• Step by step run of the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool (MSExTMZCFG.EXE)

    We have put together a step-by-step walkthrough on how to run the Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool (MSExTMZCFG.EXE). This is a server-side tool that can be used as part of the 2007 DST process for Exchange. We have also included some information about solutions for commonly seen errors when running the tool.

    Please note that the KB article that talks about this package (KB 930879) has additional information about the tool as well as prerequisites and possible complications.

    There are 2 files that are downloaded in the above package:

    MSEXTMZ.exe - This file extracts time zone information from mailboxes on a server that is running Exchange Server. This file also updates mailbox calendars for a specified list of users by invoking the Outlook tool against each specified user.

    MSEXTMZCFG.exe - This file is a configuration tool that describes most of the steps when you update an Exchange Server server.

    Step 1: Prerequisites to running the Exchange Calendar Update Tool

    1) Pick a client operating system. The Exchange tool will run on any of the following operating systems:

    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003
    • Microsoft Windows XP
    • Microsoft Windows 2000 (must have OS fix or must import registry entries from KB 914387).

    2) Install Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. Create a profile that has rights to log in to any mailbox in the organization.

    3) Install the OS DST Patch (KB 931836).

    4) Install the Outlook Time Zone Update Tool (TZMOVE). Download from the Microsoft Download Center or from KB 931667.

    5) Make sure that the .NET Framework v2.0 has been installed

    Now you are ready to proceed. Click on screenshots below to see bigger versions if they are cut off in your browser window.

    Step 2: Run the MSExTMZCFG.EXE, it opens up like this:

    The "Server Domain Name" value is the server's LegacyExchangeDN from Active Directory. In order to get this information, you can use the utility such as LDP.EXE or ADSIEdit. The LegacyExchangeDN is in the following format:

    /o=<Exchange organization name>/ou=<Administrative group name>/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=<Server name>

    So something like this:

    /o=Contoso/ou=First administrative group/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=E2003BE1

    Step 3: Enter the Server Domain Name and press Next:

    Possible issues at this stage:

    - You might receive "Please Select the Valid Server" message box if the LegacyExchangeDN is not specified or is not in a valid format (extra spaces would be a problem too).

    - You might receive the following errors in the MsExTMZ.log due to LegacyExchangeDN mismatch:

    Unable open mailbox table for server /o=Contoso/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Servers/dn=E2003BE1.  Error 0x80070057.

    Unable open mailbox table for server /o=Contoso/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Servers/dn=E2003BE1.  Error 80040115.

    Step 4: Now you will get prompted for the Outlook profile name:

    Possible issues at this stage:

    1. Make sure that you select a profile with administrator privileges and the profile is configured in online mode.

    2. You might receive "Unable to find mailbox timezone: Error 0x80004005" (you can check the msextmz.log for errors). This might happen if the mailbox has never been logged into. To resolve this, login to OWA for the user specified in the error message and create a meeting request or an appointment and try re-running the tool again.

    Step 5: The tool names the text files it will create

    1. Conflictusers.txt - this file will contain users that have Conflicting TimeZone entries

    2. NonExistent.txt - will contain users who do not have their TimeZone information set.

    Press Next.

    Step 6: Specify the Time Zone and paths needed

    Next you will get to Select Time Zones and specify the path to Outlook.exe and TZMove.exe:

    Possible issues at this stage:

    - When specifying the Outlook Time Zone Update Tool, make sure you select the TZMOVE.EXE which is about 304 KB in size rather than the download itself, which is about 8 MB in size.

    - The TZMove.exe can be found in the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Office Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool

    - The Outlook registry Path should be pointed to the following location if you are using Outlook 2003 to run the utility:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook

    So after you specified the paths you should have something like this:

    Step 7: Press Finish to finish the configuration

    After you press Close on the above screen, the Configuration tool creates a folder named by the server name in the C:\MSEXTMZ directory. This folder will contain the following files:

    Mailboxes_1.txt - This is the list of mailboxes that will be processed when the batch file is run.

    MSExTmz_1.bat - This is a batch file that will call the C:\msextmz\msextmz.exe to process the MSExtmz_1.ini file

    MSExTmz_1.ini - This is the INI file which is created by the utility based upon the input specified by us while running steps 1-6 above. If for some reason the update doesn't run, this ini file can simply be modified instead of running through the entire config tool again.

