We discussed yesterday about installing the CAS role, but now you need to configure it. With the elimination of the Exchange Management Console and the revamp of the Exchange Control Panel (now called Exchange Admin Console) this task might seem a little ackward if you are not comfortable with the new interface. To help with this, my good old friend Jay Cotton who is a Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft in the NY/NJ Region has wrote up an awesome article that can be found here on setting up the CAS role.

There will be multiple parts to it, so stay tuned.

More to come so keep on checking back.

Thanks,

Adam F

Today we will be talking about installing a Mailbox Role. To have a fully functioning Exchange Server 2013 install you need to install both the Client Access and Mailbox roles within the organization (either on the same server, or separate like we are doing in this example) as they need each other to work.

The recommendation from the Product Group is to install Exchange 2013 Preview Mailbox Role first, and then the CAS role. If you are interested in learning how to install the CAS role check out this blog post.

Before we begin you need to make sure the prerequisites (Server 2008R2SP1 or Server 2012) are installed on the member server and that Active Directory / Schema was prepared and extended properly. If this has not been done, you should do this before installing the Mailbox role on your member server, as it will either fail or install with massive problems.

Installing Exchange 2013 Preview – Client Access Role:

1)      You can start the installation by going inside of Windows Explorer (the GUI) to the path where you extracted the executable file you downloaded from TechNet Evaluation Center. Within the directory you should see a file called Setup.exe. Launch this file.

2)      The first thing that will pop up is a prompt requesting you to download updates for the preview. There are no updates available, so you can simply skip this portion.

3)      Read through the EULA and accept the terms.

4)      The next pane will ask you about the error reporting function. Basically, if something crashes within Exchange 2013 Preview, the logs and events will be uploaded to the Exchange Team at Microsoft via HTTPS (SSL based, of course) and then analyzed. You probably won’t hear back from them, but if the issue occurs enough amongst clients they will probably look into it and fix the issue that caused the crash. I would select Yes, but that’s your decision.

5)      After clicking next again, you will see a prerequisite checker. If you followed the guides above for your server version, the check should tell you that everything is available. In the event that you are missing a piece of software required by the 2013 Preview, then it will prompt you to install it and give an error.

6)      This is the point where we will chose our roles and install any other features needed for the roles. You can chose either the CAS, Mailbox or to install both by checking both checkboxes. NOTE: In the Exchange 2013 Preview there have been reported issue with continuing the install using the “Automatically Install Windows Server Roles and Features..” button if you did not prep your server (if you installed the prerequisites prior your fine). This is being worked on by the Product Group now, and should be fixed by Beta / RTM or future releases.

7)      Choose your installation location, and make sure you have enough free space to install the Mailbox role.

8)      A new feature we have added to Exchange 2013 Preview Mailbox Role is to do malware scanning. If you would like to learn more about this, you can read here. I would recommend enabling this to help prevent malware.

9)      Choose to opt into the “Customer Experience Improvement Program”. This basically uploads your experience to Microsoft, including the way the installation went and the hardware used. This helps the Exchange Team essentially figure out what parts need improvement. I would recommend opting in.

10)   Readiness check to make sure that the system meets the requirements for installing your selected role. Pressing Next here will start the setup.

11)   Setup starts

12)   Setup finishes. You will see a screen like this below if there were no errors found during the setup process.

Verifying that the installation completed successfully

Now that we have the Mailbox role installed, and the installer stated it was successful how do we actually know it is installed correctly? We can do the following:

• ·        Confirm that the tools are installed.
  •   On Server 2008R2SP1 you should be able to navigate to Start – All Programs – Microsoft Exchange and find the Exchange Management Shell, Exchange Administrator Console and Exchange Toolbox located there.
  •   On Server 2012 if you go to the new Start menu you should see the Exchange Management Shell and Exchange Toolbox icon.

