Installing Exchange Server 2013 Preview
On Monday 16 July 2012 we announced the customer preview of new version of Office, Office 2013! Along site with Office 2013 we announced the wave 15 of all related products and of course Exchange. I am so excited to get the bits of Microsoft Exchange 2013 Preview on my hands!
As a qualified Exchange Geek first thing I did is start downloaded, deployed 3 VMs on my Hyper-V environment and started preparing my environment till the download is completed. Just in case you are wondering the file is not big is about 1.4 GB so you have time till is done no worries 
So for my lab I used the latest and greatest, so Windows Server 2012 RC was used for my Directory Servers (Domain controllers) and for Exchange 2013 Servers.
Exchange 2013 System Requirements
First things first, make sure that you go through the requirements for Exchange 2013 Preview that can be found on the following link :
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(v=exchg.150)
Note:
(Make sure to review every time you make an installation since this is a Preview we expect changes to happen all the time)
Here are some things of note:
- NO coexistence in Exchange 2013 preview, you need to perform a clean install no mixed environment, that will happen in RTM. (even that said be careful, no coexistence for Exchange 2003!!)
- No Support for Windows 2003 Domain Controller/Global Catalogs, you need Windows 2008 and above. (Time to upgrade AD ! )
- There is no guidance on Memory for now, one thing is sure, CAS needs way less than Mailbox since he is only doing proxying. So for decent performance in your LAB on Windows 2012 add at least 4 GB, for production wait for official guidance!
- Operating System choices are Windows 2008 R2 with SP1 and Windows 2012 (RC for now). Management tools can be installed on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.
- No Outlook 2003 Support, you will need Outlook 2007 SP3 with July CU and above.
Exchange 2013 Prerequisites
After you are done with the requirements time to go and install the pre-requisites. Pre-requisites required depends on the Operating System version you decided to use and roles you will install, using Windows 2012 RC requires less pre-requisites to be installed so my recommendation is to use Windows 2012 if possible will save you some time and will get you to know the new OS.
always check the following link for updated information regarding Prerequisites:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354(v=exchg.150)
Note: Remember to uninstall the Visual C++ Beta Redistribute after the Unified Communication API in installed!
Script to automatically install the required features:
To save myself , and in the end you, some time I created this really simple PowerShell script that you can use in order to install the Required Features. It comes in ISO format in order to assist in your Labs.
Note: Please change the execution policy of your server in order to run the script using the command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Change it back to what it was afterwards for security reasons 
Feel free to drop me an email with ideas for the script and feedback.
Install Exchange 2013 Preview (using the GUI)
After all the preparation is done (Installed OS, Prerequisites and joined the domain) we are ready to perform the installation.
Locate the setup.exe file inside the installation folder and click to get started:
I will go through the important stuff regarding the Setup process, the rest is just click next
This check for updates will connect and retrieve updates from the internet, in case you have internet connectivity to the server that you perform the install I recommend you check it. it will also check for updated xml files for the requirements check.
If you missed anything regarding the prereqs it will notify you in this step. Good news is that you can perform corrective actions and retry again without restarting the whole setup.
In this step you select the roles you wand to install. For now my personal opinion is to separate the two roles (Mailbox and Client Access) in different server, I will try to analyze that in a later post but for now I will only add that you can have better recovery (in a per role approach) and administration. Also always remember that Client Access is only doing the proxying. Separating the roles will give you better control and value from the proxying mechanisms.
Make sure you also check the automatically install Windows Server Roles in case you missed something (I always forget the ADDS-RSAT )
This is a tricky question (you will get this one only on the Mailbox Server Role). It tells you if you want to Disable the malware scanning So clicking no is the preferred behavior for me. In Exchange 2013 you get a free basic malware (antivirus) scanning for messages in the transport (we actually using a single antimalware engine to scan them while in transport) so why not use it ?
Everyone asks why Exchange Setup is asking this, well the explanation is simple, if you specify a name here setup will go on and configure the appropriate External URL on this Client Access Server for you. In case you do not set it, no harm done you will go on and do it later.
Remember the good old Exchange Best Practices analyzer ? if yes the same logic is behind this, using an XML file we will check that everything if fine and within our best practices and notify the user performing the setup. Make sure you Read all the Warning and Errors you will get here. (remember to check for updates on the beginning in order to get the latest and greatest here ).
You can also find extensive information about readiness check in the Exchange 2013 Documentation:
Exchange 2013 Readiness Checks
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150508(v=exchg.150)
sit back, relax and enjoy the setup process. It will take some time (especially the first Exchange 2013 Setup that you will extend the Schema) depending on the number of roles, if you have to extend Schema and prepare AD and last but not least on the Hardware that you are using.
In case of emergency always remember that you can review the Exchange Setup Log files that will be located in your system drive (usually it is the C Drive) in the ExchangeSetupLogs folder and open the file Exchangesetup.log. for Example c:\ExchangeSetupLogs\Exchangesetup.log.
You are now ready to go!!! just open up the Exchange Administration Center (EAC) (https://<FQDN of CAS>/ECP and start configuring !