Need help with new Exchange Server 2013 and ISP change

[mikkydoos]

Hi,

 

I'm in the process of trying to bring our email in house... Not done an Exchange server before.

We're on a local authority connection at the mo'... the domain being 'school.authority.sch.uk' who provide our mail too - Zimbra.

 

Have already set up Exchange 2013... that's fine.

I want the mail up and running before I switch ISP.

 

 

The thing is...

 

I'm going to get rid of the LA connection in Easter 2014 and replace it with either business broadband or a leased line - This will mean my outward facing IP address will change, and I'll lose the domain name 'school.authority.sch.uk'

(I've already got a .co.uk domain name that I need to change the MX record on, and I also need an SSL certificate for Outlook webmail).

 

 

What order do I do this in ????

 

 

 

And...

 

a) Does my AD domain need to be named the same as my .co.uk domain name for Exchange to work ??

I.e mail.myschool.co.uk - If not, how does the forwarding work from the .co.uk to my Exchange server ??

 

Currently my AD domain is called 'school.authority.sch.uk' because that's how I inherited it - do I need to rename it ?

 

b) Do I need my new outward IP first ??

 

 

 

I'm stuck because I don't quite know what order to do this in and I need to make this a relatively seamless changeover.

 

 

All comments much appreciated ; ))

 

Cheers.

[MATTNY]

Im not the best person on here to advise on the rest but who told you that you will loose your .sch.uk domain name they are distributed by JANET and are the property of the school to do with as they please (within reason). I would contact JANET for advice on this.

[pantscat]

Hi @mikkydoos

 

This is fairly straight forward and you could, assuming your LA are cooperative, ask them to setup an MX record for your subdomain and then you could retain it.

 

These are the steps that I would take:

 

1. Configure Exchange accepted domains so that it will accept and be authoritative for your new domain (and optionally your old 'school.authority.ac.uk' domain).

2. Configure the Exchange E-mail address policy so that users get the correct email address(es)

3. Configure Exchange receive connectors for your domain(s)

5. Configure your MX records with your new IP addresses following the ISP swap

6. Check your firewall is setup to forward SMTP traffic to your mail server

7. Check your configuration with the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyser (https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/)

8. Check all of your clients are setup to connect to your new mail server.

 

That's it... I don't think I've forgotten anything!

[mikkydoos]

Thanks guys

 

JANET - I'll deffo look into that - cheers.

 

Pantscat - Its messy cos our authority don't want any other connections on their network so its difficult to have 2 connections running at the same time unless I isolate the new one - also my firewall is gonna have to change too so there's no point in setting it up with the existing one which is external to my school! I take it that the accepted domains can be both 'school.authority.sch.uk' and myschool.co.uk and both will work. Also my local domain doesn't have to be named the same as either of them does it ??

[pantscat]

No - your local domain can be whatever you like - the key thing is to setup Exchange so it knows what email domain it is responsible for and setting up the E-mail address policy so that it gives users the correct email addresses.

[mikkydoos]

Cool, thats brilliant m8, cheers ; )

[mikkydoos]

Pantscat, another quick one if you don't mind....

 

How does the domain forwarding or DNS work to resolve e.g. 'mail.myschool.co.uk' to the local IP on my Exchange server. Is that what is done by changing the MX record ? and I presume I also have to set up a DNS entry on my DC to pass the MX request from the external IP to the local IP. Am I right ??

 

 

Cheers ; )

[sukh]

use splt dns, mx record has nothing to do with mai.xxxx.x...x...

[mikkydoos]

Split DNS. Thats the ticket! Cheers all. Great help.

 

Thnks ; )

[pantscat]

@sukh beat me to it!

 

Glad your getting it sorted out.