UPDATE: While TechNet article “Create a Database Availability Group” only mentions Windows 2008 R2 domain controllers, I must thank Scott Schnoll for the following clarification: “Creating an Exchange 2013 DAG with Mailbox servers on Windows Server 2012? You must pre-stage CNO before adding first server!”. TechNet documentation will be updated to reflect the same I assume.
When installing Exchange 2013 servers in complex lab scenario, I decided to separate Mailbox and Client Access server roles to dedicated servers running Windows Server 2012. I installed Mailbox server role first and then proceeded to install Client Access role. Since Mailbox server role installed fine using setup UI and required windows components installed (since I had the option checked in the wizard, I did have to install office filter packs and UCMA manually), I decided to trust the setup wizard to install windows components for CAS role for me. Well, what do I know?
Testing Exchange 2013 means careful planning of what you are going to test in lab, what you need to test al given scenarios and what is required. One of my golden rule is to test multiple versions of clients against given server. So in my recent configuration testing, I created a very simple lab. It has a domain controller, two Exchange 2013 servers, a load balancer and two client machines. All testing I am performing is on intranet and no internet simulation or remote client scenarios are going to be tested. One of my client machine is running Windows 7 and Outlook 2010. The other client runs Windows 8 and Outlook 2013.
UPDATE: KEMP Technologies has posted video recording of webinar which can be accessed here: http://www.kemptechnologies.com/KEMP-lync-modality-webinar/
I was working away in my lab and had recently configured Enterprise Edition pool with first server in the pool running Lync Control Panel. I launched Lync Control Panel to make few changes only to find out it kept asking me for username and password. After multiple tries, I got “401.1 Unauthorized” page telling me I was unauthorized to access cscp!
Yet another one of those interesting discoveries that took most of my afternoon to figure out.
As I was building my Lync 2010 lab today, I came across an interesting problem. I am calling it interesting because I had already installed two front-end servers which were going to be in an enterprise pool. Now was the time to install SE in simulated multi-site environment.
UPDATE: Please read updated guidance due to changes introduced in SP2 RU4 here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/08/14/calendar-and-tasks-retention-tag-support-in-exchange-2010-sp2-ru4.aspx. It specifically addresses Calendar items and tasks.
I have come across this issue enough times that even if it is documented on TechNet it deserves mention here.
Recently I came across a CAS server that was rebuilt. Think of it as a new server you are introducing in your environment.
