Installation of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 Part 1 of 2

Installation of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 [Part 1 of 2]

I am going to cover the installation of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 today. I will show which versions of Exchange are supported on which OS version. I will also show which domain controller version they can use. Finally I will go over the prerequisites, before the actual install.

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Introduction

With the release of Windows Server 2008, we will soon find ourselves challenged with the migration of our environments from Exchange 2007 on Server 2003 to Exchange 2007 on Server 2008.
Table 1lists the various supported scenarios for Exchange and OS versions.

Choose your Underlying Operating System

Before you install Exchange Server 2007, you need a 64-bit operating system. The best option would be to install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008. Please take note of the version SP1. You will need the slipstreamed SP1 DVD (or image), and not the original RTM disk.  In addition, you will need to install on a clean install of Server 2008, not an upgraded Windows Server 2003.
For planning sake, Microsoft recommends that you install Exchange 2007 on member server.  Installing, or running Exchange on a DC is not supported. While it is possible to do so, it is not recommended for production environments. If you only have one server to test on, then it is possible to install and test Exchange 2007 SP1 on a domain controller.

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Key preparation steps before you install Exchange 2007:

One new Active Directory feature of Windows Server 2008 is the Read Only Domain Controllers (RODC) (and Global Catalog servers). These are servers which do not hold a writable copy of the AD. There are not password records on these DC’s. Exchange can’t use them! By default Exchange will ignore the RODC or ROGC. The important thing to remember is not to manually set Exchange to work with a RODC. This will break things.
One other area that will be welcome to administrators is that with the release of Exchange 2007 SP1, the Exchange Management Console will finally be supported on Windows Vista.
Before moving on, Exchange 2007 SP1 will not install on Windows Server 2008 Server Core. Server Core is a stripped down version of Windows Server 2008 which only has a command line interface, important components such as the .Net Framework are not present to support Exchange.

Prerequisite check

At every stage of the installation, the wizard guides you through the various requirements.  Here is a screen shot of the wizard checking then showing a problem with mixed mode.

Global Catalog

I would like to give a timely reminder of the importance of Global Catalog to Exchange.  Insure that at least one Domain Controller on the subnet where you install Exchange 2007 has Global Catalog enabled.

.Net Framework 2.0

Exchange 2007 requires .Net Framework 2.0 (or 3.0). We need to install PowerShell before the main Exchange 2007.  This is an indication of the importance of the new PowerShell / PowerShell cmdlets.

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MMC v 3.0

One minor surprise, was that when I installed on Windows Server 2003, Exchange 2007 needs MMC v 3.0.

PowerShell

Once you start using Exchange Server 2007 it wont belong before you meet PowerShell.  If follows therefore, that you have to add it as a 'Feature' of Windows Server 2008.

64-bit Hardware

Production versions of Exchange 2007 require 64-bit hardware.  Don't be lulled by 32-bit beta versions of Exchange 2007, they are only for testing, and for a specific preparation context.  That context is to prepare Active Directory and domains for Exchange 2007 from a computer that has a 32-bit processor.  Remember that Exchange 2007 will be the first Microsoft product which runs solely on 64-bit processors. 
Other than this processor requirement, just use common sense and provide plenty of RAM.  It's also worth spending a few minutes thought and planning on the disks sizes and partitions, particularly servers hosting the Mailbox Role.  For larger organization, this would be a good time to review your SAN (Storage Area Network) needs.

No NNTP

Finally, avoid 'over-think', you do not, repeat, not need the NNTP service.  The good news is that the wizard coupled with the result pane not only alerts you to the problem, but also suggests a remedy.

Installation Switches to Prepare Active Directory

Prerequisites, you need the Exchange Server 2007 disk or image.  (SP1 would be even better)  Each command is prefaced by setup.  You could also try setup /? to see the full list of options, for example: /mode or /role. Below is a screen shot from TechNet showing the command lines required to prep your domain.

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

ServerManagerCmd -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i ADLDS

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Failover-Clustering

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i Desktop-Experience

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

ServerManagerCmd -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

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For more detailed information about the Windows Server 2008 roles/features. see How to Install Exchange 2007 SP1 Prerequisites on Windows Server 2008.

This script will install the services required to install Exchange 2007 SP1 in Hub transport, Mailbox server and client access server roles. These roles are the basic install for a standalone exchange server configured for Outlook Anywhere services.

Setup /PrepareAD  Creates the necessary global Exchange objects and universal security groups in Active Directory.  Must be run by a member of the Enterprise Admins group, run this command in both the root and current domain.  You may find that if you run this command as a Schema Admin (and Enterprise Admin), there is no need to run the other commands.

/PrepareSchema  This prepares the Active Directory schema so that it allows Exchange Server 2007 to install.  You must be a member of both the Schema Admins and Enterprise Admins.  You need to run this command in the root domain, or the domain which holds the Schema Master role.

/PrepareDomain /PrepareDomain domainname  This creates a new global group in the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container called Exchange.  You must be a member of both the Enterprise Admins and the Domain Admins group.

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Please Note:
You will first need to install the AD DS management tools.

What we have learned?
We have now prepared our environment for Exchange and taken the pre-requisite steps in our installation process, we are ready to start the installation of Exchange and will cover that in part two of this series of articles.

Read Part Two of this article.

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