Active Directory, 3rd Edition

Preparing Active Directory for Exchange

Before you can install the first Exchange server in Active Directory, you have to prepare your forest. The Exchange setup program provides two options called /forestprep and /domainprep, which perform various tasks such as extending the schema, creating groups, creating containers for Exchange, and setting permissions on those containers. Due to the extent of changes caused by running these commands and the elevated privileges required to do so, it is imperative that AD administrators have a thorough understanding of what they do.

Forestprep

The Forestprep option of the Exchange setup extends the schema and makes some changes to the Configuration container. Forestprep must be run before Domainprep can be executed, and both need to be run before you can install your first Exchange server. The user that runs Forestprep must be a member of both the Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins groups. Here is a list of some of the tasks Forestprep takes care of:

• Extends the schema with schema additions and modifications. Forestprep effectively doubles the number of classes and attributes in the default Active Directory schema. Several attributes are also added to the Global Catalog, which will cause a GC resync with Windows 2000 Active Directory domain controllers.

• Creates the Exchange organization with the following distinguished name:

      cn=<ExchangeOrgName>,cn=Microsoft Exchange,cn=Services,cn=Configuration,<ForestDN>.

• This container is where Exchange stores ...