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I am trying to install an MSExchange 2016 in an EC2 instance from scratch without success. By from scratch, I mean I start from a new EC2 instance without any AD yet installed. I am not very familial with Windows Server. I got a lot of problem during the installation. By digging the web, I fixed a lot of them, but I think there is something I miss to succeed in my installation. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Here is the procedure I followed:

  • I created an EC2 Windows Server 2012RC2 instance
  • I created a simple Active Directory in AWS.
  • I provided the AD DNS to my Windows Server (via Network and Sharing Center, properties of Internet Protocol v4)
  • I joined the server into that AD (Via Control Panel > System and Security > System, change computer workgroup to the domain defined in my AWS Simple AD)
  • Restart computer
  • Log into the server as Administrator, with the AD domain
  • Download Exchange from here
  • Set-up the active directory, as in this procedure: https://judeperera.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/step-by-step-guide-for-installing-exchange-server-2016-preview/

The Step 4.1. of that procedure indicates to execute the following code

Setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

When I execute it, I get the following error:

Error

I do not understand what I need to do/fix to continue the installation. Thanks in advance for your help!

Jan Doggen
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Asterius
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1 Answers1

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The issue you are encountering is that Simple Directory is not an Active Directory product, it is powered by Samba v4. What you need is to setup a Microsoft Active Directory (Enterprise Edition) or Microsoft AD, which is powered by Windows Server 2012 R2. The Simple AD is powered by Samba v4 and is simply Active Directory compatible but does not support the added schema features which are needed by Exchange Server 2016.

The other option is to back away from hosting your own instance of Exchange server and instead take a look at AWS WorkMail. It is an exchange like service which supports active sync with Outlook 2007+ and all current mobile smart devices such as Android and iOS. I currently use this and it took a lot of the headache out of managing my own mail server as the complexities are offloaded to the AWS environment and all you need to do it add mail accounts and group addresses.

Either option should solve your issue.

Chris Rutherfurd
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  • Thanks for your answer. I need to test the Exchange 2016 for development purposes, so the WorkMail in not an option. So if I understand your answer, just replacing the AWS Simple AD by an AWS Microsoft AD will do the trick? – Asterius Mar 04 '16 at 13:35
  • It should do the trick, from the Samba development group (https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba/Status) exchange support is on the books for the future but has not yet been done, and due to Exchange Server's extremely complex relationship with the domain controller if you want to run Exchange Server you have to use a Windows AD as the domain controller, which is what powers AWS Microsoft AD. – Chris Rutherfurd Mar 04 '16 at 13:57
  • I got a response from the Amazon support. The AWS Microsoft AD is not either suffissent to run Exchange. The only possible way is to create an AD dedicated server for the AD. – Asterius Mar 07 '16 at 09:17
  • If this is only for development purposes there should be no issue with running AD and exchange on the same server, the only time this isn't recommended is in production environments for load reasons, but if you are just doing testing for development purposes load should not be an issue. – Chris Rutherfurd Mar 07 '16 at 09:30