization Information.

Prepare Active Directory Domain with Exchange Organization Information

In this step we will prepare Active Directory Domain with Exchange Organization Name and will create Exchange Server 2007 Containers under Active Directory Domain Partition. the New Organization will be created when the update process completed successfully.

To update Active Directory Domain with New Exchange Organization:

1. Logon to the server where you will install Exchange Server 2007 with an domain account that is member of "Domain Admins" group. to make sure that you are loggin by the correct user, logon by the Domain Administrator Account "Administrator".
   
2. Put your Exchange Server 2007 Media DVD on the CD Room, and go to Command Prompt screen. go to Run ---> cmd.exe, then click Enter.


3. Change the path in the command promt to your Exchange 2007 Media Drive.
   
4. run the following command :
   setup.com /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:"Organization Name" or setup.com /p /on:"Organization Name". then click on Enter .
   


5. Now the Setup Process will contact your Domain Controller and updates the Domain Partition and Configuration Partition with Exchange Server 2007 New Contrainers and New Orgazation Name will be created as well.
   
   


6. To verify that this step completed successfully, make sure that there is a new organizational unit (OU) in the root domain called Microsoft Exchange Security Groups. This OU should contain the following new Exchange USGs:
   
   Exchange Organization Administrators
   Exchange Recipient Administrators
   Exchange View-Only Administrators
   Exchange Servers
   ExchangeLegacyInterop
   
   as shown below:
   
   


7. After the process of Updating Active Directory Domain has been finished, and the Exchange Organization has been created, allow time for replication between all your domain controllers, or you can force the replication between your domain controllers from Active Directory Sites and Services MMC.

Install the First Exchange Server 2007 Server under the new Exchange Organization

Now after we prepared the Active Directory Domain and Forest, we are ready to install the First Exchange Server 2007 with the Three Main Server Roles (Hub Transport Server Role, Client Access Server Role, and Mailbox Server Role).

Before starting with Exchange Server 2007 Installation, make sure that the following Windows Services / Components are installed on the Server (use Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel to add these services):

• World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC): this component is required for Mailbox, Client Access Server Roles.
  
• Internet Information Services (IIS): this component is required for Mailbox Server Role.
  
• COM+ access (IIS 6.0 component): this component is required for Mailbox Server Role.
  
• ASP.NET version 2.0: this component is required for Client Access Server Role.
  

The following Hotfixes are required by Exchange Server 2007 (Mailbox Server Role):

• Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB918980)
  
• Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB904639)
  

Note: make sure that your Exchange Server is updated with the latest security patches and hotfixes by running Windows Update on the Exchange Server.

Now, if the above requirements have been met, then you are ready to install your first Exchange Server 2007 under the newly created Exchange Organization. to start the Exchange installation, keep the Exchange Media CD in the Exchange Server CD Drive and follow the below steps:

• now, the following "Auto Launch" screen will appear immediatly upong inserting the Exchagne Media CD in the Server's CD Drive, If the Autorun screen of Exchange didn't appear, you can access it by double-clicking on setup.exe on the Exchange Media CD:

• Now, from the above screen, you can see that the first activated step is step # 4 Install Microsoft Exchange, which means that all Exchange 2007 Software Prerequisits have been installed on that server, if any step (from 1 till 3) was active, then you can't proceed with step # 4 untill you finish all the above 3 steps. he, I installed all the Exchange prerequists for Exchange 2007, and now i can start with Step # 4 - Install Microsoft Exchange. if you recieved the same screen, then go and ahead and start the installation.
• In the Next screen, An Introduction to Exchange Server 2007 appears, click on Next.
  
  

• Next screen will be the license agreement (EULA). after finishing reading the teams and conditions mentioned within this Agreement (which i doubt you would read it :) ), click on Accept.
  
  

  



• Next is the "Error Reporting" Screen. Error reporting will allow your Exchange Server to send error reports to Microsoft in case any problem occurred to your exchange. If you would like to enable error reporting service on your Exchange Server, then select "Yes"; otherwise click "No". then , click "Next".
  
  

  


• In the next screen, "Installation Type" screen, there are two options, the "Typical Exchange Server Installation" and the "Custom Exchange Server Installation" buttons. the default selection is Typical Installation which includes (Hub Transport, Client Access and Mailbox roles, and Management Tools). If you select "Typical Installation" then the three default Server Roles will be selected. to manually select these roles, then click on Custom Installation, from there you can choose any role from the avialable selection. here i will choose the typical installation. To change the default installation path for Exchange, click "Browse" and select a path. By default it will be installed in "[Program Files directory]\Microsoft\Exchange Server". To continue, click "Next".
  
  
  

  
  If "Custom Exchange Server Installation" was selected then the following screen will appear. Click on the checkbox beside each server role name to install the corresponding Exchange Server role. The Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, and Unified Messaging server role can be installed together if on single server. However, please note that each of the Edge Transport Server Role, Active Clustered Mailbox Role, and Passive Clustered Mailbox Role CANNOT be installed with any of the server roles on the same Exchange server. The Management Tools are installed with any selected role, or can be installed independently for an "Admin Only" configuration.
  
  

  


• Next page is "Client Settings" and this page will be presented if the Mailbox role has been selected for installation and if this will be the first Exchange Server in the organization. It is asking if you want public folders enabled for any Outlook 2003 or Entourage clients in your organization. Select "Yes" if you have ealier outlook versions or "No" if you have only 2007 version of outlook, then click "Next" to continue.




