Tag Archives: SP1

Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 1

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Today the Exchange Team released Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (KB2407082). This update raises Exchange 2010 version number to 14.1.255.2.

Here’s the list of changes included in this rollup:

  • 2028967 Event ID 3022 is logged and you still cannot replicate a public folder from one Exchange Server 2010 server to another
  • 2251610 The email address of a user is updated unexpectedly after you run the Update-Recipient cmdlet on an Exchange Server 2010 server
  • 978292 An IMAP4 client cannot send an email message that has a large attachment in a mixed Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2003 environment
  • 982004 Exchange Server 2010 users cannot access the public folder
  • 983549 Exchange Server 2010 removes the sender’s email address from the recipient list in a redirected email message
  • 983492 You cannot view updated content of an Exchange Server 2010 public folder

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 by using fscutility /enable

You can download Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 1 here.

ForeFront TMG SP1 Update 1 for Exchange 2010 SP1

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The ForeFront team released Update 1 for Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Service Pack 1.

Besides bug fixes and some added functionality, Update 1 also adds support for Exchange 2010 SP1. Because Exchange 2010 SP1 doesn’t support the get-antispamupdates cmdlet (see this post), implementing Exchange 2010 SP1 on servers in the Mail protection role (with Exchange – Edge server role – as well as ForeFront Protection for Exchange) leads to issues.

Update 1 fixes this issue. To make things confusing, the ForeFront team calls these cumulative updates Software Update or Update; what’s wrong Rollup? Be advised that the ForeFront Update page doesn’t mention the Update (yet), nor is the related knowledge base article published (kb2288910).

You can download ForeFront TMG SP1 Update 1 here. Note that currently only English is available, other languages are said to be made available soon.

DAC: Changes in Exchange 2010 SP1 (Part 3)

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Part 1: Active Manager, Activate!
Part 2: Datacenter Activation Coordination Mode

In the first two articles I discussed on Exchange 2010 Active Manager and Datacenter Activation Coordination (DAC) mode in Exchange 2010 RTM. But Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduces changes related to DAC, which I’ll discuss in this post.

Supported Configurations
To start with, DAC mode support has been extended in Exchange 2010 SP1 to support all 2 DAG configurations with 2 or more members.  This is great, since you can now enable DAC mode for 2-member DAGs. Like I explained in the 2nd part, split brain syndrome isn’t unlikely, all the more with 2 nodes given the 50/50 situation. Implementing SP1 enables you to leverage DAC mode for the simplest form of mailbox database resilience, using DAGs with 2 members over 2 sites configurations. When required, DAC in SP1 will use the Witness Server to provide the necessary arbitration.

Another thing is that SP1 doesn’t have the requirement of being enabled for DAGs in at least 2 Active Directory sites. This is good news for customers who have their Active Directory organized in a single site located over multiple locations, e.g. stretched VLANs.

Planning
When implementing SP1 on DAG members, you must implement SP1 on all DAG members as soon as possible. Reason is that DAG members running Exchange 2010 RTM can move their databases to a DAG member running Exchange 2010 SP1, but not vice versa. So, do not postpone implementation of SP1 on additional DAG members after implementing it on the first, as it impacts your failover and switchover options. Worst case when not doing so, is ending up in the situation where you cannot activate databases on a server because it doesn’t contain SP1.

Alternate Witness Server
In SP1 you can configure the Alternate Witness Server and Directory using the Exchange Management Console. This location can be used to preconfigure the Alternate Witness Server used during switchover or failover to the secondary datacenter.  The configured value will be picked up automatically using the Restore-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet during a datacenter switchover, when not explicitly specifying AlternateWitnessServer and AlternateWitnessDirectory there.

Note that this location could already be configured in Exchange 2010 RTM using the Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup using the AlternateWitnessDirectory and AlternateWitnessServer options.

Conclusion
DAC is a useful option that each administrator running DAGs on Exchange should consider enabling. But be aware of the caveats, like the requirement of all nodes to be able to communicate with each other during start up. All in all, DAC is a helpful option as it not only prevents issues like split brain syndrome, but it also makes the process of switching datacenters easier and less prone to error. Exchange 2010 SP1 extends the number of possible configuration in which to implement DAC, making DAC an option for the masses.

I hope you found this 3-part post useful, if you still got questions do not hesitate asking me.

Part 1: Active Manager, Activate!
Part 2: Datacenter Activation Coordination

In the first two articles I discussed on Exchange 2010 Active Manager and Datacenter Activation Coordination (DAC) mode in Exchange 2010 RTM. But Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) adds some nice features to DAC mode, which I’ll discuss in this 3rd article.

Supported Configurations
To start with, DAC mode support has been extended in Exchange 2010 SP1 to support all 2 DAG configurations with 2 or more members.  This is great, since you can now enable DAC mode for 2-member DAGs. Like I explained in the 2nd part, split brain syndrome isn’t unlikely, all the more with 2 nodes given the 50/50 situation. Implementing SP1 enables you to leverage DAC mode for the simplest form of mailbox database resilience, using DAGs with 2 members over 2 sites configurations. When required, DAC in SP1 will use the Witness Server to provide the necessary arbitration.

Another thing is that SP1 doesn’t have the requirement of being enabled for DAGs in at least 2 Active Directory sites. This is good news for customers who have their Active Directory organized in a single site located over multiple locations, e.g. stretched VLANs.

