Step by Step Installing Exchange server 2013 from scratch (Part 1)

In this part, I will be demonstrate how to Install exchange 2013 and prepare new Databases along with preparing the servers for high availability (DAG).

 

Prerequisites:

– Two Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 servers with 16 GB ram and 200GB disk divided unto two partitions.

– Two NIC, one for MAPI and one for replication.

– Exchange 2013 CU8 setup to directly go to the latest available update.

 

Installing Prerequisites on all exchange servers

Launch Powershell as administrator and copy then paste the following.

 

Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

From <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354(v=exchg.150).aspx>

When finished continue with the following Cmdlet on each Exchange server.

 

• Install only the Mailbox server role on a computer.
• Install only the Client Access server role on a computer.
• Install both the Mailbox and Client Access server roles on the same computer.
•  

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

 

From <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354(v=exchg.150).aspx>

 

First thing we extract the setup file and then from command line as administrator we run Setup as below

 

Setup /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

setup /PrepareAd /IacceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /OrganizationName: Organization Name

Setup /Preparedomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Setup /PrepareAllDomains /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

You should download and install the following software prerequisites as per Microsoft’s TechNet article regarding the installation. the software is available the link I posted earlier above or through this link Exchange_Prerequesties

 

After running all the prerequisites , we can start installation of Exchange 2013

Here I am going to change Exchange’s default installation path and place it on a different partition to avoid any data loss in case of Windows server crash or booting issues.

Now we install the second Exchange server, that will hold the same roles on it as the first one (Mailbox and CAS).

The steps are going to be exactly the same except that you won’t have to prepare the schema or AD since it’s already prepared.

Installation has finished for both servers

Creating DATABASES:

NOTE:

It’s better to mount the database upon creation and not restart the IS instantly after that.

Now it’s time to create new Databases and replace them with the default ones that come with the Installation

First we’ll have to start off by creating our targeted databases which we want to use them. Note that for the standard version of Exchange 2013 you can only create up to 5 databases per mailbox server.

In order to demonstrate all benefits of Exchange 2013 and its features including DAG. I will create 2 databases. One database on each server.

The first database will be called DB1SRV1

As soon as we have created the Database, we faced the following error with event ID 106

Then another warnıng from MSExchangeFastSearch wıth event id 1006

This indicates that a database should not be mounted upon creation, you should untick the mount DB option when you create one.

After waiting a bit the following logs should appear and show a healthy indexing start.

Once the DB has been created, Exchange AC will require that you restart the IS (Information store Service) in order for replication to happen without an issue.

Database is showing healthy and no issues so far.

Now we’ll create a new DB on the second server without ticking the mount DB option.

Microsoft Exchange Server Locator Service failed to find active server for database ‘de5f3051-c202-4976-b8e4-65bbbe0c2395’. Error: The database with ID de5f3051-c202-4976-b8e4-65bbbe0c2395 couldn’t be found.

The same exact errors came after creating the Database without mounting it.

Now let’s restart the IS service and mount our database then see what happens..

Upon restarting the service, we get the following error which is related to the MS Exchange replication service . It noticed that the database that we have created has never been mounted in order to start the indexing.

Let’s mount the database and see the changes

Mounting the database have got the AM to report successfully and after couple of seconds the MSExchangeFastSearch will check out if the database have any indexing files.

No indexing state have been found and so the FastSearch service will give you a 1013 warning report. This is a good warning because it reports that the service is working properly and that it will create the indexing folder after couple of minutes as we’ll see later.

It takes approximately 3-5 minutes for the database to start the indexing.

Now on the EAC, the DB should report healthy. Let’s see

Removing Default databases

First step before deleting the default databases is to move any system mailboxes or arbitrary mailboxes in them to the newly created databases…

Paul Cunningham wrote a great article on how to do this using Powershell … in the following link

Get-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database 2" | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "Mailbox Database 1"

First we’ll have to copy the default databases’ names in notepad to run the command properly.

Get-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database 0043173996" | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "DB1SRV1"

Time to remove arbitrary mailboxes from the default DB to the new DBs

The command is going to look like this

Get-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database 0043173996" -Arbitration | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "DB1SRV1"

All mailboxes have already been moved to the new DB, now let’s check if there’s anything left in the Old DB.

To remove the DB, you will have to type the following command in EMC:

Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity "Mailbox Database 0043173996"

The warning above is apparently due to Exchange permission on AD. It has been described in detail on how to solve this warning by  Nuno Mota in the following Link.

From <http://www.msexchange.org/kbase/ExchangeServerTips/ExchangeServer2013/ManagementAdministration/exchange-2013-error-deleting-database.html>

For the second server, You will have to repeat the same steps as on the first deleted MB Database.

 

Hope you like this, Stay tuned for the second part