Once the forest and domains have been prepared for Exchange 2000, it's time to get down to deploying Exchange 2000 servers. Exchange 2000 servers should be rolled out in a manner that provides the most efficient use of implementation resources and the most complete user experience. You would not want to deploy Exchange 2000 servers populated with user mailboxes across several routing groups, and only then connect those routing groups with connectors using bridgehead servers. A general guideline for deploying Exchange 2000 servers (not relevant when upgrading) includes:

Establish the Administrative Groups and apply permissions using the Exchange Delegation Wizard, per your Exchange 2000 design using Exchange System Manager.

Establish the Routing Groups per your Exchange 2000 design using Exchange System Manager.

Deploy Exchange 2000 bridgehead servers in each routing group per your Exchange 2000 design.

Connect routing groups with the connectors specified in your Exchange 2000 design.

Test connectivity.

Deploy mailbox and public folder servers per your Exchange 2000 design; populate with user mailboxes and public folder data.

This straightforward approach to deployment can be modified to include migration and coexistence. It will become apparent that planning and testing are the key ingredients to a successful Exchange 2000 deployment.

Establishing the First Administrative Group

When you install Exchange 2000, setup looks for a list of Administrative Groups that the new server can be installed into. If no Administrative Groups exist, such as when the first server is installed, an Administrative Group is created named First Administrative Group. It's not a very useful name and will likely not be included in your Exchange 2000 Administrative Group design.

To better control which Administrative Groups exist and which Administrative Groups the Exchange implementers install their servers into, you can establish all your Administrative Groups after forestprep has been run and before you install your first Exchange 2000 server. This is done using these steps:

1. Run Exchange 2000 setup with the /forestprep switch to prepare your Active Directory forest.

2. Run Exchange 2000 setup with the /domainprep switch to prepare your Active Directory domain.

3. Run Exchange 2000 setup and only select the Exchange 2000 Management Components.

4. Start the Exchange System Manager and create all the Administrative Groups defined in your Exchange 2000 design.

5. Install your first Exchange 2000 server and select the Administrative Group the server will be installed into as defined by your Exchange 2000 design or functional specification.

Incorporating these steps into your Exchange 2000 deployment plan will ensure that you establish the Administrative Groups before Exchange servers are installed. When your assisting Exchange implementers proceed to install their Exchange 2000 servers, they will have a complete drop-down list of Administrative Groups to choose from. There will be no question, when following the instructions provided by your deployment plan, which Administrative Group to install their server into.

WARNING

You cannot move Exchange 2000 servers between Administrative Groups. This means that the Administrative Group selected during setup is the Administrative Group where that server will reside unless reinstalled.

Creating Administrative Groups in this way only pertains to new Exchange 2000 organizations. If you install an Exchange 2000 server into an Exchange Server 5.5 site, the Administrative Groups will be created in Active Directory in the same topology as the Exchange Server 5.5 sites. This is because Exchange 2000 treats Administrative Groups like Exchange Server 5.5 sites during coexistence.

Deploying Exchange using Terminal Services

Windows 2000 Terminal Services is included with Windows 2000. This handy feature allows you to connect to a remote server and establish a session on that server that emulates the remote servers console. It's like actually being there.

In remote locations that will host an Exchange 2000 server, it may be desirable for you to install Exchange 2000, not the local system administrator. Finally we administrators can ensure a remote exchange installation is installed according to our requirements. This is possible using Windows 2000 Terminal Services. The local system administrator prepares the Windows 2000 server, joining the domain and installing Windows 2000 Terminal Services. You, or another Exchange 2000 implementer, then establish a Windows 2000 terminal services session with the remote server and install Exchange 2000.

Note

It is not necessary to use terminal services to manage the Exchange 2000 server. All configuration of the server is contained in the configuration partition of Active Directory and can be accomplished using Exchange System Manager.

Deploying Support for Multiple Languages

Exchange 2000 includes all supported languages, once they are installed. The languages supported by Exchange 2000 are shown in Figure 6.4.

