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.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Exchange SP2 has left the building.

It contains some interesting features. The one I like the most is Address Book Policies. With ABP the administrator can easily configure which users can see which Address Book/s. This gives the function that many organizations want to segment address book for users in a supported way instead of the really messy solution by ACL'ing different objects in Exchange.

Other feature is for example the good old OMA is back. It's like OWA but without graphics and probably most used by mobile devices. The official name is 'OWA Mini'.

For you people that want configure your on-premise Exchange installation with O365 in hybrid configuration there is the new 'Hybrid Configuration Wizard' that help you setup the configuration a lot easier than the myriads of manual steps needed before.

Pre-requirement info http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354.aspx

Release notes http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235234

Download link http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28190

Office 2010 Service Pack 1

Together with the release of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft also released SP1 for Office 2010.

Read KB2460049, Description of Office 2010 SP1.

Download links is found in KB2510690, List of all Office 2010 SP1 packages.

Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 is now available

After some wait Exchange server 2010 Service Pack 1 is now released.

Read about all the new and improved features here

Download it here and read the release note very carefully before installing.

happy patching

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 2007 Service Pack 2 is released

Finally the Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 has left the building and are downloadable by the public.

Of course it contains all bug fixes included in previous rollup’s for Exchange 2007 but it also contains some new features such as a plug-in for Windows Server Backup to natively do Exchange backup without buying any 3:rd party software. This one has been a long standing request that now is fulfilled.

Some other noticeable features included in SP2
* Enhanced Auditing
* Public Folder Quota
* Configure Diagnostic logging via GUI/Exchange Management Console
* Named properties bloat will stop since SP2 don't propagate x-headers to MAPI properties anymore. This is the same behavior as in Exchange 2010. See earlier posting about Named properties bloat part 1 and Named properties bloat part 2
* Dynamic AD schema update

Bu before even installing SP2, you must first extend Active Directory schema. Prepare your AD team for this!!

And if you’re planning on upgrading to Exchange 2010, SP2 for Exchange 2007 is a prerequisite and must be installed on every Exchange 2007 server before Exchange 2010 can be introduced into an Exchange 2007 organization. Read my other article about transition to Exchange 2010. Thinking about Exchange 2010? Understand the Prerequisites

Some more information about Exchange 2007 SP2
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/05/11/451281.aspx

Download link for Exchange server 2007 SP2. Be to careful to read the “Release notes” and “what’s new in Exchange 2007 SP2” documents on the download page before installing.

Upcoming Exchange 2007 SP2

What’s the deal you may ask, well there is a lot of new cool features in it except from the usual bugfixes.

One most requested feature is the ability to make backup of Exchange with built in tools in windows. With Service Pack 2 you get this with the Exchange Volume snapshot backup snap-in for Windows Server backup.

This is only one feature of many that are added in SP2. Read more at the You had me at EHLO blog site

The Only sad thing is that you have to wait until after the summer to get it.

Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2

Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Vista is now released.
Take a look here for more information http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd262148.aspx

The good thing is that the Exchange 2010 Beta can be installed on a Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Happy patching