A lot has been said in the Exchange community about the decision by Microsoft to remove (or not provide) Exchange Server 2007 awareness from the built-in backup utility shipped with Windows Server 2007. The MS Exchange Team blog explains that a little here :
About 2 years ago, when the Exchange team started testing Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008, we found that the built-in backup application had changed dramatically. Decisions that drove that change by the Windows team are not the subject of this post, but it is fair to say that the Windows team did not make the decision lightly.
When we evaluated the features of Windows Server Backup, it was clear that the backup and restore experience on Windows 2008 would not be the experience that existing Exchange customers have been used to for so long. Because we had feedback from several customers who told us they would rather get a more full-featured backup solution for their Exchange servers, a decision was made not to provide an Exchange-aware backup solution for Windows 2008 in Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1.
This week they announced the following:
Although we can’t share all of the details now, we thought that this issue was important enough to announce a decision we recently made. We have decided to develop and release a VSS-based plug-in for Windows Server Backup that will enable you to properly backup and restore Exchange 2007 with a built-in Windows 2008 backup application.
This is good news for Exchange customers looking for inexpensive backup solutions. I’m a bit curious though about this statement:
While you will be able to backup and restore Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008, you should not expect feature parity with the Windows 2003 NTBackup experience. There will not be the same level granularity and control that NTBackup provides and backups will be limited to the local server only.
NT Backup was about as featureless as you could get when it comes to Exchange backups, so I don’t quite understand how you can take a step backward from that. It will be interesting to see the result when it ships thats for sure.
Windows Server 2007 supports out of the box most of the pre-requisites for SQL Server 2005 with the exception of the IIS components required for some SQL Server 2005 features. To install the IIS 7.0 pre-requisite components to be able to perform a complete installation of SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server 2008 you can run the following ServerManagerCmd.exe command:
C:\>ServerManagerCmd.exe -i Web-Server Web-Asp-Net Web-Http-Redirect Web-Windows
-Auth Web-Metabase Web-WMI
............................................
Start Installation...
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Management Tools.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Web Server.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Performance.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Security.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Application Development.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Common HTTP Features.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Health and Diagnostics.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS Management Console.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Directory Browsing.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Default Document.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ISAPI Filters.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Errors.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Logging.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Redirection.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ISAPI Extensions.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Filtering.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content Compression.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Monitor.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Windows Authentication.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] .NET Extensibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ASP.NET.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
The components included in the command line are:
- Web-Server
- Web-Asp-Net
- Web-Http-Redirect
- Web-Windows-Auth
- Web-Metabase
- Web-WMI
SQL Server 2005 setup will now pass all pre-requisite checks when installing on Windows Server 2008.
Microsoft Technet has an excellent resource page for the Windows Server 2008 Server Manager (ServerManagerCMD.exe) command-line tool here.
One of the highlights is a complete list of the role, role service, and feature command identifiers for installing Windows Server 2008 components.
This is an excellent reference and very handy when configuring a Windows Server 2008 server.
Link: Overview of Server Manager Commands
The Windows Server 2008 ServerManagerCmd.exe tool makes installing the Exchange Server 2007 pre-requisites a snap. In this example I am installing the pre-requisites for a typical Exchange Server 2007 installation (Mailbox Server, Client Access Server, Hub Transport Server).
The components are installed using ServerManagerCmd.exe. The following commands can be executed in a command shell to install each of the components.
Firstly, if you are intending to use the Windows Server 2008 server to extend the Active Directory Schema for Exchange Server 2007 you must install the Active Directory Domain Services remote management tools. This usually requires a server restart.
C:\>ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS
...........
Start Installation...
[Installation] Succeeded: [Remote Server Administration Tools] Role Administrati
on Tools.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Remote Server Administration Tools] Active Directory
Domain Services Tools.
Warning: [Installation] Succeeded: [Remote Server Administration Tools] Server f
or NIS Tools. You must restart this server to finish the installation process.
Warning: [Installation] Succeeded: [Remote Server Administration Tools] Active D
irectory Domain Controller Tools. You must restart this server to finish the ins
tallation process.
<100/100>
Success: A restart is required to complete the installation.
Once the server is restarted you can install the remaining components. You could install them by entering the commands one at a time, but I prefer to run them all at once like this.
C:\>(
More? ServerManagerCmd -i PowerShell
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth
More? ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression
More? ServerManagerCmd -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy
More? )
The commands will execute in sequence and display output similar to this.
.
Start Installation...
[Installation] Succeeded: [Windows PowerShell].
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
………………..
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Management Tools.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Web Server.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Common HTTP Features.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Health and Diagnostics.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Security.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Performance.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Windows Process Activation Service] Configuration API
s.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Windows Process Activation Service] Process Model.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS Management Console.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Monitor.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Logging.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content Compression.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Filtering.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Default Document.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Directory Browsing.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Errors.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Application Development.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ISAPI Extensions.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Management Console.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Basic Authentication.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Digest Authentication.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Windows Authentication.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Dynamic Content Compression.
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
…………
Start Installation…
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: .
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Client Certificate Mapping Authenti
cation.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Tracing.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Logging Tools.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Redirection.
[Installation] Succeeded: [RPC over HTTP Proxy].
<100/100>
Success: Installation succeeded.
Your Windows Server 2008 host is now ready to install Exchange Server 2007.
References:
Microsoft has announced the release of Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007 with SP1 and Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) 3.0 with SP1.
This is a significant release as it allows Sharepoint administrators and developers to deploy an SP1 integrated installation of MOSS or WSS on a new server. The RTM version of MOSS and WSS will not run on Windows Server 2008, so the best outcome of this new release is the ability to deploy the products on Windows Server 2008.
The two updated products are available for download now.
The RTM versions of both products are still available for download if you happen to be rebuilding an RTM server, however any new deployments should ideally be installed with SP1 regardless of the operating system you are installing on.
Resources:
