Exchange-2010 Configuration

Configuring and Managing Mailbox Database in Exchange server 2010-Part 1

Posted by Chinthaka Shameera on August 24, 2009

On 18th of August Exchange 2010 RC released by Microsoft after releasing the Exchange 2010 beta 1 four months ago. I thought now’s the time to write a couple of articles regarding Exchange 2010 Mailbox management.

• Create a new Mailbox Database-Using EMC

1. In the Exchange management Console navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox. There you can see the difference with Exchange 2007. In Exchange 2010 you must create a Mailbox database in the Organization Configuration section.
2. In the action pane, click New Mailbox Database.

3. Then you can see the Introduction page. Then you must add a name for the database. You can type maximum 64 characters and must exclude : =\ / ” , ;. characters.

4. Then Select Server name on which server you want to create the database. In my lab I selected E14-Srv01.

5. Click next. Then appears the set paths screen to set database path and log file path. I don’t have many partitions on the test server but technically you must place the database and log files in different disks sets.

Set database path and log files path. Then select Mount the database checkbox to mount database automatically after creation.

6. Click New to start procedure.

7. Then you can see powershell cmdlet EMC used to create mailbox database same as Exchange 2007. Also you will see whether database has been created successfully or has failed.

8. Click finish to complete Mailbox database creation task.then new database appears on the Database Management tab.

9. Click Finish to complete Mailbox database creation task. Then new database appears on the Database Management tab.

• Mount and Dismount the Database-Using EMC

1. In the Exchange Management Console navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox

2. In the result pane select apocopate Database (In this article select members Database).then select Dismount database or Mount Database on action pane.

• Remove Mailbox Database-Using EMC

1. In the Exchange management Console navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox

2. In the result pane select apocopate Database (In this article select members Database).then click Remove on Action pane.

3. In the appearing confirmation dialog box Click Yes

4. Then appears a completion message box. Click Ok. You must remove database files manually after clicking yes.

• Configure maintenance schedule for a database-Using EMC

Exchange 2010 doesn’t do anymore online defrag and uses background checksumming .

1. In the Exchange management Console navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox

2. On the result pane select appropriate mailbox Database. Then click properties on the action pane.

3. Then appears the screen of appropriate Mailbox Database. click maintenance tab.

4. Then you can see maintenance schedule list under maintenance schedule. Use customize button to set the custom maintenance schedule.

5. Click Ok to save your changes.

I will show you how to do some basic tasks on Exchange mailbox database and configuring database parameters in next articles

Trouble shooting:

 

I was building an test Exchange 2010 server as an VM. Exchange Setup gave an error on CAS and Mailbox roles (on pre-requests window). The error was

Unable to read data from the Metabase. Ensure that Microsoft Internet Information Services is installed.
Unable to access the ‘Default Web Site’ on this computer.

I checked IIS was installed and I was able to browse the default web site/page. what gives?

On this Exchange 2010 Prerequisites Technet page (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354(EXCHG.140).aspx), I identified the powershell command to install all the correct IIS components to install all three roles (CAS/HUB/Mailbox) on a same computer.

1. Open Power Shell in elevated mode (runas administrator)
2. Type the following (or copy paste)
• Import-Module ServerManager
• Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy –Restart
3. The second command will install the required components and reboot the server
4. After reboot, open the Power Shell again in elevated mode.
5. Type this to set NetTcpPortSharing service to automatic.
• Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic
6. Close the Powershell. Try running Exchange 2010 setup again.

 

Microsoft Exchage-2010

Exchange 2010 Installation

Now we're ready to run the Exchange 2010 installer. We'll go through a typical installation that includes the Client Access, Hub Transport, and Mailbox roles. This is what you will want to install if you are only going to be running one Exchange server. If you scale out your Exchange architecture with multiple servers then you will want to familiarize yourself with the Exchange server roles for a proper deployment.

1.     Logon to the desktop of your soon to be Exchange server with a Domain Admin account.

2.     Run setup from the Exchange 2010 media.

3.     Click on "Step 3: Choose Exchange language option" and choose one of the options (Install only languages from the DVD will be fine in most cases).

4.     Click on "Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange."

5.     Click Next at the Introduction page.

6.     Accept the license terms and click Next.

7.     Make a selection on the Error Reporting page and click Next.

8.     Stick with the default "Typical Exchange Server Installation" and click Next.

9.     Choose a name for your Exchange Organization and click Next.

10.   Make a selection on the Client Settings page and click Next.

11.   If you want your Exchange server to be available externally then choose a domain name such as mail.myorganization.com, click Next.

12.   Make a selection on the Customer Experience Improvement Program page and click Next.

13.   If all the prerequisites are there then you can click Install.

14.   Grab a cup of coffee or take a walk while the installation process does its thing.

15.   When the installation has finished go back to the Exchange installation page click on "Step 5: Get critical updates for Microsoft Exchange."

16.   Install Microsoft Update (if necessary) so that Windows update will check for non-OS updates, and verify that there are no Exchange updates.

Post Installation Steps

Now that you have Exchange 2010 installed, you will need to do some basic configuration in the Exchange Management console to get mail flowing to/from your server.

1.     Open the Exchange Management Console via Start >> All Programs >> Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 >> Exchange Management Console

2.     Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises so you can see: Organization Configuration, Server Configuration, Recipient Configuration, and Toolbox

3.     Under Organization Configuration >> Hub Transport >> Accepted Domains add a new Accepted Domain for the domain you wish to use for email addresses. For example, your AD domain will be listed by default (i.e. ad.myorganization.com). You will probably want to add "myorganization.com" as an Authoritative Domain.

4.     Under Organization Configuration >> Hub Transport >> Send Connectors >> New Send Connector ... >> Pick a name such as "MyOrganization Internet Send Connector" >> change the drop down to "Internet" >> Next >> Add ... >> enter "*" in the Address field and check the box to include all subdomains >> OK >> Next. Now, if you want your Exchange server to route mail directly, then click Next on the Network setting page, but if you want to route your email through an upstream provider then select "Route mail through the following smart hosts" and Add ... a mail gateway such as smtp.comcast.net. Click Next >> Next >> Next >> New

5.     Under Server Configuration >> Hub Transport >> Right-click Default *** >> Properties >> Permission Groups tab, check the box for Anonymous users. This will allow your Exchange server to accept incoming mail delivery from remote mail servers.

6.     Under Recipient Configuration >> Mailbox, create mailboxes for your existing AD users (or create a new user & mailbox)

1.     New Mailbox ... >> select User Mailbox >> Next >> Existing users >> Add ... >> select an existing AD account >> OK >> Next >> specify an alias (e.g. the AD user name) >> Next >> New

7.     If you want to use an SSL certificate for Outlook Web App, IMAP, POP, etc. click on Server Configuration and import or create the certificate

Mail Routing Configuration

Now the final piece you need to configure to receive mail is your external DNS records. The method for configuring your DNS records will depend on whether you host your own DNS or have a provider that hosts it for you. Either way you will need to create an "A" record that points mail.myorganization.com to the IP address of your mail server, and an "MX" record that points myorganization.com to mail.myorganization.com. You will also want to make sure that port 25 is open both inbound and outbound to your Exchange server.

Conclusion

That's it! You should now be able to browse to https://mail.myorganization.com/owa (or https://localhost/owa from the server) and logon via the Web interface to send and receive mail!