Microsoft Exchange Server Hosting

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is one of the most popular enterprise email platforms which allows employees of large organizations to access their email on the move whether it be by using their mobile phone or PDA or over the internet using the Outlook Web Access application that accompanies Exchange Server.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is most commonly installed on a Windows Server 2003 private server platform. The private server that you want to use to host your Microsoft Exchange system will need to meet the following software requirements before you can proceed with installing it:

• Windows Server 2003 operating system
• Active Directory
• .NET Framework 2.x
• IIS 6.0
• World Wide Web Publishing Service
• SMTP Service
• NNTP Service.

Your dedicated server will also need to meet the following hardware requirements in order for you to be able to install Microsoft Exchange Server 2003:

• 550MHz or faster processor
• 512MB RAM
• 500MB free disk space on the disk that you want to install Exchange Server on
• 250MB free disk space on the system disk.

Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 machine is a simple task, and starts by ensuring that you have the necessary pieces of software installed on your server.

In order to install IIS and the other necessary components that come with it to enable you to run Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, you will need to navigate to ‘Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs’.

Ensuring that you have your Windows Server 2003 installation CD inserted into the CD drive of your server, select ‘Add/Remove Windows Components’ from the menu on the left hand side. You will then need to select ‘Application Server’, and from there you will need to click the ‘Details’ button near the bottom of the Window.

You will then be presented with another window where you will need to ensure that both ‘ASP.NET’ and ‘Internet Information Services’ are selected for installation; after that select ‘Internet Information Services’, and once again click the ‘Details’ button located near the bottom of the window. In the new window ensure that the check boxes for ‘World Wide Web Publishing Service’, ‘NNTP Service’ and ‘SMTP Service’ are selected.

After that, you will need to click the ‘OK’ button on all the windows related to the installation that you have open, which will in turn mean that all the required components will be installed on your server.

Once you have installed all the required Windows components, you can progress to installing the Active Directory and DNS services on your server.

In order to install both services, you will first need to ensure that your Windows installation CD is in the CD drive of your server – if you previously installed required Windows components then it should already be there.

After that you will need to navigate to your start menu and select ‘Run’. In the window that opens you will need to type ‘dcpromo’ – this should then launch the Active Directory installation wizard, which will install the DNS service as well if it isn’t already.

Once you enter the Active Directory installation wizard, you will need to click the ‘Next’ button twice to arrive at the first screen where you need to choose certain options.

The first second screen is where you select what kind of Active Directory installation you want to perform.

For a new Microsoft Exchange Server installation, it is recommended that you select ‘Domain Controller for a New Domain’ as this ensures that you are creating a new domain which doesn’t yet exist in your Exchange Server setup, and that all the chosen options are the defaults.

If you select ‘Additional Domain Controller for an Existing Domain’ then your server will join an existing domain, but will act as a master along side an existing server meaning that you could use it as either a primary or secondary Microsoft Exchange Server.

For now we will select ‘Domain Controller for a New Domain’.

After that, you will be asked which type of domain you want to create for your new Microsoft Exchange Server. You are able to choose between 3 different options:

• ‘Domain in New Forest’ – this will create an independent domain which is unable to interact with any other domains that you might have created in other forests – choose this option if this is the first domain that you are creating
• ‘Child Domain in an Existing Tree’ – use this option if you are already operating a domain but want to utilize another domain within your existing one
• ‘Domain Tree in an Existing Forest’ – if you don’t want your domain to be a child of an existing domain but want it to be alongside other domains you have already created, then you can place it in the same forest as existing domains.

For now we will select ‘Domain in New Forest’ since we are creating a new Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 setup.

You will then need to enter the FQDN that you want to use for your new Microsoft Exchange Server setup. In this case, we want to be able to receive mail to ‘@eukhost.com’ addresses, meaning that we will enter ‘eukhost.com’ as our FQDN.

Once you have done that, click ‘Next’ until you reach the DNS test, leaving the option defaults as they are unless you feel you have to change them.

You will only reach the DNS test screen if you haven’t setup your DNS correctly to work with your new Exchange server. If you have set it up correctly, then the installation wizard will go on to configure the Active Directory and DNS services.

Once the Active Directory and DNS services are setup correctly, you are ready to install Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on your private server.

Ensuring that your Exchange Server 2003 CD is in the CD drive of your server, you will need navigate to ‘Start > Run’ and run the following two commands (one after the other) to prepare the domain that you want to use for your Exchange Server:

• setup /forestprep
• setup /domainprep

Note: If you have more than one domain controller in the domain that you want to use your Microsoft Exchange Server in, you will need to run ‘setup /forestprep’ on each domain controller.

You will then need to run ‘setup’ on its own which will in turn install the complete Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 package off the CD for you. On starting the setup program, you will be presented with the following options that you can choose before continuing with the setup:

The most important components for you to install are ‘Microsoft Exchange Messaging and Collaboration Services’ since this is the actual Microsoft Exchange program and service, as well as ‘Microsoft Exchange System Management Tools’ since you will want to be able to manage your Exchange Server 2003 setup.

After that you will be asked to enter an organization name; in this case you should enter your business’s name since its what the setup will be shown as in the Microsoft Exchange Server System Manager after installation.

After that you will be asked to review your installation; after you click the ‘Next’ button on that pane, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 will begin to install.

On completion of installation, click the ‘Finish’ button to exist the setup wizard.