OK – so its not just a busy day in the land of Exchange updates, it's a crazy busy day!  Not only do we have Exchange 2007 SP3 RU10,  Exchange 2010 SP2 RU6 now Exchange 2010 SP3 is released to the download centre. 

Just like Exchange 2010 SP2 which had four main features

• Hybrid Configuration Wizard
• OWA Mini
• Cross Site OWA Silent Redirection
• Address Book Policies

Exchange 2010 SP3 builds on them and adds support for

• Exchange 2013 coexistence
• Windows Server 2012 Installations
• IE10
• Sent Items Management in Office Outlook Web Access (OWA).

If you do want to have Exchange 2010 and 2013 installed into the same forest then SP3 is a hard requirement for the Exchange 2010 servers.  This will be required on all Exchange 2010 servers in the org.  And for the Exchange 2013 servers they must have CU1 installed.  As you may have seen on the blog, the servicing model has changed in Exchange 2013 and Rollup Updates (RUs) are to be replace with Cumulative Updates (CUs).

Please enjoy the service pack responsibly!

What do I mean by that?  Well, you need to ensure that you are fully informed about the caveats with the service pack and are aware of all of the changes that it will make within your environment.  Additionally you will need to test the service pack in your lab which is representative of your production environment.  Third party software vendors must also be consulted to ensure that they are in a position to support Exchange 2010 SP3 as you do not want to rush out and install SP3, run into an issue, and then discover that vendor X does not currently support their product when running with Exchange 2010 SP3.  That would be called a RGE (Resume Generating Event). 

What's New in Exchange 2010 SP3

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj965775(v=exchg.141).aspx

Release Notes

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj965774%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx 

Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1

Updated MAPI & CDO bundle.

Additional Fixes

In addition to the customer reported issues resolved in previous rollups, this service pack also resolves the issues that are described in the following articles:

2552121 You cannot synchronize a mailbox by using an Exchange ActiveSync device in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2729444 Mailboxes are quarantined after you install the Exchange Server 2010 SP2 version of the Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack

2778100 Long delay in receiving email messages by using Outlook in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2779351 SCOM alert when the Test-PowerShellConnectivity cmdlet is executed in an Exchange Server 2010 organization

2784569 Slow performance when you search a GAL by using an EAS device in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

2796950 Microsoft.Exchange.Monitoring.exe process consumes excessive CPU resources when a SCOM server monitors Exchange Server 2010 Client Access servers

2800133 W3wp.exe process consumes excessive CPU and memory resources on an Exchange Client Access server after you apply Update Rollup 5 version 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2

2800346 Outlook freezes and high network load occurs when you apply retention policies to a mailbox in a mixed Exchange Server 2010 SP2 environment

2810617 Can't install Exchange Server 2010 SP3 when you define a Windows PowerShell script execution policy in Group Policy

2787500 Declined meeting request is added back to your calendar after a delegate opens the request by using Outlook 2010

2797529 Email message delivery is delayed on a Blackberry mobile device after you install Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2

2800080 ErrorServerBusy response code when you synchronize an EWS-based application to a mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

Cheers,

Rhoderick