Announcing Exchange Server 2016 Preview!
Microsoft has provided documentation on the latest version of Exchange here:
Exchange Server 2016
IMPORTANT: this release is for evaluation only. Do not attempt to install it in a production environment and start a migration to Exchange 2016!
In the following lines, I will summarize some of the most important pre-requisites, leaving the reader free to consult the documentation indicated above for further detail, and then attempt to install Exchange 2016.
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Here are the various requirements for Exchange 2016:
Hardware
(This is for the server on which Exchange 2016 will be installed)
- x64 processor - no GHz specified so probably any new (or recent) server.
- 8 GB RAM for the Mailbox role (4 GB for Edge role).
- Paging File - recommendation is still physical RAM plus 10 MB (maximum 32 GB).
- Disk space: 30 GB (with several hundred extra MB for various purposes). This is for the Exchange install and does not count size of mailbox databases.
Operating system (for the Exchange 2016 server)
- Windows 2012 or 2012 R2 (Standard or DataCenter)
- Management Tools can be installed on the above server OS and on Windows 8.1
Note: Windows 10 is not mentioned but, because of the limited presence of Windows 8.x in the corporate world, and the probable (direct) migration path of Windows 7 to Windows 10, it would seem to make sense that Windows 10 be supported in the near future.
Active Directory
- Forest Functional Level - Windows 2008 or above.
This means all the domain controllers must have Windows 2008 (Standard, Enterprise or Data Center) as the operating system (or higher).
Other notes:
- Do not install Exchange 2016 on a domain controller. It is not clear if this will be discouraged (but supported as in previous versions) or not supported at all.
- Do not disable IPv4. Sooner or later we will have IPv6-only networks but this is not supported at this time.
Coexistence with previous versions of Exchange
Unless you have avoided using email for the last 20 some years, you probably already have some system in place. Besides Office 365 in a hybrid deployment, Exchange 2016 can coexist with:
- Exchange 2010 SP3 RU9 (some sources state RU10)
- Exchange 2015 CU8 (some sources state CU9)
Preview supports co-existence with Exchange Server 2010 SP3 RU10 and 2015 CU9
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Preparation for Exchange 2016 install
Before we install Exchange 2016, we must upgrade the Active Directory schema (and domain), then install a number of pre-requisites and Windows features. This should be familiar to Exchange administrators who have installed Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2015.
Active Directory upgrade operations
First, I will upgrade the Active Directory schema. This is also known as a "schema extension". In substance, it adds Exchange (2016) objects and properties to the Active Directory schema. For this operation, I must be a member of the "Schema Administrators" security group. Verify this if you are not certain.
I have downloaded and extracted the Exchange 2016 installation files on my Windows 2012 R2 server named SVR5. I can perform the schema upgrade from the (future) Exchange server provided that I have network connectivity to the schema master (this is domain controller holding the "schema master" operations master role - also known as a "FSMO" role).
In this case, I have to install the RSAT tools for Active Directory Domain Services. Otherwise, this message will display:
"The Windows component RSAT-ADDS-Tools is not installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange setup can begin."
It is a simple matter to resolve this error. All we need to do is install the feature in question (click to enlarge):
Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS
Note: as long as the feature name is not ambiguous, we can simple enter (in this case) "RSAT-ADDS".
Note: if we copied all the install files to the schema master itself, we would not have to install the RSAT tools - since we are on the domain controller itself.
So, having added the RSAT ADDS tools, I navigate to the location of the Exchange 2016 setup file...
and execute the following command (click to enlarge):
setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Next, we prepare "Active Directory" (as if the schema was not part of Active Directory...) with the following command:
setup.exe /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:MYNET /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Note: if we installed Exchange 2016 in an existing Exchange environment, we would not have to specify the organization name.
Note: this operation requires membership in the Enterprise Admins security group.
Note: in a single forest/domain environment, we do not have to prepare the domain separately with additional commands.
Installation of Windows Features
Next, we install several Windows features with the following command:
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-Foundation
Note: we can copy and paste from the Microsoft Technet article referenced above (or from my blog post). No need to type the names of all the above features manually!
Installation of pre-requisite software.
We then install the following two software items:
- .NET Framework 4.5.2
- Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
In my situation, .NET 4.5.2 was already installed on both the domain controller and the future Exchange server when I installed Windows updates. So I only need to install "UCMA":
Unified Communications Managed API 4.0 Runtime
We simply download the file and execute it, which results in something like this:
Installation
Now I will install Exchange 2016 (preview) on a Windows 2012 R2 server. The domain controller of this test environment has Windows 2008 R2 for the operating system. All of the most recent Windows updates (at this time) have been installed on both servers, including .NET 4.5.2.
I will install the mailbox server role which is the only remaining role of the former Exchange 2010 three-role Client Access - Hub Transport - Mailbox triad.
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First, I execute the setup.exe file that we used earlier to upgrade Active Directory. This time, I simply double-click on it. The first screen prompts us to "Check for Updates". I opted to check for updates later (yes. even though the first option is selected in my screenshot):
Note: we click "Next" on each screen as needed.
Setup copies files...
And we can read the introduction to Exchange 2016:
We accept the license agreement (if we want to continue):
We select some settings here for feedback to Microsoft:
We then select the server role. As mentioned earlier, of the previous Cleint Access, Hub Transport and Mailbox roles, only the Mailbox role remains (besides the optional Edge role which would be installed in a DMZ):
We select the location where Exchange 2016 will be installed. For this first look at the product, I'll simply install it on the C: drive with the Windows 2012 R2 operating system:
We can enable malware protection if we do not have another product for this purpose or disable it in the opposite scenario:
Setup then performs a Readiness Check which fails. As sometimes encountered with earlier versions of Exchange, notably 2015, we are informed that a reboot from a previous installation is pending. Like others (you'll see what I mean if you search for this problem online - Exchange 2015), I rebooted several times with no result:
Here is an example of a conversation on this problem:
exchange-install-fails-saying-server-reboot-is-pending
Since this is only a first look at the product (and I was becoming impatient) I finally deleted the values (there were two) in this registry key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\PendingFileRenameOperations
Even then, I had to reboot once more to continue.
Note: in this article (below) Microsoft recommends that we do NOT delete registry items. If this were a production server, I would have been more inclined to respect that recommendation. In this situation, I'm more interested in having a first look at the product and not willing to pay MS $499 (yes, it's $499 now) for technical assistance.
The computer needs to be restarted before Setup can continue
Finally, I can proceed (the message below is informative and will not block the installation):
Setup progesses. Notice that the former Client Access role is not installed as a simple service (this is also true for the former Hub Transport and Unified Messaging roles):
If all goes well, we should see this screen at the end:
But how do I open the EAC (Exchange Administration Console) or EMS (Exchange Management Shell) after installation? On a Windows 2012 (R2) server, we can find the Exchange icons among the other "Apps":
Comments - and problems encountered
After several attempts to open Exchange 2016 with less than the recommended 8 GB of RAM (2 GB, then 4 GB), I allocated the full 8 GB to my virtual machine. So, instead of error messages like this (System.OutofMemoryException):
I was able to open the EMS and execute various commands, for example:
[PS] C:\>Test-ServiceHealth
After triggering the start of the WinRM service with the Test-WsMan cmdlet, I was able to obtain the result of "True" (for all necessary services running) although I had to wait a while for the "MSExchangeDelivery" service.
As the reader can see, I was able to open the EMS and execute some commands. On the other hand, I was never able to open the EAC. Besides the expected certificate error...
This error prevented me from using the EAC:
That is where I stopped for the time being.
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