AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
Anyone ever set up their own Exchange Server before? Just looking for some advice on getting started. :thumbsup2:
[SOLVED] Microsoft Exchange Server
- Thread starter AceInfinity
- Start date
Too many years and versions ago to be of help now - but back then Microsoft bent over backwards to help us determine server hardware requirements and admin tasks - even sending a tech rep out to personally assist. But then that was for a fairly large 400 node network. There are certainly lots of tutorials out there - depending on the version of Exchange you are using.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
I found some, but of course there are lots of opinions about how things should be done as well that make you question some of the other tutorials out there. I'll take a look around, I may or may not need to set one up, but it wouldn't hurt to try and learn anyways.
You might want to PM Rayda. From her MVP profile, she has experience Administering Exchange Server 2010.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
Good question - what version of Exchange, and how many nodes? Without that info, can't really provide any help.
I would have went with 2013, but It would probably be 2010 in this case. I'm assuming one node for the server configuration.. As far as I know it would be for maybe a few emails.
You can probably just install it straight-up and put the basic roles on the box (CAS, Hub Transport, Mailbox roles) using the setup wizard. It's pretty easy and doesn't require a lot of effort, but you want to read the recommendations below before you dive in.
My first recommendation, and the most important in my opinion, is to take the time beforehand to configure your Exchange and OS disks appropriately - if you expect *any* kind of email flow above and beyond an email or two every now and again, strongly consider making sure that you physically separate the logs from the mail databases, and keep the OS on a 3rd physical disk or array. You can get away without a 3-disk configuration for a "basic" single mail server, but.... in my experience, don't - it will be the single biggest headache long-term if you do. That's my strong recommendation from experience (I'm a performance consultant for a particular large software company, and Exchange configuration issues almost always come down to failure on initial sizing, with the other big issue being storage that can't keep up to load).
My second recommendation is to use public SSL certs from a reputable vendor, and don't use an in-house or the included self-signed certs. It's not worth the headache to save a few dollars here. I have seen lots of vendors used here, but use one you're comfortable with and that is part of the main root certs in the OS and browser(s). Digicert and VeriSign are good here, but again, it comes down to comfort and potentially cost. Digicert is one you may hear a lot about for Exchange, as they offer pretty good pricing for SAN certificates specifically for Exchange 201x usage compared to some alternatives.
Third, and probably (post-install) as important as my first recommendation, is to go directly to Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 if you choose 2010, and then immediately install Update Rollup 1 for post-SP3. There are some serious fixes in that combo, and it should put you at the latest supported update level for Exchange to boot. On top of a fully-patched 2008R2 or 2012 box, Exchange 2010 makes a good email server choice, but if you don't go with 2013, you've got a decent amount of patching to do before you should put it out there publicly.
Last, test your configuration - Microsoft has set up a site to do just that:
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/
Fix any issues found, and re-test until it all works. You'll be glad you did once you start putting it out on the network and internet, and publishing mailboxes to your users :).
My first recommendation, and the most important in my opinion, is to take the time beforehand to configure your Exchange and OS disks appropriately - if you expect *any* kind of email flow above and beyond an email or two every now and again, strongly consider making sure that you physically separate the logs from the mail databases, and keep the OS on a 3rd physical disk or array. You can get away without a 3-disk configuration for a "basic" single mail server, but.... in my experience, don't - it will be the single biggest headache long-term if you do. That's my strong recommendation from experience (I'm a performance consultant for a particular large software company, and Exchange configuration issues almost always come down to failure on initial sizing, with the other big issue being storage that can't keep up to load).
My second recommendation is to use public SSL certs from a reputable vendor, and don't use an in-house or the included self-signed certs. It's not worth the headache to save a few dollars here. I have seen lots of vendors used here, but use one you're comfortable with and that is part of the main root certs in the OS and browser(s). Digicert and VeriSign are good here, but again, it comes down to comfort and potentially cost. Digicert is one you may hear a lot about for Exchange, as they offer pretty good pricing for SAN certificates specifically for Exchange 201x usage compared to some alternatives.
Third, and probably (post-install) as important as my first recommendation, is to go directly to Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 if you choose 2010, and then immediately install Update Rollup 1 for post-SP3. There are some serious fixes in that combo, and it should put you at the latest supported update level for Exchange to boot. On top of a fully-patched 2008R2 or 2012 box, Exchange 2010 makes a good email server choice, but if you don't go with 2013, you've got a decent amount of patching to do before you should put it out there publicly.
Last, test your configuration - Microsoft has set up a site to do just that:
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/
Fix any issues found, and re-test until it all works. You'll be glad you did once you start putting it out on the network and internet, and publishing mailboxes to your users :).
