Articles

Top 10 Exchange Storage Myths

Rafat S. El-Masri — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:53:48 GMT

Current revision posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 3/29/2010 5:53:48 PM

Top 10 Exchange Storage Myths

Dear All,<o:p></o:p>

Today I read a nice article which talk about some points (they mention the points as "Myths" in the article) of exchange storage, I would like to transcribe the article here to allow you read it.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

10 Myths about Exchange storage that we've heard<o:p></o:p>

Myth #1: Exchange requires expensive, high-performing storage . I can't afford large mailboxes!

Reality: Exchange 2010 enables you to implement large, low-cost mailboxes. It performs well on less expensive disks and supports a range of storage options. See the Large Mailbox Vision Whitepaper. <o:p></o:p>

Myth #2: Exchange 2010 doesn't support storage area networks (SANs).

Reality: Exchange 2010 doesn't support network-attached storage (NAS) (maybe the similar spelling confuses people ?), but it does support a large range of storage options including SAN and DAS. Depending on your high availability model, storage can be configured using RAID or RAID-less (JBOD) storage. Different customers will require different solutions based on their requirements, but everyone has the ability to deploy large mailboxes at low cost.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #3: I already have a SAN (or I just bought one), so it doesn't make sense to implement DAS. By the way, my SAN can use those less expensive SATA disks too.

Reality: This one is not really a myth, but it is often misunderstood. SAN deployment may make sense for customers as long as you are able to deploy large mailboxes at low cost. Remember that Exchange supports a range of storage options including SAN and DAS. If you are looking to take advantage of multiple independent copies of databases, then consider the full cost of your storage solution.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #4: JBOD configurations are not practical because the re-seed process after a disk failure takes too long, and this generates too much operational overhead.

Reality: Microsoft IT uses a JBOD configuration very successfully and it can be a very low cost solution. However, a level of operational maturity is required to manage the environment appropriately. There are a multitude of factors that can affect seeding throughput rates, and internally in our JBOD architecture we see between 35-70 GB/hour.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #5: Large mailboxes perform badly with Outlook.

Reality: Exchange 2010 supports up to 100,000 items per folder, up from 20,000 in Exchange 2007. In addition to this, Outlook 2007 SP1 Feb09 update, Outlook 2007 SP2 & Outlook 2010 provide good performance for Cached Exchange Mode for mailboxes up to 10 GB in size, and even larger (25GB) using faster disks like 7.2K drives or SSD. Larger Mailboxes? The Exchange 2010 store was improved to support very large mailboxes (100 GB+) in online mode and with OWA. You can also use the Exchange 2010 personal archive to reduce mailbox size for Cached Exchange Mode clients.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #6: When I migrate to Exchange 2010 my database size will explode because Exchange 2010 doesn't have single instance storage (SIS).

Reality: Exchange storage planning guidance has always dictated designing the storage without SIS in mind. SIS reduces Exchange Server's ability to do sequential data access, and the changes made help to provide the 70% IO reduction. Exchange 2010 does provide 20% database compression for HTML/Plain Text Messages. For more details about Exchange 2010 and SIS, see previous post — Dude, Where's My Single Instance?.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #7: My Exchange guy knows nothing about storage - it needs to be managed by the storage experts. Less expensive storage is too hard/time-consuming/expensive to manage.

Reality: We know from the many organizations we have talked to who are using DAS (including Microsoft's own deployment), that they have not needed any additional people to manage less expensive exchange storage, nor have they increased their operational costs. When storage is expensive, you can spend a lot of time and resources optimizing for your storage investment. Using less expensive storage enables you to take a conservative approach and enables you to over-provision. The storage is then never touched except for firmware/driver updates or disk failures. You can use server management staff to manage the storage since the tasks are very similar (driver, firmware updates).<o:p></o:p>

Myth #8: I can't backup large Exchange databases.

