Hybrid EAC, Ex2007 & In-Place Hold issues in Ex2013 CU6

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Michel de Rooij

Last update September 2nd, 2014: Microsoft has released a ‘fix’ to correct the EAC issue. It is available through KB2997355. Be advised that the fix uses the default Program Files folder. If you have installed Exchange in a different location, I suggest using Exchange2013-KB2997355-FixIt-v2. Also added information on a serious In-Place Hold issue to this post.

Just a few days after the release of Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 6, some issues have been identified which could pose issues for organizations utilizing Exchange 2013 Hybrid deployments, or organizations using Exchange 2013 in co-existence with Exchange 2007.

First, Exchange MVP fellow Jeff Guillet discovered that, when you have deployed Exchange 2013 CU6 on-premises in a Hybrid scenario, several Office 365-related mailbox functions will not show up in the Exchange Admin Center (EAC), e.g.

Create mailboxes in Exchange Online.
Move mailboxes to Exchange Online.
Create In-Place Archive mailboxes.

Of course, this functionality remains available when using Exchange Management Shell (EMS), or alternatively use the Office 365 Portal where possible. The severity of this issue therefor depends on how your operations procedures make use of these functions in EAC. This issue has been confirmed in KB2997355, which contains a fix but I suggest using my adjusted version available here, which will use the actual Exchange installation folder instead of assuming Exchange is installed using the default installation path.

The second issue was reported by another Exchange MVP, Ratish Nair. When using Exchange 2013 in co-existence with Exchange 2007, access to delegated mailboxes may cause Exchange 2013 databases to fail-over (or dismounts when you have single copies of databases) due to Microsoft.Exchange.Worker.Store crashing. This only happens when the user’s mailbox is on hosted on Exchange 2007 and the delegate mailbox is on Exchange 2013 CU6. This issue has been confirmed in KB2997209 which contains a link to request the related hotfix.

On a more serious note, Exchange MVP Tony Redmond reported that a serious flaw has been discovered in OWA, which allows delegates to bypass In-Place Hold and remove entire folders from a mailbox without a trace. This applies to Exchange Server 2013 as well as Office 365. Meanwhile, Microsoft has acknowledged the issue in KB2996477. Suggested workarounds are to put delegate mailboxes on In-Place Hold as well or to disable OWA access for those delegates.

The UC Architects Podcast Ep42

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Michel de Rooij

Episode 42 of The UC Architects podcast is now available, which is hosted by Pat Richard, who is joined by John A. Cook, Tom Arbuthnot and yours truly. Editing was done by Andrew Price.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode are:

Tool: PelNet v2.0
Managed Availability Probes
Skype for Desktop Settings – Set-SkypeClientPreferences withPowerShell
New firmware for LPE devices
Desktop sharing update
New Tool: Lync Common Area Phone Management (GUI)
Lync SDN For Dummies
Lync Anonymous Response Group Limitations and Field Notes
Practical use of Call Quality Methodology
New Tool: Event Zero Broadcast IM tool
Lync Server 2013 Cumulative Update (flex fabric update)
Static route for Edge server internal interfaces
UC Architects @ Connections speakers and Scheduled Maintenance party
Norwegian Lync Day
TechEd Europe 2014
Northern UC User Group

More information on the podcast including references and a link to download the podcast here or you can subscribe to the podcasts using iTunes, Zune or use the RSS feed.

About
The UC Architects is a bi-weekly community podcast by people with a passion for Unified Communications; our main focus is on Exchange, Lync or related subjects.

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 6

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Michel de Rooij

Note: There are some known issues with CU6 RTM concerning Hybrid environments and when used in co-existence with Exhange 2007. Please check this post for updates.

Today, Cumulative Update 6 for Exchange Server 2013 was released by the Exchange Team (KB2936880). This update raises Exchange 2013 version number to 15.0.995.29.

This Cumulative Update increases the Public Folder for Exchange On-Premises to 100,000. It also fixes the ‘Hybrid Configuration Wizard ‘Subtask Checkprereqs Execution Failed’ issue I blogged about here (2988229).

This Cumulative Update contains the following fixes:

