Recipe2.2.Preparing a Windows 2000 Server Computer for an Exchange Installation

Recipe 2.2. Preparing a Windows 2000 Server Computer for an Exchange Installation

Problem

You want to install Exchange 2000 or Exchange Server 2003 on a computer running Windows 2000 Server or Advanced Server. You've already used Windows Update to ensure that the base operating system (OS) has all current security patches and service packs.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. From the Control Panel, open the Add/Remove Programs applet.

2. On the left side of the Add/Remove Programs window, click the Add/Remove Windows Components icon.

3. When the Windows Components window appears, scroll down to Internet Information Services (IIS). Select it and click the Details button.

4. In the Internet Information Services (IIS) window, make sure that NNTP Service and SMTP Service are selected, then click OK.

5. Click Next. You may be prompted for your Windows 2000 installation CD; if needed, insert it or specify an alternate location where the install files can be found.

6. If the Terminal Services Setup page appears, click Next.

7. When installation is complete, click Finish.

Using a command-line interface

1. Use your favorite text editor to create a text file containing the following lines. Each line lists an IIS component that's required for Exchange.

   [Components] iis_common = on iis_inetmgr = on iis_www = on iis_smtp = on iis_nntp = on

   
   

2. Save the file; the name doesn't matter.

3. From a command prompt, use the sysocmgr command to tell Windows to install the components. Although sysocmgr takes several parameters, the switches we're interested in are /i (which specifies where the system's default component list is) and /u (which tells the utility to use the file you created to determine what to install). Here's an example:

   > Sysocmgr /I:%systemroot%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:c:\temp\ex-smtp-prep.txt

   
   

   If you add the /q switch, sysocmgr will suppress its user interface; otherwise, you'll see the standard Windows Component Wizard interface, but you won't necessarily be able to click on anything to affect the installation's progression. Note that you may still be prompted for installation media if Windows can't find the needed files at the install source path specified by the sysoc.inf file.

4. Verify that the components were installed by opening the Internet Services Manager (ISM) snap-in and opening the computer. In addition to the Default Web Site and Administration Web Site items, you should also see entries for the default SMTP and NNTP virtual servers.

Discussion

Exchange has a fairly rich set of application dependencies, including two that you may not have known of. The IIS SMTP service is required because Exchange's SMTP engine is actually a set of extensions to the IIS SMTP engine. If SMTP isn't installed (or worse, if you remove it after installing Exchange), no SMTP mail will flow. Because Exchange 2000 and later use SMTP as the native inter-server transport, this is bad. The IIS NNTP service is required, too, for public folder management; without it, you can't see or manage public folders using ESM. Even if you're not using NNTP, you should leave this protocol installed (in Recipe 4.1, you'll learn how to disable services that you're not using without removing them). It turns out that these two services both require the Server service, which is not otherwise required for Exchange servers but will normally be enabled.

See Also

Recipe 2.3 for preparing a Windows 2003 server for Exchange installation, the Exchange 2000 Installation and Setup white paper (see Chapter 1 for the URL), the Windows 2000 documentation for sysocmgr, and MS KB 222444 (How to Add or Remove Windows Components with Sysocmgr.exe)