startup help needed....

[dsingleterry]

I'm just setting up a demo ver of Ex2000. I have previously run linux and merak email servers, but have no experience with exchange. I am experiencing a huge learning curve in comparison of these products.
Can anyone recommend any sites or links, even books that would give me a crash course on setting up Exchange 2000?

Thank you for your time,
Dave

 

[wyzard]

Hi,

I recommend MS KB article Q262068 as a starting point.

We used a Unix based email system prior to Exchange.

When I set up Exchange, I did so in a test network and worked with it for about 5-6 months, setting up users, public folders, policies, resources, addressing and address lists, multiple child domains, and such. I also used several reference books: Exchange 2000 Server Administrators Bible, Exchange 2000 Server Admin companion by MS, MS Exchange 2000 Server implementation and administration by MS.

By and far, Exchange server is huge (both in scope and resources) and requires more hands on administration than the old email system we came from. The level of integration between Exchange and Active Directory requires any Exchange admin have a good grasp of Active Directory.

Exchange can be touchy and system changes should be made with care and tested in a test network before implementing in the live environment.

I have implemented a change log, where every proposed change is first written, and then approved by senior management. The change log indicates what is to be changed, when the change will take place, what the benefit is, what the backout plan is, and what the risk of implementing the change is.

Here are some thoughts for you, based on my experience with implementing Exchange, and I hope they help some small measure.

Wyz

 

[glifex]

How big is your enviroment? Are you setting up the standard or enterprise version? Is your enviroment all 2000?

 

[wyzard]

We have an Empty root with 2 Child domains. All 2000 Server except for 1 NT4 BDC, 2 Enterprise Exchange Servers(1 in USA,1 foreign country) and one Standard Exchange, 500 Users in organization, 50/50 split between USA and a foreign country. We have been up and running for 6 months.

Wyz

 

[glifex]

Hi Wyz

My response was directed towards dsingleterry.

 

[wyzard]

sorry, didn't catch that, my bust!

Wyz

 

[dsingleterry]

We currently only have 30 email clients hosted on a 3rd party pop3 server.
My employer is still 'hesitant' of allowing everyone to have email since he feels it will distract them from their duties. But he does feel they need inner-office email for all users. We have about 60 users total.

Our servers are MS 2000 Server, (3 of them, one would be for the email dedicated) and we are behind a Cisco PIX 515e firewall. We also have 4 VPN's to other retail offices in different cities which are connected via Cisco PIX 501e firewalls. Those users could also be setup for inner-office email potentially as well. One domain is involved, but the clincher right now is also that that domain, yrpci.com (my predecessor set it up as this without owning the actual domain externally), is not owned by us at this time even though it is available. I am currently trying to convince the powers that be that I need to grab that domain as well as our existing yearroundpool.com we do own.

I would honestly love to not have to go to exchange, but my employers really want the ability to have global address books that all users can share, and to have the ability to have group interactive calendars so that scheduling meetings between co-workers will be more organized. I setup a demo of Merak Email server, (icewarp.com) and it worked great except for lacking those capabilities, as well as being quite simple to setup.

Hope that answers your questions. I will check out that one recommendation above as well as any other comments you fella's might have about this that would help me quickly become functional with this setup.

Thank you very much for your time,
Dave

 

[dsingleterry]

I have been going over that KB Q262068 article. I wouldnt have known to do the forest prep and domain prep, thanks. I am going to get some books, I printed out some of the comments here and finally got it through my employers head that this is not a 2 week setup and we'll be running thing like icewarp.com's Merak email was. (thank you for your comments, it helps that others are saying it too)

Thanks for your time,
Dave

 

[glifex]

The forest prep & domain prep tool are important before you run the installation.

start --> Run the type d:\(where d is your cd rom drive)
d:\setup\i386\setup.exe /forestprep
then after you finish that run
d:\setup\i386\setup.exe /domainprep

then run exchange installation


how is your server partitioned?

 

[dsingleterry]

heh, yeah, so I saw, I'm gonna need to uninstall the exchange 2000 trial software and do the prep stuff first.

Server is just a standard 5gb drive, and then a 25gb 'D' drive.

 

[glifex]

just run the tools then do a reinstall

It should still work

But you may want to install exchange on the second partition.

you also have to install IIS services including NNTP and SMTP services before the install.

 

[dsingleterry]

right, it wont let you install without those being already installed.