Run Exchange 2007 Under Virtual Server 2005

The installation proceeded smoothly until the Mailbox Server role was installed, when I got this error: An error occurred while performing operations on atom from exsetdata.dll: Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.... Back at the Exchange Team Blog, I found that others had experienced this problem. A couple of suggested solutions were to reinstall Windows 2003 SP1 and to uninstall and reinstall Exchange 2007. I opted for the uninstall/reinstall method. After removing Exchange 2007 and rebooting my EXCH VM (the VM I created earlier, as described in "Creating the Basic Virtual Environment," which contains the Exchange application and data), I reran the installation procedure and got no errors this time around. Note that uninstalling and then reinstalling Exchange 2007 will create an additional Universal Security Group (USG) in AD, called Exchange Server Administrators(servername)#, where servername is your test machine's NetBIOS name and # is likely to increment based on how many times you uninstall and reinstall.

Testing Exchange 2007
Of course, Exchange isn't much use without mailboxes, so my next step after installing Exchange 2007 in the VM was to create some. Being an Exchange administrator since the Exchange Server 5.5 days, my natural impulse was to log on as an Administrator to XP1, the VM I'd created for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and OWA, and attempt to access the OWA site at http://exch.incubator.local/ exchange. No dice. I thought the Administrator account might not be mailbox-enabled, so I checked the account via Exchange Management Console (EMC)—Exchange 2007's new version of Exchange System Manager (ESM)—and it was indeed mailbox-enabled. Searching Google and checking the Exchange Team Blog turned up no helpful information. I reread the release notes. Nothing. I thought OWA might be disabled for this user, but the ability to enable/ disable access to OWA on a per-user basis isn't available in EMC in Beta 1. I suspected that you could probably enable/disable OWA for a particular user in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), but I wasn't ready to tackle EMS yet. I finally decided to create a new user and try logging on by using that account.

I created a user, TestUser1, on DC, the VM that's the domain controller (DC) and includes AD. While I was in DC, I created a file share called ExDoc Access so that I could test OWA Document Access, a new feature that lets you access files stored on file shares on your internal network without requiring you to establish a VPN connection or connect via Terminal Services. I also created a text file and placed it in that share. Then, on EXCH, I mailbox-enabled the new user without any trouble and was able to log on to OWA. After clicking the Documents button in OWA, as Figure 2 shows, I could open my file share and text file. Cool! I'd love to have this feature available in production today.

I deleted TestUser1 on DC, and Exchange 2007 automatically deleted the user's mailbox. I then created two new users, John Smith and Jenny Jones. On EXCH, I mailbox-enabled both users, as Figure 3 shows. I logged on to XP1 as John Smith and XP2 (the VM I'd created for OWA and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003) as Jenny Jones and was able to send messages back and forth by using OWA and Outlook 2003, as Figure 4 shows.

Configuring Outlook 2007 went smoothly, via a wizard that runs the first time you launch Outlook after installing it. All I needed to do to create an Outlook profile was to select Microsoft Exchange Server as the account I wanted to connect to; Outlook 2007 automatically created the profile. As Figure 5 shows, Outlook resolved my username (John Smith) and Exchange server and connected right away. This feature, called Auto Account Setup—which is new to Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007 and requires both products—will be another great addition to the production versions because it simplifies the somewhat tricky process of profile creation.

What's Next?
If you ever want to (or have to) revert to an earlier version of Exchange, simply shut down your VMs and restore from the backups of your virtual hard disk—and optionally, your shared virtual networks and shared VMs— which you should have made after you set up the VMs and installed Windows on them (see "Creating the Basic Virtual Environment"). Other than that, the sky's the limit. One of my coworkers equipped his test machine with Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 5.5 so that he could practice migration scenarios. You might want to hold on to those Exchange 5.5 CDROMs for a similar occasion.

As for me, my test machine will soon be hosting Exchange 2007 Beta 2, SQL Server 2005, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (formerly code-named SMS v4) Beta 1, Windows Vista Beta 2, and Windows Server Longhorn Beta 2. Good luck with your test system, and don't be afraid to experiment!