Outlook update

Microsoft published an update for outlook 2013 on August 12. It was suppose to fix several things.
Sadly it also introduced a bug where you could not get access to Exchange archive in some circumstances.
Well so it happens that Microsoft has now reacted and pulled the update for further investigation. If you have already installed this patch and encounter problem you could easily uninstall it.

Read KB2881011 for more info.

So another update that introduces problem. It feels like Microsoft don’t test updates that much anymore My guess is that the “Cloud/Mobile first” mantra Microsoft advertise makes the internal processes at Microsoft spin a little to fast and then quality is sacrificed. This is something we have seen the last year and I can only hope it gets better.

Exchange Update Rollups and Service Pack released today

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3 Update rollup 13 is now available for download from here. Read the corresponding KB2917522 for bugfixes which is almost zero.

Also Exchange 2010 SP3 UR5 was released and can be downloaded from here. The corresponding KB2917508 contains some interesting bugfixes and new functionality.

 

Exchange 2013 Service Pack 1 which is essentially CU4 but is named SP1 instead. it contains some new functionality such more DLP functionality and the big one, support for Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controllers, raising both Domain Function and Forest Functional Level to 2012R2, and installing Exchange 2013 SP1 on Windows 2012 R2.

Other new stuff is that Edge server is back. A new protocol used for client/server communication is introduced called MAPI/HTTP which is very similar to MAPI over RPC which is then tunneled over HTTP so in short, communication don’t rely on RPC layer which gives some advantages when it comes to authentication and reconnection of clients. It is disabled by default and you also need Outlook 2013 SP1 for leverage MAPI/HTTP.
If you use TMG or any other reverseproxy that filter on URL’s you need to add ‘/mapi/*’ as an allowed URL.

As usual there is the regular schema and AD prep stuff to do before you install the first SP1 server.

Release notes and What's new
Download link and KB2926248 link

Looking for Exchange 2013 CU3 ?

look no further other than KB2892464. As usual it contains several bugfixes, support for IE11 in OWA, less memory consumption for the search infrastructure, bug around backup and restore which you can read more about in KB2888315.
To install CU3, you must deploy schema updates so talk with your Active Directory team to have them deployed before you run the CU3 setup.
Download is found here

Microsoft also released Exchange 2010 SP3 UR3 which can be found in KB2891587 and download from here

As always, read the KB and notes carefully before deploy.

happy patching.

Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 is out

Exchange 2010 SP3 is finally out and people have been waiting for it to be able to upgrade to Exchange 2013, but hurry slowly, Microsoft at the same time announce that to get coexistence with Exchange 2010, you not only need Exchange 2010 SP3 but also Exchange 2013 CU1 

As usual you need to update Active Directory schema before applying SP3. See the Exchange 2010 SP3 release notes.
If the Exchange 2013 CU1 will need to extend the schema once more, only time can tell.

Some useful links.
Exchange 2010 SP3 download
What’s new
Exchange 2010 SP3 UM language pack

The same time Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 6 and also Exchange 2007 SP3 Update Rollup 10

Hopefully we don’t need to see a version 2 of these patches or any new bugs introduced like we sort of have been used to the last year, sigh.

Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 Rollup 5 version 2

Some weeks ago Microsoft released rollup 5 but it was withdrawn quickly due to some reported issues. Now Microsoft has released version 2.

It contains several bug fixes as expected KB 2785908 but also contain fix for the security bulletin MS12-080 which is rated Critical Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-080

Download link for Update Rollup 5-v2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 (KB2785908)

Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 Update Rollup 5

It is time again for another rollup for Exchange 2010. This is number 5 for Service Pack 2.

Read the full description here and download it here

Patching time for Exchange

It is time again for Update rollups for Exchange.

Exchange 2010 is now on Service Pack 2 update rollup 4. Read KB 2706690 for more information what’s inside.
Download link is here

Exchange 2007 is now on Service Pack 3 update rollup 8, Read KB 273423 for more information what’s inside.
Download link is here

Happy patching.

