Installing Exchange 2013 Preview Prerequisites on Windows Server 2008 R2

As you might know, Exchange 2013 is out and a lot has changed architecture wise. Today I am going to start off a series of blog posts about Exchange 2013 with a number of other PFEs and we plan to cover the following:

  • Changes to Exchange 2013 from Exchange 2010
  • Installation of Pre-Requisites for the Preview of Exchange 2013
  • Installing the Preview of Exchange 2013
  • Configuring the Exchange 2013 Preview

I will be covering the guidelines to setting up the needed pre-requisites on Server 2008 R2. I will cover the installation prereqs for Server 2012 RC shortly.

Things to note..

This product so far is exactly what it says, a preview. We do not recommend or support installing this in a production environment, as this is meant to be installed within a lab for testing and learning purposes. The Exchange 2013 Release Preview cannot coexist with any version of Exchange 2007/2010. You should have an Active Directory forest in your lab that has no version of Exchange attributes or Exchange installed prior to installing the Preview of Exchange 2013.

System Requirements:

You can see the system requirements for Exchange 2013 here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719(v=exchg.150).aspx

Installing the Prerequisites for Exchange 2013 Preview on Server 2008R2:

First before continuing, I would recommend applying all patches available to your Windows Server 2008R2 server. Although all you need is 2008R2SP1 to install Exchange 2013 Preview since you are prepping the machine now, just install all the patches anyways.

When planning deployment of Exchange 2013 RP you have two options:

  • CAS Role (Client Access)
  • Mailbox Role
  • CAS Role + Mailbox Role

Server Hosting the either BOTH CAS AND Mailbox Role or JUST the Mailbox role:

You should start off by installing the required Windows Roles and Features. This can be easily done by running the following:

1) Open Powershell and run Import-Module ServerManager

2) Copy and paste in the following code:

Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Web-Server, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net, 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-Ext, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI

 

After you've installed the operating system roles and features, install the following software in the order shown:

    1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 RC
    1. Windows Management Framework 3.0
    1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
    1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit
    1. Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit
    1. Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB974405 (Windows Identity Foundation)
    1. Knowledge Base article KB2619234 (Enable the Association Cookie/GUID that is used by RPC over HTTP to also be used at the RPC layer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2)
    1. Knowledge Base article KB2533623 (Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution)

Note:

This hotfix may already be installed if you've configured Windows Update to install security updates on your computer.

For Exchange 2013 Preview, you must also do the following in the order shown:

Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) This task must be done after you've installed UCMA, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64), do the following:

      1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.
      1. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.
      1. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.
      1. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

For more information, see Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)

Register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in Internet Information Services (IIS) This must be done after you've completed the process described earlier in “Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)”, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in IIS, do the following:

1) Open a Windows Command Prompt.

2) Run the following command:

  %SystemDrive%\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir -enable

3) Run the following command to restart the IIS services:

        IISReset

 

Server hosting the CAS Roles:

You should start off by installing the required Windows Roles and Features. This can be easily done by running the following:

1) Open Powershell and run Import-Module ServerManager

2) Copy and paste in the following code:

Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Web-Server, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net, 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-Ext, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI

After you've installed the operating system roles and features, install the following software in the order shown:

    1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
    1. Windows Management Framework 3.0
    1. Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
    1. Knowledge Base article KB974405 (Windows Identity Foundation)
    1. Knowledge Base article KB2619234 (Enable the Association Cookie/GUID that is used by RPC over HTTP to also be used at the RPC layer in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2)
    1. Knowledge Base article KB2533623 (Insecure library loading could allow remote code execution)

For Exchange 2013 Preview, you must also do the following in the order shown:

Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) This task must be done after you've installed UCMA, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64), do the following:

      1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features.
      1. Select Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64) - 11.0.50531 and then click Uninstall.
      1. In Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta setup, click Uninstall.
      1. When Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta is uninstalled, click Close.

For more information, see Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)

Register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in Internet Information Services (IIS) This must be done after you've completed the process described earlier in “Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 11 Beta Redistributable (x64)”, but before you run Exchange 2013 Preview Setup. To register ASP.NET with .NET Framework 4.5 in IIS, do the following:

4) Open a Windows Command Prompt.

5) Run the following command:

  %SystemDrive%\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir -enable

6) Run the following command to restart the IIS services:

        IISReset

 

If you run into any issues with the pre-req installation please feel free to comment below.

 

Adam F