So this website has been gone for about…. 2 months i reckon. Firstly it was running on a BSD server hosted by Leaseweb which went a bit wonky. When it came time to renew my contract i threw my money into a shared server with higher specs that could run virtual machines, especially for a Server 2008 R2 install that i want to run solely off the web to have hosted exchange, sharepoint, ocs etc.

However the nice people at leaseweb offered me a severe discount on the existing server so I’m going to keep it for the sake of it.
Expect more good things from me as I’m focusing my attention on projects and migrations these days.

downtime · fail · server

So today began my first steps into Exchange 2010.
I created a new virtual machine yesterday with Server 2008 R2 and updated it. The prerequisites for Exchange 2010 are as follows. As has been customary on Server 2008, installing these roles and configuring them for first time use is simple.

Roles:

Active Directory (AD)
Application Server (.Net 3.5.1 & TCP Port Sharing)
Domain Name Services (DNS)
Web Server (IIS 7) and vitally important — IIS 6 Management Compatibility Role Services.
File Services (SYSVOL etc)

Applications:

2007 Office System Converter
.Net 3.5 (installs with Application Server Role)

Initial Problems

When trying to Install Exchange the prerequisites check failed on Connecting to IIS and checking is the WWW Publishing service had started. Installing IIS 6 Compatibility in Role Services resolved this. As such i have added it above as a Prerequisite.

So i create a new user for my laptop to login with. I log-in OK on the laptop, try to add the new account automatically but i get an error. Adding it manually fixes this and bingo i have email. The error was due to using my router for DNS and not the internal DNS. Auto configuration now works OK.

Tried to log-in via OWA failed on invalid user/pass. There are no errors in the event viewer or IIS logs. The realisation that i had not selected “Windows Authentication” under “Security” when i installed the Web Server (IIS) became a hope for a quick fix. That didn’t work. However the rejection for my user/pass is taking longer than previous attempts so i enable “Basic Authentication” as a Role Service. Bingo OWA is up and running.

More fun tomorrow!

2010 · Exchange · server · windows 2008 R2