Preparing for Installation

Similar to the setup requirements for Exchange 2000, you need to run the ForestPrep utility in your Active Directory Forest prior to installing Exchange.

Running ForestPrep

The version of ForestPrep that ships with Exchange 2003 is similar to the version you might have used before; however, you will still need to run the utility to pick up changes that were made to Active Directory for this version of Exchange.

To run the ForestPrep utility, you must be logged in to the domain as a member of the Enterprise Administrator and Schema Administrator groups. You must also be a domain administrator and have administrator rights on the local machine.

To run the ForestPrep utility, follow these steps:

1. From a command prompt, run D:\setup\i386\setup /ForestPrep (if D: is your CD-ROM drive) to run the Exchange Installation Wizard. Click Next to continue.

2. On the Component Selection page of the Installation Wizard, change the action to ForestPrep and click Next.

3. Use the dialog box shown in Figure 3.2 to enter an Exchange Server administrator account and click Next to start the ForestPrep procedure.

   Figure 3.2. Exchange Server administrator options.

   

Your Active Directory structure will then be updated with the schema changes that are required to run Exchange Server 2003.

WHY BOTHER WITH FORESTPREP?

Exchange Setup can do ForestPrep for you, if necessary. However, you'll want to explicitly run it yourself because any Windows 2000 forest (or Windows 2003 forest that is running in the Windows 2000 functional level) must rebuild all Global Catalog databases after the schema change. That can be a lengthy process in a large forest; by explicitly running ForestPrep, you can control when it happens.

Running DomainPrep

DomainPrep for Exchange Server 2003 is similar to its previous counterpart and is used to prepare the domains where you plan to install Exchange 2003. Again, you need to run this utility even if you have run DomainPrep for a previous Exchange installation.

DomainPrep creates the necessary groups, containers, and permissions required by Exchange and performs a preinstallation check.

To run DomainPrep, you must be logged in as a Domain Administrator for the domain you are working with. You also need local administrator rights on the server where you are working. To run the DomainPrep utility, follow these steps:

1. From a command prompt, run D:\setup\i386\setup /DomainPrep (if D: is your CD-ROM drive) to run the Exchange Installation Wizard. Click Next to continue.

2. On the Component Selection page of the Installation Wizard, change the action to DomainPrep and click Next.

3. Enter an Exchange Server administrator account. Click Next to start the DomainPrep procedure, and click Finish when you're done.

You need to run the DomainPrep in your root domain and every other domain where you plan to install an Exchange 2003 server or domains where you have Mailbox-enabled objects, users, or groups.

DOMAINPREP: NO BIG DEAL

DomainPrep doesn't incur the overhead that ForestPrep does. If you forget to run DomainPrep yourself, Exchange Setup handles it, and nothing bad happens.