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HowTo Create Exchange 2010 Virtual Machine

Download and Prepare Exchange 2010 Iso

  1. You can download one for free from Microsoft Exchange Trial website. Note that Exchange 2010 requires an x64 platform.
  2. We will use mkisofs to create the Exchange 2010 ISO file. We could also setup shared folders, but it would require additional config we are not willing to go through at this stage. If not available install genisoimage package:
    # apt-get install genisoimage
  3. Create the ISO file
    $ mkisofs -o /home/vboxuser/iso/exchange_2010_sp1_beta_120_trial.iso Exchange2010-SP1-Beta-x64.exe

Clone base VDI

We will clone our existing VDI and use it as a base image for our new Exchange 2010 installation:

$ VBoxManage clonehd /vbox/win2k8_x64/win2k8_x64.vdi /vbox/exchange_2010/exchange_2010.vdi
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
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All rights reserved.

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Clone hard disk created in format 'VDI'. UUID: 06b443b4-e001-4602-b5a1-3424f628a111

Create the new virtual machine

Since all commands needed to create the virtual machine have already been detailed in the previous section, we will skip detailed explanations.

$ VBoxManage createvm --name "exchange_2010" --ostype Windows2008_64 --register --basefolder /vbox
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Virtual machine 'exchange_2010' is created and registered.
UUID: 0731beea-0c64-48e2-bd6a-761c46756fda
Settings file: '/vbox/exchange_2010/exchange_2010.xml'

$ VBoxManage modifyvm exchange_2010 --memory 512 --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 nat
$ VBoxManage modifyvm exchange_2010 --nic2 bridged --bridgeadapter2 tap3 --nicspeed2 1000

# VBoxTunctl -t tap3 -u vboxuser
Set 'tap3' persistent and owned by uid 1003
# ifconfig tap3 up

$ VBoxManage modifyvm exchange_2010 --vrdp on --vrdpport 3391 --vrdpaddress 10.254.0.1

$ VBoxManage storagectl exchange_2010 --name "IDE Controller" --add ide
$ VBoxManage storageattach exchange_2010 --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium /vbox/exchange_2010/exchange_2010.vdi

$ VBoxManage registerimage dvd /home/vboxuser/iso/exchange_2010_sp1_beta_120_trial.iso
$ VBoxManage storageattach exchange_2010 --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type dvddrive --medium /home/vboxuser/iso/exchange_2010_sp1_beta_120_trial.iso

Run the virtual machine

We can now run the virtual machine and install Exchange 2010:

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm exchange_2010
Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 3.2.6
(C) 2008-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Listening on port 3391.

We can connect to the VM through rdesktop-vrdp from another workstation (with graphical environment installed):

$ rdesktop-vrdp 10.254.0.1:3391 -g 1024x768

Change system parameters

  1. In Server Management, click on Change System Properties
  2. Set Computer Description to Exchange 2010 Server
  3. Change computer name to E2K10
  4. Restart computer

Set static IP addresses on all interfaces

Active directory and DNS service require static IP addresses to be defined. We will assign a static IP address on all our interfaces:
  • The NAT interface will be referenced as Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection
  • The bridged interface will referenced as Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2

Go to the Network and Sharing Center and assign a static IP address for both interfaces. If you are unsure for the NAT interface, open a windows console and check the IP address with

ipconfig/all

Restart the computer

Install Active Directory and DNS

We now need to configure this Windows 2008 server as an active directory:
  1. Open the Server Manager
  2. Click on Add Roles (in Roles Summary)
  3. In the Server Roles panel, tick the Application Directory Domain Services box
  4. Click on Next, then Install
  5. After installing, click on Start, enter dcpromo.exe in the Search text field and press Enter. The Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard will show up
  6. Click on Next until you access the Choose a Deployment Configuration panel. In our case we will create a new forest. Tick the Create a new domain in a new forest radio button.
  7. We will use exchange10.local as a FQDN
  8. Select Windows Server 2003 in the dropdown menu of the Set Forest Functional Level panel.
  9. Keep the DNS server checkbox ticked on Additional Domain Controller Options panel and click on Next
  10. If a static IP assignment warning popup shows up, it means you have forgotten to assign static IP addresses.
  11. Select Yes when the Warning box about DNS delegation shows up

After pressing the Finish button, restart the computer.

Do not neglect event viewer warnings about AD and DNS (mostly caused by LDAP signing which you can easily fix when you follow MSDN link)

Some Microsoft KB fixes are now required in order Exchange 2010 installation to run properly and without readiness checks error:
  1. Install Windows6.0-KB979533-x64.msu hotfix available at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB979533 (Download Panel)

Install Windows 2008 prerequisites

Follow instructions detailed at the following URL and run command-line detailed at item 5a:

  1. Click on Computer, double click on CD-ROM drive and execute EXCHANGE executable
  2. Select C:\exchange_2010 to extract Exchange temporary files
  3. Open a Windows Console and run:
    C:\> sc config NetTcpPortSharing start= auto
C:\> ServerManagerCmd -ip C:\exchange_2010\Exchange-Typical.xml -Restart

Note: the space between start= and auto is mandatory

Restart the computer

Take a snapshot before installing Exchange 2010

At this stage it is reasonable to create a snapshot just before installing Exchange 2010:

$ VBoxManage snapshot exchange_2010 take "prerequisites" --description "Before installing Exchange 2010" 
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

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Install Exchange 2010

  1. Open C:\exchange_2010 with Windows Explorer and run setup.exe
  2. Click on Step3, select languages to install
  3. Click on Step4 to install Exchange 2010
During Exchange Server 2010 Setup, you will access the Installation Type (4th step) panel:
  1. Select Typical Exchange Server Installation
  2. Click on Next and pass the Readiness checks. Few warnings should show up but nothing preventing from installing Microsoft Exchange 2010
  3. Click Install

You can either customize or let Exchange Organization settings to default ones.

On Client Settings panel, tick the Yes radio button

Continue with the Install process until the end.

Congratulations, you now have Exchange 2010 installed onto Windows 2008!*

Finalize Exchange 2010 tasks

We will now finalize exchange 2010 installation from Exchange Management Console by following guidelines described at:

Adding new users and mailboxes

Exchange comes with Administrator account enabled by default. If you want to use another account:
  1. Start > Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers
  2. Click on Users in the tree pane
  3. On the right panel, click right and select New > User
  4. Open Exchange Management Console
  5. Navigate to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox
  6. Click on New Mailbox on right pane
  7. Tick User Mailbox, click Next
  8. Tick Existing users, then click on Add button
  9. Select freshly created AD user in the list
  10. Follow mailbox creation process until the end

Take a snapshot after installing Exchange 2010

Take a snapshot of our fresh installed Exchange 2010

$ VBoxManage snapshot exchange_2010 take "exchange_installed" --description "Exchange 2010 installed" 
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

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