Deploying Exchange Server 2013

Deploying Exchange Server 2013 (Part 1)
by Anderson Patricio [Published on 21 March 2013 / Last Updated on 20 June 2013]

74
In this article series the author explains how to deploy Exchange Server 2013 RTM in a brand new environment.
If you would like to read the other parts of this article series please go to:

Exchange Server 2013 is bringing a lot of exciting new features which deserve several articles to describe each one
of them in detail. If you havent had a chance to look at this new release, I will be listing my favorite top 4
enhancements/changes, as follows.
1.
New Architecture
There are only two roles now: Mailbox and Client Access. The new Mailbox role will contain all components of
CAS/HUB/Mailbox and UM comparing with Exchange Server 2010 roles and it will handle all processes for any given
mailbox. The new CAS will proxy, authenticate and redirect requests. Just by doing this change the future upgrades
will be easier, since there is no translation work being done at CAS. The NLB is much simpler as well, because we
need only Layer 4 level on our Load Balancers.
2.
Management Tools
Exchange Management Console is gone, the two ways that we have to manage the product is using either Exchange
Management Shell or the web interface EAC (Exchange Admin Center).
3.
Outlook client
Because of the architectural change, the product has changed how the clients will connect to the server. The decision
was to remove MAPI and use only Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP).
4.
Public Folders and Collaboration

They are back and with cool new features, such as: new replication method using a single-master replication model.
In this new release we will also have a Site Mailbox which is a feature that will integrate Mailbox and SharePoint
information in a single location for the end-user.
In order to have the transition in place we must have Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 installed on all servers
before installing the first Exchange Server 2013. When Exchange Server 2013 CU1 (Cumulative Update) is released
then you can join an Exchange Server 2013 in an existent organization.
If you are old-school Exchange admin you may be asking, how am I going to install CU1 to have the integration if I
have to install RTM and then apply CU1, right? I understand you but we are wrong! Starting with Exchange Server
2013 the CU1 will contain the full bits of the products, and we are going to install the Exchange Server 2013 CU1
version for that transition.
For now we are going to work in a brand new environment in order to show you the step by step how to deploy the
new Exchange Server 2013. Just to make sure that we are clear do not use your production environment and wait
for the CU1 and documentation that will follow before that.
The hardware requirements to deploy Exchange Server 2013 are similar to the current Exchange Server 2010 and
the following key points can help you build a test lab. However, I recommend building your Exchange Server 2013 lab
using the latest versions or at least most updated versions of Active Directory and Operating System.
The minimum requirement for Active Directory at this point is the forest functional level set at least to
Windows Server 2003
The Domain Controllers must be running at least Windows Server 2008
The Schema can be running even on Windows Server 2003 SP1
Like the other versions, its highly recommended to deploy Exchange Server 2013 as a member server
Exchange Server 2013 is supported on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
or higher
In this article series we are going to focus on the new platform (Windows Server 2012), and we are going to use a
simple scenario (Figure 01) where we will have a Domain Controller (UYDC01) and two (2) Exchange Servers
(UYEX01 and UYEX02). Each one will host one of the roles. The Active Directory domain and forest will be running in
Windows Server 2003 native mode.
Figure 01
Installing the pre-requisites on Windows Server 2012 Operating System

In this section we are going to cover the basic requirements to install Exchange Server 2013 on top of a Windows
Server 2012. The first step after installing the Operating System is to make sure that we have all Windows Updates
installed (Figure 02).
Also, there are a couple of pre-requisites such as: server must be part of a domain, static IP address (recommended)
and that the time zone is configured properly.
Figure 02
After having the updates in place, we need to download some software that will be required during the installation
process. Here is the list that can download to save installation time:
Download Microsoft filter pack 2.0
Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
Download Microsoft filter pack 2.0 SP1
Exchange Server 2013 RTM (trial)

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Installing Windows Server 2012 features