Reality: With the ability to have multiple copies of each database, along with features such as single item recovery and lagged copy support, you might not need to use traditional backups. You can also look at reducing the number of backups to weekly or bi-monthly full backups, you can backup from passive database copies, and you can use DPM "express" backups to save space.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #9: We need a 3rd party archiving solution because Exchange data needs expensive storage and we need to put archived data on less expensive storage.

Reality: You can put all Exchange data on less expensive storage, not just the archive data. Co-locate hot and cold data to efficiently utilize large low cost disks and simplify management by using a single storage type.<o:p></o:p>

Myth #10: All Exchange storage designs must follow the Exchange Mailbox Role Requirements Calculator verbatim, otherwise they will not be supported.

Reality: The Exchange Mailbox Role Requirements Calculator (Exchange 2010 / Exchange 2007) provides design guidelines but does not have anything to do with supportability. The Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP) - Storage also has information from our storage partners.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Here is the original article link:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/03/29/454443.aspx

<o:p> </o:p>

Regards,

Ra'fat

Top 10 Exchange Storage Myths

Rafat S. El-Masri — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:51:22 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 3/29/2010 5:51:22 PM

Dear All,<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

10 Myths about Exchange storage that we've heard<o:p></o:p>

Myth #1: Exchange requires expensive, high-performing storage . I can't afford large mailboxes!
Reality: Exchange 2010 enables you to implement large, low-cost mailboxes. It performs well on less expensive disks and supports a range of storage options. See the Large Mailbox Vision Whitepaper. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #2: Exchange 2010 doesn't support storage area networks (SANs).
Reality: Exchange 2010 doesn't support network-attached storage (NAS) (maybe the similar spelling confuses people ?), but it does support a large range of storage options including SAN and DAS. Depending on your high availability model, storage can be configured using RAID or RAID-less (JBOD) storage. Different customers will require different solutions based on their requirements, but everyone has the ability to deploy large mailboxes at low cost. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #3: I already have a SAN (or I just bought one), so it doesn't make sense to implement DAS. By the way, my SAN can use those less expensive SATA disks too.
Reality: This one is not really a myth, but it is often misunderstood. SAN deployment may make sense for customers as long as you are able to deploy large mailboxes at low cost. Remember that Exchange supports a range of storage options including SAN and DAS. If you are looking to take advantage of multiple independent copies of databases, then consider the full cost of your storage solution. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #4: JBOD configurations are not practical because the re-seed process after a disk failure takes too long, and this generates too much operational overhead.
Reality: Microsoft IT uses a JBOD configuration very successfully and it can be a very low cost solution. However, a level of operational maturity is required to manage the environment appropriately. There are a multitude of factors that can affect seeding throughput rates, and internally in our JBOD architecture we see between 35-70 GB/hour. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #5: Large mailboxes perform badly with Outlook.
Reality: Exchange 2010 supports up to 100,000 items per folder, up from 20,000 in Exchange 2007. In addition to this, Outlook 2007 SP1 Feb09 update, Outlook 2007 SP2 & Outlook 2010 provide good performance for Cached Exchange Mode for mailboxes up to 10 GB in size, and even larger (25GB) using faster disks like 7.2K drives or SSD. Larger Mailboxes? The Exchange 2010 store was improved to support very large mailboxes (100 GB+) in online mode and with OWA. You can also use the Exchange 2010 personal archive to reduce mailbox size for Cached Exchange Mode clients. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #6: When I migrate to Exchange 2010 my database size will explode because Exchange 2010 doesn't have single instance storage (SIS).
Reality: Exchange storage planning guidance has always dictated designing the storage without SIS in mind. SIS reduces Exchange Server's ability to do sequential data access, and the changes made help to provide the 70% IO reduction. Exchange 2010 does provide 20% database compression for HTML/Plain Text Messages. For more details about Exchange 2010 and SIS, see previous post — Dude, Where's My Single Instance?. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #7: My Exchange guy knows nothing about storage - it needs to be managed by the storage experts. Less expensive storage is too hard/time-consuming/expensive to manage.
Reality: We know from the many organizations we have talked to who are using DAS (including Microsoft's own deployment), that they have not needed any additional people to manage less expensive exchange storage, nor have they increased their operational costs. When storage is expensive, you can spend a lot of time and resources optimizing for your storage investment. Using less expensive storage enables you to take a conservative approach and enables you to over-provision. The storage is then never touched except for firmware/driver updates or disk failures. You can use server management staff to manage the storage since the tasks are very similar (driver, firmware updates). <o:p></o:p>
Myth #8: I can't backup large Exchange databases.
Reality: With the ability to have multiple copies of each database, along with features such as single item recovery and lagged copy support, you might not need to use traditional backups. You can also look at reducing the number of backups to weekly or bi-monthly full backups, you can backup from passive database copies, and you can use DPM "express" backups to save space. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #9: We need a 3rd party archiving solution because Exchange data needs expensive storage and we need to put archived data on less expensive storage.
Reality: You can put all Exchange data on less expensive storage, not just the archive data. Co-locate hot and cold data to efficiently utilize large low cost disks and simplify management by using a single storage type. <o:p></o:p>
Myth #10: All Exchange storage designs must follow the Exchange Mailbox Role Requirements Calculator verbatim, otherwise they will not be supported.
Reality: The Exchange Mailbox Role Requirements Calculator (Exchange 2010 / Exchange 2007) provides design guidelines but does not have anything to do with supportability. The Exchange Solution Reviewed Program (ESRP) - Storage also has information from our storage partners.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

