During recent deployments of Exchange 2013 into our customer based, there is an interesting issue that happens time and time again.

Overview of issue

In a coexistence scenario, where you’re running Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 in the same organisation, when you go attempt to the new Exchange 2013 Enterprise Administration Centre (EAC) https://FQDNEX2013SRV/ECP to setup the new server, you end up getting redirected to the old Exchange 2010 ECP & Client Access Server.

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The reason this is happening is because the Administrator mailbox (in this case) is located on the Exchange 2010 solution still and the Exchange 2013 CAS server is redirecting the request to the 2010 CAS.

So, how can you setup the new Exchange 2013 server?

Resolution

Option 1:-

Use Powershell to configure all the settings on the new Exchange 2013 server.
Issue: Unless you know all the new PowerShell commands this can be a difficult process to setup the new Exchange 2013 server.

Option 2:-

Move the “Administrator” or appropriate mailbox over to Exchange 2013.
Issue: You may not have created a mailbox database on the Exchange 2013 at this point or at least the database may not have the correct settings.

Option 3:-

You can access the new EAC by adding the Exchange version to the URL. For example, to access the EAC whose virtual directory is hosted on the Client Access server locally, use the following
URL: https://FDQNExchange2013/ecp?ExchClientVer=15

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This allows you to manage the new Exchange 2013 environment even though the administrator mailbox is on Exchange 2010. You can now easily setup the new Exchange 2013 server and prepare it ready for production using the new Exchange Administration Centre (EAC).

Hope this helps you setup your new Exchange 2013 servers.

P.S.

You can also revert back to the Exchange 2010 ECP and your mailbox hosted on an Exchange 2013 Mailbox server using the following URL: https://localhost/ecp?ExchClientVer=14

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