Preparing Active Directory and Schema for Exchange 2013 Release Preview

We have discussed previously about installing the prerequisites for Exchange 2013 Release Preview on Server 2008R2SP1 and Server 2012 RC, now we will discuss preparing Active Directory and the Schema within your lab for Exchange 2013 Release Preview. Before we can actually install any version of Exchange into an organization, we need to prep both the Active Directory along with the schema.

When preparing the Active Directory we need to keep the following in mind:

  •         One of the domain controllers in each domain you are installing Exchange 2013 RP into needs to be Server 2008 Standard/Enterprise (x32/x64), Server 2008 R2 Standard / Enterprise or Server 2012
  •         Each domain needs at least one writeable global catalog server
  •         Ensure AD replication is working properly in each site / domain. This can be done by utilizing the repadmin /showrepl cmd
  •         You run the Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd from a machine that meets the requirements in each domain, and that before installing Exchange 2013 RP in the domain prepped that you ensure AD Replication is working properly

There are two locations in each domain that you can run the Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd from:

  •         A member server running Server 2008 / 2008R2 or Server 2012 along with the requirements below
  •         A writable domain controller (there, all you will have to do is extract the Setup.exe package and then run your Setup.exe /Prepare* cmd against the setup.exe you have extracted)

Also to prepare the Active Directory Schema and Domain, the account used to run the /Prepare* cmd will need to have the following permissions:

  •         To prepare the schema (Setup.exe /PrepareSchema), the account used to run this cmd must be a part of the Schema Admin and Enterprise Admin group(s)
  •         To prepare the domain (Setup.exe /PrepareAD), the account used to run this cmd must be a part of the Enterprise Admin group

Preparing a member server running Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 to prepare AD:

Before being we need to install the following two packages:

Once we have both of these packages installed we will need to install the Remote Tools Admin Pack for Active Directory – Directory services. To do this:

1)      Open an admin session of powershell (if you are logged in as an Admin, all you will have to do is right click the powershell icon and select “Run As Administrator”. If you are not logged in as a administrator you will need to do the same but provide credentials)

2)      Run Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

3)      Allow the server to reboot

Once we have this done, we can move on to preparing the Active Directory Schema and Domain

Preparing a member server running Windows Server 2012 to prepare AD:

When you install Windows Server 2012, you automatically install Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 along with Windows Management Framework 3.0. All you will need to do is install the Remote Tools Admin Pack for Active Directory – Directory Services:

1)      Open an admin session of PowerShell (if you are logged in as an Admin, all you will have to do is right click the PowerShell icon and select “Run As Administrator”. If you are not logged in as a administrator you will need to do the same but provide credentials)

2)      Run Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

3)      Allow the server to reboot

Once we have this done, we can move on to preparing the Active Directory Schema and Domain

Preparing the Schema for Exchange 2013 Release Preview:

NOTE: Within the Exchange 2013 Release Preview, you are not able to perform coexistence with Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010. Exchange 2013 Release Preview is also not recommended or supportable within a production environment. We recommend installing this within a test lab only that will not affect your production systems.

When you prepare the schema within your Active Directory Domain, a few things happen. Here are some of the key items:

  •         The Exchange 2013 Release Preview related attributes are added to the Active Directory Schema
  •         The schema version (ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt) is now set to 15132. Once this occurs you will not be able to prepare the domain’s schema with an earlier version of Exchange (such as Exchange 2007 or 2010).

To prepare the schema, it is pretty easy:

1)      Extract the .EXE package you have downloaded from TechNet to a common location. In my example I will use C:\EXCHANGE

2)      Open a cmd prompt as an Administrator, and navigate to the directory in which you extracted the files to. In the case of this example it will be C:\Exchange. You should see a Setup.exe file located there.

3)      Run the following cmd:

  • Setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

OR

  • Setup.exe /PS /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

4)      Allow this to run, it should look something similar to this when completed:

 

Now you might be asking “What are these license terms and conditions that I am agreeing to?” It’s a bunch of legal stuff, but they could be found here if you want to read through it.

We should confirm that the schema has replicated across all writable domain controllers and global catalog servers within the domain. You can use the repadmin /showrepl to ensure that replication has completed successfully.

Preparing Active Directory for Exchange 2013 Release Preview:

Now that the Schema prep has been ran and replicated to all writable domain controllers within the domain, we are ready to prepare the Active Directory topology. When we run Setup.exe /PrepareAD or Setup.exe /PAD there are quite a few changes occur within the domain.

Here are some examples of the additions the Setup.exe file will add to the Active Directory configuration to ensure Exchange Server 2013 Release Preview works properly:

  •         It will create a Microsoft Exchange container within the schema, which is located at CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain> if one does not exist. It will also create a the Organizational Container under CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<root domain >, and it will use the input from the OrganizationName switch during Setup.exe /PrepareAD
  •         Creates the OU and AD objects required for Exchange Server 2013 Release Preview
  •         Assigns the appropriate permissions to the AD objects created

Here is how you would prepare Active Directory:

1)      Open a cmd prompt as an Administrator, and navigate to the directory in which you extracted the files to. In the case of this example it will be C:\Exchange. You should see a Setup.exe file located there.

2)      Run the following cmd:

  • Setup.exe /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:<NAMEHERE> /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

OR

  • Setup.exe /PAD /OrganizationName:<NAMEHERE> /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

3)      Allow this to run, it should look something similar to this when completed:

 

As for the OrganizationName attribute, this would be the name of the new Exchange 2013 Organization. As we did for the Schema extension we will need to check to ensure that replication worked properly. This can be done by using the repadmin /showrepl cmd to ensure that the AD objects, security permissions and schema attributes added have replicated to the all writeable domain controllers.

How do we know we are successful?

So the key question I always hear is “I ran these steps, and everything showed completed.. but how do I know I am done and it actually worked”?

You can do the following as pointed out on TechNet:

    • In the Schema naming context, verify that the rangeUpper property on ms-Exch-Schema-Verision-Pt is set to 15132.
    • In the Configuration naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the CN=<your organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain> container is set to 15448.
    • In the Default naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container under DC=<root domain is set to 13236.

You can also check the Exchange Setup Logs, which are located at C:\ExchangeSetupLogs. The log you will want to look for is ExchangeSetup. This log will show you all actions that the Setup.exe executable ran against both the Active Directory Configuration and Schema, and show any errors within these steps.

 

As always, if you have any issues please feel free to shoot me a comment below.

 

Thanks,

Adam F