Here is the original article link:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/03/29/454443.aspx

<o:p> </o:p>

Regards,

Ra'fat

How to Update ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 to ConfigMgr 2007 R2

Mazen Ektifan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:21:13 GMT

Current revision posted to Articles by Mazen Ektifan on 11/1/2009 3:21:13 PM

How to Update ConfigMgr 2007 SP1 to ConfigMgr 2007 R2

To update your ConfigMgr 2007 R2 it must be installed on an existing ConfigMgr 2007 SP1.

To determine which version of ConfigMgr 2007 is installed, from the:

ConfigMgr Console > Site Database > Site Management > right click on your site > properties

You will see the version number and R2 installed or not

The RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version. SP1 is 4.00.6221.1000

Run the splash.hta from DVD once it starts click on configuration Manager 2007 R2

In the welcome message wizard you will see the new features will be installed during setup click Next

Accept licenses agreement and click Next

Registration information click Next

To start installation click Next

Installation in progress

Then click Finish to complete wizard installation

Now go back to ConfigMgr Console > Site Database > Site Management > right click on your site > properties

You will see the R2 installed changed to Yes

The update to ConfigMgr R2 completed<o:p></o:p>

Regards’<o:p></o:p>

Mazen <o:p></o:p>

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

Rafat S. El-Masri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:52:34 GMT

Current revision posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 6/21/2009 11:52:34 PM

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

In first lesson, we talk about an Exchange Overview, History, Licenses and Editions.

In second lesson, we talked about Exchange 2010 roles and system requirements.

From this lesson, we will start interact with Exchange 2010, we will start that by installing the Pre-Requests and & prepare Active Directory. You will start seeing the installation and configuration snapshot.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology will be use in our LAB, Our LAB will include the latest technology from Microsoft, our LAB will contain the following:

1-Windows Server 2008 SP2 as a Domain Controller.

2-Windows Server 2008 SP2 to install Exchange 2010 on it.

3-Windows 7 as a client join to the domain and Office 2007 installed in this Machine (we try to get a copy from office 2010 to use it in our LAB).

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests

To perform the following procedures to install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests you have to make sure from the following:

1- The account you use must be membership in the local Administrators group in Exchange Server.

2- The full installation option of Windows Server 2008 must be used for all Exchange 2010 servers and management workstations. Exchange 2010 can’t be installing in Windows Server 2008 Core.

3- For all server roles other than the Edge Transport server role, you must first join the computer to the internal Active Directory domain.

