Exchange 2013 – Points To Note
As there are number of questions being posted in various forums regarding the various topics in Exchange 2013, I have summarized the points to remember before planning an Exchange 2013 deployment – whether it is in a lab or as part of the TAP. There are only two server roles in Exchange 2013 – CAS…
As there are number of questions being posted in various forums regarding the various topics in Exchange 2013, I have summarized the points to remember before planning an Exchange 2013 deployment – whether it is in a lab or as part of the TAP.
- There are only two server roles in Exchange 2013 – CAS and Mailbox. CAS is a protocol proxy and helps in user authentication.
- No more EMC, just EAC and Shell.
- All clients connect to the CAS server in 2013.
- There is NO Edge role in 2013 Preview. The same applies when Exchange 2013 gets RTM’d. There “may be” an Edge role in SP1. The recommendation is to use Exchange 2010 SP2 Edge if necessary.
- Two multi-role Exchange 2013 servers along with a Layer 4 load balancer are the minimum for HA of all roles.
- Layer 4 load balancers are recommended for 2013. They are cheaper as well. Layer 7 LBs can be used, though they don’t do any better than Layer 4 ones.
- CAS 2013 is stateless, nothing remains in memory, disk etc. This eliminates the need for affinity and hence layer 7 load balancers are not required.
- UAG cannot publish CAS 2013 at the time of writing. A fix is expected in SP1 of 2013. TMG will work fine though.
- There is no CAS array namespace required in 2013.
- There is NO public folder access via OWA 2013 in Preview, same will be the case in RTM.
- OWA is available offline when used with a browser that supports HTML5.
- 2013 mailboxes can access public folders hosted on Exchange 2010 or 2013. 2010 mailboxes can only access 2010 PFs.
- Installation recommendation is to have Mailbox role installed first (reverse of 2010).
- Outlook 2013 works out of box. Outlook 2010 and 2007 needs an update to connect to Exchange 2013.
- Outlook 2003 and earlier are not supported with Exchange 2013..
- Exchange 2013 does not support MAPI access (RPC). Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTPS) is the only method by which Outlook can connect, internally & externally.
- 2013 does not support SSL Offloading in Preview (for TAP customers). Same will be the case in RTM.
- No more public folder databases in 2013, but PFs still exist. They are stored in Public Folder Mailboxes! And yes, no more PF replication, as DAG takes care of it.
- The database is still ESE, but the engine is integrated with FAST and provides better search.
- Managed Store in 2013 for failure isolation on a database level.
- You don’t need to have a CAS server in the same site as the Mailbox.
- Basic malware protection is built into 2013 server.
If you come across more interesting one-liners about Exchange 2013, please let me know via comments and I will update the post.
I want to install CU 2013 patch on server in quite or silent mode by using command line,
How to install all features through command line.
I tried below command line option, but failed to proceed.
Setup.exe /mode:Install /r:CA,MB,ET /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Please guide us to install it through batch file.
As per your above point
You don’t need to have a CAS server in the same site as the Mailbox. ? My question How outlook & other non mapi client will connect to Exchange Server.
Hi Dinesh,
This was the early recommendation from MS during RTM days. The recommendation now is to have a CAS along with mailbox role in a site, better to colocate the roles as well.
“Outlook 2013 works out of box. Outlook 2010 and 2007 needs an update to connect to Exchange 2013.”
I am trying to connect using Outlook client to my Exchange 2013 server but to no avail. Error: “The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action”
Any suggestions?
Hi M,
Which version of Outlook?
Hi,
How do i configure outlook anywear useing my vip address og lb.
Will put an article soon Prashant.
Hi,
We are migrating from exchange 2007 with a legacy 2003 public folder hanging on for dear life. The question is… When we migrate can we still bolt in the exchange 2003 public folder server. You may ask why we have it, that would be what i would have asked first. Well back in the day some good old programmers decided to write the main sales force application and hardcoded in public folder folders etc hence we cannot remove yet. This will be phased out but not yet as it is too expensive.
You can’t co-exist 2013 with a 2003 exchange server Simon.
Hi Rajith ,
How to configure cas on exch2013..find the details.
1.Ipaddress : 192.168.1.1 (ADS,DNS)xyz.com
2.Ipaddress : 192.168.1.2 (Member of xyz.com,Exch2013)
3.Ipaddress : 192.168.1.3 (Member of xyz.com,Exch2013)
4.192.168.1.4 (Vip address of LB) And addeed ‘A’ record on 192.168.1.1
Regards,
Prashant
In Forest/Child configuration, Child Domain PrepSchema is no longer required, or temporarily moving the FSMO Master Schema role to child domain. “Setup /PrepareAllDomains” from Forest Domain server address this issue.
Thanks Hackajar. This has been the case in Exchange 2010 as well.
Hope you keep updated this article as RTM would take time to arrive and you got lot of time.
It was important notes & informative too – Thanks!
I will keep it updated. Thanks Charles.
Hi Raj,
This is more related to Exchange 2010 but useful to know, Exchange 2010 SP2 is not supported by Microsoft in a pure 2012 AD Domain / Forest nor is it supported installing Exchange 2010 SP2 on Windows Server 2012 (this of course does not mean its not possible just not supported by MS). Support will be added in when SP3 (the last service pack) for Exchange 2010 is released which will be in Q1 at this stage its unknown IF SP3 will support an installation of 2010 within a 2012 Domain / Forest though it is known that it will support running Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2012 (I don’t see a reason why it should not!)
Hope this helps other folks!
Thanks for the info Shapi.
Might be worth mentioning that SP3 is needed for Ex2010 co-existence with Ex2013. Great to see the CAS role being stateless now. From a network perspective that makes deployment much simpler. Begs the question now..Will MS retract their statement re: MS NLB on Ex2010 which obviously doesn’t scale well. But for Ex2013 now that its stateless i can see no reason why this shouldn’t be supported or be a great, cheap alternative to a hardware load balancer.
Hi Shawn,
Now that only a layer 4 LB is required with 2013, NLB will be a cheaper option if you don’t have large number of CAS servers.