Exchange Updates – September 2016

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

Note: There are issues with Exchange 2013 CU14 and Exchange 2016 CU3 with regards to failing Content Indexing. Fellow MVP Jaap Wesselius blogged about this here. For now, recommendation is to not upgrade to CU14, until further notice. Also, there are acknowledged issues when running Exchange 2016 CU3 on Windows Server 2016. Don’t deploy Exchange 2016 CU3 on that OS until further notice.

Today, the Exchange Team released the september updates for Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Server 2016.

The biggest changes are for Exchange Server 2016:

Exchange Server 2016 CU3 or later support on Windows Server 2016, which is expected to be released at Ignite next week. Windows Server 2016 Domain Controllers are supported; requirement is just Forest Functional Level at Windows Server 2008 R2 or later. Note that it is also announced Exchange Server 2013 will not be supported (as in: now, and in the future). Performance-wise, it is recommended to exclude Exchange setup and log folders, as well as the noderunner processes in Windows Defender.
Finally, Exchange Server 2016 CU3 introduces the long-awaited Read from Passive feature. This means, indexes will be generated using (local) passive databases copies, and no longer require coordination with the server holding the active database copy. The result is lower bandwidth requirements, and – compared to Exchange Server 2013 – faster fail-overs. Be advised this feature does not apply to lagged copies.
An update for the Mailbox Server Role Calculator(s) for Exchange 2016 is available now (v8.3), incorporating Read from Passive changes. This allows organizations to not only size their deployment, but also predict the positive effect on bandwidth usage for current environments as well by using numbers. You can download the calculator here.

For a list of fixes in these updates, see below.

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 3	15.1.544.27	KB3152589	Download	UMLP
Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 14	15.0.1236.3	KB3177670	Download	UMLP

Exchange 2016 CU3 fixes:

KB 3154387 The DFS health set is listed as “Unhealthy” in an Exchange Server 2016 environment
KB 3175080 Cannot log on to OWA when FIPS is enabled in an Exchange Server 2016 environment
KB 3176377 Links to access Exchange items in SharePoint eDiscovery search result fail with an HTTP error 500 in Exchange Server
KB 3161916 Data loss may occur during public folder migration to Exchange 2013, Exchange 2016, or Exchange Online
KB 3176540 OWA error reporting responds with a HTTP error 500 in OwaSerializationException
KB 3190887 Upgrading Exchange Server causes the server to go offline unexpectedly
KB 3191075 You can’t install Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2016 on a Russian version operating system

Exchange 2013 CU14 fixes:

KB 3132513 “The Delegates settings were not saved correctly” when you try to add a user to Exchange Server 2013 from Microsoft Outlook
KB 3172017 “NotFound Export failed with error type: ‘NotFound'” error occurs when you perform an eDiscovery search in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3176377 Links to access Exchange items in SharePoint eDiscovery search result fail with an HTTP error 500 in Exchange Server
KB 3176540 OWA error reporting responds with a HTTP error 500 in OwaSerializationException
KB 3176873 Can’t create a new profile or connect to Exchange Server 2013 when an organization contains many address lists
KB 3061079 RPC Client Access service crashes and Event 4999 is logged in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3134918 An IRM-protected message sent to an external contact isn’t returned in a search or discovery results when journaling is implemented in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3190887 Upgrading Exchange Server causes the server to go offline unexpectedly

These Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2013 include the security update released last week, MS16-108. The Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2013 also include DST changes.

Notes:

Exchange 2016 CU3 includes schema changes (version 15326, reference), and Exchange 2016 CU3 as well as Exchange 2013 CU14 may introduce RBAC changes in your environment. Where applicable, make sure you run /PrepareSchema to update the schema or /PrepareAD to apply RBAC changes, before deploying or updating Exchange servers. To verify this step has been performed, consult the Exchange schema overview.
When upgrading your Exchange 2013 or 2016 installation, don’t forget to put the server in maintenance mode when required. Do note that upgrading, before installing the Exchange binaries, setup will put the server in server-wide offline-mode.
Using Windows Management Framework (WMF)/PowerShell version 5 on anything earlier than Windows Server 2016 is not supported. Don’t install WMF5 on your Exchange servers running on Windows Server 2012 R2 or earlier.
When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to stay current.
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.
Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM prior to installing Cumulative Updates.
Once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles.
The order of upgrading servers with Cumulative Updates is irrelevant.

Caution: As for any update, I recommend to thoroughly test updates in a test environment prior to implementing them in production. When you lack such facilities, hold out a few days and monitor the comments on the original publication or TechNet forum for any issues.

Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator 7.9

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

The Exchange team published an update for the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator, the tool to aid you in properly sizing your Exchange Server 2013 or Exchange Server 2016 deployment. The new version number is 7.9, and it contains mainly bug fixes.

Functionality changes and bug fixes since version 7.8:

Added support for 1.8TB disk capacity
Added color formatting for when memory exceeds the maximum recommended value
Fixed calcNumDBCopyInSDC formula to take into account proper number of lagged copies
Fixed calcActDBPDCWorst formula to take into account non-HA deployments
Fixed an issue where ReplayLagManager calculated field did not take into account the user disabling JBOD
Fixed version mismatch and added Add-PartitionAccessPath in Diskpart.ps1 script
Fixed issue with export CreateDAG.ps1 script where it defined Alternate Witness in single datacenter deployments
Fixed diskpart.ps1 script to sleep 10s after creating partition but prior to formatting to minimize error condition
Fixed RetainDeletedItemsUntilBackup to be set to $false for NDP deployments

You can download the calculator here. For more information, please consult the list of changes here or Read Me here.

Exchange Updates – March 2016

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Michel de Rooij

Today, the Exchange Team released one big wave of Exchange updates for Exchange 2016 down to Exchange 2007.

Changes in contained in these updates:

Exchange 2016 CU1 is an uncompressed ISO file. If bandwidth is scarce where you will be deploying, be sure to download this 6GB file upfront.
Mailbox Anchoring, introduced with the previous CU for Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016, is reverted.
Exchange 2010 supports stand-alone Exchange 2010 Hybrid wizard.
All updates will introduce updated OWA/Ootw S/MIME control.

For a list of fixes in these updates, see below.

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 1	15.1.396.30	KB3134844	Download	UML
Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 12	15.0.178.4	KB3108023	Download	UML
Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 Rollup 13	14.3.294.0	KB3141339	Download
Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3 Rollup 19	8.3.459.0	KB3141352	Download

Exchange 2016 CU1 fixes:

KB 3139730 Edge Transport service crashes when you view the properties of a poison message in Exchange Server 2016
KB 3135689 A custom SAP ODI URI is removed by ActiveSync from an email message in an Exchange Server environment
KB 3135688 Preserves the web.config file for Outlook Web App when you apply a cumulative update in Exchange Server 2016
KB 3135601 Cyrillic characters are displayed as question marks when you run the “Export-PublicFolderStatistics.ps1” script in an Exchange Server 2016 environment
KB 3124242 Mailbox quota is not validated during migration to Exchange Server 2013 or Exchange Server 2016

Exchange 2013 CU12 fixes:

KB 3143710 “Failed Search or Export” error occurs when an eDiscovery search in the Exchange Admin Center finishes
KB 3138644 Messages are stuck in the Submission queue until NDRs are returned or the server is restarted
KB 3137585 OAuth authentication fails in a proxy scenario between Exchange Server 2013 hybrid on-premises and Office 365
KB 3137581 An eDiscovery search of all mailboxes or some Distribution Groups fails when you use the Exchange Administration Center
KB 3137390 “DeviceId cannot contain hyphens” warning occurs when you use the Exchange Management Shell or the Exchange Administration Center to remove the associations in Exchange Server
KB 3137384 Error occurs when you remove an ActiveSync device in the Exchange Management Shell or from the Exchange Administration Center
KB 3137383 CafeLocalProbe fails if the Health Mailbox UPN doesn’t match its Active Directory domain name
KB 3137380 Both read receipts and Non-read receipts are generated when an email is read through IMAP or POP in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3137377 MSExchange FrontEnd Transport service crashes when email messages are processed that contain a null “X-OriginatorOrg” message header
KB 3136694 Calendar items are not synced correctly when you use Exchange ActiveSync on a mobile device
KB 3136404 Searching by Furigana in Outlook’s address book is unsuccessful in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3135689 A custom SAP ODI URI is removed by ActiveSync from an email message in an Exchange Server environment
KB 3135334 Cannot set Title in Exchange Admin Center (ECP) if it contains more than 64 characters
KB 3135269 Event ID 4999 with MSExchangerepl.exe and MSExchangeDagMgmt.exe crash in Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3135018 Cannot remove devices when the DeviceType property includes a forward slash
KB 3134952 EdgeTransport.exe crashes when you view details of messages in the poison message queue
KB 3134918 An IRM-protected message sent to an external contact isn’t returned in a search or discovery results when journaling is implemented in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3134894 The “Search-Mailbox” cmdlet together with the “Attachment” property keyword lists all items that contain the query string of “attachment”
KB 3128706 HttpProxy overloads a downlevel Client Access Server in an Exchange Server 2013 co-existence environment
KB 3124248 Managed Availability responders fail because of invalid WindowsService names in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3124242 Mailbox quota is not validated during migration to Exchange Server 2013 or Exchange Server 2016
KB 3124064 Event ID 1009 is logged and no Health Manager alerts on failed content indexes during migration in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3118902 Resource Booking Assistant doesn’t update the subject of a recurring meeting in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3109539 Exchange Management Shell doesn’t return the correct number of Exchange Server 2013 Enterprise CALs license
KB 3108415 Logon for POP3 client disconnects randomly in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3106236 The “Export-PublicFolderStatistics.ps1” cmdlet exports Russian (Cyrillic) characters as question marks
KB 3098561 “Error executing child request for /owa/auth/errorFE.aspx” when you browse to /ECP in Exchange Server 2013

