Articles and Tutorials

Given that this site provides Exchange Server resources, I thought an article on how to install Exchange Server 2003 would be of some use. This article will walk you through installing Exchange from start to finish. I will assume that you already have an Active Directory infrastructure in place - as this is a prerequisite for Exchange 2003.

 

First off, I should mention that Exchange 2003 can be installed on Windows Server 2000, or Windows Server 2003. However, I do not recommend installing it on Windows Server 2000, as this will render some of the new features of Exchange 2003 (such as RPC/HTTP) unuseable.

Exchange 2003 requires that certain components are installed before we even begin the installation. They are as follows:

•  ASP.NET
•  Internet Information Services (IIS)
•  World Wide Web Publishing Service
•  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service
•  Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) service

Installing these will be our first step. To do this, open the Add/Remove Programs dialogue from within Control Panel - and choose Add/Remove Windows Components. From within this dialogue, choose Application Server and click Details.... Then do the same for Internet Information Services (IIS). The components that will need to be checked are SMTP Service and NNTP Service. (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, and Network News Transfer Protocol). Also make sure that ASP.NET is checked under Application Server. To install the components, check the box next to their names, click OK several times, and finish the wizard to carry out the installation.

Once the installation of these components is completed, we can get on with the installation of Exchange itself. So put the CD in, and run the setup.

At the first screen, choose "Exchange 2003 deployment tools". This will guide you through the process of installing Exchange 2003. If this is the first Exchange installation in your organisation, then choose the option to Deploy the First Exchange 2003 Server. Obviously if you already have Exchange you can go right ahead and choose Install Exchange 2003 on additional servers.

The next screen will be a list of things that need to be done to install Exchange, and we can skip the first few steps and scroll down to the forestprep section. This will extend the scheme of your Active Directory infrastructure, and create the Exchange organisation. Forestprep should be run on a domain controller that holds the Schema Master FSMO role. Ideally, it should also be run on a Global Catalog server. Once you have completed the forestprep section, you can move on to the domainprep section. Similar to forestprep, this will create some new security groups in Active Directory.

Once this is completed, Exchange can actually be installed. The process will be very similar to the last 2 steps, but will obviously take much longer.

When the final install has finished, you should have a fully functioning Exchange organisation! Go ahead and send some test messages around the place.