Refer to the link for more details: https://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2015/06/16/released-june-2015-exchange-cumulative-update-and-update-rollups.aspx

* Client Access server (CAS) role has been removed in Exchange 2016 Architecture and added the client access services to the Mailbox role.

* Coexistence with Exchange Server 2013 - When you introduce Exchange Server 2016, you do not need to move the namespace. That’s right, the Exchange Server 2013 Client Access infrastructure can proxy the mailbox requests to the Exchange 2016 servers hosting the active database copy!. This provides flexibility to decide when move the namespace over to the new version. And not only that, now we can even have load balancer pools contain a mix of Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Server 2016 servers. This means we can do a one-for-one swap – as we add Exchange 2016 servers, we remove Exchange 2013 servers. The following two diagrams reflects the Coexistence scenarios with Exchange 2013;

In Exchange Server 2016, there is a single building block that provides the client access services and the high availability architecture necessary for any enterprise messaging environment.

For more details: https://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2015/05/05/exchange-server-2016-architecture.aspx

PKI Two-Tier CA Infra details,

• One Root CA server – Server is not joined to domain
• One Subordinate Enterprise CA server (Issuing CA) – Server is joined to domain
• Active Directory Domain Name: Test.co.nz

Step 1: Create CAPolicy.inf file

• Create and Save CAPolicy.inf file under c:\Windows on the Root CA server and enter the following content in the file.

[Version]

Signature="$Windows NT$"

[Certsrv_Server]

RenewalKeyLength=2048

RenewalValidityPeriod=Years

RenewalValidityPeriodUnits=20

CRLPeriod=weeks

CRLPeriodUnits=26

CRLDeltaPeriod=Days

CRLDeltaPeriodUnits=0

LoadDefaultTemplates=0

Note: Ensure you change Audit Object Access security policy setting on Root CA server - Open the local security policy and modify the Audit Object Access to record Success and Failures

Step 2: Installation of Certificate Authority

• Use the following Windows PowerShell commands to Install Active Directory Certificate Authority on Standalone Root CA

Add-WindowsFeature Adcs-Cert-Authority –IncludeManagementTools

Install-ADcsCertificationAuthority -CACommonName "RootCA" -CAType StandaloneRootCA -CryptoProviderName "RSA#Microsoft Software Key Storage Provider" -HashAlgorithmName SHA1 -KeyLength 2048 -ValidityPeriod Years -ValidityPeriodUnits 20

Step 3: Configure Root CA

• Run Command prompt in Administrative mode and execute following commands to configure Root CA server,

certutil.exe -setreg ca\DSConfigDN "CN=test,DC=co,DC=nz"

certutil -setreg CA\CRLPublicationURLs "1:%WINDIR%\system32\CertSrv\CertEnroll\%%3%%8%%9.crl\n2:https://pki.test.co.nz/certenroll/%%3%%8%%9.crl\n10:ldap:///CN=%%7%%8,CN=%%2,CN=CDP,CN=Public Key Services,CN=Services,%%6%%10"

certutil -setreg CA\CACertPublicationURLs "1:%WINDIR%\system32\CertSrv\CertEnroll\%%1_%%3%%4.crt\n2:https://pki.test.co.nz/certenroll/%%1_%%3%%4.crt\n2:ldap:///CN=%%7,CN=AIA,CN=Public Key Services,CN=Services,%%6%%11"

certutil -setreg CA\CRLPeriodUnits 6

certutil -setreg CA\CRLPeriod "Months"

certutil -setreg CA\CRLDeltaPeriodUnits 0

certutil -setreg ca\ValidityPeriodUnits 10

certutil -setreg ca\ValidityPeriod "Years"

certutil -setreg CA\AuditFilter 127

net stop certsvc

net start certsvc

certutil –CRL

Step 4: Publish Root CA certificate in Active Directory

• Logon to Subordinate Enterprise Issuing CA with Enterprise Admin credentials.
• Copy <servername>_RootCA.crt and RootCA.crl files (C:\Windows\system32\certsrv\certenroll is the default location for this file) from Root CA server to the Issuing CA server.
• Open Command prompt in administrative mode and execute the following commands

certutil –dspublish –f <ServerName>_RootCA.crt RootCA
certutil –addstore –f root <ServerName>_RootCA.crt
certutil –addstore –f root RootCA.crl

PKI PowerShell References,

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh848390

https://pspki.codeplex.com/

Enjoy reading !!

Sumit

You can download test plan from here,

https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=37135

Enjoy !

Sumit

Microsoft Exchange Jetstress 2013 Tool has been released and is now available on the Microsoft Download Center https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36849

Enjoy !

Sumit

UAG SP3 fixes many issues and also supports many new features, like;

• Publishing Microsoft SharePoint 2013 & Microsoft Exchange 2013
• Supports Windows 8 client computers by using Internet Explorer 10 and many more new features,

Refer to the article https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2744025 for more detail on issues fixed in UAG SP3 and new features support.

In addition to new features support with UAG SP3, Microsoft has also announced that few features and functionalities will be deprecated or planned for potential removal in subsequent releases.

Refer to the following article to find 'Features Deprecated in Forefront UAG SP3'

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/jj878164.aspx

After this features deprecation or potential removal announcement, you may plan to migrate your existing UAG DA environment to Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess, as DA is also part of the features deprecation list in UAG SP3. The following articles will help you to understand the migration process and steps from UAG DA to Windows 2012 DA.

• Migrate from Forefront UAG SP1 DirectAccess to Windows Server 2012 - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831658.aspx
• Side-by-Side Migration of Forefront UAG DirectAccess - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831623.aspx

You can download UAG SP3 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36788

Enjoy !

Sumit

Incase you don't know, The Exchange Deployment Assistant is a web-based tool that helps you deploy Exchange 2013 on-premises organization, configure a hybrid deployment between your on-premises organization and Office 365, or migrate to Office 365. It will ask few simple questions about your requirements and based on your answers, provides you a customized checklist with instructions to deploy and configure Exchange 2013.

This is really nice tool to start with, as it provides you all the instructions to deploy and configure Exchange 2013 instead of searching for relevant information in the Exchange library.

At this stage, Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant provides guidance limited to deployment scenario with no previous installation of exchange versions and only provides 'New Installation of Exchange 2013' option with On-premises deployment selection. And, same applies to Exchange 2013 hybrid deployment selection, it shows you how to configure a hybrid deployment between on-premises Exchange 2013 organization and Office 365. Hope to see additional scenarios will be covered soon :)

Screenshot of on-premises deployment option in Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant.

In addition, If you still needs to deploy Exchange 2010, you can use the Deployment Assistant for Exchange Server 2010 at https://technet.microsoft.com/exdeploy2010.

Enjoy !

Sumit Kumar

Related Exchange Team Blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/03/04/exchange-server-2013-deployment-assistant-available.aspx