Installing Exchange Server 2016 on Windows Server 2012 R2
Exchange Server 2016 can be installed on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. For both versions of Windows Server either the Standard or Datacenter edition can be used to run Exchange Server 2016. Exchange itself does not rely on any specific features of either the Standard or Datacenter editions.Note that a full server installation with GUI is required for Exchange Server 2016, it can’t be installed on a Core mode installation of Windows Server.
There are three possible installations of Exchange Server 2016 that you can perform:
- Mailbox server role (this is the only mandatory server role)
- Edge Transport server role (this is optional, and can’t co-exist with the Mailbox server role on the same Windows Server)
- Management Tools (for admin workstations or servers)
Installing Pre-Requisites
For an Exchange Server 2016 Mailbox server installation open an elevated (run as administrator) PowerShell console and run the following command to install the operating system roles and features.
C:\> 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-FoundationA restart is required after the roles and features have finished installing.
After the restart download and install (in order):
The server is now ready to install Exchange Server 2016.
Installing Exchange Server 2016
Before you start there are a few things to be aware of:- Installing Exchange Server 2016 requires an Active Directory schema update. We’ll look at that in more detail shortly.
- Aside from the schema update installing Exchange Server 2016 makes other irreversible changes to your Active Directory forest. If you’ve never backed up your Active Directory, or you’ve never heard of a forest recovery, here’s some reading for you.
- If you’re installing Exchange into the forest for the first time you
will be choosing an organization name. The Exchange organization can’t
be renamed at a later date, so choose a name you’re happy with keeping
forever.
Preparing Active Directory
A new installation of Exchange Server 2016 involves applying an Active Directory schema update, as do most Exchange Server cumulative updates, as well as preparing the Active Directory domains where Exchange Server 2016 and any mail-enabled objects will be located. In an Active Directory forest with a single domain this can all be performed as one task.
The Active Directory schema update will automatically apply when you run Exchange Server 2016 setup on the first server in your environment. A Windows Server 2012 R2 server with the Exchange Server 2016 Mailbox server role pre-requisites installed doesn’t quite meet the requirements (you’ll need to add the RSAT-ADDS feature as shown below). A domain controller will have RSAT-ADDS installed already, but may also need the .NET Framework version shown below to be installed first.
Whether you’re running the schema update from an Exchange server or a separate server (some organizations do it as a separate task due to change control reasons, or because of different teams having different administrative responsibilities in the environment) then the following requirements apply:
- .NET Framework 4.5.2 must be installed
- The RSAT-ADDS feature must be installed
- The forest functional level must be at least Windows Server 2008
- The account used to run the schema update and Active Directory preparation must be a member of Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins. These are high privilege groups I recommend you plan to remove your account from the groups when you’re done with this task. Note, if you’ve just added yourself to these groups you’ll need to log out and back in to the server for the new group membership to take effect.
- The server you’re running the schema update from must be located in
the same Active Directory site as the Schema Master. You can identify
your Schema Master by running my Get-ADInfo.ps1 script, or by using the Get-ADForest PowerShell cmdlet.
Extract the Exchange Server 2016 setup files into a folder, open a command prompt window, and then navigate to the location where the Exchange setup files were extracted.
To apply only the schema update run the following command after navigating to setup folder in cmd:
setup /PrepareSchema /IacceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
To prepare Active Directory run one of the following commands. Note this will also apply the schema update if you did not perform that step already.
If you do not already have an Exchange organization you’ll need to provide a name for the organization now, for example:
setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:"xyz" /IacceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
If you’re installing Exchange Server 2016 into an existing Exchange organization you do not need to specify the organization name
After this open the extracted exchange 2016 folder and double click setup file to proceed and the installation from there onwards is simple GUI navigation.
For further queries you may contact me:
Muhammad Yaseen
Phone: 0092-312-5166589
Email: yaseenraja2000@gmail.com
Skypeid: myaseen789