Now that the base install of Exchange 2010 is up and running as per my previous article we can start the finalisation of the deployment tasks.
A good link to follow is the standard one on Technet (Exchange has a link to it on the Management Console). http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125262(EXCHG.140).aspx?v=14.0.639.21&t=exchgf1
I find the best way to configure Exchange is to go through each setting and configure as you go along. The Exchange Management Console (EMC) is set out to start with the Organisation Configuration, followed by the Server Configuration and finally the Recipient Configuration. In multi-Exchange environments each of these could split off but as we are building a standalone environment all of these apply. See clipping below.
Let’s start with Organization Configuration – Mailbox
The first tab on the viewing pane is the Mailbox tab. By default Exchange creates a single Database and stores it on the C: Drive of the server. It is always advisable to separate your data from your system so it would be better to move the database to separate volume. I have created an E: Drive on this server so here are the steps to move the database to separate volume.
1. Right-Click on the Database Name and click on ‘Move Database Path’
2. In the window that opens direct the database and log files to the new volume. In this example I have pre-created a ‘Data’ folder and ‘Logs’ folder and I am moving the relevant files to this location. This is accomplished by changing the path in the text boxes provided as per the example below.
Click on ‘Move’. Exchange will warn you that it will need to dismount the database and this will cause user access errors. Bear this in mind if you are doing this post deploying Exchange into your production environment.
Click on ‘Yes’. The wizard will now move the data and logs and will communicate once done as below. Naturally the larger the data in question, the longer this process will take.
I generally leave the rest of the tabs in this section (Organization Configuration – Mailbox) which are generated by Exchange during the installation.
Let’s move to the next section – Organization Configuration – Client Access
This section has two tabs as per the example below. I leave them as they were generated by Exchange during the installation.
Now on to Organization Configuration – Hub Transport
The Hub Transport Section has several tabs as per the clipping below:
I generally leave Remote Domains on default. Let’s move onto Accepted Domains.
You will note that in this Tab, Exchange has created a default accepted domain as per the AD organisation of the Exchange server. In this example it is sft.local.
We do however need to add our external mail domain to this list else Exchange will not accept mail for our domain. Right-Click in the pane and click on ‘New Accepted Domain’. A window will open.
Type the domain name in the format domain.com in both text boxes as it is easier to manage when you start having multiple accepted domains. Select the ‘Authoritative Domain’ and click ‘New’. In this example Exchange is standalone but you may select internal / external relay in larger installations if you so require.
Exchange will create the new domain. You now need to set it to default.
Right-click on the newly created domain and click on ‘Set as Default’. Click Yes when challenged by the system.
In the E-Mail Address Policies Tab when need to create an e-mail address policy. Right-click in the pane and click on ‘New E-Mail Address Policy..'.’
As this is an example domain I am using I select my ‘Users’ OU but you can set a policy per OU if you so wish. Simpler is always better so try and keep your policies as few as possible. Give the Policy a name and select All Recipient Types and then click ‘Next’.
There are no custom values in this example. Click ‘Next’.
We now need to create our e-mail address policy. Click on Add.
I have selected name.last name as my default but you can set it to your organisation standard. I also have selected the ‘Select the accepted domain to the e-mail address’ and selected the domain I created in the previous step not the default AD domain. Click ‘Ok’ then Click ‘Next’.
You can select to apply the policy immediately or else defer it or put it on hold. In this example we apply it immediately. Click ‘Next’.
Click Next and the policy is created and applied.
I leave Transport Rules and Journal Rules as they do not apply to my organisation. Next we move on to ‘Send Connectors’.
We need to configure a ‘Send Connector’ to enable Exchange to send e-mail. Right-Click in the pane and click on ‘New Send Connector’.
Give the connector a name… I used ‘Default Connector’ and set the type to ‘Custom’. Click ‘Next’.
We are allowing this Exchange to send to everyone. Click ‘Add’ and in the address field type “*” i.e. Shift-Eight. Click ‘Ok’ then click ‘Next’.
Select ‘DNS’ as your preferred Network Setting. Click ‘Next’
As this is a standalone installation the source server is the current server. Click ‘Next’.
You are now ready to create the Send Connector. Click ‘New’ and then ‘Finish’.
The last two tabs of the Hub Transport Role I leave in their default state. You can however amend the Transport rules in the last tab where you can specify maximum mail size, number of recipients etc.
The final tab in Organization Configuration is Unified Messaging but as we are not creating this server to have a UM role. This part is not touched.
We are now complete with the Organization Configuration section of the installation.
C