We have a couple of ways to get stuff done before starting the Exchange Server 2013 setup. The traditional
(documented) way is to go to PowerShell and install all features required by Exchange Server 2013 based on its role.
We have a set of features for CAS and another set of features for Mailbox and CAS Roles in the official
documentation. To be honest with you, if you compare the features you will find out that the only difference is
the RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface feature between CAS and Mailbox/CAS role and that feature basically allows
cmdlets to manage the cluster. So, if you are not that worried about this feature being added on both roles you can
keep consistency and leave it there as default for either deployment.
Another consideration about this feature is the RSAT-ADDS that is required when we are going to prepare the
schema, and its not too bad since sometimes the Exchange Administrator wants to manage users from the server
console.
Long story short, I would add the only two discrepancies in the cmdlet to have it as standard on my environment and
here is the full version of the cmdlet that you can run on the PowerShell logged on as an administrator:
Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTPproxy, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-ClientAuth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-HttpRedirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, WebMgmt-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-Clustering-CmdInterface,
RSAT-ADDS
The cmdlet action is shown in Figure 03.
Figure 03
Note:
If you want to run the cmdlets for CAS, based on Microsoft documentation you need to remove RSAT-ClusteringCmdInterface and if you are not going to prepare Active Directory then remove RSAT-ADDS from the cmdlet.
After adding all features on the server the only remaining steps are Microsoft Unified Communications API 4.0 and
Filter Pack installation. You can check them out in step 3 and 4 of our next section because in either scenario we are
going to share the same steps.
Installing Windows Features using Exchange Server 2013 Setup Wizard

If you dont want to type in too much information in PowerShell, you can use this lazy approach that will have the
same result:
1.
Install Desktop Experience on the server by running the following cmdlet:

Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience (Figure 04)
Note: This feature is a requirement to install Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0
Figure 04
2.
Restart the server (if you are still in PowerShell just type in Restart-Computer)
3.
Install the Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 as shown in figure 05 (just leave the default
settings)
Figure 05
4.
Finally install Filter Pack and its Service Packs. You may want to restart for a fresh Exchange Server 2013
installation.
We are going to explain Figure 06 in our next article of this series but I would like to show how the features that we
havent installed manually (if you opted for the lazy approach) will be installed during the deployment process. First of
all, you dont need to remember anything during the GUI phase, because the option Automatically install Windows
Server roles and features that are required to install Exchange Server is selected by default, but that is going to
be the option that will provide all features during the setup process.
Figure 06
Microsoft Filter Pack and Exchange Server 2013

Finally, we have the Microsoft Filter pack dilemma and it has changed in this new version. Exchange Server 2013
uses a new search engine however the Filter Pack is still required when you want to use Transport Rules for either
Office OneNote or Publisher files.
Its up to you as it doesnt hurt to install it. I would recommend going ahead and installing it on Exchange Server 2013
that will have the Mailbox server role deployed.
The installation is a straight forward process and the only decision making is during the license agreement portion of
the package which is not challenging at all.
Exchange Server 2013 and IPv6

That is another common topic among Exchange Administrators; some of us like to disable IPv6 in the registry of the
server hosting Exchange Server 2010, and in this new version Microsoft recommendation is to leave there even if you
are not using IPv6.
Bear in mind that some features do not support IPv6 such as: IP Allow and Block List Provider and Sender reputation
in the Protocol Analysis agent.
User Account Settings and Exchange Server 2013 deployment

Just a follow up in this area, if you use UAC (User Account Settings) make sure that you right-click on
the setup.exeinstallation from Exchange and run it as Administrator (Figure 07).
Figure 07
On other hand, if you dont want to use this security feature now is the time to disable it, and there are a couple of
ways to do that. A simple one is to open msconfig, then go to the Tools tab, and select Change UAC Settings item,
and then click Launch. In the new window (Figure 08), set the bar to the bottom (Never Notify) and click OK and
restart your server.
Figure 08
Conclusion
In this article we went over the process to install all Exchange Server 2013 pre-requisites on windows Server 2012
and covered questions about some topics including Filter Pack, IPv6 and features to be installed on the server.
Additional Information:
Installing Exchange Server 2013 RTM pre-requisites
Exchange Server 2013 Hardware requirements
Servicing Exchange Server 2013
Deploying Filter Pack and Adobe PDF filter on Exchange Server 2013

by Anderson Patricio [Published on 4 April 2013 / Last Updated on 20 June 2013]
49
In this second article of the series Deploying Exchange Server 2013, the author will go over the
Exchange Server 2013 installation process.
Introduction
In the first article of this series we went over the process to install the Exchange Server 2013 pre-requisites while, in
this article we are going over the installation process using two methods: GUI and command-line.
The most important thing is to make sure that all pre-requisites were configured properly and if you havent read the
first article of this article series, please go over that to make sure that your Windows Server 2012 is ready to support
the Exchange Server 2013 deployment.
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Installing Exchange Server 2013 using GUI

