Install Exchange 2016 in Windows Server 2012 R2MustBeGeek

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Exchange 2016 is latest version of Email server from Microsoft. If you are coming from Exchange 2013, there are few new features introduced in Exchange 2016. RTM version of Exchange 2016 have been released in October 2015. The installation of Exchange 2016 is similar to the installation of Exchange 2013. The major difference between Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2013 is, Exchange 2016 now have just two roles, Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles as opposed to Exchange 2013 which had Mailbox, Client Access and Edge Transport server roles. In this post, I will show steps to Install Exchange 2016 in Windows Server 2012 R2. You can also check the latest updates and service packs to install the latest version of Exchange 2016.

Install Exchange 2016 in Windows Server 2012 R2

Exchange 2016 co-existence is supported with Exchange 2010 (with SP3 update rollup 11 or greater) and Exchange 2013 (with cumulative update 10 or higher). There are different prerequisites for different installation scenario you must follow before you install Exchange 2016, so make sure you follow them. The diagram below shows a network scenario with two hosts, MBG-DC01 and MBG-EX01. MBG-DC01 is a domain controller and MBG-EX01 is Exchange 2016. Both hosts are running Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system.

Here are prerequisites for this type of scenario.

Active Directory forest functional level must be at least Windows Server 2008 or higher.
Active Directory site must contain at least one Global Catalog server and a writable domain controller.
Exchange server must be member of domain controller.
User must have Enterprise Admin, Schema Admin and Domain Admin rights before you start the installation of Exchange 2016.

Installation Steps:

Log on to MBG-EX01 server and install remote server administration toolkit using PowerShell cmdlet Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS. Open PowerShell as Administrator and install the RSAT tool.

Run following commands to install required windows components in MBG-EX01 (Mailbox Server). Reboot the server after installing these roles and features.

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

Download and install .NET Framework 4.5.2 in Mailbox server. Install it first, installation order is important.

Then download and install Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit in Mailbox server.

Start the installation of Exchange 2016. You will be asked to install the updates.

Choose Connect to the Internet and check for updates option and click Next. The setup will download and install the required updates and the setup will present you with Introduction page as shown below.

Go through the Introduction page and click next.

Choose I accept the terms in the license agreement option and click next.

Choose to use recommended settings and click next.

Check Mailbox role and click next.

Browse the installation location and click next.

Type the name of Exchange organization and click next.

Choose no and click next. Choosing no will actually enable the malware protection.

The installation will go through the readiness check as shown above. Make sure you don’t get any errors. Above warning simply states that the setup will now prepare installation using Setup /PrepareAD command and no Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 servers have been detected in this network. Click install button to start the Exchange 2016 installation.

The installation will now begin. The setup will install all the required components for Mailbox server.

The setup is now completed. Click finish to close the installation wizard. Now reboot the Exchange server. You can check current build and version of Exchange server using following cmdlet,

[PS] C:\Windows\System32>Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion

You can also view the setup log file located in <system drive>\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log path. The log shows all the details of Exchange installation. Also shows details of installation error if any.

You can now logon to Exchange Admin Center using the URL, https://localhost/ecp

Enter the username and password and click sign in.

In this way you can install Exchange 2016 in Windows Server 2012 R2. You can now create mailbox database, create mailboxes, setup incoming and outgoing email, and so on.