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AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
Great response. I think this should put me on a good starting path for now. If I have issues I can always post again... I've done some reading today, and I think I've got my head around it all. Never really had to deal with Exchange server before in the past, everything I have done has been purely kind of on the client side whenever I had the opportunity to get involved.
I appreciate the response though. That was what I was looking for mainly; advice on the do's and don'ts from others with experience here. :thumbsup2:
It is amazing how "more than you will ever need" is almost always wrong. Some say to figure out what you need, add 30%, double that, then double that again - leaving room to add more space later.
Then remove the option to "reply to all"!
I always tell customers to plan their deployments to match *3 years from now*, not today. Usually whatever gets put into production will live on at least that long in that configuration before looking at expanding/upgrading, and if you don't plan for capacity you're planning for problems.
3-years is what we used too - though 5-year projections are common with government organizations.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
One other thing, I need to be able to convert an OST file that I have over to a PST. The original exchange server is out of the question here, I don't have access to that, but now I'm only left with this OST file. The only ways I have seen are through paid 3rd party software. Is this the only way that I can go? Or does this mean I am forced to reverse engineer the file format myself to write my own program to do it?
Who's to say how reliable some of these programs are too? They all seem like scams to me. $200-$700 just for a converter? :huh: (Needless to say I stopped looking at the prices after maybe the first 2 programs I found being offered.)
I just need the data to be readily accessible, and after that it (to my knowledge) is going to just be put away into an archive for if the need is there at some point in the future to view all the emails. I don't even know what exchange server version the file was cached from... I would assume 2003 or 2010 if I was to guess though. Definitely not any later than 2010 or earlier than 2003 though, so 2007 is a possibility.
Who's to say how reliable some of these programs are too? They all seem like scams to me. $200-$700 just for a converter? :huh: (Needless to say I stopped looking at the prices after maybe the first 2 programs I found being offered.)
I just need the data to be readily accessible, and after that it (to my knowledge) is going to just be put away into an archive for if the need is there at some point in the future to view all the emails. I don't even know what exchange server version the file was cached from... I would assume 2003 or 2010 if I was to guess though. Definitely not any later than 2010 or earlier than 2003 though, so 2007 is a possibility.
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AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
How do I open the OST in outlook though? Last time I tried it was not recognized because it wasn't a PST. I'll see again now...
edit: The only options I am seeing in my Outlook 2013 are Import via PST or CSV ("Comma separated values"). What proceedure is there to copy the OST into the newly created PST? Thanks for the suggestion also. I seen the specification for PST. OST seems to have a similar file header. Perhaps data obfuscation is the same for an OST as it is for a PST? The algorithms I have seen look like they use a set of standard matrix tables to be used for the encoding algorithms. I would be curious to see how the conversion itself even works. Or simply data retrieval anyways...
edit: The only options I am seeing in my Outlook 2013 are Import via PST or CSV ("Comma separated values"). What proceedure is there to copy the OST into the newly created PST? Thanks for the suggestion also. I seen the specification for PST. OST seems to have a similar file header. Perhaps data obfuscation is the same for an OST as it is for a PST? The algorithms I have seen look like they use a set of standard matrix tables to be used for the encoding algorithms. I would be curious to see how the conversion itself even works. Or simply data retrieval anyways...
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No, the OST is the "offline cache" for an existing profile. If you've moved it to another machine or otherwise killed the profile, you can no longer open it. You're left with 3rd party solutions at that point, I'm afraid, or write your own.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
That is my scenario in this case. So you are confirming that I need to basically reverse engineer the file format and write my own unless I want to go with a 3rd party solution? Things always have to be so difficult for me it seems lol. :lol:
So be it... I'm not going into my wallet to pay for any third party program though, I wish Microsoft made things easier for unfortunate events like this.
Well, the OST is an offline cache, not a document storage solution. It was never designed to do backups - that is what PSTs and (more appropriately) backup software for Exchange is for. I know that doesn't help you right now, but that's unfortunately your situation as you've rightly stated. Hopefully you can get something worked out so the user's data is restored.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
Because I have not dealt with exchange server before, about these OST files. Even if I can't backup the data embedded within. Is ALL of the data in there? Can I be confident that I have all of the data within this file? If not... That's spells out "very bad" for me.
edit: I was doing the export method for the data to a PST originally when I had access to the laptop. But it failed, probably at an estimated 95%? The filesize from what I had seen was about a little over 4.1GB. When I took the OST file, it was 4.8GB, so there is quite a bit of data here for "something." What I had read from another MVP was that backups via that export method were not very reliable, and backups should be taken just from the full original datafile copied elsewhere. Admittedly, I wasn't paying close attention though and I didn't notice until later that this was an OST file. In relation to the PST files, the icon was similar, but the columns weren't expanded enough to show the extension on the file (small laptop screen).
edit: I was doing the export method for the data to a PST originally when I had access to the laptop. But it failed, probably at an estimated 95%? The filesize from what I had seen was about a little over 4.1GB. When I took the OST file, it was 4.8GB, so there is quite a bit of data here for "something." What I had read from another MVP was that backups via that export method were not very reliable, and backups should be taken just from the full original datafile copied elsewhere. Admittedly, I wasn't paying close attention though and I didn't notice until later that this was an OST file. In relation to the PST files, the icon was similar, but the columns weren't expanded enough to show the extension on the file (small laptop screen).