If you havent download it yet you can do that from the following address and the download will be a file called
Exchange-x64.exe. After finishing the download, we need to double click the executable and extract the contents to a
folder. In this article lets create a folder called EX2013.
After extracting the contents, open the same folder and double click setup.exe (the last file from the list).
The new installation process has a couple of new features besides of the new design. The first one is that now the
setup is able to check on the Internet and validate the last rollup, security and language packs available and this
option allows the setup itself to be updated.
The first stage of the setup wizard is to connect to the internet and search for new updates. These are the main steps
of the first stage:
1.
In the Check for Updates page (Figure 01). Lets use the default setting and click on Next, this process may
take some time.
Figure 01
2.
On the Downloading Updates page. Wait for the Next button to be available and then click it (Figure 02)
Figure 02
The setup will take some time to copy files (In the Preview version we had a next button but it was removed in this
final version). Now, the Introduction page is shown and the real deployment will start. The following steps can be
used to finalize the deployment:
3.
On the Introduction page (Figure 03). Thats our official welcome page, on this page we can find a couple of
links about Exchange Server 2013, lets click Next.
Figure 03
4.
On the License Agreement page. After reading the license agreement and if you agree with it, please select I
accept the terms in the license agreement and then click Next.
5.
On the Recommended Settings page (Figure 04). We can decide if we are going to provide usage feedback
to Microsoft and also check online for a solution when an error occurs. Lets leave the default settings (Use
recommended settings) and click Next.
Figure 04
6.
On the Checking Required Software page. If all required software is installed the Next button will be
available, if you take more than 10 seconds to take an action the wizard will move forward to the next page
automatically.
7.
On the Server Role Selection page (Figure 05). In this page we have the first big change in Exchange
Server 2013 where our 5 (five) roles that were introduced in Exchange Server 2007/2010 are replaced by just two
roles: Mailbox Roles and Client Access Role. Based on our scenario we are going to install the Mailbox server
(UYEX01) using GUI and the other server will be based on the command-line. Click Next.
Bear in mind that we still have the option Automatically install Windows Server roles and features that are
required to install Exchange Servers which will install all Operating System components to support the selected
roles.
Figure 05
8.
On the Installation Space and Location page. In this section we can validate the disk available and the
amount required to deploy Exchange Server 2013 and define the installation location for the product. Lets leave the
default settings and click Next.
9.
On the Exchange Organization page (Figure 06). Since we are building our environment from scratch a new
organization will be required. The Exchange organization boundary is our Active Directory forest. Lets name our
Organization and click Next.
Note: if you want to split permissions where the Exchange Administrators wont be able to manage Active Directory
objects then the option Apply Active Directory split permissions security model to the Exchange
Organization should be selected.
Figure 06
10.
On the Malware Protection Settings page (Figure 07). That is a new feature of Exchange Server 2013,
where we have Malware protection and this option can be managed through Exchange Administration Center or
Exchange Management Shell afterwards. Lets leave the default settings and click Next.
Figure 07
11.
On the Readiness Checks page (Figure 08). In this section we will have a summary of all pre-requisites and
if the server is ready to receive Exchange Server 2013. If we have missed any software component we will be notified
at this stage and we need to fix it before moving forward. If all testing went fine, then the Install button will be
available and we can proceed to the next step.
Figure 08
Note:
At this point all the required features were installed on the server. Just run Get-WindowsFeature in a PowerShell
session and you will notice that all features are shown as installed.
Note #2:
In some cases the readiness can display that all features are not installed, if that is the case run a GetWindowsFeature and if you see the features required by Exchange showing as InstallPending, just restart the server
and run the setup again and you will be fine.
12.
On the Setup Progress page (Figure 09). The process may take some time depending on your hardware
configuration and it is divided in 13 stages (Yes, the bar goes 1 to 100% for each stage). If everything goes well we
will receive information that the Setup has completed and the Complete button will be available. In this release
there isnt an option to open Exchange Management Console because it doesnt exist anymore. From now on, our
admin interfaces will be through Exchange Admin Center and Exchange Management Shell.
Figure 09
Installing Exchange Server 2013 using command-line