• ·        Confirm that you can get to the Exchange Administration Console (EAC).
  •   In Exchange 2013 we have removed Exchange Management Console (EMC). EAC is an evolution of ECP (Exchange Control Panel), which contains much of the same functionality of EMC except now it is web based and has a pretty awesome GUI (in my opinion).
  •   You should be able to navigate on the CAS within IE to https://localhost/ecp and the EAC console login should pop up
  •   If you have both the Mailbox and the CAS role installed, you should be able to log in with the Administrator (domain admin) account without an issue.
  •   NOTE: Without the Mailbox role within the organization, both EAC and EMS will not work. This is by design as the CAS role proxies the HTTPS request for both EMS/EAC to the Mailbox role, so if the CAS role or the Mailbox role is missing within the organization you should be able to log in with the default Administrator account, but don't expect to go to far (you will get a 404 Page Not Found).

• ·        Review the setup logs, and note of any [WARNING] or [ERROR] tags.
  •   The setup logs should be located at C:\ExchangeSetupLogs, and the log you want to review is ExchangeSetup.
  •   Things to note are if you see a [WARNING] tag, then a warning popped up but the installation continued as it was not critical enough to break the installation. The [ERROR] tag is used to denote a critical error typically and will stop installation.

Any questions? Comment below!

Thanks,

Adam F

Today we will be talking about installing a CAS for your front end traffic. To have a fully functioning Exchange Server 2013 install you need to install both the Client Access and Mailbox roles within the organization (either on the same server, or separate like we are doing in this example) as they need each other to work.

Before we begin you need to make sure the prerequisites (Server 2008R2SP1 or Server 2012) are installed on the member server and that Active Directory / Schema was prepared and extended properly. If this has not been done, you should do this before installing the CAS role on your member server, as it will either fail or install with massive problems.

Installing Exchange 2013 Preview – Client Access Role:

1)      You can start the installation by going inside of Windows Explorer (the GUI) to the path where you extracted the executable file you downloaded from TechNet Evaluation Center. Within the directory you should see a file called Setup.exe. Launch this file.

2)      The first thing that will pop up is a prompt requesting you to download updates for the preview. There are actually no "real" updates available (we have a test update) so you can simply ignore and skip this step.

3)      Read through the EULA and accept the terms.

4)      The next pane will ask you about the error reporting function. Basically, if something crashes within Exchange 2013 Preview, the logs and events will be uploaded to the Exchange Team at Microsoft via HTTPS (SSL based, of course) and then analyzed. You probably won’t hear back from them, but if the issue occurs enough amongst clients they will probably look into it and fix the issue that caused the crash. I would select Yes, but that’s your decision.

5)      After clicking next again you will see a prerequisite checker. If you followed the guides above for your server version, the check should tell you that everything is available. In the event that you are missing a piece of software required by the 2013 Preview, then it will prompt you to install it and give an error.

6)      This is the point where we will chose our roles, and install any other features needed for the roles. You can chose either the CAS, Mailbox or to install both by checking both checkboxes.

NOTE: In the Exchange 2013 Preview there have been reported issue with continuing the install using the “Automatically Install Windows Server Roles and Features..” button if you did not prep your server (if you installed the prerequisites prior your fine). This is being worked on by the Product Group now, and should be fixed by Beta / RTM or future releases.

7)      Choose your installation location, and make sure you have enough free space to install the CAS role.

8)      Since we are installing the CAS role on this member machine, we need to decide if this computer will be internet facing. By checking the box here, we are stating it is internet facing and then we assign the FQDN of the URL’s used by the CAS services (e.g: mail.contoso.com). This field will be used to populate the ExternalURL for the CAS services during installation.

9)      Choose to opt into the “Customer Experience Improvement Program”. This basically uploads your experience to Microsoft, including the way the installation went and the hardware used. This helps the Exchange Team essentially figure out what parts need improvement. I would recommend opting in.

10)   Readiness check to make sure that the system meets the requirements for installing your selected role. Pressing Next here will start the setup.