    NonExistent.txt - This file contains the list of mailboxes which do not have Time Zone Information (like System Mailbox / SMTP Mailbox / System Attendant mailbox etc) or any mailboxes that have not been logged into yet.

    The folder will look like this:

    A sample snapshot of MSExTmz_1.bat:

    A sample snapshot of MSExTmz_1.ini:

    A sample snapshot of NonExistent.txt:

    Step 8: run the MSExtmz_1.bat file:

    Successful processing of the MSExtmz_1.bat will look something like this:

    All of this information is also being logged into the msextmz.log (as specified in the .ini file).

    Possible issues at this stage:

    If you get a bunch of errors with a code of 0x80004005, there are a few things to check:

    - That the Outlook tool is installed

    - Make sure the correct TZMOVE.exe has been selected in step #5 above

    - Try to run the tool from the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Office Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool

    For steps that you should do before and after running of the Exchange tool, other options that you have and related FAQ, please see the Exchange Server and Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007 TechNet article.

    - Ben Winzenz, Nino Bilic, thanks also to Suresh Babu D

  • Exchange 2010 SP1 FAQ and Known Issues

    Last week we released Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1. It has received some great feedback and reviews from customers, experts, analysts, and the Exchange community.

    The starting point for SP1 setup/upgrade should be the What's New in SP1, SP1 Release Notes, and Prerequisites docs. As with any new release, there are some frequently asked deployment questions, and known issues, or issues reported by some customers. You may not face these in your environment, but we're posting these here along with some workarounds so you're aware of them as you test and deploy SP1.

    1. Upgrade order

      The order of upgrade from Exchange 2010 RTM to SP1 hasn’t changed from what was done in Exchange 2007. Upgrade server roles in the following order:

      1. Client Access server
      2. Hub Transport server
      3. Unified Messaging server
      4. Mailbox server

      The Edge Transport server role can be upgraded at any time; however, we recommend upgrading Edge Transport either before all other server roles have been upgraded or after all other server roles have been upgraded. For more details, see Upgrade from Exchange 2010 RTM to Exchange 2010 SP1 in the documenation.

    2. Exchange 2010 SP1 Prerequisites

      Exchange 2010 SP1 requires the installation of 4-5 hotfixes, depending on the operating system – Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2. To install the Exchange 2010 SP1 administration tools on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, you requires 2 hotfixes.

      Note: Due to the shared code base for these updates, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista share the same updates. Similarly, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 share the same updates. Make sure you select the x64 versions of each update to be installed on your Exchange 2010 servers.

      Update 2/11/2011: Windows 2008 R2 SP1 includes all the required hotfixes listed in this table — 979744, 983440, 979099, 982867 and 977020. If you're installing Exchange 2010 SP1 on a server running Windows 2008 R2 SP1, you don't need to install these hotfixes separately. For a complete list of all updates included in Windows 2008 R2 SP1, see Updates in Win7 and WS08R2 SP1.xls.

      Here’s a matrix of the updates required, including download locations and file names.

      HotfixDownloadWindows Server 2008Windows Server 2008 R2Windows 7 & Windows Vista
      979744
      A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application
      MSDN
      or Microsoft Connect
      Windows6.0-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Vista/Win2K8)
      Windows6.1-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Win7/Win2K8 R2)
      N. A.
      983440
      An ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup package is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2
      Request from CSS
      N. A.
      Yes
      N.A.
      977624
      AD RMS clients do not authenticate federated identity providers in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista. Without this update, Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) features may stop working
      Request from CSS Select the download for Windows Vista for the x64 platform.
      N.A.
      N.A.
      979917
      Two issues occur when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0-based application on a server that is running IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 in Integrated mode
      MSDN Windows6.0-KB979917-x64.msu (Vista)
      N. A.
      N. A.
      973136,
      FIX: ArgumentNullException exception error message when a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application tries to process a response with zero-length content to an asynchronous ASP.NET Web service request: "Value cannot be null".

      Microsoft Connect

      Windows6.0-KB973136-x64.msu
      N.A.
      N. A.
      977592
      RPC over HTTP clients cannot connect to the Windows Server 2008 RPC over HTTP servers that have RPC load balancing enabled.

