Exchange Migration to 2016

This document serves as both a guideline for redeployment document for the Exchange Migration performed at the GDM Company. The process described mainly focuses on a typical transition of Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016 environment, converting the Exchange 2010 server to Exchange 2016 Server MBX role. Additional role options such as the Edge Transport role, are out-of-scope within this document.


Exchange 2016 System requirements

Coexistence of Exchange 2016 with earlier versions of Exchange Server

Exchange version Exchange organization coexistence
Exchange 2007 and earlier versions Not supported
Exchange 2010 Supported with Update Rollup 11 for Exchange 2010 SP3 or later on all Exchange 2010 servers in the organization, including Edge Transport servers.
Exchange 2013 Supported with Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 10 or later on all Exchange 2013 servers in the organization, including Edge Transport servers.
Mixed Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 organization Supported with the following minimum versions of Exchange:

  • Update Rollup 11 Exchange 2010 SP3 or later on all Exchange 2010 servers in the organization, including Edge Transport servers.
  • Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 10 or later on all Exchange 2013 servers in the organization, including Edge Transport servers.

Network and directory server requirements for Exchange 2016

Component Requirement
Domain controllers All domain controllers in the forest need to be running one of the following:

  • Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter RTM or later
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter
Active Directory forest The Active Directory forest functionality level needs to be at Windows Server 2008 or higher.

Supported operating systems for Exchange 2016

Component Requirement
Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles
  • Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter (Requires Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 3 or later)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter
Management tools
  • Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter*
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter
  • 64-bit edition of Windows 10
  • 64-bit edition of Windows 8.1

.NET Framework

Exchange version .NET Framework 4.6.2 .NET Framework 4.6.1 .NET Framework 4.5.2
Exchange 2016 CU5 or later V Not supported Not supported
Exchange 2016 CU4 V V
(Starting with Exchange 2016 CU5, .NET Framework 4.6.1 and 4.5.2 will no longer be supported with Exchange 2016. While those versions of .NET Framework are supported by Exchange 2016 CU4, we strongly recommend that you upgrade servers running Exchange 2016 to .NET Framework 4.6.2.)		 V
(Starting with Exchange 2016 CU5, .NET Framework 4.6.1 and 4.5.2 will no longer be supported with Exchange 2016. While those versions of .NET Framework are supported by Exchange 2016 CU4, we strongly recommend that you upgrade servers running Exchange 2016 to .NET Framework 4.6.2.)
Exchange 2016 CU3 V V V
Exchange 2016 CU2 Not supported V
(.NET Framework 4.6.1 requires post-release fixes if you want to install it on a server running Exchange 2016 CU2.)
(If you’re upgrading to Exchange 2016 CU4 from Exchange 2016 RTM, CU1, or CU2, we strongly recommend that you install Exchange 2016 CU4 before .NET Framework 4.6.2 or .NET Framework 4.6.1 and its related post-release fixes)		 V
Exchange 2016 RTM or CU1 Not supported Not supported V

Supported clients

  • Outlook 2016
  • Outlook 2013
  • Outlook 2010 SP2 and updates KB2956191 and KB2965295
  • Outlook for Mac for Office 365
  • Outlook for Mac 2011

Exchange 2016 Mailbox Server Role Prerequisites

Follow steps to install prerequisites for Windows Server 2016

  1. Login to Windows Server 2016 server.
  2. Open Windows PowerShell as administrator
  3. Run cmdlet as follow:
Install-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation, RSAT-ADDS

 

4. Download and Install .NET Framework 4.6.2

Note

You can check for a minimum-required .NET Framework version by querying the registry in PowerShell (.NET Framework 4.5 and later).


Get-ChildItem "HKLM:SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\NET Framework SETUP\NDP\V4\FULL\" | Get-ItemPropertyValue -Name Release | ForEach -Object { $_ -ge 394802 }


You can replace 394802 in the previous example with another value from the following table to check for a different minimum-required .NET Framework version.

Version

Minimum value of the Release DWORD
.NET Framework 4.5

378389
.NET Framework 4.5.1

378675
.NET Framework 4.5.2

379893
.NET Framework 4.6

393295
.NET Framework 4.6.1

394254
.NET Framework 4.6.2

394802
.NET Framework 4.7

460798
.NET Framework 4.7.1

461308

Hope you enjoy this post.

Cary Sun

Twitter: @SifuSun