There are two types of Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests, Windows components and Software Pre-Requests. Let’s see what each one include.

1- Windows Component Pre-Requests

· Active Directory Management Tools. This component used to allow preparing Active Directory Schema & Domain from server running Windows 2008.

· Install Internet Information Services (IIS) with the necessary services.

· Install Microsoft Windows Media Player Audio/Video codec’s which required for Unified Messaging server.

2- Software Pre-Requests

I. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

II. Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

III. Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3

IV. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack

Let’s start install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests:

Windows Component Pre-Requests

1. Install Active Directory Management Tools. From CMD, run “ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS” as the following:

As we can see above, the command is succeeded and it’s requiring to restart the server. We will restart the server then we will do the next step.

1. Install the necessary Internet Information Services (IIS) prerequisites by running the following commands in the order in which they are listed:

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

· ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation

· ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext:</o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p>

<o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth:<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation:

ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy:

3. You can Install Microsoft Windows Media Player audio/video running the following Command:

All IIS components installed now, let’s restart the server and continue after that.

Software Pre-Requests

Now we will start install Exchange 2010 software Pre-Requests. We mentioned above, there are 5 Software-requests as the following Picture:

1. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5, in “Welcome to Setup” page, select “I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement” then Click Install:

As you can see, .Net Framework starts downloads some components and then installs them. You need to keep your server connected to the Internet to do this task.

Installation done, click Exit:

2. Install Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, in “Welcome to the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Setup Wizard” page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then click next:

On “Ready to install Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0” page, click on Install:

The installation

Installation is done, Click Finish:

3. Install Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3, Click on OK when the MSG appears:<o:p></o:p>

Click on “I Accept” button to continue:

Installation Start:

Install tion

Installtion finish, Click on “Restart Now” to restart the server after the installation of PowerShell V2 have been done:

4. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Filter Pack 1.0, on welcome page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, click on “I accept the terms in the license Agreement” then click next:

Installation finishes successfully, Click OK:

Now; do we can say; we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests. The answer is YES, but it’s recommended to do another three steps which they are:

1- Check Windows Update and make sure it’s updated up to date and it’s appear like the following:

2- Run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). MBSA a tool which designed to determine the security state according to Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific report. You can apply this tool locally and remotely.

After you download and install the tool, run it and then click on “Scan a Computer”:

In the following page, select to computer name and all scan options and then click on “Start Scan”:

MBSA start now downloading the security update form Microsoft, after this finish, the tool will start checking the server:

Scan is finish; MBSA provide you a report for you server settings. Review the report, check the errors and warning and see if you need to change them and check the recommendation. In the following a snapshot of MBSA report:

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

In the following we will explains how to prepare the Active Directory and domains for installing Exchange 2010. You must complete this procedure before you install Exchange 2010 on any servers in your organization.

Note: If you run the Exchange 2010 Setup wizard with an account that has the permissions required to prepare Active Directory and the domain, the wizard will automatically prepare Active Directory and the domain. But we will do it manually through command prompt.

Prepare Schema:

To install Exchange Server 2010, you need First Extend the Active Directory Schema; we will do this by using the "PrepareSchema" switch with "Setup" command from the command prompt. To use this command, you need to be a member of schema administrator and enterprise administrator groups. We will do that by the following steps:

1- You have to point the command prompt to the Exchange 2010 Folder as the following:

2- Run PrepareSchema command as the following:

3- After the Schema is extended, you can prepare the Active Directory of the organization by using "PrepareAD" Switch with Setup Command. Note that you need to specify the Organization name with the command as the following:

4- Now you need to prepare the Domain by using “PrepareDomain” switch. To run this command, you need to be a member of Domain Administrator Group:

In this lesson, we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Request installation and Active Directory preparation. In next lesson, we will install Exchange 2010.

Regards,

Ra’fat

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

Rafat S. El-Masri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:46:23 GMT

Revision 6 posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 6/21/2009 8:46:23 PM

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

In first lesson, we talk about an Exchange Overview, History, Licenses and Editions.

