Welcome to my Introducing Exchange 2016 Blog Series!
If you are joining us part way through, please check out my previous posts below:
Introducing Exchange 2016 – http://risu.al/Ex16-01
Requirements and Pre-Requisites – http://risu.al/Ex16-02
So now we know what is required before we can install Exchange 2016, I can show you the process. For those that have installed Exchange 2013, the process is effectively the same.
First off, a quick intro to my lab environment. It’s a simple lab with the following servers:
- 1 Domain Controller, Windows Server 2012 R2
- 1 Exchange 2013 Multi-Role Server, Windows Server 2012 R2
- 1 Client Server with Office installed, Windows Server 2012 R2
- 1 Base Windows Server 2012 R2
So before we can install Exchange, we need to install the software pre-requisites.
Firstly, install the Windows Features by running the below PowerShell:
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
Reboot the server once the features have been installed.
Next, install Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, available to download from here.
Lastly install .NET 4.5.2 as well, available to download from here.
Reboot the server again to complete the pre-requisite installs.
Now we can start the Exchange 2016 install. I will show the GUI install first which will include the organization preparation as part of the install. I will go through the command line organization preparation and Exchange install later.
To start run Setup.exe. Make sure to run it with an account that is a member of Schema Admins, Domain Admins (Enterprise Admins if in a multi domain forest), and Organization Management (if Exchange is already installed).
GUI Install
The first screen will ask if you want to check for updates. Always recommended so that you can be sure you are installing the most up to date version of Exchange 2016.
On the Introduction screen, feel free to read the text and then click next.
Accept the License Agreement and click next.
Keep the Recommended Settings and click next.
On the Server Roles screen, choose whether or not you want to install the Mailbox Role, Edge Role or just the Management Tools. I’ll be installing the Mailbox Role, which automatically install the Management Tools as well.
Choose the Install Location of Exchange. I will be leaving it as the default location on the C Drive.
On the Malware Protection Settings, you can decide if you wish to disable malware scanning or not. I will be leaving it enabled.
Setup will now run through the readiness checks, wait for them to complete.
Once complete, you may receive some warnings that may, or may not allow you to continue with the install. I received some warnings around the Schema update, routing mail to the internet and MAPI over HTTP not being enabled.
I decided to resolve the mail routing and MAPI over HTTP warnings before continuing. I cancelled setup, fixed those warnings and then ran setup again. The Schema warning advises you that the organization will be updated and once done, you won’t be able to install any Exchange 2010 Servers.
Clicking install begins the installation, and you can now sit back and wait for setup to go through its 15 steps to install Exchange 2016.
Once setup is complete, you will see the below screen. Click finish and reboot the server.
Command Line Install
Here I will go through the steps needed to install Exchange 2016 through the command line. I have created a new lab with just a Domain Controller and Member Server so I can do the organization prep as well.
First off the organization needs to be prepared for the installation of Exchange 2016. This can be done by the Exchange setup, however if you need to do it separately because a different team deals with Active Directory to Exchange, then I will show you the process.
One thing to note is that the server you run the commands on has to have the RSAT-ADDS Windows Feature installed to be able to carry out the preparation.
Depending on your forest structure, and who has permissions to certain areas of your forest, depends on the command that is run to prepare the organization for Exchange 2016:
- .setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms – The PrepareSchema parameter is used to prepare the Schema for Exchange 2016, however it does not prepare the Active Directory Domain for Exchange 2016. If your Schema and Active Directory are managed by separate teams, then the Schema team would run this command.
- .setup.exe /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms – The PrepareAD parameter is used to prepare Active Directory for the installation of Exchange 2016. If the Schema has not been updated prior to this command being run, then the schema will also be updated providing the account used to run the command has permissions.
- .setup.exe /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms – The PrepareDomain parameter is used to prepare a single Active Directory Domain in a multi-domain forest. If management of the domains is separated then each team would need to run this in each domain to prepare it for Exchange 2016. There is no need to run this command if the PrepareAD parameter has already been run.
- .setup.exe /PrepareAllDomains /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms – The PrepareAllDomains parameter does the same as PrepareDomain, except it does it for all domains in the forest. There is no need to run this command if the PrepareAD parameter has already been run.
In my lab there is no existing Exchange environment and it is a single forest with one domain, therefore I will be using the PrepareAD parameter and will also need to specify an Organization Name.
To start, open PowerShell as administrator and change the directory to wear the Exchange 2016 setup files have been extracted.
Now run the required command and wait for the process to complete.
Once the organization has been prepared, Exchange can be installed.
There are a few different parameters that can be used when installing Exchange through the command line, for instance the Install Path can be changed. However, for this install I will be focusing on installing the Mailbox Role. Check out this link for more information on what other parameters are available for the install.
The command to install Exchange 2016 Mailbox Role is “.setup.exe /mode:Install /role:Mailbox /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms”
On the Member Server to be used for Exchange install the software pre-requisites as shown at the beginning of this post. Once they are installed, open PowerShell as administrator, navigate to the extracted setup files and run the above command. Exchange will then install and show its progress in the PowerShell window.
Upon completion, reboot your machine.
So, that is how to install Exchange, both from the GUI and from the command line. As mentioned, for those of you who have installed Exchange before (especially 2013) there isn’t much difference and the process is straight forward as long as your pre-requisites are complete.
In my next post, I will move forward and show how co-existence works between Exchange 2013 and 2016.
Thanks again for reading, hope you visit again soon.
Matt
Part 4 of Introducing Exchange 2016 looks at co-existence between Exchange 2013 and 2016. Find it here – http://risu.al/Ex16-04
