In this article, I’ll explain some the Active Directory requirements needed to successfully deploy Exchange Server 2016.
Exchange Server relies heavily on Active Directory and without a functioning AD environments, Exchange won’t work.
For start, All the Exchange Server configuration Is Located In AD, ( Send Connectors, Receive Connectors, Polices Relay Lists, etc ) which means that with AD Exchange can’t save and retrieve Its configuration.
And of course, all the mailbox attributes exist In AD and retrieved from AD.
Exchange Server 2016 Active Directory Requirements are
- To Install Exchange Server 2016 the AD DS forest functional level must be Windows Server 2008
- Read Only Domain Controller are not supported on Exchange Server 2016 or any other versions.
- Exchange server needs a Global catalog server – Without a GC exchange can’t function, If you have Exchange Server located In remote sites you should place a GC In In each site.
- Exchange Server needs a Global Catalog Server with CPU core for every eight Exchange server CPU cores, For example, 2 Exchange Server with 16 cores each (32 ) will need 4 CPU cores
- To Install Exchange Server 2016, we need to extend the AD Schema, To extend the AD schema you will need to be member of Enterprise Admins Group and Schema Admins group
- Before Installing Exchange Server 2016 we need to prepare Active Directory for Exchange for that need to be a member of the Enterprise Admins Group.