In the RTM version of Exchange 2016, there’s an issue in that it is allows you to add Exchange 2016 Mailbox servers to Exchange 2013 Database Availability Groups, and vice-versa. As stated in the Release Notes (you do read those?), creating such a mixed version DAG is not supported. In theory, you could even jeopardize your Exchange data, as database structures from both versions are different. This action is also not prevented from the Exchange Admin Center, requiring organizations to have very strict procedures and knowledgeable Exchange administrators.

If you are worried about this situation and you want to prevent accidently adding Mailbox servers to an existing DAG consisting of members of a different Exchange version, there is a way (until this is blocked by the product itself, of course). Cmdlet Extension Agents to the rescue!

The Scripting Agent not only allows you to add additional instructions to existing Exchange cmdlets, but also to provide additional validation before cmdlets are executed. I did two short articles on Cmdlet Extension Agents’ Scripting Agent here and here, so I will skip introductions.

First you need to download a file named ScriptingAgentConfig.xml from the location below. If you already have Scripting Agents, you need to integrate the code in your existing ScriptingAgentConfig.xml files. The code checks if the server you want to add using the Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet is of a different major version than one of the current DAG members.

Next, you need to copy this ScriptingAgentConfig.xml file to $ENV:ExInstallPath on every Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016 server in your organization, e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\ScriptingAgentConfig.xml.  To help your with this process, Exchange fellow Paul Cunningham made a small script to push this XML from the current folder to every Exchange server in your organization, PushScriptingAgentConfig.ps1.

Last step is to enable the Scripting Agent using:

Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent ‘Scripting Agent’

After distributing the scripting agent file and enabling the scripting agent, when you try to add an Exchange 2016 (version 15.1) server to an Database Availability Group consisting of Exchange 2013 Mailbox servers, using Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupServer, you will receive an error message:

This also works vice-versa, thus when you inadvertently try to add Exchange 2013 servers to an Exchange 2016 Database Availability Group, provided you distributed the XML on the Exchange 2013 servers as well. The error is also thrown when you try to perform this action using the Exchange Admin Console.

You can download the ScriptingAgentConfig.XML for blocking Mixed Exchange 2013/2016 DAGs from the TechNet here.