Notes:

Exchange 2016 CU1 includes schema changes, and Exchange 2013 CU12 may introduce RBAC changes in your environment. When applicable, make sure you run PrepareSchema /PrepareAD before deploying. To verify this step has been performed, consult the Exchange schema overview.
If you have deployed KB3097966 on your Exchange server running on Windows Server 2012 R2, you may want to manually recompile the .NET assemblies before upgrading Exchange to significantly speed up the process. To accomplish this, run the following on every Exchange server on Windows Server 2012 R2:
“%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ngen.exe update”
Don’t get upset by the messy output and any error messages; if the result of this command shown in the output is ‘0’ you’re good to go.
Be advised .NET Framework 4.6.1 is still not supported; make sure you don’t install this .NET update on your Exchange servers.
The Windows Management Framework (WMF)/ PowerShell version 5 is not supported. Don’t install this on your Exchange servers.
When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to stay current.
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.
Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM prior to installing Cumulative Updates.
Once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles.
The order of upgrading servers with Cumulative Updates is irrelevant.
Rollups are cumulative per service pack level, meaning you can apply the latest Rollup for Service Pack X to a Service Pack X installation.

Finally, as always 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 original article or TechNet forum for any issues.

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 11

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

The Exchange Team released Cumulative Update 11 for Exchange Server 2013 (KB3099522). This update raises Exchange 2013 version number to 15.0.1156.6.

Apart from a Daylight Savings Time update, documented here, this Cumulative Update contains the following fixes:

KB 3120594 Appointment on the Outlook calendar isn’t updated to a meeting when attendees are added
KB 3108345 “The app couldn’t be downloaded” error occurs when you try to install an application from the Intranet in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3108011 Error message occurs in Outlook after you change a single instance of a recurring meeting by using an iOS device
KB 3107781 Exchange ActiveSync device doesn’t keep messages for 30 days as configured
KB 3107379 Noderunner.exe consumes excessive CPU resources by parsing an attached document in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3107337 Mailbox migration from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2013 is very slow
KB 3107291 Exception occurs when you run the Invoke-MonitoringProbe cmdlets to set probes for IMAP and POP3 in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3107205 “Custom error module does not recognize this error” error when OWA web parts fail to load
KB 3107174 Pages that use the People pop-up URL don’t load in Chrome when you access OWA or the Exchange Server Administration Center
KB 3106613 Outlook Web App shows partial contacts in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3106475 POP3 and IMAP4 are not supported to use TLS protocol 1.1 or 1.2 in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3106421 Very long URLs in an email message do not open in OWA in Internet Explorer
KB 3105760 Exchange Server 2016 mailbox server can be added to an Exchange Server 2013 DAG
KB 3105690 Outlook clients that use MAPI over HTTP to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 mailboxes are intermittently disconnected
KB 3105685 The lsass.exe process leaks an amount of handles in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3105654 Cannot edit Inbox rules in Outlook Web App by using Chrome
KB 3105625 ActiveSync device downloads emails while it’s in quarantine in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3105389 WSMan-InvalidShellID error when you create remote PowerShell sessions in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3100519 No responses are sent from a room mailbox when a booked meeting extends beyond the date you set in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3093866 The number of search results can’t be more than 250 when you search email messages in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3088911 Inline attachments are sent as traditional when you smart forward an HTML email in an iOS device in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3088487 IOPS Write increase causes email delivery delays in an Exchange Server 2013 environment
KB 3076376 IMAP clients that use Kerberos authentication protocol are continually prompted for credentials in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3068470 “Something went wrong” error in Outlook Web App and ECP in Exchange Server 2013
KB 3048372 Exchange Calendar items are shifted incorrectly when some Windows DST updates are applied
KB 2968265 OWA cannot be accessed after you upgrade Exchange Server 2013

Notes:

This CU introduces an important change in the mechanism how Exchange Management Shell sessions will be initiated as of Exchange 2013 CU11 (and to be introduced in Exchange 2016, as well), called Mailbox Anchoring. More on this later in this article.
When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to stay current (version N) or be one version behind (N-1).
Cumulative Update may include schema or Active Directory changes (e.g. Role-Based Access Control). Make sure you run PrepareSchema /PrepareAD. If you want to speed up the Cumulative Update installation process, you can temporarily disable certificate revocation checking as described here.

