In part 1 the Active Directory and DNS have already been installed and configured. In the second part, the Exchange Server is now installed in the test environment.
Here once again the environment that is being set up:
The IP addresses of the two servers for an overview:
- DC 172.16.100.12/24
- Exchange: 172.16.100.13/24
In the first part I already mentioned that I have already installed the Windows Server, on the one hand I think it would be a bit exaggerated to document the installation process of Windows as well, but with the Exchange Server I would like to say a few words about the Windows configuration.
Foreword
Even if it is only a small environment, a few things should be taken into account:
- Do not install Exchange Server on C:
- Set a fixed swap file (RAM + 10 MB, but not more than 32 GB)
- Swap file to separate partition
- 8 GB RAM is the absolute minimum, in small environments 16 GB RAM is usually sufficient
- Minimum 2 CPU cores
- Allow for sufficient storage space (minimum 200 GB)
This results in a VM with 2 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM and the following HDD configuration for this test environment:
- 30 GB System C:
- 17 GB Swap D:
- 200 GB Exchange E:
Here is the HDD configuration:
The swap file is fixed at 16394 MB (16 GB RAM * 1024 + 10 MB), if you use 32 GB RAM or more, you can set the swap file to 32 GB.
Here is the network configuration of the Exchange Server. IPv6 remains activated and only the DC is configured as a DNS server:
Der Exchange Server ist bereits Mitglied er Domain frankysweb.org und das Computerkonto wurde in die OU „Server“ verschoben.
Installation Exchange Server
First, the prerequisites for Exchange Server must be installed. The easiest way to install the required Windows roles and features is via PowerShell:
Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS, 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
UCMA Runtime 4.0 and the patch for .NET Framework 4.6.1 must then be installed:
Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime Download
After installing the prerequisites, Windows updates are also due again, so update accordingly. As the installation of Exchange 2016 CU2 is quite boring, only the relevant screenshots are provided here.
„Don‘ use recommeded settings“ auswählen, sonst fehlen ein paar Einstellungen:
Only the mailbox role needs to be selected:
E:\Exchange Server is specified as the installation directory, which in my case is the 200 GB drive.
The name of the Exchange organization can be freely chosen. In my case FrankysWeb
The warnings are normal and indicate that the Active Directory schema for Exchange is being extended and it will no longer be possible to install earlier versions of Exchange Server.
Summary
Active Directory, DNS and Exchange Server are installed. Active Directory and DNS are already configured. But there is still a lot missing, because it cannot be used as it is. The next part deals with the Exchange configuration including certificates, POP3 connector and Strato domain configuration. Then we will continue with the Sophos UTM.