The installation process is similar to what we have in Exchange Server 2007/2010 where it is done by setup.exe from
the main folder of the Exchange Server 2013 installation folder. We can run the setup.exe only to find out the
available switches but in order to install a Mailbox role we can run the following command: .\Setup.exe
/role:ClientAccess,ManagementTools /IacceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms as shown in figure 10.
Figure 10
Troubleshooting the installation process...

Exchange setup process has been improved with each new release and the readiness check will clear most of the
possible issues before the installation process starts, however, if you are still having issues you can always check the
log files generated by the setup process. These log files can be found in C:\ExchangeSetupLogs and each file
contains log information that allows us to track down the steps being performed by the setup process (Figure 11).
Figure 11
You can check the logs to track all steps performed during the setup process, in the ExchangeSetup file (Figure 12)
we can check all testing being performed for the setup process.
Figure 12
Conclusion
In this article, we installed Exchange Server 2013 using both the graphical user interface and the command line. In
the final article of this series we will go through the process of setting up an initial configuration on the new Exchange
Server 2013.

by Anderson Patricio [Published on 20 June 2013 / Last Updated on 20 June 2013]
31
In this third and final article of the series Deploying Exchange Server 2013, the author explores a couple of new
features and how to create your first objects in Exchange Server 2013.
Introduction
In this article series we went through the installation process of a new Exchange Server 2013 on two new servers.
Now that you have a Mailbox and a CAS server up and running we are going to visit the basic settings to get your
environment running in a brief tour and during the process we will see some of the new features. The objective of this
article is to show you how to create your first users, configure mail flow, certificates and how to find stuff on the new
interface. If you want to go through all details of each feature, hang in there and wait for the upcoming articles here at
MSExchange.org where each feature will be explained.
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First glance at Exchange Server 2013 and testing basic features..

Lets look around our new Exchange Server 2013 deployment and we start noticing a couple of changes. The first
thing is that the Exchange Management Console is gone, however we still have Exchange Toolbox (Figure 01) and
that GUI has some of the tools that we have been using for ages such as Remote Connectivity Analyzer and Queue
Viewer.
Figure 01
If you want to manage your Exchange Server 2013 you have two options: EAC (Exchange Admin Center), as shown
in Figure 02, or Exchange Management Shell. The first one is easy to access using a web browser just point out
tohttps://<server-Name>/ECP (in our case UYEX02 which is our CAS) and type in your credentials and from there
you will be able to manage your organization, servers and recipient information.
Figure 02
The Exchange Admin Center (EAC) interface is simple and it is very easy to find stuff you need. You wont be more
than 2 or 3 clicks away in average from the settings that you are looking for. The interface has a static menu on the
left side and when we select one of the items you will be presented with all possible features related to that scope in a
new horizontal menu. From there the administrator can start managing the features.
There is also a standard set of icons in the Toolbar area to manage all settings as shown in figure 03, starting on the
left we have the plus sign icon which means add stuff, the pen icon is the Edit one, the trash icon is the deletion, then
we have Search, Refresh and the ... icon which can be considered More Actions.. When we select something on the
list view (located right above the Toolbar) then detailed information for the selected object will show up on the right
side (Details Pane), as shown in Figure 03.
Figure 03
Since we have the EAC open, lets check the servers of our organization. Click the Servers item and on the right side
a list of all servers will appear (Figure 04). If you are coming from Exchange Server 2007/2010 this view would be
similar to the Server Configuration item view. If we look closely we can see that on the Servers section we can also
configure DAG, Databases, Virtual Directories and certificates.
If you click the desired server more options will show up on the right side, and in this scenario we could register the
new product by clicking the Enter Product Key link.
Figure 04
Managing a new domain in Exchange Server 2013