      Request from CSS

      Select the download for Windows Vista (x64)
      N.A.
      N. A.

      979099
      An update is available to remove the application manifest expiry feature from AD RMS clients.

      Download Center
      N. A.
      Windows6.1-KB979099-x64.msu
      N. A.
      982867
      WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
      MSDN Windows6.0-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Vista) Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7) X86: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x86.msu (Win7)
      x64: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7)
      977020
      FIX: An application that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 and that invokes a Web service call asynchronously throws an exception on a computer that is running Windows 7.
      Microsoft Connect
      N. A.

      x64: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x64.msu

      x64: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x64.msu

      X86: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x86.msu

      Some of the hotfixes would have been rolled up in a Windows update or service pack. Given that the Exchange team released SP1 earlier than what was planned and announced earlier, it did not align with some of the work with the Windows platform. As a result, some hotfixes are available from MSDN/Connect, and some require that you request them online using the links in the corresponding KBAs. The administrator experience when initially downloading these hotfixes may be a little odd. However, once you download the hotfixes, and receive two of the hotfixes from CSS, you can use the same for subsequent installs on other servers. In due course, all these updates may become available on the Download Center, and also through Windows Update.

      These hotfixes have been tested extensively as part of Exchange 2010 SP1 deployments within Microsoft and by our TAP customers. They are fully supported by Microsoft.

    3. Prerequisite download pages linked from SP1 Setup are unavailable

      When installing Exchange Server 2010 SP1 the prereq check may turn up some required hotfixes to install. The message will include a link to click for help. Clicking this link redirects you to a page saying that the content does not exist.

      We're working to update the linked content.

      Meanwhile, please refer to the TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites to download and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table, but you'll still need to install the usual prerequisites such as .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0, and the required OS components).

    4. The Missing Exchange Management Shell Shortcut

      Some customers have reported that after upgrading an Exchange Server 2010 server to Exchange 2010 SP1, the Exchange Management Shell shortcut is missing from program options. Additionally, the .ps1 script files associated with the EMS may also be missing.

      We’re actively investigating this issue. Meanwhile, here’s a workaround:

      1. Verify that the following files are present in the %ExchangeInstallPath%\bindirectory:
        • - CommonConnectFunctions.ps1
        • - CommonConnectFunctions.strings.psd1
        • - Connect-ExchangeServer-help.xml
        • - ConnectFunctions.ps1
        • - ConnectFunctions.strings.psd1
        • - RemoteExchange.ps1
        • - RemoteExchange.strings.psd1

        NOTE: If these files are missing, you can copy the files from the Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 installation media to the %ExchangeInstallPath%\bin directory. These files are present in the \setup\serverroles\common folder.

      2. Click Start -> AdmiinistrativeTools ->, right-click Windows PowerShell Modules, select Send to -> Desktop (as shortcut)
      3. Go to the Properties of the shortcut and on Target replace the path to C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto"

        Note: if the Exchange installation folder or drive name is different than the default, you need to change the path accordingly.

    5. Upgrading Edge Transport on Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) and Forefront Protection for Exchange 2010

      If you upgrade a server with the Edge Transport server role running with ForeFront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) and ForeFront Protection for Exchange (FPE) enabled for SMTP protection, the ForeFront TMG Managed Control Service may fail to start and E-mail policy configuration settings cannot be applied.

      The TMG team is working on this issue. See Problems when installing Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 on a TMG configured for Mail protection on the ForeFront TMG (ISA) Team Blog. Exchange 2010 SP1 Release Notes has been updated with the above information.

      The ForeFront TMG product team has released a software update to address this issue. See Software Update 1 for Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Service Pack 1 now available for download.

    6. Static Address Book Service Port Configuration Changes

      The location for setting the port the address book service should use has changed in SP1. In Exchange 2010 RTM you had to edit the Microsoft.exchange.addressbook.service.exe.config to configure the service port. In SP1 you must use the following registry key:
      Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MSExchangeAB\Parameters
      Value name: RpcTcpPort
      Type: REG_SZ (String)


      When you apply SP1 to a machine where you had previously configured a static port by editing the Microsoft.exchange.addressbook.service.exe.config file, the upgrade process will not carry forward your static port assignments. Following a restart, the Address Book Service will revert to using a dynamic port instead of a static port specified in the config file. This may cause interruptions in service.

