Automating Exchange 2007 Prerequisites for Windows Server 2008

Each server role in Exchange 2007 requires Windows prerequisite software before the Exchange role can be installed on a Windows 2008 server.

All Exchange server roles require the Windows PowerShell feature. Other server roles and features are required, depending on the Exchange role(s) you are installing:

• The Exchange Hub Transport role requires only the Windows PowerShell feature.
  
• The Exchange Client Access role requires the Web Server role with the ISAPI Extensions, Web Metabase, IIS6 Management Console, Web Basic Authentication, Web Digest Authentication, Web Windows Authentication, and Web Dynamic Compression role services. It also needs the Windows PowerShell feature. If the CAS will support Outlook Anywhere clients, it will also need the RPC over HTTP Proxy feature.
  
• The Exchange Edge Transport role requires the Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services role and the Windows PowerShell feature.
  
• The Exchange Mailbox Server role requires the Web Server role with the ISAPI Extensions, Web Metabase, IIS6 Management Console, Web Basic Authentication, and Web Windows Authentication role services. It also needs the Windows PowerShell feature. If the mailbox server will be clustered, it will also need the Failover Clustering feature.
  
• The Exchange Unified Messaging role requires the Windows PowerShell and Desktop Experience features.

These server roles and features can be added using the Server Manager UI, but this post focuses on automating the installation from the command line using the ServerManagerCmd utility.

I have created answer files to use with ServerManagerCmd for each Exchange server role:

• All-in-One.xml (Hub, CAS and Mailbox roles)


• All-in-One-OA.xml (Hub, CAS with Outlook Anywhere, and Mailbox roles)


• Hub.xml (Hub Transport role)
  
• CAS.xml (CAS role)
  
• CAS-OA.xml (CAS with Outlook Anywhere role)
  
• Edge.xml (Edge Transport role)
  
• Mailbox.xml (Mailbox role)
  
• Mailbox-Cluster.xml (Clustered Mailbox role)
  
• UM.xml (Unified Messaging role)

Note that I have added the Active Directory Domain Services Tools feature to the All-in-One and Mailbox answer files, since most administrators usually install them with these roles. You can remove this from these answer files if you wish.

Also note that the all of these Exchange roles will work for the Hub Transport role, since the Hub role only requires PowerShell. It is common to combine the Hub and CAS roles on a single server. You only have to use the appropriate CAS answer file in this case.

To use these answer files, right-click the answer file above and save it to C:\ on the target Windows 2008 server. Open a Command Prompt and run the following command:

ServerManagerCmd -InputPath C:\answerfile.xml -WhatIf

This will test the answer file you specified and display what operation will do. Review the output and then run it again without the -WhatIf switch to actually perform the installation. Then install the appropriate Exchange 2007 server role from the DVD.