Now that Exchange 2010 SP3 is available it’s also possible to install it on Windows Server 2012. Normally that’s not a problem, but you have to be careful with the prerequisite software. Windows Server 2012 comes with .NET Framework 4.5 and Management Framework 3.0 (including Powershell 3.0) but Exchange 2010 still requires .NET Framework 3.5 and Powershell 2.0. Luckily Powershell 2.0 and Powershell 3.0 can coexist on the same box with any issues.

Install .NET Framework 3.5 and Powershell 2.0

To install .NET Framework 3.5 (which automatically includes Powershell 2.0 on Windows Server 2012) you can use Server Manager, but there’s a little snag because Server Manager does not know where the install files are located 🙂

• Open Server Manager, click Manage in the top right menu and select Add Roles and Features.
• Click Next and select Role-based or feature-based installation. Click Next to continue.
• Select the server you want to manage, click Next and you’ll get in the Select server roles window. The .NET Framework is a feature so don’t select anything and click Next to get to the Select features window. Expand the .NET Framework 3.5 Features option and select the .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) option. Also select the HTTP Activation option and in the additional Add features that are required for HTTP Activation pop-up click Add Features. Personally I also install the Telnet Client at this point since this client can be extremely useful for troubleshooting purposes. Click Next three times to continue.
• Now pay attention. For some reason you have to specify the location where setup can find the installation files, by default this is D:\Sources\SXS (where D:\ is the DVD that contains Windows 2012 but this can also be a share on the network of course).
• In the confirm installation selections window click on Specify an alternate source path and enter the location of the source files. Click OK to continue and click Install to install the .NET feature.

It is also possible to install the .NET Framework 3.5 and Powershell 2.0 from a (elevated privileges!) command line:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:d:\sources\sxs

My personal experience: this is way faster than the Server Manager 😉

When installing Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 you can use the XML files found on the DVD in \Scripts or in \Setup\Serverroles\Common directories, but unfortunately these don’t work on Windows Server 2012 so the XML files need to be converted to something the Server Manager in Windows 2012 accepts. To install a typical Exchange 2010 SP3 server (MBX, CAS and HUB) you can use the following Powershell commands:

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS, Web-Server, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Metabase, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-WMI, Web-Asp-Net, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Static-Content, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, Telnet-Client

Note. The difference is that the RSAT-Web-Server is now replaced by Web-Mgmt-Console and Web-Mgmt-Service. The Telnet-Client is optional of course.

Although the Server Manager does not report back to reboot the server I personally do prefer to reboot the server at this point. After rebooting install the Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs which can be downloaded from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=191548

To prepare Active Directory (when needed of coure) you can use the following commands:

Setup.com /PrepareSchema
Setup.com /PrepareAD
Setup.com /PrepareDomain

Note. When this is a green-field installation of Exchange Server 2010 you have to use the /PrepareAD parameter in combination with the /OrganizationName parameter.

To install the actual (typical) server you can use the following command:

Setup.com /mode:install /roles:ca,mb,ht /ExternalCASServerDomain:webmail.contoso.com

Of course you can use the graphical setup (without the separate AD preparation commands) as well and just like the unattended setup it does not differ from previous Exchange 2010 deployments.

The previous example was for a typical Exchange 2010 deployments, i.e. a server with the Client Access, Hub Transport and Mailbox Server role installed. Below are the Server Manager commands you can use for dedicated server roles. Not mentioned below, but for all server roles you have to enable .NET Framework 3.5 and Powershell 2.0 as outlined in the beginning of this blog.

Exchange 2010 CAS Prerequisites

This can be used for a dedicated CAS server as well as a combined CAS and HUB server.

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Metabase, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-WMI, Web-Asp-Net, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, ,Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Static-Content, NET-HTTP-Activation, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy

Exchange 2010 HUB Prerequisites

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Metabase, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service

Exchange 2010 MBX Prerequisites

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Metabase, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service

Exchange 2010 UM Prerequisites

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Metabase, Web-Net-Ext, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service

Exchange 2010 Edge Prerequisites

Import-Module ServerManager
Install-WindowsFeature ADLDS