      As with all upgrades where servers are in load balanced pools, we recommend you perform a rolling upgrade — removing servers from the pool, updating them and then moving the pool to the newly upgraded machines. Alternatively, we recommend that you upgrade an array of servers by draining connections from any one machine before you upgrade it.

      There are times when these approaches may not be possible. You can maintain your static port configuration, and have it take effect the moment the address book service starts for the first time following the application of the service pack, by creating the registry key BEFORE you apply SP1 to your server. The registry key has no impact pre SP1, and so by configuring it before you apply the Service Pack you can avoid the need to make changes to set the port post install, and avoid any service interruptions.

    7. iPhone, OWA Premium and POP3 & IMAP4 issues due to invalid accepted domain

      After applying E2010 SP1:

      1. iPhone users may not be able to view the content of incoming messages in their Inboxes, and when they try to open a message, they get an error saying:

        This message has not been downloaded from the server.

        Admins may see the following event logged in the Application Event Log on Exchange 2010 CAS Server:

        Watson report about to be sent for process id: 1234, with parameters: E12, c-RTL-AMD64, 14.01.0218.011, AirSync, MSExchange ActiveSync, Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.InboundConversionOptions.CheckImceaDomain, UnexpectedCondition:ArgumentException, 4321, 14.01.0218.015.

      2. OWA Premium users may not be able to reply or forward a message. They may see the following error in OWA:

        An unexpected error occurred and your request couldn't be handled. Exception type: System.ArgumentException, Exception message: imceaDomain must be a valid domain name.

      3. POP3 & IMAP4 users may also not be able to retrieve incoming mail and Admins will see the following event logged in Event Log:

        ERR Server Unavailable. 21; RpcC=6; Excpt=imceaDomain must be a valid domain name.

      Resolution

      Please run the following command under Exchange Management Shell and verify that there is one domain marked as ‘Default’ and it's DomainName & Name values are valid domain names. We were able to reproduce the issue by setting a domain name with a space in it, like "aa bb"

      Get-AcceptedDomain | fl

      If you also have an invalid domain name there (for example, a domain name with a space in it), then removing the space and restarting the server will fix the EAS (iPhone), OWA, POP3 & IMAP4 issues as mentioned above.

      Command to run under EMS would be:

      Set-AcceptedDomain –Identity -Name “ValidSMTPDomainName”

      Thes examples update the Name parameter of the "My Company" and "ABC Local" accepted domains (the space is removed from both):

      Set-AcceptedDomain –Identity “My Company” –Name “MyCompany.Com”
      Set-AcceptedDomain –Identity “ABC Local” –Name “ABC.Local”

    8. Error when adding or removing a mailbox database copy

      If a server running Exchange 2010 RTM (or Exchange 2010 SP1 Beta) is upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP1, administrators may experience an error when using the Add-MailboxdDatabaseCopy or Remove-MailboxDatabaseCopy cmdlets to add or remove DAG members.

      When you try to add a DAG member, you may see the following error:

      Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy DAG-DB0 -MailboxServer DAG-2

      The result:

      WARNING: An unexpected error has occurred and a Watson dump is being generated: Registry key has subkeys and recursive removes are not supported by this method.

      Registry key has subkeys and recursive removes are not supported by this method.
      + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy], InvalidOperationException
      + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.
      AddMailboxDatabaseCopy

      The command is not successful in adding the copy or updating Active Directory to show the copy was added. This happens due to presence of the DumpsterInfo registry key.

      Workaround: Delete the DumpsterInfo key, as shown below.

      1. Identify the GUID of the database that is being added using this command:

        Get-MailboxDatabase DAG-DB0 | fl name,GUID

        The result:

        Name : DAG-DB0
        Guid : 8d3a9778-851c-40a4-91af-65a2c487b4cc

      2. On the server specified in the add command, using the database GUID identified, remove the following registry key:
        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\Replay\State\<db-guid>\DumpsterInfo

        The GUID identified in this case is 8d3a9778-851c-40a4-91af-65a2c487b4cc. With this information you can now export and delete the DumpsterInfo key on the server where you are attempting to add the mailbox database copy. This can be easily done using the registry editor, but if you have more than a handful of DAG members, this is best automated using the Shell.

