Exchange 2010 RTM DAG using Server 2008 R2 – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of this article series. In Part 1, we started off by discussing the goal of this lab. That goal is how to deploy a two-node Exchange 2010 RTM Database Availability Group (DAG) on Windows Server 2008 R2. We then prepared our Operating System with the Exchange 2010 Prerequisites which includes software prerequisites as well as modification to hardware configuration such as our Network Interface Cards (NIC)s.

In this Part, I will go over the installation of one of our Exchange 2010 Servers which will include the Mailbox, Client Access, as well as Hub Transport Server Roles.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Installation

With Exchange 2010, we still have the setup.com for unattended mode installations using the Command Line Interface (CLI) as well as setup.exe for attended mode installations using the Graphical User Interface (GUI). We’ll be using the GUI for purposes of this lab.

After running setup.exe, we’ll be presented with the following screen:

We can see that the first two steps are already taken care of.  If you recall from Part 1, we used PowerShell to take care of the prerequisite installations.  So, let’s proceed to Step 2 and choose our language.  For me, it will be English.

When clicking on the language option, we get a couple choices.

If you choose the first option, Install all languages from the language bundle, you will be provided with an option to download the language pack or use an already downloaded language pack.  For purposes of this lab, we’ll choose the second option as we’ll only be using English.

It’s finally time to choose Step 4 and Install Exchange!

So let’s go ahead and choose Step 4 and let’s begin installing Exchange.

After some initializing, we’re provided with the Installer GUI.  The first page, as you guessed it, an Introduction Page.  Read the Introduce Page and Click Next to Continue.

You are now provided with the License Agreement.  After reading the agreement, select “I accept the terms in the license agreement.” Click Next to Continue.

You are now provided with the Error Reporting page.  I like to choose Yes for this option.  The reason why is when you call into Premiere Support Services (PSS), they will have some error reporting information from your servers that may assist with the troubleshooting/fixing of your server.  Choose whichever option best fits your needs.  Click Next to Continue.

You are now provided with the Installation Type.  Previously, in Exchange 2007 CCR/SCC, you could only install the Mailbox Server role.  Now, with DAGs, you can have HUB/CAS/MBX/UM all on the same server.  We’ll be choosing the Typical Exchange Server Installation for this lab which includes HUB/CAS/MBX as well as the Exchange Management Tools.  A nice tip to note is that you can have both the Exchange 2007 Management Tools as well as the Exchange 2010 Management Tools installed on the same box.  Click Next to Continue.

You are now provided with Client Settings.  If you have Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Entourage, click Yes.  This creates a Public Folder Database and modifies some Exchange options such as OAB Distribution for Public Folders to provide support for these clients.  As a side note, there was an msexchangeteam.com blog post that stated that Entourage is getting updated to support Exchange Web Services (EWS) so in the future, you may only have to do this for Outlook 2003 clients and not Entourage.  For purposes of this lab, we will not be using Entourage or Outlook 2003.  Click Next to Continue.

Your first server is most likely going to be an internet facing CAS server.  Because of this, I specified our Internet-facing FQDN.  This will modify your -ExternalURL parameters for this Exchange 2010 CAS.  Pretty nifty and an installation option I very much welcome.  Click Next to Continue.

You are now provided with the Customer Experience Improvement Program.  I always like to join these things to provide information to Microsoft to help make the product better. Click Next to Continue.

Finally, it’s time for some Readiness Checks.  We can see that the organization will need to be prepared with a /PrepareAD which will prepare the schema, forest, and domain.  Make sure the person running this installation is a part of the Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins in order to update the schema.

We also see that we need the Filter Pack.  I didn’t include this in Part 1 as Microsoft updates their Setup Prerequisite files and this (links/files/requirement)  may change in the future.  So go to the link here to download the filter pack.  Make sure you download and install the x64 version.  You can install the Filterpack while the Exchange setup is still running.  Once the Filterpack is finished installing, Click Install in the Exchange Setup.

So now you’re presented with the installation.  It only took 10-15 minutes for the install to complete.  Pretty fast!  Click Finish to Finish.

Summary

Well folks, that is all for Part 2 of this article. For Part 3, I will go through the DAG creation process (including File Share Witness on a non-Exchange Server) as well as add our first node to the DAG.