In order to test the product you probably want to create your own domain, and that is easily done by clicking the Mail
Flow item and then Accepted Domains in the tab area and finally the Add icon, as shown in Figure 05.
Figure 05
The result will be a new page where we have the same options that we have using Exchange Management Console
on Exchange Server 2007/2010, as shown in Figure 06. Type in the information and click Save, the new domain will
show up on the List View.
Figure 06
Now that we have configured the domain we can change the Default Policy. By default it will only include the FQDN
of your Active Directory defined to our new domain. In order to change the Default Policy click the Mail Flow item,
thenEmail Address Policies on the Toolbar area and double-click the Default Policy entry. Click Email Address
format as shown in figure 07 and double-click the only entry that we have.
Figure 07
Lets uncheck the option Enter a custom address type, and click Select an accepted domain, also lets click Make
this format the reply email address as shown in Figure 08. Then click Save twice, a message box will be
displayed, click OK.
Figure 08
There is a catch in some of the interfaces in EAC and that is a good example, the Default Policy was changed,
however it wasnt applied and to do that we need to select the entry on the List View and then a link on the right side
(Figure 09) will show up with an action, in our case the Apply action.
Figure 09
Creating mail-enabled objects

The SMTP address configured at organization level and defined to stamp any new mail-enabled object with our
domain leads us to create our first user in our new environment. Click Recipients and then the Add icon
under Mailboxes tab. The new wizard page (Figure 10) will require the information about the new mailbox, and we
can choose which organization unit the new object will be created in. If we click More options we will be able to
manage Database, Archive Database and Address Book Policies.
Figure 10
You may be wondering... Am I going to have just these few attributes to manage users from EAC? Well the answer is
no, however you will need to double-click the desired mailbox (after creating it) to be able to configure specific
settings, as shown in Figure 11. In this example we are able to manage the SMTP address for that specific user.
Figure 11
Mail Flow
Due the architectural changes in Exchange Server 2013, the transport component has changed a little bit and a
further article on this topic will be required. However the good news is that any Exchange Server 2013 by default
accepts external mail traffic without any special configuration. This configuration can be checked on the Receive
Connector called Default Frontend <ServerName> and since we have the roles installed on two servers we should
look at the CAS server role.
In order to send messages we need to create a Send Connector, using DNS resolution and selecting which servers
can use the connector to send messages out. The Send Connector can be managed in the Mail Flow / Send
Connectorssection, as shown in Figure 12. By default only the Mailbox role will show up on the list of the source
servers but we can change such behaviour by changing the option Proxy through client access server on the
properties of the newly created connector.
Figure 12
Managing Certificates
In Exchange Server 2010 the Certificate Wizard was really cool, but now with EAC it became a piece of cake! We can
fully manage the certificate process through the EAC. The only thing is that we are going to use a UNC path to move
files around during some wizards. Anyway, to start managing your certificates lets go to Servers and then Certificates
(Figure 13).
Note:
After installing a new certificate make sure that you assign the services to the new certificate and an IIS Reset is still
required to refresh the settings.
Figure 13
My 2 cents of advice is to create your certificate in an internal Certification Authority for your lab, it will be easier this
way when it comes to configuring your Outlook client access. Then start thinking about going live using Public
Certificates.
Connecting to your Exchange Server 2013

The easy way to start testing the mailbox that you have just created is using OWA. Just point your browser to
https://ServerName.FQDN/owa and after authenticating and defining the regional settings the user will have access
to the new Outlook Web App interface (Figure 14).
Figure 14
If you want to use Outlook to connect to your new Exchange Server 2013, I would recommend you to use the
Office13 to check the new features out on both sides of the fence. If you have your certificates properly configured
your Outlook autodiscover will work like a charm and you will notice some of the new features - no more connection
to a FQDN instead the client will connect to the Mailbox GUID@UPN-Suffix, as shown in Figure 15.
Figure 15
Also, in Outlook settings there are no more settings for MAPI (Figure 16).
Figure 16
Figure 17
Conclusion
In this final article we have seen a couple of items related to new features in Exchange Server 2013.

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Deploying Exchange Server 2013 (Part 1)

by Anderson Patricio [Published on 21 March 2013 / Last Updated on 20 June 2013]