        This example removes the DumpsterInfo key from the 8d3a9778-851c-40a4-91af-65a2c487b4cc key:

        Remove-Item HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\V14\Replay\State\8d3a9778-851c-40a4-91af-65a2c487b4cc\DumpsterInfo

        To automate this across all servers in your organization, use the DeleteDumpsterRegKey.ps1 script.

        File: deletedumpsterregkey_ps1.txt
        Description: The DeleteDumpsterRegkey.ps1 script can be used to delete the offending DumpsterInfo registry keys that can cause this problem on all Exchange 2010 SP1 Mailbox servers in the organization. Rename the file to DeleteDumpsterRegkey.ps1 (remove the .txt extension).

        For more info, see Tim McMichael’s blog post Exchange 2010 SP1: Error when adding or removing a mailbox database copy.

    Thanks to all the folks in CSS and Exchange teams who helped identify, validate and provide workarounds for some of the issues mentioned above, and to the Exchange community and MVPs for their feedback.

    Bharat Suneja, Nino Bilic
    M. Amir Haque, Greg Taylor,
    & Tim McMichael

    Updates:

    • 9/7/2010: Updated list of files for the missing Exchange Management Shell shortcut issue
    • 9/15/2010: Udpated pre-reqs table:
      - 982867 required on Windows 2008 SP2
      - 983440 not required on Windows 2008 SP2
      - 977020 required on Windows 2008 R2
    • 9/21/2010: Added link to Software Update 1 for ForeFront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Service Pack 1
      - Replaced "Request from CSS..." verbiage for KB 979917 with link to KB 979917 download on MSDN
    • 9/22/2010: Updated correct default Exchange install path (highlighted) in 'The Missing Exchange Management Shell Shortcut" section: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto"
  • The Future of Exchange Starts Here: Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Is Now Available

    You have been eagerly waiting, and we have been working hard over the summer to deliver the latest Exchange Server 2010 enhancements as soon as possible. I am extremely happy to announce the availability of Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1, ready for download here.

    We released the SP1 beta at Tech Ed North America in June. We also shared some of the SP1 enhancements in Yes Virginia, there is an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 back in April. Since then, almost 500,000 SP1 mailboxes have gone into production in Technology Adoption Program (TAP) customer environments.

    Rather than recap all the SP1 features, I want to let a few of our Exchange TAP customers tell you what they loved.

    Exchange has been the most resilient and trusted solution for enterprise Email for many years now and when Exchange 2010 originally RTM’ed, I thought, what else could be improved… But the Exchange product group and the TAP group members have done just that in Service Pack 1.

    From improvements to manageability for both administrators and users to better control and resiliency within the SMTP stack, and fantastic improvements in Unified Messaging, the list of improvements and features in Service Pack 1 amazes even an old Exchange guy like me (who has worked on Exchange since early 4.0 days). Of all the improvements in SP1, my favorite so far is the Audit Logging improvements available in the Exchange Management Shell and the Exchange Control Panel.

    All I can say is, “Great job Microsoft Exchange Product Group on another fantastic product!”

    Gary Cooper, Horizons Consulting

    Calendar publishing is awesome. When working with people outside our organization, instead of fumbling around in multiple emails or phone calls “Is Tuesday at 3 PM good? How about next Wednesday at 9:30?” I can just send them a link to my calendar. Now if more organizations would get to Exchange 2010 and federate their free\busy (including Microsoft)....

    Joseph Nguyen, University of Oklahoma

    One of the most common criticisms from our customers regarding Exchange and OWA had been its lack of cross-browser and open systems support. Although we saw major improvements in Exchange 2010, SP1 has built upon this and taken things to the next level. SP1’s OWA experience is now class-leading and the addition of open standards calendar sharing is a feature we’ve been asked for many times - and have now been able to deliver. With SP1, our users can choose to share their Calendar in HTML and iCal formats, enabling real time sharing with external colleagues or access to their calendar from platforms and clients without Exchange support.

