Microsoft Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 Transition (part 1)

April 29, 2013 0 By Eric Shanks

Microsoft has made the Exchange 2013 transition from Exchange 2010 a bit easier than it was in the past. This article should help to explain the process.

Prerequisites

Before you begin with this endeavor:

Make sure that your Exchange 2010 infrastructure has been patched to Exchange Service Pack 3, this includes Edge transport servers, Client Access Servers, Hub Transport Servers and Mailbox Servers. This service pack is required for the coexistence period with Exchange 2013 as noted in the Exchange Team’s Blog.
Say goodbye to Exchange 2003. You can not have Exchange 2003 in your organization any longer.
Check your DNS Server and Event logs for errors. It’s unlikely that you had DNS errors before an upgrade that you didn’t already know about but it’s certainly worth taking a look just to check. A few minutes of discovery is well worth not having hours of troubleshooting afterwards.
Plan your Exchange 2013 infrastructure. This article only explains the transition steps, but you should research and understand what your infrastructure should look like before you start a migration. Do you have multiple sites that need High Availability? Do you need multiple Exchange servers in a Database Availability Group? Do you need to separate your Client Access Server from your Mailbox Server for performance or management reasons, or can you put them on the same box? How many different Mailbox databases should you have? These are important design considerations.

Licensing

There are two flavors of Exchange 2013. Standard allows for up to five mailbox databases, and Enterprise allows for up to 50.

You don’t need to download one type or another, the same install works for both editions, but entering a product key unlocks the additional features. There is also a 120 day evaluation period that can be utilized and according to Technet when this evaluation period expires, no functionality is lost so it can be used for labs and non-production equipment. It sounds very much like this is on the honor system.

Client Access Licenses (CALS) must also be purchased and also come in Standard or Enterprise editions. However, you should note that just because you have an Enterprise edition of Exchange Server, doesn’t mean you need an Enterprise CAL. Standard CALs can be used to achieve basic mail functionality.

Install Exchange 2013

In this design I will be standing up a single CAS server and a single Mailbox server. I have one existing Exchange 2010 server that I will be transitioning from.

You should be using the latest installer, but at the time of this post Exchange 2013 CU1 is required for coexistence with Exchange 2010, so that is a minimum. Also, make sure that the user that is logged in to install Exchange is a member of Schema Admins, because the installer will need permission to modify Active Directory Schema.

As a time saver, you might take a look at the errors I received when doing the install. When I ran setup it politely explained to me that I needed to install some stuff. I’ve added my errorswarnings so you can install this ahead of time.

Error:

This computer requires the Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit. Please install the software from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260990.

Warning:

This computer requires the Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs – Version 2.0. Please install the software from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=191548.

Warning:

This computer requires the Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs – Version 2.0 – Service Pack 1. Please install the software from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=262358.

Error:

The Windows component RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface isn’t installed on this computer and needs to be installed before Exchange Setup can begin.

I also needed the RSAT tools for Active Directory when I installed CU1.

Download the latest installer and run the setup.exe. You’ll be presented with a familiar wizard. Once nice thing is Exchange can connect to the Internet to get the latest updates. This is especially nice based off of how new Exchange 2013 is. If there are bug fixes, you can get them at install time.

The Introduction screen gives you access to the Exchange 2013 Deployment Assistant and some helpful links for your new server. Click next.

Read every word of the EULA, consult your attorneys and then choose “I accept” and move on.

It’s really up to you how much data you want to send to Microsoft. Pick your pill and move along.

Choose the server roles you plan on deploying. I’ve chosen the Mailbox role only for this install as I will install a CAS server later. You may be wondering where the Hub Transport option is, it doesn’t exist in Exchange 2013. Microsoft has slimed down the number of roles needed. (Unified Communications is considered a sub component)

Pick your Exchange server install directory.

Choose your malware settings. This used to be a product called Microsoft Forefront that is now included in Exchange 2013.

Now the install process actually starts. You’ll see an Organization prep happen which handles the schema changes. If you don’t have sufficient permissions you’ll get an error.