I have been reading articles for the last week and I am more confused now then ever on the proper way to install Server 2012 r2 essentials and Exchange 2013. At this very moment I have WS2012r2 standard installed and nothing else. I have read that installing ws2012r2 with essentials role in one hyper-v and exchange in another hyper-v is the way to go.
I am only setting this up in a home environment right now. I have one server and four workstations with four users. I have been able to get 2012 r2 w/essentials roles running previously and had the other workstations connect and everything was running great. I then next installed the hyper-v role and installed exchange 2013 on a server 2012 standard vm. However, I could not get the essentials to intergrate with the exchange. It would error out saying that it could not find the exchange server. I also could not get past the access anywhere setup with errors saying the machine was not connected to the internet, which it was. It seemed as if once the hyper-v virtual switch was configured it broke some of the features of essentials. The mail flow was working correctly however.
Is there any best practice type guide or information on how to setup 2012 r2 essentials with exchange 2013? I know I am early to ask since these products are still not released. I am hoping that the deployment is similar enough to 2012. I have also thought about just intergrating with Office 365 but I really don't want to pay another expense when I have all of the needed software already.
Thanks in advance...