    In addition to the OWA improvements, we’ve been delighted with some of the other new features. On the client side features like auto mapping of shared mailboxes to user’s Outlook 2010 profiles will remove a support headache.

    In the datacentre, the support for online archives on a separate database from the primary mailbox is the green light for archiving implementation. Finally the ability to import and export PSTs without needing Outlook installed are a welcome addition and will be particularly useful when we begin importing archive PSTs back into Exchange for online archiving.

    Steve Goodman, Aston University

    And a word from Dimension Data, one of Exchange’s Global Partners.

    Exchange 2010 SP1 is a great example of how Microsoft is rapidly responding to customer and partner feedback. We believe these new enhancements to the archiving functionality, improved Outlook Web App experiences, and expanded mobility capabilities can only accelerate the already strong customer demand we’ve seen for upgrades. And, the continual innovation delivered by Microsoft Exchange enables our business to maintain strong relationships with our customers by always having the ability to offer them new, next generation scenarios to consider and deploy.

    Peter Menadue, Group General Manager, Microsoft Solutions at Dimension Data

    Once again, a huge thank you to all of our customers, TAP participants, and EHLO readers for downloading the SP1 Beta, and the constant stream of great feedback. We couldn’t have done it without you!

    Kevin Allison
    GM – Exchange Customer Experience

  • Released: Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 SP3

    Update 6/13/13: we added a known issue with transport rules to the blog post below.

    Today the Exchange CXP team released Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 SP3 to the Download Center.

    Note: Some of the following KB articles may not be available at the time of publishing this post.

    This update contains fixes for a number of customer-reported and internally found issues. For more details, including a list of fixes included in this update, see KB 2803727. We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

    • 2561346 Mailbox storage limit error when a delegate uses the manager's mailbox to send an email message in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
    • 2756460 You cannot open a mailbox that is located in a different site by using Outlook Anywhere in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
    • 2802569 Mailbox synchronization fails on an Exchange ActiveSync device in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
    • 2814847 Rapid growth in transaction logs, CPU use, and memory consumption in Exchange Server 2010 when a user syncs a mailbox by using an iOS 6.1 or 6.1.1-based device
    • 2822208 Unable to soft delete some messages after installing Exchange 2010 SP2 RU6 or SP3

    For DST changes, see Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center (microsoft.com/time).

    A known issue with Exchange 2010 SP3 RU1 Setup

    You cannot install or uninstall Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 SP3 on the double-byte character set (DBCS) version of Windows Server 2012 if the language preference for non-Unicode programs is set to the default language. To work around this issue, you must first change this setting. To do this, follow these steps:

    1. In Control Panel, open the Clock, Region and Language item, and then click Region.
    2. Click the Administrative tab.
    3. In the Language for non-Unicode programs area, click Change system locale.
    4. On the Current system locale list, click English (United States), and then click OK.

    After you successfully install or uninstall Update Rollup 1, revert this language setting, as appropriate.

    We have identified the cause of this problem and plan to resolve it in a future rollup, but did not want to further delay the release of RU1 for customers who are not impacted by it.

    A known issue with transport rules after E2010 SP3 RU1 is installed

    We have an issue where the messages stick in poison queue and transport continually crashes after this rollup is applied.

    We have gathered enough information and have determined the issue.  Specifically, the issue is caused by a transport rule (disclaimer) attempting to append the disclaimer to the end of HTML formatted messages.   When this occurs, messages will be placed in the poison queue and the transport service will crash with an exception.  We are investing resources to develop a code fix.  You can either disable or reconfigure the disclaimer transport rule.

    Exchange Team

  • Released: Exchange Server 2013 RTM Cumulative Update 1

    We know a lot of you have been waiting for this, and so it is with great excitement that we announce that Exchange Server 2013 RTM Cumulative Update 1 (CU1) has been released to the web and is available for immediate download! This is the first release using the new servicing model for Exchange Server 2013. In addition to this article, the Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 release notes are also available.

    Note: Article links that may not have been available at the time of this post's publishing are now available. Updated Exchange 2013 documentation, including Release Notes, is now available on TechNet.

    CU1 is the minimum version of Exchange 2013 required for on-premises coexistence with supported legacy Exchange Server versions. The final build number for CU1 is 15.0.620.29. For more information on coexistence, check out the Planning and Deployment documentation, and this Ignite webcast covering deployment of and coexistence with Exchange Server 2013.

