Mailbox Moves in Exchange 2013

Exchange 2013 includes lot of improvement on the mailbox moves. Moving a mailbox in Exchange Server 2013 has different options as mentioned below.

Local Move: Moving a mailbox from one database to other in between the existing On-Premise exchange organization

Cutover Exchange Migration: Migrating all the mailbox in On-Premise exchange to Exchange online in Office 365

Cross Forest Move: Moving mailbox from Different on-premise exchange forest

Remote Move: Moving a mailbox from on premise exchange environment to Office 365. It has two options on boarding migration (Moving mailbox from On-premise to Office 365) and off boarding migration (moving a mailbox from Office 365 to On-Premise Exchange)

Staged Exchange Migration: Moving a subset of mailbox from On-Premise Exchange to Office 365

Mailbox Moves in Exchange Server 2013 introduced two new concepts as Batch Moves and Migration End Points

Batch Moves:
A Batch move is the option to move multiple mailboxes as large batches. This option includes the following features

• Email notification during move with reporting
  
• Automatic retry and automatic prioritization of moves
  
• Primary and personal archive mailboxes can be moved together or separately
  
• Option for manual move request finalization, which allows you to review your move before you complete it
  
• Periodic incremental syncs to update migration changes
  

Migration End Points:
If we are performing local mailbox moves there is no need of Migration End Points and if it is a Cross-Forest or Remote mailbox moves then the Migration End Points are required, So what is Migration End Points?

Migration endpoints capture the remote server information and persists the required credentials for migrating the data and the source throttling settings from local to the remote exchange organization.

Migration Endpoints like Remote Move endpoints used in Cross Forest and Remote Moves and the Exchange End Point in used in Cutover Exchange Migration and IMAP endpoints are used when using IMAP migration

On the below demo, we will see the option for Local Move for Single Mailbox, Local Move for Multiple Mailbox.

Note: Options available for Cross Forest mailbox move will be discussed on other post.

Local Move for Single Mailbox

To move a single mailbox from one database to other database with in the on premise exchange organization

From Exchange Admin center, we can select the respective mailbox and select the move the mailbox option or click on the migration option and select that particular mailbox

 

Below details are to be filled to move the mailbox to different database and click Next to continue

Below screen shows the option to select the batch operations… when to move the mailbox and leaving an option to complete the migration automatically\manually. Also, we can set the option to notify a user about the migration complete status.

To view the status of the Migration, we can use the below command lets as shown

Once the status shows the Migration Batch is completed, we can remove the Migration Batch, using Remove-MigrationBatch –Identity "Identity Name"

How to uninstall Exchange Server 2013

I had a problem in my Exchange 2013 server and thought of reinstalling to have a fresh start. Below gives the details on how to uninstall an Exchange 2013 Server.

Before uninstalling a Exchange 2013 Server,

• Make sure all the console related to Exchange server are closed


• Mailbox databases on that server has to be removed


• There is no option to remove only a single role on Exchange Server 2013


• If OAB configured, then it has to be reconfigured in other server

To uninstall Exchange 2013 Server

Go to Programs and Features -> Select Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 -> Click Uninstall



On the below screen click Next to continue



Next screen check the server to verify that Exchange is ready to be uninstalled, If no issue with the server then you will have an option to click next to continue



Below screen shows the uninstallation of Exchange Server 2013



Uninstallation is completed and you have to restart the server



If you are having any issue in uninstalling Exchange Server 2013, let us know… we will assist you on that.

How to Create\Configure DAG in Exchange 2013

I have a test lab which is good enough to test the Database Availability Group configuration in Exchange Server 2013 and I tried it on last weekend. After lot of errors, I successfully created Database Availability Group in Exchange 2013. Below are the steps that I followed to successfully create/configure Database Availability Group in Exchange Server 2013

Steps that I followed

• Prepare the Exchange 2013 environment to create DAG


• Creating the Database Availability Group


• Adding the Mailbox Servers as member of the DAG


• Adding the Mailbox Database Copies to the passive node

Prepare the Exchange 2013 environment to create DAG


Preparing the Exchange 2013 to configure DAG includes the following Steps

• Exchange Servers: You should have two Mailbox Servers installed with Exchange Server 2013. If it is an exchange 2013 standard edition, both the member server has to be standard edition servers.


• FSW: File Share Witness server has to be different server and it should not be a member of DAG.