In second lesson, we talked about Exchange 2010 roles and system requirements.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology will be use in our LAB, Our LAB will include the latest technology from Microsoft, our LAB will contain the following:

1-Windows Server 2008 SP2 as a Domain Controller.

2-Windows Server 2008 SP2 to install Exchange 2010 on it.

3-Windows 7 as a client join to the domain and Office 2007 installed in this Machine (we try to get a copy from office 2010 to use it in our LAB).

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests

To perform the following procedures to install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests you have to make sure from the following:

1- The account you use must be membership in the local Administrators group in Exchange Server.

2- The full installation option of Windows Server 2008 must be used for all Exchange 2010 servers and management workstations. Exchange 2010 can’t be installing in Windows Server 2008 Core.

3- For all server roles other than the Edge Transport server role, you must first join the computer to the internal Active Directory domain.

There are two types of Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests, Windows components and Software Pre-Requests. Let’s see what each one include.

1- Windows Component Pre-Requests

· Active Directory Management Tools. This component used to allow preparing Active Directory Schema & Domain from server running Windows 2008.

· Install Internet Information Services (IIS) with the necessary services.

· Install Microsoft Windows Media Player Audio/Video codec’s which required for Unified Messaging server.

2- Software Pre-Requests

I. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

II. Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

III. Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3

IV. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack

Let’s start install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests:

Windows Component Pre-Requests

1. Install Active Directory Management Tools. From CMD, run “ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS” as the following:

As we can see above, the command is succeeded and it’s requiring to restart the server. We will restart the server then we will do the next step.

1. Install the necessary Internet Information Services (IIS) prerequisites by running the following commands in the order in which they are listed:

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

· ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation

· ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

ServerManagerCmd

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server:</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext:</o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase:</o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console:</o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth:

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth:</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth:</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression:</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation:

ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy:

3. You can Install Microsoft Windows Media Player audio/video running the following Command:

All IIS components installed now, let’s restart the server and continue after that.

Software Pre-Requests

Now we will start install Exchange 2010 software Pre-Requests. We mentioned above, there are 5 Software-requests as the following Picture:

1. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5, in “Welcome to Setup” page, select “I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement” then Click Install:

As you can see, .Net Framework starts downloads some components and then installs them. You need to keep your server connected to the Internet to do this task.

Installation done, click Exit:

2. Install Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, in “Welcome to the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Setup Wizard” page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then click next:

On “Ready to install Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0” page, click on Install:

The installation is done, Click Finish:

3. Install Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3, Click on OK when the MSG appears:<o:p></o:p>

Click on “I Accept” button to continue:

Installation Start:

Install tion finish, Click on “Restart Now” to restart the server after the installation of PowerShell V2 have been done:

4. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Filter Pack 1.0, on welcome page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, click on “I accept the terms in the license Agreement” then click next:

Installation finishes successfully, Click OK:

Now; do we can say; we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests. The answer is YES, but it’s recommended to do another three steps which they are:

1- Check Windows Update and make sure it’s updated up to date and it’s appear like the following:

2- Run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). MBSA a tool which designed to determine the security state according to Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific report. You can apply this tool locally and remotely.

After you download and install the tool, run it and then click on “Scan a Computer”:

In the following page, select to computer name and all scan options and then click on “Start Scan”:

MBSA start now downloading the security update form Microsoft, after this finish, the tool will start checking the server:

Scan is finish; MBSA provide you a report for you server settings. Review the report, check the errors and warning and see if you need to change them and check the recommendation. In the following a snapshot of MBSA report:

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

In the following we will explains how to prepare the Active Directory and domains for installing Exchange 2010. You must complete this procedure before you install Exchange 2010 on any servers in your organization.

Note: If you run the Exchange 2010 Setup wizard with an account that has the permissions required to prepare Active Directory and the domain, the wizard will automatically prepare Active Directory and the domain. But we will do it manually through command prompt.