11)   Setup starts

12)   Setup finishes. You will see a screen like this below if there were no errors found during the setup process.

Verifying that the installation completed successfully

Now that we have the CAS role installed, and the installer stated it was successful how do we actually know it is installed correctly? We can do the following:

• ·        Confirm that the tools are installed.
  • o   On Server 2008R2SP1 you should be able to navigate to Start – All Programs – Microsoft Exchange and find the Exchange Management Shell, Exchange Administrator Console and Exchange Toolbox located there.
  • o   On Server 2012 if you go to the new Start menu you should see the Exchange Management Shell and Exchange Toolbox icon.

• ·        Confirm that you can get to the Exchange Administration Console (EAC).
• o   In Exchange 2013 we have removed Exchange Management Console (EMC). EAC is an evolution of ECP (Exchange Control Panel), which contains much of the same functionality of EMC except now it is web based and has a pretty awesome GUI (in my opinion).
• o   You should be able to navigate on the CAS within IE to https://localhost/ecp and the EAC console login should pop up
• o   NOTE: Without the Mailbox role within the organization, both EAC and EMS will not work. This is by design as the CAS role proxies the HTTPS request for both EMS/EAC to the Mailbox role.

• ·        Review the setup logs, and note of any [WARNING] or [ERROR] tags.
  • o   The setup logs should be located at C:\ExchangeSetupLogs, and the log you want to review is ExchangeSetup.
  • o   Things to note are if you see a [WARNING] tag, then a warning popped up but the installation continued as it was not critical enough to break the installation. The [ERROR] tag is used to denote a critical error typically and will stop installation.

Any questions? Comment below!

Thanks,

Adam F

When preparing the Active Directory we need to keep the following in mind:

•         One of the domain controllers in each domain you are installing Exchange 2013 RP into needs to be Server 2008 Standard/Enterprise (x32/x64), Server 2008 R2 Standard / Enterprise or Server 2012
•         Each domain needs at least one writeable global catalog server
•         Ensure AD replication is working properly in each site / domain. This can be done by utilizing the repadmin /showrepl cmd
•         You run the Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd from a machine that meets the requirements in each domain, and that before installing Exchange 2013 RP in the domain prepped that you ensure AD Replication is working properly

There are two locations in each domain that you can run the Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd from:

•         A member server running Server 2008 / 2008R2 or Server 2012 along with the requirements below
•         A writable domain controller (there, all you will have to do is extract the Setup.exe package and then run your Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd against the setup.exe you have extracted)

Also to prepare the Active Directory Schema and Domain, the account used to run the /Prepare* cmd will need to have the following permissions:

•         To prepare the schema (Setup.exe /PrepareSchema), the account used to run this cmd must be a part of the Schema Admin and Enterprise Admin group(s)
•         To prepare the domain (Setup.exe /PrepareAD), the account used to run this cmd must be a part of the Enterprise Admin group

Preparing a member server running Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 to prepare AD:

Before being we need to install the following two packages:

•         Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
•         Windows Management Framework 3.0

Once we have both of these packages installed we will need to install the Remote Tools Admin Pack for Active Directory – Directory services. To do this:

1)      Open an admin session of powershell (if you are logged in as an Admin, all you will have to do is right click the powershell icon and select “Run As Administrator”. If you are not logged in as a administrator you will need to do the same but provide credentials)

2)      Run Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

3)      Allow the server to reboot

Once we have this done, we can move on to preparing the Active Directory Schema and Domain

Preparing a member server running Windows Server 2012 to prepare AD:

When you install Windows Server 2012, you automatically install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 along with Windows Management Framework 3.0. All you will need to do is install the Remote Tools Admin Pack for Active Directory – Directory Services:

1)      Open an admin session of PowerShell (if you are logged in as an Admin, all you will have to do is right click the PowerShell icon and select “Run As Administrator”. If you are not logged in as a administrator you will need to do the same but provide credentials)

2)      Run Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

3)      Allow the server to reboot

Once we have this done, we can move on to preparing the Active Directory Schema and Domain

Preparing the Schema for Exchange 2013 Release Preview:

NOTE: Within the Exchange 2013 Release Preview, you are not able to perform coexistence with Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010. Exchange 2013 Release Preview is also not recommended or supportable within a production environment. We recommend installing this within a test lab only that will not affect your production systems.