Note that Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM 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 11 here; UM Language Packs can be found here.

MAILBOX ANCHORING
This CU introduces an important change in the administrative model. In short, you need to home your administrative mailbox on the Exchange platform level you want to administer Exchange from (mailbox anchoring), as you will connect (or be proxied) to an Exchange Management Shell (EMS) session on that host. In other words, use an administrative account with a mailbox on Exchange 2013 to administer Exchange 2013, use an admin mailbox on Exchange 2016 for Exchange 2016. The logic behind this is to work around mixed-version environment issues, as newer Exchange versions may introduce changes, like new or enhanced cmdlets but also deprecated functionality. New general recommendation is to keep arbitration mailboxes as well as administrative mailboxes on the most current version.

If the admin has no mailbox, or if it’s unavailable, arbitration mailboxes – primarily SystemMailbox{bb558c35-97f1-4cb9-8ff7-d53741dc928c} – are considered for hosting your EMS session. Also, that ‘Connected to <Server>’ message when you open up an EMS session will no longer always mean your EMS session is hosted on that server; it could mean your EMS session is being proxied through there, which can create challenges when you’re running multiple sites with low bandwidth links – you may need to move your admin mailbox around or create one for local administration to enjoy better response times. You can only discover which host your session runs on by inspecting the local environment, using elements like the env:COMPUTERNAME variable or [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostName().

Also, it might be wise to spread administrative mailboxes over different servers or databases, in case your arbitration mailboxes become unavailable together with that one administrative mailbox, as you need to recover one of those just so you can set up an EMS session. The last resort for running an EMS cmdlets – against all best practices and recommendations, as it bypasses Role-Based Access Control for example – is to load the Exchange module using Add-PSSnapIn. But be advised, you may not have all required permissions, for example your admin account may not have direct Active Directory permissions (and which is one of the reasons you shouldn’t just load the snap-in under normal circumstances).

The Exchange Team put up a separate blog to explain this change in behavior here.

Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator 7.8

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Michel de Rooij

The Exchange team today published an update for the Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator as well. The new version number is 7.8. This version incorporates sizing for Exchange 2016 as well and includes support for ReFS (default for Exchange 2016). The version number is also dropped from the calculator.

More or less complementary to the calculator is the updated sizing guidance for Exchange 2016, which was also published today here. No big changes here, apart from multi-role only option and a slight increase in CPU requirements to cover for unforeseen circumstances as the team is still learning from real-world behavior. This makes sense, looking at the speed in which the calculator was released compared to the one for Exchange 2013. Kudos to the Exchange team!

New and enhanced functionality since version 7.6:

Added support for Exchange 2016
Included CPU utilization guidance changes for Exchange 2016
Diskpart.ps1 and CreateDAG.ps1 now support ReFS
Moved DataMoveReplicationConstraint setting from CreateMBDatabases.ps1 to CreateMBDatabaseCopies.ps1
Revised all of the Distribution dialog controls to load their defaults from variables rather than use hard-coded values
The DAG name from the Input tab now flows through as the default on the Export DAG dialog
Updated Distribution tab dialog controls to persist the global catalog value during a session
Added conditional formatting for ReplayLagTime and SafetyNetThreshold
Removed 2013 from the name of the calculator

Fixes since version 7.6:

Fixed inaccuracies with “Number of Exchange Data Volumes per Server” input
Fixed calcActDBPDCWorst formula to take into account non-HA deployments
Fixed multiple dbs / volume calculation to take into account ReplayLagManager
Fixed calcNumDBCopyInSDC formula to take into account proper number of lagged copies
Fixed MaxPreferredActive not being displayed for A/A (Single DAG) site resilient solutions
Fixed an issue with Fail* buttons on Distribution tab when using some regional settings
Fixed an issue with volume path persistence on the Distribution tab Mount Points dialog

You can download the calculator here. For more information, please consult the list of changes here or Read Me here.