Prepare Schema:

To install Exchange Server 2010, you need First Extend the Active Directory Schema; we will do this by using the "PrepareSchema" switch with "Setup" command from the command prompt. To use this command, you need to be a member of schema administrator and enterprise administrator groups. We will do that by the following steps:

1- You have to point the command prompt to the Exchange 2010 Folder as the following:

2- Run PrepareSchema command as the following:

3- After the Schema is extended, you can prepare the Active Directory of the organization by using "PrepareAD" Switch with Setup Command. Note that you need to specify the Organization name with the command as the following:

4- Now you need to prepare the Domain by using “PrepareDomain” switch. To run this command, you need to be a member of Domain Administrator Group:

In this lesson, we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Request installation and Active Directory preparation. In next lesson, we will install Exchange 2010.

Regards,

Ra’fat

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

Rafat S. El-Masri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:41:52 GMT
Revision 5 posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 6/21/2009 8:41:52 PM

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

In first lesson, we talk about an Exchange Overview, History, Licenses and Editions.

In second lesson, we talked about Exchange 2010 roles and system requirements.

<o:p></o:p>

From this lesson, we will start interact with Exchange 2010, we will start that by installing the Pre-Requests and & prepare Active Directory. You will start seeing the installation and configuration snapshot.

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology will be use in our LAB, Our LAB will include the latest technology from Microsoft, our LAB will contain the following:

1-Windows Server 2008 SP2 as a Domain Controller.

2-Windows Server 2008 SP2 to install Exchange 2010 on it.

3-Windows 7 as a client join to the domain and Office 2007 installed in this Machine (we try to get a copy from office 2010 to use it in our LAB).

<o:p></o:p>

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests

To perform the following procedures to install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests you have to make sure from the following:

1- The account you use must be membership in the local Administrators group in Exchange Server.

2- The full installation option of Windows Server 2008 must be used for all Exchange 2010 servers and management workstations. Exchange 2010 can’t be installing in Windows Server 2008 Core.

3- For all server roles other than the Edge Transport server role, you must first join the computer to the internal Active Directory domain.

There are two types of Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests, Windows components and Software Pre-Requests. Let’s see what each one include.

1- Windows Component Pre-Requests

· Active Directory Management Tools. This component used to allow preparing Active Directory Schema & Domain from server running Windows 2008.

· Install Internet Information Services (IIS) with the necessary services.

· Install Microsoft Windows Media Player Audio/Video codec’s which required for Unified Messaging server.

2- Software Pre-Requests

I. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

II. Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

III. Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3

IV. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack

Let’s start install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests:

Windows Component Pre-Requests

1. Install Active Directory Management Tools. From CMD, run “ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS” as the following:

As we can see above, the command is succeeded and it’s requiring to restart the server. We will restart the server then we will do the next step.

1. Install the necessary Internet Information Services (IIS) prerequisites by running the following commands in the order in which they are listed:

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

· ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation

· ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server:<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext:</o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth:<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth:</o:p><o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth: </o:p> <o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation:

ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy:

3. You can Install Microsoft Windows Media Player audio/video running the following Command:

All IIS components installed now, let’s restart the server and continue after that.

Software Pre-Requests

Now we will start install Exchange 2010 software Pre-Requests. We mentioned above, there are 5 Software-requests as the following Picture:

1. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5, in “Welcome to Setup” page, select “I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement” then Click Install:

As you can see, .Net Framework starts downloads some components and then installs them. You need to keep your server connected to the Internet to do this task.

