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CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Exchange 2019
Welcome to the Exchange 2019 Administration Guide. Chapter 1 will explain how you can add Exchange 2019 to your environment if this is a new forest and cover coexistence scenarios and what it supports.
There are a number of new features in Exchange 2019 like MCDB, Autoreseed, and MAPI (Like Exchange 2016).
We will also chat about Exchange 2019 CU's and how they are different from the normal Exchange 2016 CU's.
Finally, we will look at how to secure your Exchange 2019 Server using Windows 2019 Server Core, which is now supported.
Structure
These are the topics covered in this chapter:
- Introduction to Exchange Server 2019
- Changes in Exchange 2019 compared to Exchange 2016
- Domain requirements
- Coexistence
- Prerequisites
- MCDB (Meta Cache Database)
- Autoreseed and how it works
- The .NET Framework
- MAPI
- Exchange 2019 CU's and why there is a change in downloads
- Windows Server 2019 Core and Exchange Server 2019
- Hybrid
Objectives
Exchange 2019 is by far the most advanced email system. With all the new features, you will learn how to get your environment ready for Exchange 2019 and what limitations you face if you are running Exchange 2010. You will understand why you can't download the Exchange 2019 Cumulative Updates like Exchange 2016.
Let's start with the first section.
Introduction to Exchange 2019
Welcome to Chapter 1, where you will get a brief, high-level understanding of Exchange 2019.
Like Exchange 2016, Exchange 2019 is an on-premise email server that allows your organization to send/receive emails from the internet and internal to your network.
Exchange Server 2019 is one of the best versions, I would say because it has come a long way, has had some major improvements, and supports new items like Windows Server 2019 Core.
Exchange Server 2019, like its predecessor, Exchange Server 2016, gives you the same scalable options, high availability, and the ability to import PST files by placing them in a folder and letting Exchange Server 2019 handle it for you.
Exchange 2019 is currently the highest on-premise version you can go to, but you cannot, unfortunately, migrate straight from Exchange 2010, which we will cover in the coexistence sections.
Exchange Server 2019 RTM was released on October 22, 2018.
Comparing Exchange 2019 with Exchange 2016
There have been quite a few changes in Exchange 2019 compared to Exchange 2016, and these include:
- Security
- Performance
- Clients
- Messaging policies and compliance improvements
- In-place Archiving, retention, and eDiscovery improvements
Let's unpack each of these in a bit more detail. The first topic is security; now you may be wondering what they have done now? Well, they introduced Windows Server 2019 Core support, which means you can now install Exchange Server 2019 on Windows Server 2019 Core. This is covered in more detail at the end of the chapter.
You can now block external access to the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) and the EMS (Exchange Management Shell). Microsoft has allowed you to use Client Access Rules to manage/administer Exchange from the internal network vs. using firewalls.
TLS 1.2 is the only version that is enabled by default in Exchange Server 2019. This has been done to improve the security of client and server connections.
The next big change in Exchange Server 2019 is performance, where Microsoft has made the following changes:
- Search performance has been improved as it allows for the indexing of large files. The search infrastructure has been improved overall. The ability for cloud-scale as search has been rebuilt.
- Because of changes to the search architecture, they say that there are more stable failovers between servers.
- Metacache database – We will cover this in more detail later on in the chapter.
- Hardware – Exchange can now scale to 256GB of RAM and up to 48 CPU cores. This is a major improvement from Exchange 2016. Imagine how powerful and fast this machine will be, especially if it runs on Windows Server 2019 Core.
- Last but not least, there is a new feature called dynamic database cache.
The last bit is clients. I am sure many are going to like what they see below for the improvements in mail clients:
- The new option for calendaring – "Do Not Forward" allows you to enable this option where attendees cannot forward the meeting invites to anyone else; only the organizer can forward meeting invites.
- Out of office improvements – Additional features/options have been made available, such as adding an event to your calendar to show you as away and the ability to decline meetings that take place when you are away.
Domain requirements
Each version of Exchange Server has a set of requirements that need to be adhered to; we will cover each of the following topics below:
- Domain Controllers
- Active Directory Forest Functional Level
- Active Directory Site
- DNS
- IPv6
The following is the list of Domain Controllers that can be in the forest running the version of Windows Server; this is Standard or Datacenter:
- Windows Server 2012 R2 – Take note; this is the lowest one
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
The next component is the Active Directory Forest Functional Level, and this has to be on a minimum of Windows Server 2012 R2 or higher. Note that you will not be able to raise it if you have legacy domain controllers; hence you need to make sure you follow the requirements.
The next component is your Active Directory Site. The minimum requirement here is one writable domain controller that is also a global catalog. If you do not adhere to this, the installation of Exchange Server 2019 will fail.
The second last component is the DNS namespace. Exchange Server 2019 only supports the following:
- Contiguous namespaces
- Non-contiguous namespaces
- Single label domains
- Disjoint namespaces
The last part is IPv6. IPv6 is only supported when both IPv4 and IPv6 are enabled on the Exchange 2019 Server. For more information on this, you can head over to the KB articles on IPv6.
If you run 64-bit Windows Server domain controllers on hardware that is 64-bit as well, it will increase directory service performance in Exchange Server 2019.
Please do not install Exchange Server 2019 on Domain Controllers as Microsoft does not recommend it.
Coexistence
Exchange 2016 could coexist with Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2010; however, Exchange 2019 can only run in coexistence with Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016.
You will not be able to introduce an Exchange 2019 Server in an Exchange 2010 environment. Unfortunately, suppose you want to move to Exchange 2019. In this case, you will need to introduce Exchange 2016, perform the migration, decommission your Exchange 2010 environment, and once that is completed, you can then bring in your Exchange 2019 Servers.
To run in coexistence with Exchange 2016, you need to be on a minimum of CU11 in your Exchange 2016 environment to introduce Exchange Server 2019. This includes your edge transport servers as well.
If you want to coexist Exchange Server 2019 with Exchange Server 2013, your Exchange 2013 Servers need to be on CU21 or later, on all Exchange 2013 servers, including Edge Transport Servers.
You can also have a mix of Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016 serves, and they can both coexist with Exchange Server 2019; however, they need to be on the correct Cumulative Updates (CU) as mentioned.
Prerequisites
I am excited about this section. Why, you may ask? Microsoft has introduced a new switch in the command line setup that allows you to install the Windows components when running the setup. Here is the switch:
If you are installing the Mailbox role on Windows Server 2019, here are some required items:
The following are the PowerShell commands you can run if you do not want to use the switch above to install the Windows components.
If you are running Windows Server 2019 Full (GUI), here is the command:
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Media-Foundation, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, 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, RSAT-ADDS
RSAT-ADDS is part of this; this will install the Remote Administration Tools.
If you are running Windows Server 2019 Core, here is the PowerShell command:
Install-WindowsFeature Server-Media-Foundation, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, 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-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, RSAT-ADDS
If you are deploying an Exchange 2019 Edge Transport Server, then you need to install ...
