- In part 1 I will describe the new features and changes that this new version of Exchange is going to offer;
- In part 2 I will guide you through the installation of Exchange Server 2013;
- In part 3 we will have a deeper look into the management of Exchange Server 2013.
Earlier this year customers started asking questions about the new Exchange version. Back then my (and probably the whole community) curiosity was starting to rise, but my mission stranded indefinitely because the was simply no answer to find in what the new version of Exchange was going to offer. The only answer I could find was that everything there was to be told, should be told on the Microsoft Exchange Conference later this year in Orlando (www.mecisback.com).
Last week Microsoft suddenly released a preview version of Exchange Server 2013. Almost immediately I downloaded it and started to configure it in my demo lab. My findings I am trying to share in these coming blogs.
To start. It seems that in this new version of Exchange, the new strategy of Microsoft is to simplify Exchange Management and integration with Office 365 (cloud). Besides that Microsoft made some changes in the split roles that was introduced in Exchange Server 2007. This last change is interesting but not new because in Exchange Server 2010 the best practice was already to create multi-role servers instead of breaking down your Exchange organization in as many servers as you could find.
Basically Exchange Server 2013 provides you in two main roles. The Client Access server role and the Mailbox server role. In the RTM version of Exchange Server 2013 the Edge Transport role will probably be released but in this preview version it's not there. You could, if you want, install the Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport server and create a edge subscription to it. This is supported for the moment.
- Client Access server role This role proxies connectivity for all clients, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Web App, mobile devices, POP, and SMTP and also accepts mail from and delivers mail to other mail hosts on the Internet. Client access servers can be organized into Client Access server arrays.
- Mailbox server role This role stores mailbox data, performs processing and rendering for client connections proxied by the Client Access server, and handles Unified Messaging requests. Mailbox servers can be organized into back-end clusters that use database availability groups (DAGs).
So what's new?
Client Access servers accept connections from clients and proxy those requests to the back-end Mailbox server that houses the active mailbox database copy. Multiple Client Access servers can be grouped together into a load-balanced array. The Client Access server performs authentication, redirection, and proxy services; it doesn't perform any data rendering. Connections to the Client Access server are stateless which means that there is no need to maintain affinity between a client and an individual Client Access server for subsequent connections because all data processing and transformation occurs on the Mailbox server. Because of this change in architecture, Exchange 2013 Preview requires layer 4 load balancing. Layer 4 load balancing is protocol-unaware and balances traffic based on IP address and TCP/UDP port.
Layer 4 load balancing integrated in Exchange? Cool, but what does it mean? Is the need for a separate hardware load balancer not needed anymore? I really don't have a clue yet. I will come back to at a later stage.
A Client Access array includes two different components: the Client Access service and the Front End Transport service.
The Client Access service performs the following functions:
- Provides a unified namespace, authentication, and network security.
- Handles all client requests for Exchange.
- Routes requests to the correct Mailbox server.
- Proxies or redirects client requests for legacy servers, such as Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 Client Access.
- Enables the use of layer 4 (TCP affinity) routing.
The Front End Transport service performs the following functions:
- Protocol level filtering Performs connection, recipient, sender, and protocol filtering
- Network protection Centralized, load-balanced egress and ingress point for the organization.
- Mailbox locator Avoids unnecessary hops by determining the best Mailbox server to deliver the message to.
- Load-balances client and application SMTP requests.
Mailbox servers house the mailbox data for the organization and perform data rendering and other operations. Mailbox servers can be grouped into back-end clusters which consist of database availability groups (DAG). Mailbox servers perform the following functions:
- Host mailbox databases.
- Provide email storage.
- Host public folder databases.
- Calculate email address policies.
- Conduct multi-mailbox searches.
- Provide high availability and site resiliency.
- Provide messaging records management and retention policies.
- Handle connectivity because clients don't connect directly to the Mailbox servers.
- Provide all core Exchange functionality for a given mailbox where that mailbox's database is currently activated.
- Fails over mailbox access when a database fails over.
The following briefly describes some new and some improved features in the Mailbox role for Exchange 2013 Preview:
Evolution of Exchange 2010 DAG:
- Transaction log code has been refactored for fast failover with deep checkpoint on passive database copies.
- To support enhanced site resiliency, servers can be in different locations.
- Exchange 2013 Preview now hosts some Client Access components, the Transport components, and the Unified Messaging components.
- Exchange 2013 Preview Store has been re-written in managed code to improve performance in additional IO reduction and reliability.
- Each Exchange 2013 Preview database now runs under its own process.
- Smart Search has replaced the Exchange 2010 multi-mailbox search infrastructure.
Source: Microsoft Technet – Exchange 2013 Server Roles
Supported co-existence scenario's
A first impression is that Microsoft doesn't take customers who are still running on Exchange Server 2003 and older serious anymore. There is no way you can transition from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2013 without transitioning to Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2010 first. In my opinion this is a big fail! A lot of companies are still running on Exchange Server 2003 and older. Some of these companies are actually waiting till Exchange Server 2013 arrives because they don't want to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 when in a couple of months a new version is there. Now they still need to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010 first before going to Exchange Server 2013. This means that there is lot of extra costs and implementation involved that companies maybe scares off.
The following table shows the supported co-existence paths that are supported:
| Exchange version Exchange organization coexistence | |
| Exchange Server 2003 and earlier versions | Not supported |
| Exchange 2007 | Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2007 will be supported in the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Exchange 2013. |
| Exchange 2010 | Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2010 will be supported with Exchange 2013 RTM. |
| Mixed Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 organization | Not supported with Exchange 2013 Preview. Coexistence with Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 will be supported with Exchange 2013 RTM. |
Active Directory support
To install Exchange Server 2013 preview your Active Directory forest functionality mode must be Windows Server 2003 or higher. Next to that the following roles need to be compliant to the corresponding OS levels:
| Schema Master | Windows Server 2012 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise | |
| Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit) | |
| Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later (32-bit or 64-bit) | |
| Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP2 or later (32-bit or 64-bit) | |
| Global catalog server | Windows Server 2012 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise | |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later | |
| Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise (32-bit or 64-bit) | |
| Windows Server 2008 Datacenter RTM or later | |
| Domain controller | Windows Server 2012 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise SP1 or later | |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later | |
| Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise SP1 or later (32-bit or 64-bit) | |
| Windows Server 2008 Datacenter RTM or later |
OS Support
The following operating systems are supported to install Exchange Server 2013 preview on:
| Component | Requirements |
| Mailbox and Client Access server roles | One of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later |
| Management tools | One of the following: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with SP1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later 64-bit edition of Windows 8 Release Preview 64-bit edition of Windows 7 with SP1 |
Supported clients
Exchange 2013 Preview supports the following minimum versions of Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Entourage for Mac:
- Outlook 2013 Preview
- Outlook 2010 SP1 with April 2012 Cumulative Update
- Outlook 2007 SP3 with July 2012 Cumulative Update
- Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition
- Outlook for Mac 2011
Outlook clients earlier than Outlook 2007 are not supported. Email clients on Mac operating systems that require DAV, such as Entourage 2008 for Mac RTM and Entourage 2004, are not supported.
Outlook Web App supports several browsers on a variety of operating systems and devices. For detailed information, see Supported Browsers for Outlook Web App.
Well that's all for now. I will be publishing part 2 of this blog series soon.
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