Installing Exchange 2013

Welcome to My Exchange 2013 How-To page.

As many (if not all) know by now, Exchange of any version is a bad boy in the Microsoft product line. a VP or CEO will never wake you up if a failover cluster or a sharepoint is not working (not necessarily.lol) but if s/he doesn't have email access, the fit has hit the shan! (or something like that :) )

This How-To will be divided into 4 sections:

1. Installation
2. Configuration
3. Testing/Others
4. OWAS

The same as my other posts, this is a documentation done by me and the step by step instructions I'm providing are ones that worked for me. It definitely can be possible, that your experiences are slightly different and that's OK. as long as you wind up in "Rome" like the rest of us :)

My documentation covers installation on a Microsoft Windows 2012 environment. If you use alternate O/S versions such as 2008 R2, you might need a different set of pre-requisites then the one I will list. Make sure you check with the Microsoft site.

I am also assuming that you're using a clean environment for your testing. no previous installations/modifications of other Microsoft Exchange versions were created.

In this page we will cover installing the following:

• The Mailbox Servers
• Client Access Servers.

Even though, Exchange 2013 SP1 came out and has an Edge Server ability, I won't cover that aspect for now for one plain reason.... I don't have the documentation ready and validated yet. But then again you don't need it yet. Exchange 2013 works extremely well without it and to me sometimes it seems that Microsoft only included it because the masses wanted that option included. So here we go:

Prerequisites:

• Servers:
• Domain Controller (AD/DNS, the works)
• 2 Servers for the CAS Role
• 2 Servers for the Mailbox Role.
• 1 Domain Controller
• PKI Infrastructure (not mandatory in terms of functionality but to better simulate real life environments)
• Software
• Exchange 2013 ISO
• Unified Messanging (UCME) version 4.0
• Office 2010 Filter Pack 64-bit SP1
• Office Filter Pack Hotfix (kb2687447)

Installing Pre-requisites:

All the Pre-requisites can be downloaded from Microsoft. I linked each pre-requisite to make it easier to find.

Before Installing the Pre-requisites, you need to ensure that the feature Media Identity Foundation 3.5 is installed on the machine and reboot. Once that's done, proceed in installing the UCME 4.0  and the two Microsoft office pack files, then reboot again. Now you are ready to install Exchange 2013.

Please note that the Hotfix (kb2687447) might not install. That's OK. you can ignore it. I listed it because Microsoft suggests to put it.

Installing Exchange 2013
 
I personally prefer to install 1 mailbox server, followed by one Client Access server. The reason being that once those 2 are up and running, you already have a working GUI and see all the progress and have it as a reference if you'd like. However if you install all the Mailbox servers followed by the Client Access servers, that's fine as well.

Mailbox Server Installation

• Log onto the 1^st server dedicated to the Mailbox Role.
• Extract to a Drive\Folder of your choice.
• Navigate to that location and run the Setup.exe file.
• Select the appropriate option weather you'd like to check for updates for exchange or not, click "Next".
• At the Introduction page, click "Next".
• Select "Used Recommended Settings" and click "Next". **
• Select the "Mailbox Role" option and click "Next".
• Ensure the path entered is the one you wish. otherwise, adjust it and click "Next".
• Name your Exchange Organization and click "Next".
• On the "Malware Protection Settings", leave the option to "No" and click "Next".
• After the "Readiness Check" is complete, click "Install".
• Once you see the "Congratulations" window, click "Finish".

** Please Note that while doing the readiness check if selected the checkbox earlier (Selected by default) to install required features/roles, , Exchange will install them with no problem but most likely the installation will state that there is a reboot pending because of that. simply restart the computer and run these steps again if that's the case, and it should be ok.
 

Installing the Client Access Server Role.

• Log onto the 1^st server dedicated to the Client Access Server Role.
• Extract to a Drive\Folder of your choice.
• Navigate to that location and run the Setup.exe file.
• Select the appropriate option weather you'd like to check for updates for exchange or not, click "Next".
• At the Introduction page, click "Next".
• Accept the license agreement and click "Next".
• Select "Used Recommended Settings" and click "Next". **
• Select the "Client Access Role" option and click "Next".
• Ensure the path entered is the one you wish. otherwise, adjust it and click "Next".
• On the "Malware Protection Settings", leave the option to "No" and click "Next".
• After the "Readiness Check" is complete, click "Install".
• Once you see the "Congratulations" window, if desired, ensure that the Checkbox to launch the EAC (Exchange Administration Console) and click "Finish".
  The URL for the EAC is https://Hostname/ecp/?ExchClientVer=15

** Please Note that while doing the readiness check if selected the checkbox earlier (Selected by default) to install required features/roles, , Exchange will install them with no problem but most likely the installation will state that there is a reboot pending because of that. simply restart the computer and run these steps again if that's the case, and it should be ok.

Repeat these actions on the other servers with their designated roles and log into the EAC to familiarize yourself with the interface. The next page will cover the Configuration Part. in which we will cover how to configure the CAS, DAG, URLs, AutoDiscover and a few other things.
 
As always if there are some constructive criticism or questions, please feel free to approach me and I will address them with the best of my ability.
 
Now On to page 2! Configuration.