2991934 Duplicate mailbox folders after migration to Exchange Server 2013
2983512 RPC Client Access service crashes on an on-premises Mailbox server in an Exchange Server 2013 hybrid environment
2983426 AutodiscoverSelfTestProbe fails when external URL is not set for EWS virtual directory in Exchange Server 2013
2983423 AutodiscoverSelfTestProbe fails when external URL is not set for ECP virtual directory in Exchange Server 2013
2983422 The ServerWideOffline component is set to Inactive after Exchange Server 2013 prerequisite check fails
2983207 “532 5.3.2” NDR when you send an email message to a hidden mailbox in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2983066 Removed Default or Anonymous permission for Outlook folders cannot be restored in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982769 “Topology service cannot find the OWA service” when you perform an eDiscovery search in Exchange Server 2013
2982763 Mail-enabled public folder accepts email messages from unauthorized users in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982762 OAB generation arbitration mailbox can be removed or disabled in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982760 The Enter key submits duplicate sign-in forms to Outlook Web App in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2982759 You cannot access the archive mailbox of a delegated user after enabling MAPI over HTTP
2982017 Incorrect voice mail message duration in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2981835 You cannot add attachments, delete or move many email messages in bulk in Outlook Web App
2981466 MAPI/CDO client cannot connect to Exchange Server 2013
2977279 You cannot disable journaling for protected voice mail in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2975599 Exchange Server 2010 public folder replication fails in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2975003 Calendar item body disappears in Outlook online mode in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2974339 OAB generation fails if FIPS is used in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2971270 Blank page after you sign in to Exchange Server 2013 EAC (formerly ECP)
2970040 Folder Assistant rule does not work correctly in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2965689 EAS device cannot sync free/busy status if an item is created by EWS in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
2963590 Message routing latency if IPv6 is enabled in Exchange Server 2013
2961715 “Something went wrong” error in Outlook Web App may show an incorrect date
2958434 Users cannot access mailboxes in OWA or EAS when mailbox database is removed

Notes:

There are some additional changes in the way Public Folders operate. Consult this article from the Exchange team for details on these changes.
When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to keep up to date.
Be advised of OAB architectural changes introduced with CU5 which are documented here. If you are affected, it is recommended to update CAS servers prior to Mailbox servers.
If you have installed the Interim Update to fix Hybrid Configuration Wizard, you can install the Cumulative Update over it – there is no need to uninstall the IU prior to installing CU6.

This Cumulative Update includes schema and AD changes, so make sure you run PrepareSchema / PrepareAD. After updating, the schema version will be 15303.

Note that Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM or Service Packs prior to installing Cumulative Updates. Note that once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles. The order of upgrading servers is irrelevant, unlike with previous generations of Exchange.

Finally, and I can’t emphasize this enough: For any Hotfix, Rollup, Service Pack or Cumulative Update, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production. When you lack such facilities, hold out a week or two and monitor the comments on the release article or TechNet forum for any issues.

You can download Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 6 here; UM Language Packs can be found here. More details about these changes, preparing Active Directory or installing this Cumulative Update can be found in the original announcement.

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 7

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Michel de Rooij

Today the Exchange Team released Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (KB2961522). This update raises Exchange 2010 version number to 14.3.210.2.

This Rollup includes the following fixes:

2983261 “HTTP 400 – Bad Request” error when you open a shared mailbox in Outlook Web App in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
2982873 Outlook Web App logon times out in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
2980300 Event 4999 is logged when the World Wide Web publishing service crashes after you install Exchange Server 2010 SP3
2979253 Email messages that contain invalid control characters cannot be retrieved by an EWS-based application
2978645 S/MIME option disappears when you use Outlook Web App in Internet Explorer 11 in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
2977410 Email attachments are not visible in Outlook or other MAPI clients in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
2976887 eDiscovery search fails if an on-premises Exchange Server 2010 mailbox has an Exchange Online archive mailbox
2976322 Assistant stops processing new requests when Events in Queue value exceeds 500 in Exchange Server 2010
2975988 S/MIME certificates with EKU Any Purpose (2.5.29.37.0) are not included in OAB in Exchange Server 2010
2966923 Domain controller is overloaded after you change Active Directory configurations in Exchange Server 2010

Notes:

If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking.
If you got a DAG and want to properly update the DAG members, check the instructions here.
Rollups are cumulative per service pack level, i.e. they contain fixes released in earlier update Rollups for the same product level (RTM, SP). This means you don’t need to install previous Rollups during a fresh installation but can start with the latest Rollup package.

As with any Hotfix, Rollup or Service Pack, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this rollup in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

You can download Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 7 here.

Exchange 2007 SP3 Rollup 14

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Michel de Rooij

Today the Exchange Team released Rollup 14 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 (KB2936861). This update raises Exchange 2007 version number to 8.3.379.2.

This Rollup introduces daylight saving times (DST) changes.

Notes:

When running ForeFront Protection for Exchange, make sure you disable ForeFront before installing the rollup and re-enable it afterwards, otherwise the Information Store and Transport services may not start. You can disable ForeFront using fscutility /disable and enable it using the fscutility /enable command;
If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking;
Rollups are cumulative per service pack level, i.e. they contain fixes released in earlier update Rollups for the same product level (RTM, SP). This means you don’t need to install previous Rollups during a fresh installation but can start with the latest Rollup package.

As with any Hotfix, Rollup or Service Pack, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this rollup in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

You can download Exchange 2007 SP3 Rollup 14 here.