Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thinking about Exchange 2007 SP 2?

By Raphael Barini, MCITP Enterprise Messaging Administrator

For many longtime Exchange administrators, the return of native backup capabilities for Exchange servers deployed on Windows Server 2008 servers is exciting news. Under Exchange 2003 systems, administrators could make ad-hoc backups using Windows’ built-in backup utility. Much to peoples’ dismay, this capability did not make its way into Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. With the installation of SP2, Exchange administrators running on Windows Server 2008 receive a VSS plug-in that enables Windows Server Backup to address this negative situation. To see more information about Backup in-box running on Windows Server 2008 please visit the following link: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/05/13/451311.aspx

In order to deploy Exchange Server 2010 into an existing Exchange 2007 organization, the Exchange servers in the Exchange 2007 organization must be updated to Exchange 2007 SP2. This is mostly due to the fact that, with Exchange 2010, Microsoft is making major changes to the way Outlook clients communicate with Exchange mailboxes. Under Exchange 2007, Outlook clients communicate directly with mailbox servers, bypassing the Client Access server role used by other communications methods, such as Outlook Web Access and IMAP. Under Exchange 2010, Outlook 2010 clients will also communicate with Client Access servers rather than directly with mailbox servers.

In an increasingly regulated business environment, one can never have too much in the way of auditing capabilities. This is another area in which Exchange 2007 SP2 doesn’t disappoint. SP2 adds significant access auditing capabilities that can track such events as folder and message access events, making it possible to determine who has opened a particular folder or message. Access auditing can be configured on different levels of verbosity so you can track only what you need. If you suspect that someone is gaining unauthorized access to someone else’s mailbox, this new feature can be a very powerful sleuthing tool.

Although public folders are, in my opinion, becoming more and more of a nuisance, they are supported in Exchange 2007 SP2. Under Exchange 2007 SP2, Microsoft has replaced the legacy public folder management paradigm with new commandlets and parameters that enhance public folder administration.

Exchange 2007 SP2 is cumulative upgrades, meaning that you can use the SP2 media to upgrade from any version of Exchange 2007 — RTM or SP1. The SP2 installation does make Active Directory schema changes, so make sure that you have appropriate rights before you kick off the upgrade. In fact, the SP2 installer extends the Active Directory schema with Exchange 2010 RTM extensions.

Further, Exchange 2007 SP2 requires that Windows Installer 4.5 be installed. If you’re installing Windows Server 2008 SP2, you’re all set. If, however, you’re running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 SP1, make sure you upgrade Windows Installer.


Microsoft recommends that you update to Exchange 2007 SP2 in the following order:
· Client Access servers
· Unified Messaging servers
· Hub Transport servers
· Edge Transport Servers
· Mailbox servers

Exchange 2007 SP2 pre reqs:

1) Extend the your Active Directory Schema
2) Prepare Active Directory
3) Have Installed into each exchange server box the Windows Installer 4.5
4) Uninstall Interim Updates, these are the updates that you had installed for a specific reason in your exchange server box, and is not included into the Cumulative Packages or Service Packs, this should be done first to install SP2, if you don’t uninstall your SP2 installation will fail
5) Remove any Unified Messaging Language Pack that you had installed in you Exchange UM server, the SP2 needs to have just English version installed, after you apply the SP2 you can install your UM Language Pack back again

If you have a SCC or CCR cluster, you should apply your SP2 in your passive node first, than restart the server, perform a failover from the active to passive node, than apply the SP2 in the current passive node, after you did that you should rung UpgradeCMS cmdlet to upgrade your Clustered Mailbox server.

For CCR cluster checks these steps:

1) In the passive node run: Setup.com /Mode: Upgrade

2) Setup runs the exchange pre-requisites check for the mailbox role:


3) Setup successfully finishes:

4) Once the passive node is upgraded, restarted and is back online, run the following command:

Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer MBX –StopReason “SP2 Upgrade” (where MBX is the name of your CMS)

5) Confirm the steps:



6) Check if cluster status is Offline:


7) Move the mailbox from active to passive node:

Move-ClusteredMailboxServer MBX –TargetMachine CCR2 –MoveComment “SP2 Upgrade” (MBX is your CMS and CCR2 is your current passive node that was upgraded with SP2)

8) Upgrade the CMS:

Setup.com /UpgradeCMS

9) Upgrade the initial Active node: setup.com /Mode:Upgrade

10) Check the pre-requisite and the success of your SP2 upgrade:

11) Restart the server and now you have an Exchange 2007 SP2 CCR

For AD preparation and extend the schema

You should extract the SP2 files into each Exchange box them run the following steps:

1) Extend the schema-- I recommend you to have a System State backup first from your Schema Master domain controller and if you are running a Virtualized environment or have a lab server, apply the Extended schema changes into these environment and if everything is working fine you can go ahead and apply into your production server:

setup.com /PrepareSchema

2) In order to prepare Active Directory you must meet all the pre-requisites:
· You must be running the Exchange 2007 setup with a domain account that is a member of the Enterprise Admins security group.
· The machine on which you run the Exchange 2007 setup schema extension process must be a member of the same domain and Active Directory site as the Schema Master.
· The machine on which you run the Exchange 2007 setup schema extension process must be:
o Windows Server 2003 SP2 with Windows Installer 4.5 installed
o Windows Server 2008 with Windows Installer 4.5 installed
o Windows Server 2008 SP2
o To extend the schema, you simply run this command from an administrative command line:

setup.com /PrepareAD
Upgrade other Exchange server roles

For the other Exchange roles, just run the command: setup.com /Mode:Upgrade

Accept all default options when you perform the steps from the command line.


I hope all those new features are good for your organization and if you have any doubts, please contact me. Also I recommend you to check the following links:

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 release notes:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/3/E/83E9DB24-0041-4F7E-A0DD-26043BBF7CAA/RelNotes.htm

Download Exchange Server 2007 SP2:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4c4bd2a3-5e50-42b0-8bbb-2cc9afe3216a&displaylang=en

What is new in Exchange Server 2007 SP2:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221150.aspx


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