Installation done, click Exit:

2. Install Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, in “Welcome to the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Setup Wizard” page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then click next:

On “Ready to install Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0” page, click on Install:

The installation is done, Click Finish:

3. Install Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3, Click on OK when the MSG appears:<o:p></o:p>

Click on “I Accept” button to continue:

Installation Start:

Install tion finish, Click on “Restart Now” to restart the server after the installation of PowerShell V2 have been done:

4. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Filter Pack 1.0, on welcome page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, click on “I accept the terms in the license Agreement” then click next:

Installation finishes successfully, Click OK:

Now; do we can say; we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests. The answer is YES, but it’s recommended to do another three steps which they are:

1- Check Windows Update and make sure it’s updated up to date and it’s appear like the following:

2- Run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). MBSA a tool which designed to determine the security state according to Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific report. You can apply this tool locally and remotely.

After you download and install the tool, run it and then click on “Scan a Computer”:

In the following page, select to computer name and all scan options and then click on “Start Scan”:

MBSA start now downloading the security update form Microsoft, after this finish, the tool will start checking the server:

Scan is finish; MBSA provide you a report for you server settings. Review the report, check the errors and warning and see if you need to change them and check the recommendation. In the following a snapshot of MBSA report:

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

In the following we will explains how to prepare the Active Directory and domains for installing Exchange 2010. You must complete this procedure before you install Exchange 2010 on any servers in your organization.

Note: If you run the Exchange 2010 Setup wizard with an account that has the permissions required to prepare Active Directory and the domain, the wizard will automatically prepare Active Directory and the domain. But we will do it manually through command prompt.

Prepare Schema:

To install Exchange Server 2010, you need First Extend the Active Directory Schema; we will do this by using the "PrepareSchema" switch with "Setup" command from the command prompt. To use this command, you need to be a member of schema administrator and enterprise administrator groups. We will do that by the following steps:

1- You have to point the command prompt to the Exchange 2010 Folder as the following:

2- Run PrepareSchema command as the following:

3- After the Schema is extended, you can prepare the Active Directory of the organization by using "PrepareAD" Switch with Setup Command. Note that you need to specify the Organization name with the command as the following:

4- Now you need to prepare the Domain by using “PrepareDomain” switch. To run this command, you need to be a member of Domain Administrator Group:

In this lesson, we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Request installation and Active Directory preparation. In next lesson, we will install Exchange 2010.

Regards,

Ra’fat

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

Rafat S. El-Masri — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:40:39 GMT
Revision 4 posted to Articles by Rafat S. El-Masri on 6/21/2009 8:40:39 PM

Lesson 3: Microsoft Exchange 2010, Pre-Requests & AD Preparation

In first lesson, we talk about an Exchange Overview, History, Licenses and Editions.

In second lesson, we talked about Exchange 2010 roles and system requirements.

F

<o:p>rom </o:p>From this lesson, we will start interact with Exchange 2010, we will start that by installing the Pre-Requests and & prepare Active Directory. You will start seeing the installation and configuration snapshot.</o:p>

<o:p>W</o:p><o:p>indows

Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology will be use in our LAB, Our LAB will include the latest technology from Microsoft, our LAB will contain the following:</o:p>

<o:p>1-</o:p><o:p>Windows

1-Windows Server 2008 SP2 as a Domain Controller.</o:p>

<o:p>2-</o:p><o:p>Windows

2-Windows Server 2008 SP2 to install Exchange 2010 on it.</o:p>

<o:p>3-</o:p><o:p>Windows

3-Windows 7 as a client join to the domain and Office 2007 installed in this Machine (we try to get a copy from office 2010 to use it in our LAB).</o:p>

<o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p>Microsoft Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests

To perform the following procedures to install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests you have to make sure from the following:

1- The account you use must be membership in the local Administrators group in Exchange Server.

2- The full installation option of Windows Server 2008 must be used for all Exchange 2010 servers and management workstations. Exchange 2010 can’t be installing in Windows Server 2008 Core.

3- For all server roles other than the Edge Transport server role, you must first join the computer to the internal Active Directory domain.

There are two types of Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests, Windows components and Software Pre-Requests. Let’s see what each one include.

1- Windows Component Pre-Requests

· Active Directory Management Tools. This component used to allow preparing Active Directory Schema & Domain from server running Windows 2008.