When you prepare the schema within your Active Directory Domain, a few things happen. Here are some of the key items:

•         The Exchange 2013 Release Preview related attributes are added to the Active Directory Schema
•         The schema version (ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt) is now set to 15132. Once this occurs you will not be able to prepare the domain’s schema with an earlier version of Exchange (such as Exchange 2007 or 2010).

To prepare the schema, it is pretty easy:

1)      Extract the .EXE package you have downloaded from TechNet to a common location. In my example I will use C:\EXCHANGE

2)      Open a cmd prompt as an Administrator, and navigate to the directory in which you extracted the files to. In the case of this example it will be C:\Exchange. You should see a Setup.exe file located there.

3)      Run the following cmd:

• Setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

OR

• Setup.exe /PS /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

4)      Allow this to run, it should look something similar to this when completed:

Now you might be asking “What are these license terms and conditions that I am agreeing to?” It’s a bunch of legal stuff, but they could be found here if you want to read through it.

We should confirm that the schema has replicated across all writable domain controllers and global catalog servers within the domain. You can use the repadmin /showrepl to ensure that replication has completed successfully.

Preparing Active Directory for Exchange 2013 Release Preview:

Now that the Schema prep has been ran and replicated to all writable domain controllers within the domain, we are ready to prepare the Active Directory topology. When we run Setup.exe /PrepareAD or Setup.exe /PAD there are quite a few changes occur within the domain.

Here are some examples of the additions the Setup.exe file will add to the Active Directory configuration to ensure Exchange Server 2013 Release Preview works properly:

•         It will create a Microsoft Exchange container within the schema, which is located at CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain> if one does not exist. It will also create a the Organizational Container under CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain >, and it will use the input from the OrganizationName switch during Setup.exe /PrepareAD
•         Creates the OU and AD objects required for Exchange Server 2013 Release Preview
•         Assigns the appropriate permissions to the AD objects created

Here is how you would prepare Active Directory:

1)      Open a cmd prompt as an Administrator, and navigate to the directory in which you extracted the files to. In the case of this example it will be C:\Exchange. You should see a Setup.exe file located there.

2)      Run the following cmd:

• Setup.exe /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:<NAMEHERE> /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

OR

• Setup.exe /PAD /OrganizationName:<NAMEHERE> /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

3)      Allow this to run, it should look something similar to this when completed:

As for the OrganizationName attribute, this would be the name of the new Exchange 2013 Organization. As we did for the Schema extension we will need to check to ensure that replication worked properly. This can be done by using the repadmin /showrepl cmd to ensure that the AD objects, security permissions and schema attributes added have replicated to the all writeable domain controllers.

How do we know we are successful?

So the key question I always hear is “I ran these steps, and everything showed completed.. but how do I know I am done and it actually worked”?

You can do the following as pointed out on TechNet:

• In the Schema naming context, verify that the rangeUpper property on ms-Exch-Schema-Verision-Pt is set to 15132.

• In the Configuration naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the CN=<your organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain> container is set to 15448.

• In the Default naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container under DC=<root domain is set to 13236.

You can also check the Exchange Setup Logs, which are located at C:\ExchangeSetupLogs. The log you will want to look for is ExchangeSetup. This log will show you all actions that the Setup.exe executable ran against both the Active Directory Configuration and Schema, and show any errors within these steps.

As always, if you have any issues please feel free to shoot me a comment below.

Thanks,

Adam F

Once thing that did come up was that retention policies did not properly tag the calendar or notes, which was a problem for most users. With that said we have resolved this issue for Calendar and Tasks retention tag supportabilty as discussed by Ross Smith IV (Principle Program Manager for the Exchange Customer Experience Group) here.

