Now that Exchange 2019 and Windows Server 2019 are available, there is nothing standing in the way of migrating from Exchange 2016 to Exchange 2019. Only the change in licensing could be problematic for some: Exchange 2019 is only available in the volume licensing program.
This is the first part of the article series "Migration from Exchange 2016 to Exchange 2019" and describes the test environment and the installation of Exchange 2019. The following articles will then cover the configuration of Exchange 2019, moving the mailboxes and uninstalling Exchange 2016.
One thing first: This is not a generally valid migration guide that can be applied to every Exchange 2016 organization, so you should map your Exchange infrastructure 1-to-1 in a test environment before the migration to test the migration.
The test environment
The small test environment is described quite quickly. There is a domain controller on Windows Server 2016 for the Active Directory frankysweblab.de. Exchange 2016 is also installed on Windows Server 2016. A VM with Windows Server 2019 (GUI) is prepared for Exchange 2019:
Here is an overview of the host names and IP addresses of the test environment:
- MIGDC1 192.168.200.16 (Domain Controller)
- Exchange16: 192.168.200.17 (Exchange 2016 Server)
- Exchange19: 192.168.200.18 (only Server 2019 as a domain member, Exchange installation is part of this HowTo)
The Active Directory has the name frankysweblab.de. Access to Exchange from the Internet is via Portforward. This is not ideal, but I deliberately wanted to keep the environment simple. There is therefore only a single NAT rule on the firewall:
The internal and external clients establish the connection to Exchange with the DNS name outlook.frankysweblab.de. There are the corresponding entries on the internal DNS server:
There are two user mailboxes on the Exchange 2016 server: Frank and Hans, both users have access to the shared mailbox "Info", as well as to 2 public folders (contacts and appointments):
The certificate for Exchange 2016 comes from an internal PKI. The certificate and the host name outlook.frankysweblab.de should also be retained for Exchange 2019.
So much for the configuration of the test environment.
Installation Exchange 2019
Before the Exchange 2019 installation can be carried out, the prerequisites must first be met. The first requirement is the operating system: Exchange 2019 only supports Windows Server 2019 in the Core or GUI version. Microsoft recommends installation on a Windows Server 2019 Core. In practice, however, I think the GUI variant will be encountered more frequently, so I am installing Exchange 2019 on Server 2019 with a graphical user interface.
Visual C++ and the UCMA Runtime must first be installed so that the Exchange installation can be carried out:
The UCMA Runtime can be installed after Visual C++ 2013:
Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime
Now the required Windows features can be installed, the easiest way to do this is via PowerShell:
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Media-Foundation, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, 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, Server-Media-Foundation
After installing the prerequisites, the server should be restarted once. The Exchange installation can then be started:
The installation is now almost self-explanatory, so I will only comment on the screenshots at the relevant points.
I always use the option "Do not use recommended settings" for the Exchange installation, this gives a little more options for the configuration:
Exchange 2019, like Exchange 2016, only has two installation modes: Mailbox or Edge Transport. The UM functions have been removed in Exchange 2019 and are no longer part of the mailbox role:
I always like to install Exchange on a separate drive, in this case drive D:
If all prerequisites have been installed, there are no problems when analyzing the prerequisites:
Once the Exchange 2019 installation is complete, you can start with the configuration. So that this article does not become too long, the configuration is part of part 2 of this HowTo and will follow shortly.