· Install Internet Information Services (IIS) with the necessary services.

· Install Microsoft Windows Media Player Audio/Video codec’s which required for Unified Messaging server.

2- Software Pre-Requests

I. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

II. Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0

III. Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3

IV. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack

Let’s start install Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests:

Windows Component Pre-Requests

1. Install Active Directory Management Tools. From CMD, run “ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS” as the following:

As we can see above, the command is succeeded and it’s requiring to restart the server. We will restart the server then we will do the next step.

1. Install the necessary Internet Information Services (IIS) prerequisites by running the following commands in the order in which they are listed:

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth

· ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

· ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation

· ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server:<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext:</o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

<o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console:</o:p></o:p><o:p><o:p></o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth:<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth:</o:p><o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p>

<o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth: </o:p> <o:p></o:p>

<o:p></o:p><o:p>ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression:</o:p><o:p></o:p>

ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation:

ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy:

3. You can Install Microsoft Windows Media Player audio/video running the following Command:

All IIS components installed now, let’s restart the server and continue after that.

Software Pre-Requests

Now we will start install Exchange 2010 software Pre-Requests. We mentioned above, there are 5 Software-requests as the following Picture:

1. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5, in “Welcome to Setup” page, select “I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement” then Click Install:

As you can see, .Net Framework starts downloads some components and then installs them. You need to keep your server connected to the Internet to do this task.

Installation done, click Exit:

2. Install Extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0, in “Welcome to the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 Setup Wizard” page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, select “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then click next:

On “Ready to install Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0” page, click on Install:

The installation is done, Click Finish:

3. Install Windows PowerShell V2 CTP3, Click on OK when the MSG appears:<o:p></o:p>

Click on “I Accept” button to continue:

Installation Start:

Install tion finish, Click on “Restart Now” to restart the server after the installation of PowerShell V2 have been done:

4. Install Office 2007 System Converter: Filter Pack 1.0, on welcome page, click next:

On “End-User License Agreement” page, click on “I accept the terms in the license Agreement” then click next:

Installation finishes successfully, Click OK:

Now; do we can say; we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Requests. The answer is YES, but it’s recommended to do another three steps which they are:

1- Check Windows Update and make sure it’s updated up to date and it’s appear like the following:

2- Run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). MBSA a tool which designed to determine the security state according to Microsoft security recommendations and offers specific report. You can apply this tool locally and remotely.

After you download and install the tool, run it and then click on “Scan a Computer”:

In the following page, select to computer name and all scan options and then click on “Start Scan”:

MBSA start now downloading the security update form Microsoft, after this finish, the tool will start checking the server:

Scan is finish; MBSA provide you a report for you server settings. Review the report, check the errors and warning and see if you need to change them and check the recommendation. In the following a snapshot of MBSA report:

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

In the following we will explains how to prepare the Active Directory and domains for installing Exchange 2010. You must complete this procedure before you install Exchange 2010 on any servers in your organization.

Note: If you run the Exchange 2010 Setup wizard with an account that has the permissions required to prepare Active Directory and the domain, the wizard will automatically prepare Active Directory and the domain. But we will do it manually through command prompt.

Prepare Schema:

To install Exchange Server 2010, you need First Extend the Active Directory Schema; we will do this by using the "PrepareSchema" switch with "Setup" command from the command prompt. To use this command, you need to be a member of schema administrator and enterprise administrator groups. We will do that by the following steps:

1- You have to point the command prompt to the Exchange 2010 Folder as the following:

2- Run PrepareSchema command as the following:

3- After the Schema is extended, you can prepare the Active Directory of the organization by using "PrepareAD" Switch with Setup Command. Note that you need to specify the Organization name with the command as the following:

4- Now you need to prepare the Domain by using “PrepareDomain” switch. To run this command, you need to be a member of Domain Administrator Group:

In this lesson, we did all Exchange 2010 Pre-Request installation and Active Directory preparation. In next lesson, we will install Exchange 2010.

Regards,

Ra’fat