• DC & GC: Windows Server 2003 Sp2 or later


• Domain and Forest Functional Level: Windows Server 2003 or later

My Test Lab: I have the below servers in my test environment

• EXCH2013-DC – Domain Controller running on Windows Server 2012


• CHENNAI-01 – Mailbox & Client Access Server Role installed together running on Windows Server 2012 datacentre edition


• CHENNAI-02 – Mailbox & Client Access Server Role installed together running on Windows Server 2012 datacentre edition


• CHENNAI-FS1 – File server running on Windows Server 2012


• Domain Functional Level: Windows Server 2008

Below figure shows the Exchange 2013 servers that are installed in my test lab



Placing the File Share Witness in Exchange 2013 DAG


The Witness server is a required property for all DAGs, but it is used only when the DAG contains an even number of members. FSW can be configured on Exchange 2013 Client Access Server or any other file server running on Windows Server 2003 Sp2 or later

If we are configuring the file server as a File Share Witness, then the Exchange Trusted Subsystem has to be member of the local administrators group on the File server. If it not configured the error message "The Exchange Trusted Subsystem is not a member of the local Administrators groups on specified witness server" will appear as shown below



Note: You may get the same error after making the Exchange Trusted Subsystem as a member of the local administrators group on the File server. To fix it, restart the File Server once.

To add the Exchange Trusted Subsystem, open Computer Management Console -> Local Users and Groups -> Groups -> Administrators -> Members



Creating the Database Availability Group


To Create New Database Availability Group, Exchange Admin center -> Servers -> Database Availability Groups -> Click on the + symbol to create new DAG



Below screen appears… enter the DAG name, Witness Server FQDN name, Witness Directory and the IP address of the DAG



Below shows the confirmation of DAG creation



Note: You may get error while creating Database Availability Group on Windows Server 2012, to resolve the issue... you have to Pre-stage the Cluster Network Object by following the link here

Adding Mailbox Servers as member of the DAG


To add the Mailbox Servers as member of DAG, open Exchange Admin Center -> Servers -> Database Availability Groups -> select the Database Availability Group -> Click on the Manage DAG membership option



On the new opened window, click on the + symbol to add the member servers



Add the servers that are going to be member of the DAG and click on the Save option





Below shows the adding DAG members task



Below shows the completion of adding member servers to Database Availability Groups





Adding the Mailbox Database Copies to the passive node


To add the Database copy to the passive node, Click on Exchange Admin Center -> Server -> Databases -> Select the Database -> Click on … and select Add Mailbox database Copy



On the Opened Window, enter the details and click save



You can test the Mailbox Database copy status using "Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus" commandlet.

Let us know if you are facing any issue in creating\configuring database availability group in exchange server 2013.

Microsoft Outlook 2013 and Exchange 2013

I installed the Click to Run version of Microsoft Office 2013 in my test environment and configured it with Exchange Server 2013 to explore the new features of Outlook 2013. Below are some of the new features in outlook 2013

• Attachment Reminder to remind users when composing new email
  
• Add-in Resiliency which disables the unwanted (which affects performance) add-ins
  
• Cached mode Improvement, which will by default sync the last 12 months emails
  
• Compressed version of OST on new profile
  
• People Hub to view the outlook contacts and Social Network contacts on default view
  
• Calendar displays weather information for next 3 days
  

Below screen shows the new look of Outlook 2013. This is a default view of Outlook 2013 when opens for the first time.

Below screen shows the All Folders view of Outlook 2013

 

Composing a new email in Outlook 2013...

 

Calendar in Outlook 2013, which shows a weather information by default

 

Below screen shows the contacts view in outlook 2013

Below screen shows the tasks view on outlook 2013

By default Outlook 2013 connect to exchange server 2013 mailbox using RPC over HTTPS and the previous option of connecting the mailbox using MAPI over TCP option is discontinued in Exchange Server 2013. Below screen shows the details on the same.

Outlook 2013 with Exchange Server 2013 uses Outlook Anywhere formerly called as RPC over HTTPS to access the emails from server.

Exchange Server 2013 RTM installation on Windows Server 2012

Last week, Microsoft made the Exchange Server 2013 RTM download only for Technet and MSDN subscribers, it is now available for all non-subscribers. I downloaded the software and installed it in Windows Server 2012 datacentre edition and below are the steps that I followed for successful installation. When comparing with the Exchange 2013 Preview, the RTM version installation is very smooth and straight forward.

1. Install Windows Server 2012 Datacentre Edition


2. 
   
   Set the IP address configuration, Rename the computer name and Join the computer to Domain


3. 
   
   Install the ADDS Role using the below PowerShell command
   
   Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS


4. 
   
   Install the required Windows Features for Exchange Server 2013 installation, use the below command in PowerShell. Once it is installed restart the computer
   
   Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation


5. Install the below 3 prerequisites ( If you need download, Click on the below link)

• Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit


• Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit


• 
  
  Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit

1. Prepare the Schema - Schema Preparation has to be run using the below shell command

Installation media file path\Setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

1. 
   
   Prepare Active Directory - Active Directory Preparation will be done using the below command
   
   Installation media file path\Setup.exe /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:XXXXX /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
   

1. Exchange Installation - We can install Exchange Server 2013 using the below command

Installation media file path\Setup.exe /Mode:Install /Roles:ClientAccess, Mailbox, ManagementTools /t D:\Exchange2013 /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms




Once the installation is completed, we have to reboot the server to take effect.