Exchange 2010 Service Pack2 Update Rollup 3

Microsoft released a new update for Exchange 2010.

Download link Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2010 SP2 (KB2685289)

This one includes several good fixes, for example RPC Client Access Cross-Site connectivity issues and the annoying Synchronization of an organizational forms library fails

Read the complete list of fixes this rollup includes

Find updates for Lync

Look at Updates Resource Center for Lync.

It contains link to updates for Lync server and for all different kinds of Lync clients.

Hard to find the latest outlook patch/updates

Having trouble keeping up with patches for outlook?
Look no further but here Update Center for Microsoft Office, Office Servers, and Related Products

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 5 is released

UR5 for Exchange 2010 SP1 is now released. It contains several bug fixes. Here is the description Exchange 2010 SP1 UR5 - 2582113.
Problem with PDF attachment from MAC clients should finally be resolved. Also the error message "There are no items to show in this view." in Outlook 2010 is resolved.

Here is the download link

The usual warning for customer running forefront security for Exchange is to disable forefront with "fscutility /disable" before applying rollup and afterwards enabled forefront again with "fscutility /enable"
How to Apply Exchange Service Packs and Rollups to a Computer that is Running FSE

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4

UR4 for Exchange 2010 SP1 have fixed several bugs, both stuff that users see and also some things that only Exchange admin see.
Information about the update is found in KB2509910

Problem with OCS 2007 R2 Cumulative Update 6 (CU6)

CU6 for OCS 2007 R2 was released a couple of weeks ago. OCS 2007 R2 CU6

The simplest way of installing is to download and run the ServerUpdateInstaller. This will install all of the needed patches to your OCS server.

Unfortunately there is a problem that you might encounter when doing so. The FrontEnd service will not start and you will se this in the eventlog. “The Office Communications Server Front-End service terminated with service-specific error 3287186749 (0xC3EE7D3D).”. Reason is that serverinstaller does not contain all updates needed. The FrontEnd server patch needs an updated database to run correctly.

What you need to do is to ununstall KB983472 and then install the OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi to upgrade the databases used by OCS.

OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi is found in KB 2032834, Description of the cumulative update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 database: July, 2010

After databases have been upgraded you can reinstall KB983472 or simply run serverinstaller again and since databases are updated, the OCS FrontEnd service will start normally.

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3 is out the door

Microsoft has now released Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3.
With SP3 it is now possible to run Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Download Exchange 2007 SP3 from here
The link with what’s new in Exchange seems to be incorrect. but here it is anyway http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=154404

Don’t run of and upgrade your OS to Windows Server 2008 R2 because of this. It’s most likely not supported when Exchange is installed.

Happy patching

Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 4 is released

Read the complete list of fixes here Exchange 2010 UR4 – KB982639

Worth mentioning is that if you’re using Microsoft update and Exchange DAG, updates will not be automatically detected. DAG/Cluster servers should be patched manually.

Installation package can be downloaded from download link for Exchange 2010 UR4

Update for Forefront Security for Exchange 2007

If you haven’t noticed yet, you can now download “Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 2”

You can download an evaluation version here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/forefront/serversecurity/bb738109.aspx

You should read the release notes as there is information about the installation or upgrade if you already have an earlier version installed.
Release notes is here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd775214.aspx

Big outlook patches

Maybe you have heard about all the great stuff for Outlook that is coming in Office 2007 Service Pack 2.
The good thing that you don't have to wait for the service pack to leverage all the goodies, there is two hotfixes that do great things for your outlook.

First there is the big one
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=961752

and the smaller one
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=967688

and some info what they contain for goodies
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968009

Read those KB's and you will not want to live without these fixes.


You really need these patches, they contain so much good things that you simply cannot do without them. Number 1 is the big improvement for big OST and PST files. The performance gain is really outstanding if you have a couple of GB in your files.
Number 2 is the changed behavior when outlook closes that gives you fewer corrupt files and faster shutdown of outlook.
Number 3 is all the good calendar bugfixes.