Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Installation
It is more difficult to install Exchange 2003
than any other Microsoft product. A list, as in shopping list, will
not be good enough; if you want to win the battle to install Exchange 2003, what you need is a plan, as in a general plotting a military campaign.
Here follows advice from an independent consultant to help you install
Exchange 2003.
Topics for Exchange Server 2003 Installation
♠
Before breaking out the Exchange CDs and actually installing Exchange
2003, you must decide your strategy and tactics. If you
have not done this see
(Check
Exchange Migration Strategy here)
You may already realise that Exchange 2003 needs to extend the Active Directory schema. This makes sense when you realize that a mailbox is
now an attribute of the user, hence the user object needs extra attributes
which translate to tabs in the user property sheets. Best to install
Exchange 2003 in an Windows Server 2003 domain, rather than a Windows 2000
domain.
(Check Exchange Compatibility here)
If you are migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003, then remember
that the old Exchange 5.5 has its own directory database (Dir.edb). As a
pre-requisite to installing Exchange 2003, this
account information must be transferred to Windows 2003's Active Directory.
Incidentally, Exchange 2003 also relies on Windows 2003 for IIS, account
security, Event Viewer and the SMTP service.
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Exchange Server 2003 Requires the following Windows 200x services
- .NET Framework
- ASP.NET
- Internet Information Services (IIS)
- World Wide Web Publishing Service
- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service
- Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) service
For security reasons in Windows 2003 IIS is locked down, so not only make sure that you install the services, but also that the corresponding services are set to Automatic. Finally start the
service.
Just like its predecessors, Exchange 2003 comes in two editions. Always choose the Enterprise edition because
it has no limit on the mail Store database.
The standard edition should come with a warning that the 16 GB
limit will be insufficient for all but the smallest organization.
As a consultant, I have had several assignments helping people when they
reach the 16 GB limit. Whilst each job gave me work, I had this
feeling that the problem should have been avoided, that Microsoft should
place a warning on that Standard Edition - ' Beware you will be in trouble
when you hit the 16 GB store limit '.
The Enterprise edition also supports multiple mailbox stores which means that
you can have different backup strategies for different users.
Naturally, you would need the Enterprise version of Exchange and Windows if
you wished to create a cluster of Exchange servers.
Get a test machine to install Exchange 2003, then you can practice with its quirky setup interface.
a) Setup /forestprep
b) Setup /domainprep
c) Finally plain: setup
If you are new to Exchange 200x, a further difficult is that the setup
menu is quirky. Exchange has several strange drop down menus which are not
seen in other Microsoft setup programs. However, once you run this
setup menu a few times, you begin to understand how its mind works and configuration
becomes easier.
There are two reasons why you may want to install Exchange 2003 in
stages, security and the time it takes to run the first full setup.
The adage: 'The more security you have the more work there will be', applies
here. To install Exchange 2003 you must be not only an Administrator, but also a member of the Enterprise
Admins and Schema Admins. Incidentally, consider creating a special
domain account which will used in installation, and then this account will become
the first Exchange 'Full Administrator'.
What setup /forestprep does is create the Exchange Organisation name in Active Directory. So be very careful with this Organization name as you
cannot change your mind later. In addition /forestprep extends the schema and modifies the
users attributes to include a mailbox. In practical terms, this means
that 4 new tabs will appear on the User's property sheet as viewed in Active Directory Users and Computers.
 Make sure that you run /forestprep on the domain controller which is also the schema master and preferably a Global
Catalog server.
Setup /domainprep creates two new security groups: Exchange Domain Servers and Exchange Enterprise Servers. You can inspect the new groups in the USERS folder of Active Directory Users and Computers.
/domainprep also creates the Exchange System Objects container in Active Directory.
The other benefit of running /forestprep and /domainprep switches early in the deployment is that it will save time later; allowing ordinary administrator to install the exchange binary files more
quickly.
Now would be the time to run Exchange 2003's setup and install the binary
files. Once that's completed verify the installation by checking the
services, and if it were me I would be desperately keen to send my first
email in my new Exchange Organization.
Unattended Install
If you have lots of servers to install, and you distrust Ghost for such
an important job, you could try creating an unattended 'Answer' file by using setup
/createunattend on the first, perfectly installed server. Then, use
the /unattendfile switch when installing the other Exchange 2003 servers.
For more details try setup /? at the command prompt.
Keep in mind that your strategy for this phase of the migration is co-existence
between Exchange 5.5 and a new Exchange 2003 server. Temporarily, both
generations of Exchange will be in the same site of the same organization.
Eventually, you will decommission the Exchange 5.5 servers but for now both servers
will be active and communicating. Remember that even if you
wanted to, it is not possible to make an in-place upgrade of the Exchange
5.5 servers to Exchange 2003.
When you run setup on the Exchange 2003 server, you will need the name of
an existing Exchange 5.5. server as well as the NT 4.0 service account name
and password. A final complication is that you may need to be an
administrator in the NT 4.0 domain and this may involve creating trusts and
adding the Active Directory installation account to the NT 4.0'
Administrators Local Group.
Read all menus and error messages - extra c a r e f u l l y.
- Made sure you have enough Disk Space
- Check the Edition of Exchange Server (Enterprise is best)
- Check Active Directory, a user's property sheet is a good place to start.
- Check DNS.
- LDAP port 389 in use, so cannot connect to Exchange 5.5. Solution change and synchronise port numbers.
- If installation fails make sure you delete EXCHSRV\mbdata before trying again.
- Why does no-one ever check the Event Viewer? If there is a problem you will see a red error dot in the logs. Remember to check the
Application log as well as the System log. If the messages are not self explanatory, look up the error number in TechNet.
- Check that ALL the IIS components are installed including SMTP and
NNTP. Make sure that ASP.NET and .NET Framework are also installed.
- Run DCDiag or NetDiag for extra clues as to what is wrong with the
server. See more on DCDiag
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Revisiting the setup menu
One you have completed the main installation, I recommend running
Exchange setup again. This time check through all the menus; for example, the option to JUST install the Administrative Program
will be useful for XP Professional and save that long walk to the dark, noisy server room!
Also you may wish to check out the routing connectors.
When you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, preparation is everything. Think along military lines of strategy and
tactics. At first the setup menu seems quirky, but persevere and you will
find all the items you need to configure Exchange. Begin with
/forestprep and make sure that Active Directory is ready for the main
Exchange installation.
Download your Exchange 2003 Migration eBook for only $6.25
 The
extra features you get in your eBook include: 20 checklists to
plan your migration. Detailed instructions and advice on the best
strategy for your organization.
Lots of tips, recommendations and troubleshooting advice. Problem
solving section. Active Directory explained. Printer friendly
pages.
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