• After that the "Readiness Check" screen will appear and Exchange Setup will start to check if the server is ready for Exchange 2007 or not by checking all the prerequisits of Exchange 2007 whether they were deployed on the server or not. the check process will be ran against all server roles that been selected during the setup wizard. Please wait for the checks to complete then click "Install" to start the installation. If there are errors, a detailed error message will be given on how to resolve the problem. If there are warnings, please take note and take appropriate action. The same prerequisite may show up more than once across the server roles (such as a required software update), but fixing the problem will satisfy the prerequisite. Note: if you wish to collapse the information area under each role, click once on the double up arrows on the right. To expand the information, click on that arrow (double down arrows) again.
  
  

  
  



• Then the installation of Exchange 2007 on this server will start. The installation progress screen will appear and will be updated as the installation continues to each step. The installation can take a number of minutes to complete while at this stage. After everything is done.
  
  

  
• On the Completion Screen click Finish and the Exchange Management Console will open if the checkbox at the bottom remains checked. After this point, the auto launch screen is again presented and you should continue to "Step 5: Get critical updates for Microsoft Exchange" to get the latest updates

When you click on Finish, the Exchange Management Console will open to start administering your Exchange Environements. in the upcoming articles i will cover you to update your Exchange Server 2007 (Different Type of Installation including Typical, CCR, SCC, and LCR) to Service Pack 1, so stay tuned.

How to Install MS Exchange Server 2007 on a new Server under a New Active Directory Domain/Forest - Part I

Now after I covered the installation of Windows Server 2003 on a new server and promiting this new server to the first Domain Controller of a new Active Directory Forest/Domain, now its the time to install Exchange Server 2007 on a new server.

In this Article, I will talk about the actual deployment steps and procedures that you will use to install a new Exchange Server 2007 server with the Three Main Server Roles "Hub Transport Server, Client Access Server and Mailbox Server Roles" on a single server using the GUI installation tools. I will show you how to Prepare your Active Directory for Exchage Server 2007 Installation, and how to check the pre-requisites using a prerequisites scanner engine built into the Exchange 2007 installation program. Now I will start in Preparing the Active Directory Environment in order to host Exchange Organization.


How to Raise your Windows 2003 - Domain Functional Level to "Windows 2000 Mode"

As part of the Infrastructure Requirements for Exchange Server 2007, the Domain Functional Level for your Active Directroy has to be in "Windows 2000 Native Mode" or higher, so first you have to raise your Windows 2003 Domain Level to Windows 2000 Native Mode.

To raise the Domain Functional Level to Windows 2000 follow these steps:

Note: This is a one way process, it can't be changed back, so DO NOT raise the domain functional level if you have, or will have, any Windows NT 4.0 or earlier domain controllers. As soon as the domain functional level is raised to Windows 2000 native or Windows Server 2003, it cannot be changed back to a Windows 2000 mixed domain.

1. Log on to your Domain Controller with domain administrator credentials.
   
2. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers.
   
3. In the console tree, right-click the domain that appears under Active Directory Users and Computers (in my example it would be "alankar.com" , and then click Raise Domain Functional Level.
   
   
   
4. Under Select an available domain functional level, Click "Windows 2000 native", and then click Raise to raise the domain functional level to Windows 2000 native.
   
   
5. Read the "Warning" message that appears after you click the "Raise" button. it says that this process cannot be changed after you confirm this message. So you have to be careful in your decision. If you don't have and will never have Windows NT4.0 Domain Controllers (PDC or BDC) under this domain, then click Ok, but if you are planning to have NT4.0 PDC or BDC under this domain, then DO NOT proceed in this process. now, i assume that you are sure that you will never have NT4.0 under your domain, so click OK.
   
   




6. Afer your domain was raised successfully to Windows 2000 Native Mode, you will get the following confirmation message box for the successful raise of your domain, click OK.








7. After the successful Raise of your Domain, you will see the immediate affect of this raise on the same box shown in Step # 4. Check the Domain Level under "Current Domain Functional Level" it should show "Windows 2000 Native" as shown below:
   
   

Prepare Active Directory Schema for Exchange 2007 Attributes and Classis

Now, after the Domain Level has been raised successfully to Windows 2000 Native Mode, we can proceed with the next step of Exchange 2007 Installation which is "Updating the Active Directory schema with Exchange 2007 Attributes and Classes. this process is the same process we used to do with Exchange Server 2003 installation, if you remember, that we used to run Exchange 2003 Setup with "/ForestPrep" switch against the Active Directory Schema to extend the schema with Exchange Server 2003 Attributes and Classis, with Exchange 2007, still its the same process, but with different Switches. here are the steps to Extend Active Directory Schema for Exchange 2007 Attributes and Classis:

1. Logon to the server where you will install Exchange Server 2007 with an domain account that is member of "Schema Admins" group. to make sure that you are loggin by the correct user, then logon by the Domain Administrator Account "Administrator".
   
2. Put your Exchange Server 2007 Media DVD on the CD Room, and go to Command Prompt screen. go to Run ---> cmd.exe, then click Enter.
   
3. Change the path in the command promt to your Exchange 2007 Media Drive.
   
4. run the following command : setup.com /PrepareSchema or setup.com /PS
   
   




5. after you click on Enter, the Exchange Setup will connect to your Domain Controller that host the Schema Master Role and updates or extend the AD Schema with Exchange Attributes.
   
   
   
   
6. Make sure that the /PrepareSchema Commands Completed successfully.
7. Allow time for replication to allow the Schema Master DC replicates the changes to all DC's under your domain, offcourse the time depends on how many Domain Controllers under your Domain/Forest, the number of DC's you have, and the connectin speed between all the DC's.

Now, Part 1 of this article has finished, i will continue in the coming parts of this serries , so stay tuned.