Step by Step Installation of Exchange 2007 on Windows 2003

My First Exchange 2007 Installation on Windows 2003 SP2 64 Bits.



It was back in March 2010, where I wanted to start learning Microsoft Exchange 2007. As matter of fact the newer version was already in market i.e. Microsoft Exchange 2010. But I made a point that I should learn a bit of Exchange 2007 before poking my nose into Exchange 2010, it will be benificial for my learning. So I made a point that I will try to learn as much as I can till this year gets complete. So I here I am posting the first installation I did when I was learning Exchange 2007.
The way I learned Exchange 2007 was a bit different then usually way of learning. Like what are prerequisites of Exchange 2007 for Win2k3 or say Win2k8 like what services you need up and running. Which version of .Net framework is required, are there any updates needed to be installed on prior deployment etc. Usually we think we should Google the article read it & then try installation of the same.


Here what I did is prepared my test environment on VM Ware, downloaded Exchange 2007 SP1 Enterprise Version’s setup from torrent and that’s all. Just navigated to setup.exe and started the setup. As I wanted to face as much error I can possibly go through so that I can learn more. I didn’t updated my server with any of the .Net framework or additional services like IIS or SNMP, SMTP. I didn’t give any permissions like Domain, Enterprise or Schema Admin. I knew that I need all of them actually but I wanted to go across the errors which I’ll see if I won’t do anything.


Once I click on setup I started getting errors and warnings. Which I must say were quite informative, all you need is start making points that these all are the action required prior to install Exchange 2007. Setup will also let you know which permission you exactly need at which point of time.


So after I went through all warnings, errors and recommended settings. I completed my setup of Exchange 2007 on Windows 2003 SP2 on 64 Bit in test environment.


Let’s move ahead and start the setup of our Mail server.


I Installed VMWare workstation on a Hardware with 2GB Ram, on which windows 2003 Sp2 is installed. Configured IP with proper DNS settings as required by Exchange server.






Now run DCPROMO from the Command line to install Active Directory and Raise the Domain Functional Level atleast to “Windows 2000 Native” mode.


Once you are ready with your domain setup, you need to run following commands to prepare your AD for Exchange setup. These check can be completed automatically by running Exchange setup.exe and I think if you environment is clean with no Bugs in it, no need to run manually if you are not comfortable doing it.


User should be a Member Of Local Admin, Domain Admin, Enterprise Admin as well as Exchange Organization Admin. If you are expanding the schema of your forest or domain then Schema Admin permissions are also required.


Install 2.0 .Net framework with service pack also, with 3.0 Version of MMC console.






Once you are done with these commands successfully. You need to run setup from Exchange folder.














You need this if you have a licensed copy in production environment no need to enable Error reporting in Lab environment.






You can go ahead with default installation type or you can customize the options. But If you need Edge server you must have 2 hardware’s for other roles as you cannot have edge server role with any of these roles defined in Microsoft Exchange 2007 server.


While installation of Edge server make sure the server is out of you domain it can’t be a member of your domain or forest. Edge server uses its own active directory services to reliever the required role.














This option will allow legacy clients to still able to connect exchange 2007 servers. This option do the settings and configure exchange environment with legacy client connectivity. I am not sure if you miss this option you can enable it or not, but I assume there must be some work around available.