Introduction
In part 2, we discussed Exchange 2013 and 2016 CAS coexistence scenarios and demonstrated how to install the correct certificate on Exchange 2016.
In this part, we’ll configure the virtual directories and outlook anywhere settings on our new Exchange 2016 server and then we’ll change the A records to migrate clients over to the CAS service on Exchange 2016.
To read other parts in this series, go to:
- Exchange 2013 to 2016 Migration (Part 1)
- Exchange 2013 to 2016 Migration (Part 2)
- Exchange 2013 to 2016 Migration (Part 4)
- Exchange 2013 to 2016 Migration (Part 5)
- Exchange 2013 to 2016 Migration (Part 6)
Set virtual directories on Exchange 2016
The service connection point (AutodiscoverServiceInternalUri) has already been set in part 1 after we installed Exchange however there are a number of other services we need to configure so that Exchange pushes out the correct URLs and hostnames to clients in the autodiscover response.
We’ll go through how to set up these services which is all you’ll require:
- Outlook Anywhere
- Exchange Control Panel
- Outlook Web Access
- Exchange Web Services
- ActiveSync
- Offline Address Book
- MAPI over HTTP
Exchange 2013 is currently configured to use the FQDN mail.litwareinc.com for all the above services and we’ll be configuring our Exchange 2016 server to use the same name before we move on to changing the DNS records.
Set Outlook Anywhere
To set the hostnames used for Outlook Anywhere, use the below command run on a single line. Outlook Anywhere hostnames specify what addresses Outlook connects to.
Get-OutlookAnywhere -Server litex02 | Set-OutlookAnywhere -InternalHostname mail.litwareinc.com -InternalClientAuthenticationMethod Ntlm -InternalClientsRequireSsl $true -ExternalHostname mail.litwareinc.com -ExternalClientAuthenticationMethod Basic -ExternalClientsRequireSsl $true -IISAuthenticationMethods Negotiate,NTLM,Basic
Set Exchange Control Panel URLs
Get-EcpVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-EcpVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/ecp -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/ecp
Here you can see a warning that we need to change the URLs for OWA to be the same. We’ll move onto this next.
Set Outlook Web Access URLs
Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/owa -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/owa
Set Exchange Web Services URLs
Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
Set ActiveSync URLs
Get-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
Set Offline Address Book URLs
Get-OabVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-OabVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/OAB -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/OAB
Set MAPI Virtual Directory
This is only really needed if you have configured Exchange to use MAPI over HTTP. For more information on this, see here.
Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server litex02 | Set-MapiVirtualDirectory -InternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/mapi -ExternalUrl https://mail.litwareinc.com/mapi
Recycle the MSExchangeAutodiscoverAppPool
To force the autodiscover service to use the new URLs immediately, recycle the MSExchangeAutodiscoverAppPool app pool. No downtime is needed for this.
Configure a firewall NAT rule
Open up port 443 from the internet to your new Exchange 2016 server and assign a static one-to-one NAT rule so that your new server has a static public IP that can be used for external client connections.
CAS server migration testing
With Exchange 2013 in our environment, we only used the A record mail.litwareinc.com for client connections. Autodiscover.litwareinc.com was also required by external or non-domain joined clients to retrieve autodiscover settings. Now that we’ve configured our Exchange 2016 virtual directories and Outlook Anywhere settings, we can migrate clients over.
It’s best to test this out with a few clients by adding an A record in their host file to direct them to the new Exchange 2016 server when they go to mail.litwareinc.com and autodiscover.litwareinc.com. To do this, open the hosts file (“C:Windowssystem32driversetchosts”) using notepad running as an administrator then add a lines like these to direct mail.litwareinc.com and autodiscover.litwareinc.com to the IP of your new Exchange server:
10.2.0.22 mail.litwareinc.com
10.2.0.22 autodiscover.litwareinc.com
Now, restart Outlook, confirm that the client can connect to Exchange without a problem. We can confirm that Outlook is connected to the new Exchange server by opening up Resource Monitor and then clicking on the Network tab. Here we filter TCP connections made by outlook.exe and we see that it is connected to our new Exchange server IP, 10.2.0.22:
Now, we can do some testing. Start with the list below:
- Access to shared calendars
- Access to shared mailboxes
- Send and receive internal and external email
- Open public folders
- Download Offline Address Book
Once done, change the hosts file to resolve mail.litwareinc.com and autodiscover.litwareinc.com to the public IP of your Exchange 2016 server, place the client on an external network and test again to test the same services externally.
When you’re done testing, remove the entries from the hosts file.
CAS server migration
Now that testing is complete, you’re ready to change the internal A records for mail.litwareinc.com and autodiscover.litwareinc.com to resolve to the internal IP for your Exchange 2016 server.
Once done, log into your public DNS provider and then change the public A records for mail.litwareinc.com and autodiscover.litwareinc.com to resolve to the public IP of your Exchange 2016 server.
Conclusion
In this post, we have migrated the CAS role from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2016. We first configured the hostnames and URLs on the Exchange 2016 server then changed the A records used by the clients so that they are now directed to the Exchange 2016 server.
In part 4, we’ll cover how to move mailboxes and public folders from our old Exchange 2013 server to our new Exchange 2016 server.