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The OST is the "offline cache" of the user's Exchange mailbox. It should have everything that was in the mailbox, but that depends on the version of Outlook, the last time it connected to the Exchange server and downloaded the offline cache and address book, and whether or not the file has been corrupted in some way. PST files larger than about 4GB can be bad news too, depending on how they were created (and with what version of Outlook), and whether or not they've been converted from ASCII to Unicode if originally created ASCII.
All in all, these files are never meant as backup solutions, and Microsoft has tried killing PSTs for a long time now (since Outlook 2007 there have been group policies to disable PSTs from being created or attached to the client, for example), and storing them anywhere but locally is unsupported (meaning they aren't likely to get backed up at all, ever, if they're used as a primary mail storage location). Again, I know it doesn't help you at this point, but you're probably in a pretty tough spot already.
What was the history of this OST and why do you have it (without the client install and usage that created it)? It's really not of much use once the profile that fronted the OST has been killed.
All in all, these files are never meant as backup solutions, and Microsoft has tried killing PSTs for a long time now (since Outlook 2007 there have been group policies to disable PSTs from being created or attached to the client, for example), and storing them anywhere but locally is unsupported (meaning they aren't likely to get backed up at all, ever, if they're used as a primary mail storage location). Again, I know it doesn't help you at this point, but you're probably in a pretty tough spot already.
What was the history of this OST and why do you have it (without the client install and usage that created it)? It's really not of much use once the profile that fronted the OST has been killed.
AceInfinity
Emeritus, Contributor
Hmm, alright, well that's semi-good news then to me. :) This one was about 0.81GB larger than 4.0GB. I've read other "stories" online with people trying to backup data from 8GB OST files, but I am hoping that all data is there, and not corrupted. I have 2 files, an archive PST file that was in the same location that I found the OST, and the OST itself of course. The archive PST was much smaller though.
I have this OST file because I was doing a quick "backup" of the data to move over to a new computer with Outlook installed (without any exchange server). The original exchange server is no longer going to be used for this data I backed up.
I understand this, but it is possible to recover the data correct? I may be unlucky here, but it seems like the only option I have at this point. For getting the data "properly" (which unfortunately I probably did not do), I would assume this is a procedure of going through the server itself to get a PST.. (?)
I can't change what has already been done, so I'm trying to see what the best steps would be to take next. But also understand what I should have done instead.
I also think I should mention that I had started the export for the data to a PST. It got up to about 4.10GB, then I got a messagebox saying that the action failed. That was when I read up on backing up data from Outlook and seen that another MVP had posted that you shouldn't use the export to file option, and just copy the full data file as a backup method. Unfortunately, I didn't even know that an OST file type had existed, so I backed that up instead, because I've never dealt with Exchange Server before.
I have not tried to see what was in that ~4.10GB file, but I still have it. I just didn't trust that it "received" ALL of the data once I seen that error message. So now hopefully, you guys can see how one event lead to the next here haha. :smile9: I spoke with 2xG about Exchange Server and she gave me some good advice too about Exchange Server should I ever have to deal with it in the future again.
~Ace
I have this OST file because I was doing a quick "backup" of the data to move over to a new computer with Outlook installed (without any exchange server). The original exchange server is no longer going to be used for this data I backed up.
I understand this, but it is possible to recover the data correct? I may be unlucky here, but it seems like the only option I have at this point. For getting the data "properly" (which unfortunately I probably did not do), I would assume this is a procedure of going through the server itself to get a PST.. (?)
I can't change what has already been done, so I'm trying to see what the best steps would be to take next. But also understand what I should have done instead.
I also think I should mention that I had started the export for the data to a PST. It got up to about 4.10GB, then I got a messagebox saying that the action failed. That was when I read up on backing up data from Outlook and seen that another MVP had posted that you shouldn't use the export to file option, and just copy the full data file as a backup method. Unfortunately, I didn't even know that an OST file type had existed, so I backed that up instead, because I've never dealt with Exchange Server before.
I have not tried to see what was in that ~4.10GB file, but I still have it. I just didn't trust that it "received" ALL of the data once I seen that error message. So now hopefully, you guys can see how one event lead to the next here haha. :smile9: I spoke with 2xG about Exchange Server and she gave me some good advice too about Exchange Server should I ever have to deal with it in the future again.
~Ace
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