    Upgrading/Deploying Cumulative Update 1

    Unlike previous versions, cumulative updates do not use the rollup infrastructure; cumulative updates are actually full builds of the product, meaning that when you want to deploy a new server, you simply use the latest cumulative update build available and do not necessarily need to apply additional Exchange Server updates.

    Active Directory Preparation

    Prior to upgrading or deploying the new build onto a server, you will need to update Active Directory. For those of you with a diverse Active Directory permissions model you will want to perform the following steps:

    1. Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 includes schema changes. Therefore, you will need to execute setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms.
    2. Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 includes enterprise Active Directory changes (e.g., RBAC roles have been updated to support new cmdlets and/or properties). Therefore, you will need to execute setup.exe /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms.
    3. Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 includes changes to the permissions within the domain partition (e.g., Exchange Servers have been granted the ability to modify msExchActiveSyncDevices class on inetOrgPerson objects). Therefore, you will need to execute setup.exe /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms in each domain containing Exchange servers or mailboxes.
    Note: If your environment contains only Exchange 2007, and you upgrade to Exchange 2013, keep in mind you cannot deploy Exchange 2010 in that environment at a later time. If you foresee a need to deploy Exchange 2010 servers into your environment, deploy an Exchange 2010 multi-role server (with all four servers roles) prior to executing Exchange 2013 setup.exe /PrepareAD. As long as you retain at least one role of each legacy server, you will continue to be able to install additional servers of that version into your coexistence environment. Once you remove the last server role of a legacy version, you will no longer be able to reintroduce that version into the environment.

    Coexistence Pre-Deployment Step: OAB Verification

    As mentioned in the Exchange Server 2013 CU1 release notes, when you deploy the first Exchange 2013 Mailbox server in an existing Exchange organization, a new default Offline Address Book is created.

    CU1-1
    Figure 1: The new OAB as shown in an Exchange Server 2010 SP3 & 2013 CU1 environment

    All existing clients that rely on an OAB will see this new default OAB the next time they look for an OAB update. This will cause these clients to perform a full OAB download. To prevent this from happening, you can configure your existing mailbox databases to explicitly point to the current default OAB prior to introducing the first Exchange 2013 server. You can do this one of two ways:

    1. Within the Exchange Management Console (EMC), navigate to Organization Configuration –> Mailbox –> Database Management –> Mailbox Database Properties –> Client Settings.

      CU1-2
      Figure 2: Modifying the default Offline Address Book at the database level in the EMC

    2. Alternatively, if you have many mailbox databases to update, the following Exchange Management Shell command can be used to view all mailbox databases without a default OAB explicitly set on them. If you have both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 deployed on-premises then you will have to run the following commands using the respective Exchange Management Shell version as the Get/Set-MailboxDatabase commands are version specific.

      Get-MailboxDatabase | Where {$_.OfflineAddressBook -eq $Null} | FT Name,OfflineAddressBook -AutoSize

      If no values are returned then you are already prepared. However, if you need to configure some databases, then this next command will find all mailbox databases in an Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 environment with no default OAB defined at the database level, and it will set it to the current default OAB in the org.

      Get-MailboxDatabase | Where {$_.OfflineAddressBook -eq $Null} | Set-MailboxDatabase -OfflineAddressBook (Get-OfflineAddressBook | Where {$_.IsDefault -eq $True})

      To confirm all Exchange 2007/2010 mailbox databases now have a defined default OAB, re-run the first command. This time it should return no entries.

    Server Deployment

    Once the preparatory steps are completed, you can then deploy CU1 and start your coexistence journey. If this is your first Exchange 2013 server deployment, you will need to deploy both an Exchange 2013 Client Access Server and an Exchange 2013 Mailbox Server into the organization. As explained in Exchange 2013 Client Access Server Role, CAS 2013 is simply an authentication and proxy/redirection server; all data processing (including the execution of remote PowerShell cmdlets) occurs on the Mailbox server. You can either deploy a multi-role server or each role separately (just remember if you deploy them separately, you cannot manage the Exchange 2013 environment until you install both roles).

