Before performing a silent or passive installation, you must extract setup.exe by typing the following command:

forefrontexchangesetup.exe /x: extractpath

Note:
If you are typing an extract path containing spaces, you must enclose quotes around the path. For example:forefrontexchangesetup.exe /x:"c:\Forefront\Install Files"

The silent installation enables the use of scripting when installing Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE). This type of setup produces no visible progress reports during the installation. All output is directed to the installation log, program log, or event log as appropriate. You can use the silent installation in order to run unattended and distributed installations on Exchange servers. The silent installation requires an answer file to be provided via the /a parameter. A template answer file that you can modify to suit your environment is provided in the installation package together with an XML schema (.xsd) that can be used to validate the resulting answer file. If a valid answer file is not provided, the installation terminates, and errors are logged. To view a sample answer file, see Sample answer file for unattended installations.

After extracting the setup package (For more information, see Unpacking the installer), you can launch the silent installation with an answer file by typing the following:

setup.exe /q /a PathtoAnswerFile

The answer file contains answers to all questions presented during the installation. It is a required parameter. Optionally, you can specify the /c parameter, which additionally lets you import configuration settings to the server after the installation is complete: These are settings that were exported from another server. The following is the syntax:

setup.exe /q /a PathtoAnswerFile /[c PathtoConfigFile]

Note:

The answer file contains sensitive information that should be protected by an access control list (ACL) that can only be viewed by the system administrator. When the answer file is deployed to a remote server, it should be transferred by using a secure method such as Internet Protocol Security (IPsec). After the installation is complete, the administrator should delete the answer file from the target computer in a secure manner.

After you have installed FPE, it is recommended that you view the Release Notes file and perform the configuration steps described in Performing your initial configuration.

The passive installation works in the same manner as the silent installation, except it includes a progress bar that shows the status of the installation as it is running.

After extracting the setup package (For more information, see Unpacking the installer), you can launch the passive installation with an answer file by typing the following:

setup.exe /p /a PathtoAnswerFile

The answer file contains answers to all questions presented during the installation. It is a required parameter. (To view a sample answer file, see Sample answer file for unattended installations.) Optionally, you can specify the /c parameter, which additionally lets you import configuration settings to the server after the installation is complete. These are settings that were exported from another server. The following is the syntax:

setup.exe /p /a PathtoAnswerFile /[c PathtoConfigFile]

Note:

The answer file contains sensitive information that should be protected by an access control list (ACL) that can only be viewed by the system administrator. When the answer file is deployed to a remote server, it should be transferred by using a secure method such as Internet Protocol Security (IPsec). After the installation is complete, the administrator should delete the answer file from the target computer in a secure manner.

After you have installed FPE, it is recommended that you view the Release Notes file and perform the configuration steps described in Performing your initial configuration.