With the release of the Exchange Server 2013 a lot of people in the Exchange community are talking about the big changes to the management tools.
Exchange Server 2013 no longer uses the MMC-based management console that we became familiar with in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010. Instead, the management console has been changed to a web-based management portal called the Exchange Admin Center.
In this video I take a quick look at the Exchange Admin Center.
For PowerShell-based administration we can still use the Exchange Management Shell, or just use PowerShell remoting. Remoting is simpler because it requires no management tools to be installed on the computer that you are connecting from. However you can still install the management shell on a workstation or server if you prefer.
To connect to a remote Exchange 2013 server using PowerShell you need to be running Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 (or higher), Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, or Windows Server 2012 (or higher).
From a PowerShell console run the following commands, using the FQDN of a Client Access server in your organization:
PS C:\> $session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://ex2013srv1.exchangeserverpro.net/PowerShell -Authentication Kerberos PS C:\> Import-PSSession $session
If you need to provide different credentials for the connection use the following commands instead, and enter the credentials in the logon box that appears:
PS C:\> $creds = Get-Credential PS C:\> $session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://ex2013srv1.exchangeserverpro.net/PowerShell -Authentication Kerberos -Credential $creds PS C:\> Import-PSSession $session
You can exit the remote session by running the following command:
PS C:\> Remove-PSSession $session
If you’d prefer to install the management tools on the server, run the following setup command in an elevated command prompt from the folder containing the extracted Exchange 2013 setup files. This example is from a Windows Server 2012 R2 server.
C:\Admin\ex2013cu5>setup /m:install /r:t /InstallWindowsComponents /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 5 Unattended Setup Copying Files... File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation. Languages Management tools Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Preparing Setup COMPLETED Stopping Services COMPLETED Copying Exchange Files COMPLETED Language Files COMPLETED Restoring Services COMPLETED Language Configuration COMPLETED Exchange Management Tools COMPLETED Finalizing Setup COMPLETED The Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.