    If you already deployed Exchange 2013 RTM code and want to upgrade to CU1, you will run setup.exe /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms from a command line after completing the Active Directory preparatory steps or run through the GUI installer. Deploying future cumulative updates will operate in the same manner.

    Note: Unlike previous versions, in Exchange 2013, you cannot uninstall a single role from a multi-role server. For example, if you deploy the CAS and MBX roles on a single machine, you cannot later execute setup to remove the CAS role; you can only uninstall all server roles.

    Mailbox Sizes in Exchange Server 2013

    As you start migrating your mailboxes to Exchange 2013, one thing you may notice is that your mailboxes appear to be larger post move.

    As you can imagine, with hosting millions of mailboxes in Office 365, accurate storage reporting is essential, just like in your on-premises deployments. One of the learnings that we accrued into the on-premises product is ensuring that the mailbox usage statistics are more closely aligned with the capacity usage within the Mailbox database. The impact of reporting space more accurately means that mailbox quota limits may need to be adjusted prior to the mailbox move so that users are not locked out of their mailbox during the migration process.

    Our improved space calculations may result in a mailbox’s reported size increasing on average of 30% when the mailbox is moved from a legacy version of Exchange to Exchange 2013. For example, if a mailbox is reported as 10GB in size on Exchange Server 2010, then when the mailbox is moved to Exchange 2013, it may be reported as 13GB. This does not mean that migrating to Exchange 2013 will increase your capacity footprint by 30% per mailbox; it only means that the statistics are including more data about the space the mailbox consumes. 30% is an average value, based on what we have experienced in Exchange Online. Customers with pilot mailboxes should determine what their own average increase value may be as some environments may see higher or lower values depending on the most prevalent type of email within their mailboxes. Again, this does not mean there will be an increase in the size of the database file on disk; only the attribution of space to each mailbox will increase.

    New Functionality Included in Cumulative Update 1

    Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 includes a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the RTM release of Exchange 2013. Some of the more notable enhancements are identified below.

    Address Book Policies

    As discussed recently, an Address Book Policy Routing Agent has been included in Exchange 2013 RTM CU1. For all the juicy details, see Address Book Policies, Jamba Jokes and Secret Agents.

    Groups can once again manage groups!

    In Exchange 2010 you could not use a group as an owner for another group for membership management. Instead you had to deploy explicit permissions on groups or use a script as a workaround.

    Since Exchange 2010’s release both Microsoft Support and the Exchange Product Group received resounding feedback on the need for this capability. The good news is that with Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 groups can once again be owners of groups for membership management.

    Public Folder Favorites Access through Outlook Web App

    In Exchange Server 2013 RTM there was no way to access Public Folder content through Outlook Web App. In CU1 you will now have access to Public Folders you have added as favorites via your favorites menu either in Outlook or Outlook Web App. However, this access is limited to Public Folders stored on Exchange Server 2013.

    OWA_PFs
    Figure 3: Adding a Public Folder as a favorite in Outlook Web App in Exchange Server 2013 RTM CU1

    Remember, you cannot start creating Public Folders on Exchange Server 2013 until all users have been migrated to Exchange Server 2013. For how to migrate from legacy Public Folders to Exchange Server 2013 Public Folders, see Migrate Public Folders to Exchange 2013 From Previous Versions.

    Exchange Admin Center Enhancements

    The Exchange Admin Center (EAC) has been enhanced and now includes Unified Messaging management, improvements in the migration UI allowing more migration options reducing the gap between PowerShell and the UI, and general overall improvements in the user experience for consistency and simplification based on customer feedback.

    High Availability and Monitoring Enhancements

    There are have been several enhancements in the high availability and Managed Availability space. In particular:

    • The Best Copy Selection algorithm now honors MaximumActiveDatabases.
    • Auto-reseed now supports disks that have Bitlocker encryption.
    • Many probes, monitors, and responders have been updated and improved over the RTM release.
    • Get-HealthReport cmdlet has been streamlined and its performance has been optimized.
    • Exchange 2013 RTM CU1 will support the Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM); this management pack will be available at a later date. This management pack is supported on SCOM 2007 R2 and SCOM 2012.

    On behalf of the Exchange Product Group, thanks again for your continued support and patience, and please keep the feedback coming.

    Exchange Team

    Updates