Any questions, as always feel free to list below.

Adam F

Things to note..

This product so far is exactly what it says, a preview. We do not recommend or support installing this in a production environment, as this is meant to be installed within a lab for testing and learning purposes. The Exchange 2013 Release Preview cannot coexist with any version of Exchange 2007/2010. You should have an Active Directory forest in your lab that has no version of Exchange attributes or Exchange installed prior to installing the Preview of Exchange 2013.

System Requirements:

You can see the system requirements for Exchange 2013 here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(v=exchg.150).aspx

Installing Exchange 2013 Preview on Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate:

As I always recommend, run Windows Update against the server you are prepping to install Exchange Server 2013 Preview on. There may be patches out there that will help the stability of your installation.

Installing either the Mailbox role or BOTH CAS and Mailbox roles on the same server…

First thing first, we need to install the Windows Roles and Features. This can be achieved by doing the following:

• ·        Open PowerShell within an admin session (right click the PowerShell icon, and select “run as administrator”)
• ·        Run the following:

Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation

Once we have the Roles and Features installed you will need to install the following in this order:

1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit

1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit

1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit

For Exchange 2013 Preview, you must also uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64). This must be done after you've installed UCMA, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64), do the following:

1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.

1. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.

1. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.

1. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

Installing the CAS role on your Windows Server 2012 Machine…

First thing first, we need to install the Windows Roles and Features. This can be achieved by doing the following:

• ·        Open PowerShell within an admin session (right click the PowerShell icon, and select “run as administrator”)
• ·        Run the following:

Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, 

Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, 

Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, 

Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation

Once this is completed all you will need to install is the following:

Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit

As shown above, you will also have to remove the MS Visual Studio C++ Beta. Follow these steps below:

1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.
3. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.
4. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

Configuring the Windows Firewall Service on Server 2012 RC for the Client Access Service:

Configure Windows Firewall   

A firewall rule must be manually added to allow Exchange to access the registry of the Client Access server. Do the following:

1. Open Control Panel > Windows Firewall.
2. Click Advanced Settings.
3. In Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, click Inbound Rules and then click New Rule.
4. Select Port and then click Next.
5. Select TCP, and in Specify local ports, type 139. Click Next.
6. Select Allow the connection and then click Next.
7. Make sure Domain, Private, and Public are selected and then click Next.
8. Enter a name and description for the new rule and then click Finish.

As always if you have any questions please feel free to post them below. I will try my best to get back to them accordingly.

Also keep any eye out for the next blog post in this series, which will be how to install the CAS and Mailbox roles.

Thanks,

Adam F

• Changes to Exchange 2013 from Exchange 2010
• Installation of Pre-Requisites for the Preview of Exchange 2013
• Installing the Preview of Exchange 2013
• Configuring the Exchange 2013 Preview

I will be covering the guidelines to setting up the needed pre-requisites on Server 2008 R2. I will cover the installation prereqs for Server 2012 RC shortly.

Things to note..

This product so far is exactly what it says, a preview. We do not recommend or support installing this in a production environment, as this is meant to be installed within a lab for testing and learning purposes. The Exchange 2013 Release Preview cannot coexist with any version of Exchange 2007/2010. You should have an Active Directory forest in your lab that has no version of Exchange attributes or Exchange installed prior to installing the Preview of Exchange 2013.

System Requirements:

You can see the system requirements for Exchange 2013 here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(v=exchg.150).aspx

Installing the Prerequisites for Exchange 2013 Preview on Server 2008R2:

First before continuing, I would recommend applying all patches available to your Windows Server 2008R2 server. Although all you need is 2008R2SP1 to install Exchange 2013 Preview since you are prepping the machine now, just install all the patches anyways.