Figure 6.4 Exchange 2000 Language Support

There is no reason to install additional language support for Exchange 2000. However, Windows 2000 Active Directory does not include all languages with the default installation. Since Exchange 2000 relies on Active Directory for its directory services, if you require additional language support for your Outlook 2000 users, it will be necessary to implement that additional language support on all Active Directory domain controllers configured as global catalog servers.

To install additional language support on your Active Directory global catalog servers:

1. From Control Panel open Regional Options.

2. Select the languages you need to support in the Languages setting for the system.

3. Restart the domain controller configured as a global catalog server.

Deploying Exchange on a Windows 2000 Cluster

With the advances in Windows 2000 clustering and the ability to support multiple information stores on a single Active/Active Exchange 2000 cluster, the consolidation of several Exchange Server 5.5 servers into one or more large Exchange 2000 clusters with multiple information stores is becoming more popular. As seen in Figure 6.5, many economies-including greater availability -can be realized by having fewer large servers.

Figure 6.5 An Exchange 2000 Cluster

If your Exchange 2000 design calls for Exchange 2000 to be installed on a Windows 2000 cluster, there are some guidelines to follow.

The same Exchange 2000 components must be installed on both nodes of the cluster.

Exchange 2000 must be installed into the same drive letter and directory for both nodes of the cluster.

After Exchange 2000 has been installed on the cluster, a virtual server must be created. To do this you create a resource group and define computer resources such as a TCP/IP address, network name, and shared disk, for the cluster nodes. Once complete, you will have a functioning Exchange 2000 server that is made up of multiple nodes. Take this time to test the cluster and its fail-over functionality before creating or moving mailboxes to the server. Take a look at Chapter 11 "Why or Why Not to Cluster Exchange 2000" to learn more about clustering Microsoft Exchange 2000.

Unattended Installation

Exchange 2000 is using a new setup engine for Microsoft BackOffice products. The Software Installation Toolkit (SIT) provides the ability to perform an unattended setup. An unattended setup is done in two phases.

First, an unattended setup file is created by running Exchange 2000 setup with the /createunattended command-line switch. This switch causes Exchange 2000 setup to walk through the setup process and prompt the installer to define the type of installation that will be done-including the components to install, and the Administrative Group and routing group that the server will be installed into. Then, rather than installing the server, an unattended setup file is created with an .ini extension.

Next, Exchange 2000 setup is run with the /unattendfile command-line setup switch that uses the information in the unattended setup file (created in the first phase) to install the Exchange 2000 server.

It is also possible to encrypt the unattended setup file that is created by using the /encryptedmode command-line setup switch. This way neither the implementer at the remote site nor anyone else along the way can view the content of the unattended setup file, which may contain a service account password if the Exchange 2000 server will coexist with Exchange Server 5.5.

Depending on the type of deployment your organization calls for, you may want to use unattended setup files during your deployment of Exchange 2000. If you choose to do so, make sure you test the creation of the unattended setup file and its use during installation.

Deploying Exchange System Manager

Exchange 2000 is configured and managed using two tools. The configuration of Exchange 2000 is done using the Exchange System Manager and recipients are managed using Active Directory Users and Computers. From the Exchange System Manager you can define and configure global settings, Administrative Groups, routing groups and their connectors, along with servers and their objects such as information stores. Exchange recipients, such as users, mail-enabled contacts, mail-enabled groups, and public folders are created and managed using Active Directory Users and Computers, not Exchange System Manager. This is fundamentally different from previous versions of Exchange where the Exchange Administrator was used to configure Exchange and to manage Exchange recipients.

Now with Exchange 2000, your Exchange Administrators will manage Exchange using Exchange System Manager, and the administrators that manage Active Directory users, contacts, and groups will manage Exchange recipients using Active Directory Users and Computers. When a user is created using Active Directory Users and Computers, the administrator can choose to create a mailbox for that user and choose which Exchange server the mailbox will be created on.

The ability to manage Exchange recipients is not built into the standard Active Directory Users and Computers. Rather, this functionality is added when the Exchange System Manager is installed. For deployment, this means that you must install the Exchange System Management components on all computers where recipients are managed using Active Directory Users and Computers, as well as those workstations where Exchange will be managed using Exchange System Manager.

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