QCS installation and configuration - quick check list. (4352623)

What is the minimum required to quickly deploy Collaboration Services and test in a lab environment?

This article contains some basic guidelines and suggestions from the Technical Support point of view.

1. Before installing QCS create the Collaboration Services Service account (referred to as the General Account in the documentaion)
2. Mailbox enable the service account
3. Grant the account the necessary Exchange rights:
   - For an Exchange 2003 only organization delegate the account Exchange View-Only Administrator
   - For an Exchange 2007 or an Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 organization add the accoun to the Exchange View-Only Administrators role
   - For an Exchange 2010 only organization add the account to the Organization Management role
4. The simplest way to grant the necessary Active Directory rights would be to add the service account to the Administrators group located in the Builtin container in Active Directory. If you would like to grant the minimum requried AD rights, please see the following solution: SOL9801
5. Create an Organizational Unit in AD where you want QCS to create stub objects. QCS will create a child OU and will set the necessary permissions on the child OU
6. Add the service account to the local Administrators group on the computer where you are going to install QCS
7. Remove any MAPI providers (Outlook, ESM 2003, etc)
8. Download and install the latest version of MAPI CDO
9. Install QCS
10. Test mail flow between each different organization. Use the service account in each organization and send an email to the service account in every other organization and confirm delivery.
11. Before creating any publications, open the QCS console, right click the top node and select Properties | Synchronization | Active Directory | Namespaces. Cleanup the list of namespaces, ideally leaving only one
12. Configure QCS and create publications according to your neads
    - Try to avoid using unncessary mappers or to use multiple mappers unless absolutely needed
    - Consider creating separate publications for Active Directory objects and for Free Busy or calendar synchronization
    - When using calendar synchronization please note that the subscriber needs to subscribe to the publication then he needs to open the properties of this
    publication and under Advanced specify the Exchange server and the Mailbox Store where the stub mailboxes are to be created
13. For more information review the User Guide and the Quest Knowledge Base

During testing and especially during the first run give the tool considerable time to create and modify objects. Please don't force republications unless absolutely needed. If a publication has been modified don't republish, this will happen automatically.

Note: This document is just a quick guideline, it doesn't cover all possible scenarios and doesn't apply to all situations. If there are any issues or any question please query the Quest Knowledge Base and consult the QCS documentation. Questions regarding the procedure and design or strategy should be addressed with the Account Manager from Quest as this is outside of the scope of Support.