Exchange Server 2010 RTM Upgrade and Installation Notes

Monday, October 19, 2009
I installed Exchange 2010 RTM into my Exchange 2007 SP2 environment this weekend. This article explains the upgrade process, steps, issues, and resolution for those issues.

My environment consists of a single Windows Server 2008 SP2 Hyper-V host server, running the Exchange 2007 SP2 Edge Transport role. There are two VMs -- one Windows Server 2008 R2 DC/GC and one Exchange 2007 SP2 Hub/CAS/Mailbox server running on Windows Server 2008 SP2.


My upgrade will be in two stages, as shown above. Stage one is to remove the Exchange 2010 RC1 beta, introduce Exchange Server 2010 RTM into my existing Exchange 2007 environment, and to migrate all the mailboxes to it. Stage two is to upgrade my host server from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2008 R2 and decommission the Exchange 2007 infrastructure.

Prior to stage one, I've already replaced my existing Windows 2008 SP2 DC/GC with a new Windows 2008 R2 DC/GC and installed Exchange Server 2007 SP2. Exchange 2007 SP2 extends the Active Directory schema to include all the new Exchange 2010 attributes and allows for interoperability between the two versions.


Removing the Exchange 2010 RC1 Beta
Before I began to install Exchange Server 2010 RTM, I wanted to completely remove Exchange 2010 RC1 (build 639.11) from my environment. As with any other version of Exchange, you need to move/remove all mailboxes from the E2010 RC1 server first.

The only mailboxes I had on Exchange 2010 RC1 were test accounts that I used when writing for the book, "Exchange 2010 Unleashed", so I simply deleted them with the following commands in the Exchange 2010 Management Shell (EMS):

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabase


Name Server Recovery ReplicationType
---- ------ -------- ---------------
Mailbox Database 0767927725 EX1 False None


[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -Database 'Mailbox Database 0767927725' | Remove-Mailbox
This will delete all the regular mailboxes in the specified database. Exchange 2010 also uses hidden arbitration mailboxes, which must be deleted before the mailbox server can be decommissioned. Chris Lehr wrote a great article explaining arbitration mailboxes, which I highly recommend reading. If you don't delete the arbitration mailboxes you will get the following error when you try to uninstall the Exchange 2010 mailbox role:
Error:

Uninstall cannot continue. Database 'Mailbox Database 0767927725': This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes or arbitration mailboxes. To get a list of all mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database . To get a list of all arbitration mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database -Arbitration. Before you can remove this mailbox database, you must disable, move, or remove user mailboxes and move arbitration mailboxes.
Run the following command in EMS to delete the arbitration mailboxes:
Now you can uninstall all the Exchange 2010 RC1 roles and management tools using Control Panel > Programs and Features. This will also uninstall the Microsoft Full Text Indexing Engine for Exchange, also listed in Programs and Features. Once the uninstallation completes, restart the server.
[PS] C:\Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | Remove-Mailbox -Arbitration -RemoveLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed

Installing Exchange 2010 RTM
Installing Exchange 2010 RTM is very straight-forward and has very few prerequisites in Windows Server 2008 R2, since it already includes Powershell V2 and WSMan. Windows Server 2008 will require ManagementPlatformx64.msi to install these components.

Here are the steps I used for installation of Exchange 2010 RTM:

  • Extract Exchange2010-RC1-x64_639-21.exe to a destination folder and run Setup.exe
  • Select Step 3. Choose Exchange Language Option and Install only languages from the DVD
  • Select Step 4. Install Microsoft Exchange. The Exchange 2010 binaries will copy to a temporary folder for installation.
  • Click Next at the Introduction screen
  • Accept the license agreement and click Next
  • Enable automatic error reporting and click Next
  • Select Custom Exchange Server Installation and click Next
  • Select the Mailbox Role, Client Access Role, and Hub Transport Role. The Exchange 2010 Management Tools are installed automatically. Click Next.
  • Check The Client Access server role will be Internet-facing. Enter the FQDN for the CAS (i.e., webmail.companyabc.com) and click Next.
  • Select the Customer Experience Improvement Program choice and click Next. The Exchange Readiness Checks will run.
  • The Readiness Checks said that the Hub Transport and Mailbox roles require the 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123380)
  • Download and install FilterPackx64.exe. Click Back and Next to re-run the Exchange Readiness Checks.
  • Click Install to install Exchange 2010 RTM. The installation ran without error in 9 minutes; 24 seconds on my Hyper-V VM.
  • Clear the Finalize installation in the Exchange Management Console checkbox and click Finish
  • Click Step 5: Get critical updates for Microsoft Exchange. Windows Update will run. If prompted, install and run the ActiveX component to install Microsoft Update for other products.
  • Click Check for new updates and install any needed updates. Restart if prompted.
  • Click Close in the Exchange 2010 setup program
  • Launch the Exchange Management Console and verify the Exchange 2010 version is build 639.21.
  • Restart the Exchange 2010 server if it was not restarted for the updates, just to ensure that all the services come up OK.
  • Create a test mailbox on the new server and test mailflow
This is where I'm at right now.  I still need to move my mailboxes from the Exchange 2007 mailbox server to Exchange 2010 before moving on to phase 2.  I'll post again when that's done.


6 comments:

  1. Great post, thanks for sharing the experience.

    One thing, I thought I read from Microsoft that the RC code would support in place upgrade to RTM code, similar to applying a Service Pack. Is this not still true?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, you can do an in-place upgrde rom RC1 to RTM. I chose not to do this because I wanted to document the experience of uninstalling and reinstalling Exchange 2010.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is the evaluation copy from Microsoft a RTM version and is it possible to later apply the licensecode /Mik - Denmark

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Stelton,

    No, the RC1 bits currently available for download are not the same as the RTM version.

    Yes, you can easily upgrade an RC1 beta server to RTM when it is available.

    You will be able to get a product key when you purchase Exchange 2010 or get one from MSDN when it is released to general availability.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi,

    The first command: Get-Mailbox -Database 'Mailbox Database 0767927725' | Remove-Mailbox

    Errors out due to the Administrator account?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous, you have to use the correct name for your mailbox. Each mailbox must have a unique name in Exchange 2010. The get-mailbox cmdlet will display what your mailbox name is.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment! It is my hope that you find the information here useful. Let others know if this post helped you out, or if you have a comment or further information.