When planning deployment of Exchange 2013 RP you have two options:

• CAS Role (Client Access)
• Mailbox Role
• CAS Role + Mailbox Role

Server Hosting the either BOTH CAS AND Mailbox Role or JUST the Mailbox role:

You should start off by installing the required Windows Roles and Features. This can be easily done by running the following:

1)     Open Powershell and run Import-Module ServerManager

2)     Copy and paste in the following code:

Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Web-Server, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI

After you've installed the operating system roles and features, install the following software in the order shown:

1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 RC

1. Windows Management Framework 3.0

1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit

1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit

1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit

1. Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB974405 (Windows Identity Foundation)

1. Knowledge Base article KB2619234 (Enable the Association Cookie/GUID that is used by RPC over HTTP to also be used at the RPC layer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2)

1. Knowledge Base article KB2533623 (Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution)

For Exchange 2013 Preview, you must also do the following in the order shown:

Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) This task must be done after you've installed UCMA, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64), do the following:

1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.

1. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.

1. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.

1. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

For more information, see Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)

Register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in Internet Information Services (IIS) This must be done after you've completed the process described earlier in “Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)”, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in IIS, do the following:

1)     Open a Windows Command Prompt.

2)     Run the following command:

 %SystemDrive%\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir -enable

3)     Run the following command to restart the IIS services:

       IISReset

Server hosting the CAS Roles:

You should start off by installing the required Windows Roles and Features. This can be easily done by running the following:

1)     Open Powershell and run Import-Module ServerManager

2)     Copy and paste in the following code:

Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Web-Server, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI

After you've installed the operating system roles and features, install the following software in the order shown:

1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

1. Windows Management Framework 3.0

1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit

1. Knowledge Base article KB974405 (Windows Identity Foundation)

1. Knowledge Base article KB2619234 (Enable the Association Cookie/GUID that is used by RPC over HTTP to also be used at the RPC layer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2)

1. Knowledge Base article KB2533623 (Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution)

For Exchange 2013 Preview, you must also do the following in the order shown:

Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) This task must be done after you've installed UCMA, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64), do the following:

5. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.

5. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.

5. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.

5. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

For more information, see Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)

Register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in Internet Information Services (IIS) This must be done after you've completed the process described earlier in “Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)”, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in IIS, do the following:

4)     Open a Windows Command Prompt.

5)     Run the following command:

 %SystemDrive%\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir -enable

6)     Run the following command to restart the IIS services:

       IISReset

If you run into any issues with the pre-req installation please feel free to comment below.

Adam F

Types of Retention Tags:

Retention tags are flags used to set retention settings on messages and folders within Exchange 2010 Mailboxes. In Exchange 2010 we have three tag types to choose from:

• Retention Policy Tags (RPT)
• These tags are created and applied to default folders within the mailbox (e.g: Inbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, ect)
• You can only apply one RPT to each default folder per retention policy
• Default Policy Tag (DPT)
• This tag is applied to all other items where a RPT is not applied
• You can only have one DPT per retention policy

• Personal Tags - User assigned tags within OL 2010 or OW

Settings within the Retention Tags:

When we set up the tags, we get several options:

1)      The Tag Name

2)      The Tag Type – at this point this is where we determine what is a DPT, RPT or Personal tag. If we select the Tag Type to be the inbox, or the RSS feed folder then this is a RPT (since these are a few of the default folders that are create with a new mailbox). If I choose the option of All other folders in the mailbox then this would be a DPT (since this is any folder/subfolder that is not tagged by an RPT), and if I select Personal Folder that would be a Personal Tag.

3)      Age Limit for retention (days) – this is the amount of time the item exists before we perform the “Action”

4)      Action to take when the age limit is reached -  When we hit our age limit specified in section #3 (Age Limit for Retention) we need to perform an action. There are three actions that we can have a retention policy tag perform:

1. Delete and Allow Recovery – this means we will delete the item, and keep it within the Recoverable Items Folder for the deleted items retention period (allowing recovery)
2. Permanently Delete – this is something I typically do not recommend, as this hard deletes an item. What does hard delete mean? When this item is deleted it bypasses the Recoverable Items Folder and is no longer recoverable unless you have a backup.
3. Move to Archive - if you have an online archive, then the item will be moved there.

