SON SON
Introduction
Installing Exchange 2007 is just as easy as previous versions, and once you have prepped AD, the rest is pretty straight-forward. That doesn’t mean you should throw in the CD and start clicking Next! Be sure to review the prerequisites in the first part of this series to reduce any confusion that may lead to errors or worse.
GUI Installation
With all the prerequisites taken care of we can begin the Exchange 2007 installation. The GUI-based installation is pretty straightforward. Insert the CD and run Setup.exe from the root of the disc. You will need certain permissions depending on your current configuration and how you prepared the domain. You will need Enterprise and Local Administrator privileges, and if you have not already prepared the domain you will also need Schema Administrator permissions as well. If you already have an Exchange 2007 server in the domain you will also need to be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrator group.
The Welcome screen will appear and you will see right away if you have the required software prerequisites. Figure 1 shows that the .NET Framework 2.0 is installed (it is grayed out) and MMC 3.0 is also installed but Microsoft Shell (MSH) is missing. If you are missing either of these components, you can simply click on the item to install it.
Figure 1: Prerequisites
Once the install wizard starts you can read over the Introduction then read and accept the EULA. Next you have the option of enabling Error Reporting, make your choice and then click next. You will be given two install choices; Typical and Custom (see Figure 2). The typical install will install all the roles with the exception of the Edge Transport role. If you wish to customize the installation, choose the Custom install option. Here you can also change the install location if you wish to do so.
Figure 2: Install Options
When you choose the custom option and click next you will be given a number of selections and you can choose which role, or roles, to install. You can also select to install Active or Passive Mailbox server clusters, or just install the Management Console (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Server Roles
Before you can continue, you will have to provide the name of the Exchange Organization and be asked if you have any computers running versions of Outlook 2003 or earlier (see Figure 4). This option will create Public Folders if you select yes, but choosing no will not create any Public folders.
Figure 4: Outlook Versions
You will need to be aware of a few things when choosing what roles to install where. If you are running a multi-site AD environment you need to install a Hub Transport and Mailbox server in each AD Site. You also must install a Client Access server in each site that contains a Mailbox server. Finally, all the roles can be installed on the same server (except Edge Transport) or on individual servers.
The installation will now run a set of pre-checks to determine if the domain and server are ready to accept an Exchange 2007 server. Figure 5 shows an example of some common errors you will see if IIS is missing, or if the domain is not at the required functional level (notice the Install button is grayed out).
Figure 5: Failed Readiness Check
When all of the Readiness Checks pass, the Install button will appear and you can press it to start the installation (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Successful Readiness Check
You can watch the install progress and depending on the roles installed it can take a while. Once complete, click Finish and you are ready to begin configuring your Exchange 2007 server (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: Install Progress
CLI and Unattended Installation
Exchange 2007 also supports installation from a command line interface (CLI), which can be used to perform unattended installations as well. There are a number of switches that are required depending on the type of Exchange 2007 installation you are performing.
/roles – specifies which server roles will be installed. Can be substituted with /r
ET or E – Gateway Server
HT or H – Bridgehead Server
CA or C– Client Access Server
MB or M – Mailbox Server
UM or U – Unified Messaging
MT or T – Admin Tools
/PrepareAD – is used to prep the Active Directory schema manually. This switch is optional as the schema is extended automatically during installation. Can be substitued with /p
/TargetDir – specifies the directory in which to install Exchange 2007. Can be substituted with /t
/SourceDir – specify the location of the install files
/DomainController – allows you to specify a DC to use. Can be substituted with /dc
/AnswerFile:filename
/mode – Determines if the install is a default install or a recovery install. Required if you wish to use the /RecoverServer switch
Install – this is the default mode used when no /mode switch is provided
Upgrade – this mode is used when upgrading an Exchange 2007 installation
Uninstall – this mode is used to uninstall Exchange 2007 or one of its roles
RecoverServer – this mode is used when recovering a failed Exchange 2007 server
The basic syntax of a CLI or unattended installation is as follows:
Setup.exe /console /roles:
Setup.exe /r:E,M,C
Let’s say you wanted to install a Gateway server and put the program files in a directory on the D drive called E2007 and you wanted to read and write from DC1; you would use the following switches with Setup.exe:
Setup.exe /r:E /targetdir:D:\E2007 /dc:dc1.thelazyadmin.lab
This last example demonstrates what command you would use to install a new Exchange 2007 server during a disaster recovery operation.
Setup.exe /mode:recoverserver
Once the command is executed, setup will proceed to determine if .NET 2.0 Framework, MMC 3.0 and the Microsoft Shell is installed. If any of the other prerequisite checks fail, setup will stop and display an error message.
Verifying Installation
Once you have completed the installation, you should verify that everything completed successfully. To do this there are a few things you can check out. The first thing you can do is open up MSH and run the following command which will list the roles installed (see Figure 8)
Get-ExchangeServer
Figure 8: MSH Get-ExchangeServer
Next look in the Application Log in Event Viewer for event ID 1003 and 1004 which verify that install was successful. Finally there are a number of log files created that you can browse to verify that the install was successful and if it was not, what might be wrong.
%SystemDrive%\Exchange\ExchangeSetupLogs\Setup.log – will tell you if the prerequisite checks passed and what roles were installed.
%SystemDrive%\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeServerMSI.log – will tell you if the file extraction was the cause of any errors.
%SystemDrive%\ExchangeSetupLogs\Exchange Server Setup Progress.log – will tell you what system changes were made during the installation.
%SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ Logging\SetupLogs\setup.log – tracks operations during install, look here when an install fails.
Conclusion
There are many possible configuration and installation options in Exchange 2007. The command line interface offers a powerful and scriptable option to deploy Exchange 2007 servers with minimal administrative interaction. Both install options also perform a number of prerequisite checks to ensure your Exchange 2007 installation starts off on the right foot.