Exchange Server 2010 Preinstallation Steps
Before Exchange Server is installed the Active Directory Domain and Schema must be prepared. An account that is member of the Enterprise Admins group must be used and logged on in the same site and the same domain as the domain controller that hosts the schema master role. On the root of the CD drive that contains the Exchange Server setup disk the following commands must be run:
d:\setup.com /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions
Needed only if Exchange 2003 Servers exist.
d:\setup.com /PrepareSchema
Prepares the schema for the installation. It adds new objects and modifies existing ones by adding to them new attributes.
d:\setup.com /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:”ExampleName”
Prepares the global exchange server objects in AD and creates the universal security groups in the root domain.
d:\setup.com /PrepareAllDomains
Needed only if multiple domains exist in the Forest.
After all commands are succesfull, a full replication cycle must taka place in all DCs in the Forest.
The /PrepareAD switch, creates the Microsoft Exchange container in the Configuration partition in AD, populates it with all the necessary child containers needed to install exchange, creates an OU named Microsoft Exchange Security Groups, and then creates the security groups that are used to assign permissions in the Exchange organization. These are management role groups and are used for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Using AD Users & Computers and the ADSIEdit utility an examinaiton can be done to confirm the previous actions.