Planning
When implementing SP1 on DAG members, you must implement SP1 on all DAG members as soon as possible. Reason is that DAG members running Exchange 2010 RTM can move their databases to a DAG member running Exchange 2010 SP1, but not vice versa. So, do not postpone implementation of SP1 on additional DAG members after implementing it on the first, as it impacts your failover and switchover options. Worst case when not doing so, is ending up in the situation where you cannot activate databases on a server because it doesn’t contain SP1.

Alternate Witness Server
In SP1 you can configure the Alternate Witness Server and Directory using the Exchange Management Console. This location can be used to preconfigure the Alternate Witness Server used during switchover or failover to the secondary datacenter.  The configured value will be picked up automatically using the Restore-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet during a datacenter switchover, when not explicitly specifying AlternateWitnessServer and AlternateWitnessDirectory there.

Note that this location could already be configured in Exchange 2010 RTM using the Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup using the AlternateWitnessDirectory and AlternateWitnessServer options.

RBAC Overview Sheet 1.2

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I’ve updated the Role Based Access Control (RBAC) Overview sheet with information of Exchange 2010 SP1. You can download version 1.2 of the RBAC Overview sheet from here.

The sheet contains information on the default RBAC configuration of Exchange 2010 RTM and Exchange 2010 SP1 and a list of differences found between the two setups.

For information on how to use the sheet, consult the post on the initial release here.

For those interested, there were 39 changes introduced in Exchange SP1 Final compared to SP1 Beta. Below are the differences. A “-” means an RBAC entry is removed in SP1 Final, a “+” means it was added:

- Discovery Management,Legal Hold,Enable-Mailbox
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,Get-MailboxExportRequest
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,New-MailboxExportRequest
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,Remove-MailboxExportRequest
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,Set-MailboxExportRequest
+ Discovery Management,Mailbox Search,Suspend-MailboxExportRequest
- Organization Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,New-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
- Organization Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
- Organization Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,New-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
- Organization Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
- Organization Management,Legal Hold,Enable-Mailbox
- Organization Management,Legal Hold,Enable-Mailbox
- Organization Management,Mailbox Import Export,Export-Mailbox
- Organization Management,Mailbox Import Export,Import-Mailbox
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,Get-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,New-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,Remove-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,Set-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Mailbox Search,Suspend-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Message Tracking,Resume-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Message Tracking,Resume-MailboxExportRequest
+ Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-AssistantHealth
+ Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-SmtpConnectivity
+ Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-AssistantHealth
+ Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-SmtpConnectivity
+ Organization Management,View-Only Audit Logs,New-AdminAuditLogSearch
+ Organization Management,View-Only Audit Logs,New-MailboxAuditLogSearch
+ Organization Management,View-Only Audit Logs,New-AdminAuditLogSearch
+ Organization Management,View-Only Audit Logs,New-MailboxAuditLogSearch
+ Recipient Management,Message Tracking,Resume-MailboxExportRequest
+ Records Management,Message Tracking,Resume-MailboxExportRequest
- Server Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,New-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
- Server Management,Exchange Virtual Directories,Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
+ Server Management,Monitoring,Test-AssistantHealth
+ Server Management,Monitoring,Test-SmtpConnectivity
+ View-Only Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-AssistantHealth
+ View-Only Organization Management,Monitoring,Test-SmtpConnectivity

Besides RBAC information, you may also find this list and the Overview Sheet useful for spotting new cmdlets and changes in functionality.

Exchange 2010 Endpoint Mapper Issue & Firewall

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While upgrading one of my existing Exchange 2010 lab machines from RTM to SP1, I encountered the following error message during the upgrade:

Error:
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
          if (!(get-service MSExchangeADTopology* | where {$_.name -eq "MSExchangeADTopology"}))
          {
            install-ADTopologyService
          }
        " was run: "There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)".
There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)

The message appeared at the stage of upgrading the Unified Messaging components. I had a look at the ExchangeSetup.log file and it contained the the following information:

[08/27/2010 10:08:13.0948] [2] Beginning processing install-UMService
[08/27/2010 10:08:14.0011] [2] [WARNING] An unexpected error has occurred and a Watson dump is being generated: There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)
[08/27/2010 10:08:14.0027] [2] [ERROR] There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)
[08/27/2010 10:08:15.0823] [1] The following 1 error(s) occurred during task execution:
[08/27/2010 10:08:15.0823] [1] 0.  ErrorRecord: There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)
[08/27/2010 10:08:15.0823] [1] 0.  ErrorRecord: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800706D9): There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706D9)
at Interop.NetFw.INetFwRules.Add(NetFwRule rule)
at Microsoft.Exchange.Security.WindowsFirewall.ExchangeFirewallRule.Add()
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.ManageService.Install()
at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.UM.InstallUMService.InternalProcessRecord()
at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ProcessRecord()
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.ProcessRecord()

It seems the error is caused while trying to add a firewall rule, indicated by Interop.NetFw.INetFwRules.Add (INetFwRules is the rules collection of the built-in Windows Firewall).

I had a quick check with the firewall settings on the machine and it turned out the Windows Firewall was disabled. I figured that perhaps adding the rules failed because setup couldn’t communicate with the firewall service.

I enabled the Windows Firewall and this time the upgrade process went fine:

[08/27/2010 10:23:10.0988] [2] Beginning processing install-UMService
[08/27/2010 10:23:11.0145] [2] Ending processing install-UMService