Installing Exchange Server 2016 in Lab from Scratch using Windows Server 2012 R2

In this blog I will be setting up Exchange Server 2016 in my LAB environment, and will show you process Step By Step.

Being a PowerShell enthusiastic I will be showing you most of the steps performed using windows PowerShell.

This lab is consist of 2 VMs.

LABDC01 – Domain Controller - 1 GB RAM – 2012 R2
LABEXCH1601 – Exchange Server - 8 GB RAM – 2012 R2

I have pre-installed OS, so let’s first prepare the Domain Controller on Windows Server 2012 R2.
Before you could setup the Domain controller, DC has certain requirement to be full filled.

Rename your machine (This is not mandatory just don’t want to use the default name)
Assign static IP address

You can run the below command to rename your LAB Machine

Rename-Computer -NewName LABDC01

New-NetIPAddress –InterfaceAlias Ethernet0 “192.168.0.2” –PrefixLength 24 -DefaultGateway 192.168.0.1
Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias Ethernet0 -ServerAddresses 192.168.0.2

Now reboot the system

Shutdown /r /t 0

Once the Server is up and running now Lets installed the Ad Domain Service

Install-WinodwsFeature AD-Domain-Services

Now we need to create a new Forest

$Domain = “LetsExchange.in”
$pass = Convertto-SecureString “Passsword” –asplaintext -force
Install-ADDSForest -DomainName $domain –SafeModeAdministratorPassword $pass –DomainNetbiosName “LE”

Now that you a have AD installed lets install the AD tools as well.

Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

Now our Domain controller is ready and we are ready to install the Exchange Server.
So Let’s go to the New servers and install the Exchange server 2016.

Install the prerequisites as below.

.NET Framework 4.5.2
Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit (Note you need Media Component to be install before you can install this)

Once the above components are installed, then you are ready to install the required windows features.

If you wish you can skip this step and want the setup do it for you, you can skip the step and at the time of installation of exchange server select the option install required windows feature.

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

NOTE: you need to prepare Active Directory before you can install exchange 2016, as I am going to install the same in lab I will skip it for now, but if you wants to do schema update manually then you can follow my post below.

Prepare Active Directory for Exchange 2016

Now after restarting of your system you are ready to run the setup wizard.
Now locate the setup file and run the setup wizard which is straight forward enough.