Welcome to my Introducing Exchange 2016 Blog Series!

Please see my introduction post here: http://risu.al/Ex16-01

 

So, before I can start to show off any new features I really need to install Exchange Server 2016. And before I can install Exchange, there are some requirements and pre reqs to go through. This post will outline them.

Requirements:

  • The Active Directory Forest Functional Level must be Windows Server 2008 or higher. We should now be saying goodbye to any Windows Server 2003 R2 forests!
  • The Active Directory Domain Functional Level must be Windows Server 2008 or higher.
  • All Domain Controllers in the forest need to be running a minimum of Windows Server 2008 or higher. Once again, bye bye Windows Server 2003!!
  • IPv6 is supported only when IPv4 is enabled.
  • x64 architecture
  • 8GB minimum RAM for the Mailbox Role
  • 4GB minimum RAM for the Edge Transport Role
  • The page file size should be set to physical RAM plus 10mb to a maximum size of 32778mb if using more than 32gb RAM.
  • Windows OS must be Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 with GUI. Windows Server 2012 R2 is recommended for IPless DAG.
  • Windows 10 and 8.1 are supported for the Exchange Management Tools.
  • Outlook clients supported are
    • Outlook 2010 with KB2965295
    • Outlook 2013
    • Outlook 2016
    • Outlook for Mac for Office 365
    • Outlook for Mac 2011

Some of the above requirements above are similar to Exchange 2013, however the requirements of minimum versions of Active Directory and Office should mean that legacy and non-supported editions can no longer be used.

Coexistence Scenarios:

  • Coexistence with Exchange 2007/2003 is not supported.
  • Coexistence with Exchange Server 2010 is supported if all servers have SP3 Update Rollup 11 or higher installed.
  • Coexistence with Exchange Server 2013 is supported if all server have CU10 or higher installed.
  • Coexistence with a mixed Exchange 2010 and 2013 environment is supported if the above versions are installed.

Hybrid Scenarios:

  • Exchange 2016 is supported in a hybrid configuration as long as the Office 365 tenant has been upgraded to the latest version of Office 365.

Software Pre Reqs:

  • The usual windows features need to be installed. You can use the below PowerShell to install (reboot after) or let Exchange do the work at installation.
    • Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, 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, RSAT-ADDS
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2
  • Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64 bit. Can be downloaded here.

 

Once all requirements are met, any coexistence updates are completed and the software pre reqs installed, you can install Exchange Server 2016.

In my next post I will go through the install of Exchange Server 2016 using the GUI and unattended install.

See you next time,

Matt

 

Part 3 of Introducing Exchange 2016 goes through the GUI and Command Line install of Exchange 2016. Find it here – http://risu.al/Ex16-03

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