What is this Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) that you speak of?

Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) is the process that applies the message retention settings, calculates the times and performs the actions of the retention policy (and tags). The MFA was a scheduled task back in 2010 RTM (it use to run from 9PM to 6AM by default) but now is a throttled assistant, meaning that the resources it can consume are throttled (to ensure that it won’t over consume your system resources). Even though the Managed Folder Assistant is a throttled assistant, we can still schedule it to scan all mailboxes per day. This is called a work cycle.

Let’s say per day we want all the mailboxes to be processed by the MFA, and have the tags updated/items moved as per the retention policy. We would do this:

                  Set-MailboxServer <NAMEOFSERVER> -ManagedFolderWorkCycle 1

 In this cmdlet above, we are telling the MFA to run a pass against all the mailbox’s on the mailbox server at least once a day. Let’s also use the situation where we need to scan a mailbox using the MFA immediately so that changes can be taken in effect:

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant –Identity user@contoso.com

 Using the alias/UPN/email address we can now say to the MFA “Please scan this mailbox with priority now, and apply the retention policy as design”.

What happens if I apply an RPT, or a DPT to a mailbox through a Retention Policy?

If you apply a Retention Policy Tag (RPT) to a default folder (for this example, we will use inbox as the default folder) then we will tag all the items at the root, and each child folder. In this example we have one root default folder called Inbox, and two children called Yeay and Retention Tag WOW. The Managed Folder Assistant will mark all items in these folders and also mark the age (and take the action of the RPT when the age hits) until the item is moved out. Once the item is removed from a folder with an RPT and once the MFA (Managed Folder Assistant) runs against the mailbox the old tag is dropped from the old mail item and retagged with the appropriate (if there is a tag in the folder moving it to, then it is retagged. If not then there is no tag to apply)

Now, what happens if add a Default Policy Tag (DPT) to this picture? Well, as we remember from above is that the DPT is applied to any folder that does NOT have a Retention Tag associated with it, which includes default folders that do not have tags, non-default root folders (in my example above the non-default root folder is Im a non-default root folder) along with the Online Archive. So, with this said if I move some items out of the inbox that has an RPT on into the folder Im a non-default root folder then the following actions will happen when the MFA runs against the mailbox:

1)      The old RPT will be removed, and the DPT will be applied.

2)      The age of the item will be stamped, and depending on the DPT, action might be taken on the item if it meets or exceeds the Age Limit attribute on the DPT.

In conclusion, it is important to properly plan out the retention tags and policies according to your business requirements are but to also make sure you do not loose important data. I personally don’t recommend using a DPT that says “Permanently Delete” unless you have a real time data protection solution (such as System Center Data Protection Manager) but that is something you need discuss with your staff.

Any questions you have leave them below in the comments section.

Do you need another forest to actually migrate to a new Exchange 2010 build?

Nah – too complicated. You could create a new forest, but as long as you are running Exchange 2003 SP2 or Exchange 2007 SP2 then you can do coexistence within the same forest. You can do two separate forests; just get ready to either do 1) linked mailboxes or 2) AD Migration from one forest to another. There are other ways to accomplishing a migration with two forests, but it’s usually more complicated than expected. Don’t do it if you don’t need to.

What are the virtualization requirements?

That can be found here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx

It’s long, but let me help explain a few things about hypervisors:

1)      Microsoft will support Exchange that runs on Hyper V and other 3^rd party hypervisors that are a part of the “Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program”

2)      Stuff like VMWare Player and Virtual PC are nice for a lab, but I would highly recommend against using them anywhere near a product server due to limitations.

We also do not support NAS/SMB/NFS – why? Because its file level storage and not block level, which is required for Exchange 2010 to function properly. Even if the storage is introduced via iSCSI as block level, it is not supportable.

