Microsoft Exchange 2000 Installation Instructions

When I went out to find information about how to install Exchange 2000, I found out something very interesting. There are quite a few articles and documents which describe Exchange in all of it's complexity. These typically begin from "planning" (seemingly very complicated) and work through topologies and the relationships of Exchange 2000 to Active Directory.

I found very little which described simply how to install Exchange 2000. Thus, this is a simple and straightforward description of how to install the product. Note that generally much planning is necessary, because with active directory and exchange it can be very hard to make changes later.

When I was installing Exchange 2000 I made a simple mistake which cost me several days and a lot of brain work to recover from. I had previously disabled the "Remote Registry" service as a security precaution. I figured I didn't want anyone using the registry edit program on my computer from a remote location.

I found out the hard way that this service is absolutely essential to the correct installation of Exchange 2000. My attempt to install was totally screwed up by this mistake, and I practically had to reinstall my Primary Domain controller in order to recover. It was a nightmare.

Forestprep

The first thing you have to do is prep your Active Directory schema by running ForestPrep. This is a complex program which performs complex tasks, but in simple terms it merely adds the structures needed to support active directory. It should be run as the first program in your Exchange installation. Running ForestPrep is simple, just execute it from the CMD prompt:

e:\setup\i386\setup /forestprep

Of course, replace "e:" with the drive letter which contains the setup CD or distribution.

Domainprep

DomainPrep performs those setup tasks which require Domain Admin permissions. It should be run immediately after ForestPrep. Use the command below:

e:\setup\i386\setup /domainprep

For more information about ForestPrep and DomainPrep, see the document "Microsoft Exchange Server ForestPrep and DomainPrep".

Installation

The next thing to do is to install Exchange 2000. Simply run the setup program from the CD (if you have autorun set the CD will start the setup program itself).

Answer the installation questions and proceed. I used "typical" but you can chose minimum or custom as well.

Install Service Pack

Now install the most recent service pack available (at the time of this writing, it was service pack 3). It's important to remain up-to-date on these packs, as they contain bug fixes and, more importantly, security fixes.

To install the service pack, download it from the Microsoft site "Microsoft Exchange Server Home" (or acquire the CD). When the file is executed, it will unpack into a temporary directory. Navigate to that directory, then to "server\setup\i386" subdirectory. Execute the file "Update.exe" and proceed with the upgrade.