Now how do I achieve single sign on for users in the old Exchange environment (2003 or 2007) if my Exchange 2010 CAS is the primary internet facing server?

Before I actually get into SSO between a 2010 CAS and a 2003 FE or 2007 CAS, I want to discuss what proxy is and what is redirection…

Redirection: When a user is connecting into the 2010 CAS (I am going to assume for this scenario that you already cut over from your 2003  FE or 2007 CAS) the 2010 CAS will send a request to the GCS local within the site for the following information…

1)      The exchange version that the mailbox is held on

2)      The mailbox location (homeMDB attribute) (e.g – the database that the mailbox sits on)

Lets say this user is on a 2007 exchange server, and it is within the same site and is also internet facing but with the legacy URL from our namespace planning (e.g – the ExternalURL is set to something like legacy.contoso.com). Since the ExternalURL property exists it will do redirection for both OWA and ActiveSync. POP3/IMAP and EWS all use proxy technology to send its requests over to the other CAS/FE server.

When a redirection happens basically the original form filled out (the login page) will be sent from the original OWA IIS vDirectory (in this case, 2010 CAS) to the appropriate internet facing site. Once this occurs the user will be returned to a page with a link, and once this happens they will either be asked to reauthenticate or if single sign on is setup properly, then you can simply access your mailbox.

With Exchange 2010 SP2, we create a new “silent redirection” which will automate the redirection process. No more users having to click on stuff to get to the right OWA URL.

Note: if your mailbox is also within a separate 2010 site that has an ExternalURL, you will also be redirected to the proper URL.

Proxy: In the event that you connect to a 2010 CAS, and the mailbox is within a legacy organization at a different site that is NOT internet facing, or your mailbox is within a different Exchange 2010 site that is not internet facing you will use the proxy request. Proxy requests also apply to POP3/IMAP4/EWS. The reason the mailbox is going to proxy instead of redirection is because the ExternalURL is set to nothing ($NULL) and there is an internalURL set (e.g: https://contosocas/owa). The 2010 CAS will send the proxy cookie to the appropriate IIS vDirectorie’s /PROXY directory and if it responds your request is proxied over.

Now for the actual single sign on stuff..

If you want to achieve single sign on for your 2010 CAS to your legacy organization you would do the following:

1)      OWA/ECP will use FBA  (form based authentication) on both the 2010 CAS and the 2007 CAS / 2003 FE server(s)

2)      EWS/POP3/IMAP4/EAS will need to have WIA (Windows Integrated Authentication) turned on both the 2010 CAS and the receiving 2007 CAS / 2003 FE server(s).

When should I move my OAB?

I would move the OAB when you start migrating users from 200X to 2010. This makes it available to both your 200X users and your 2010 users. The reason for this is because MailTips will not work until the OAB has been moved over, and until the GAL is also moved over from the legacy environment to the Exchange 2010 Environment.

 As also discussed the tool ExDeploy is awesome. Check it out (https://tinyurl.com/exdeploy)

Thanks again for everyone who decided to read this, although it is pretty long and to all the participants and speakers that were at the Techstravaganza 2012 event. It was def. an experience.

- Adam F

Exchange 200X to 2010 Migration.pptx

I will be updating this time to time with helpful tips/tricks and community events in the NY/NJ region that are related to exchange in some way.

Now with that said we have a free event called “Techstravaganza 2012” which is held out of the MSFT NYC Office (1290 6^th Ave, right near Radio City and the D/B/F trains). We will have live demos, lectures and hands on labs.

More info: https://techstravaganza.wordpress.com/

Invite Link: https://techstravganza2012.eventbrite.com/

We will have a track for Exchange, Powershell, Sharepoint and Windows. Ross Smith IV (Principle Program Manager on the Exchange Product Group) will be there presenting, along with an Exchange MVP, another Exchange PFE and myself.

If you can’t make it, I will be posting my slides on here – Exchange 200X to 2010 Migration.

Adam F