Practical Help for Exchange & Office 365
On November 30th I had the great pleasure of being a guest on the RunAs Radio podcast. I joined host Richard Campbell to discuss all the new features in Exchange 2019. We discuss the MetaCache Database [MCDB], the benefits of the new search architecture, and several client-side features.
It’s amazing to believe that Microsoft Ignite was over a month ago. With 1,610 sessions Microsoft gave us a massive amount of announcements and demonstrations of new product features. This included Exchange 2019.
If not already, I highly recommend checking out 15 Ignite sessions every Exchange admin should see. Each session in this article includes extensive notes on what each session contained. In addition, those notes contain timers so you can jump to the section that interests you the most. Hopefully, it will also serve as a reference if you need to search for a certain announcement or feature weeks (or even months) down the road.
Here is what Ignite taught us about Exchange 2019.
The tagline for Exchange 2016 was that it was “forged in the cloud”. This was a result of Exchange Online and Exchange on-prem sharing a common code base. The greatest benefit of this common code was that it ran in the cloud for a number of months before shipping on-prem as a cumulative update. By the time the code was released on-prem, it had been more than validated as stable and able to run at scale.
Going forward Microsoft has separated Exchange on-prem into its own code branch. This means that Exchange online is no longer driving cumulative updates for on-prem. What will drive updates are security patches and feature requests from customers. So, be sure to make your voice heard on UserVoice, at conferences, and in the various TAP programs.
While Microsoft currently plans to keep cumulative updates quarterly, they have opened up the conversation on whether updates should occur less frequently. Common feedback is that the current release cadence of quarterly cumulative updates is too aggressive for some customers. The product group also believes this could result in more stable releases.
[Read more…] about What Ignite taught us about Exchange 2019
Last week was a big week for Exchange 2016. Microsoft released Cumulative Update 11. At this time no updates were released for Exchange 2013 or Exchange 2010. Exchange 2013 entered extended support back on April 10th, and Microsoft announced in June that cumulative update 21 was the last planned update for Exchange 2013.
As always, test these updates in a lab first! I recommend checking out this 7-part guide on configuring Exchange in your lab. It doesn’t take much to get one going.
The updates are as follows:
Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 11 | KB4134118 | UM Language Pack
Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 24 | KB4458321 (released September)
Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 23 | KB4340733 (released August)
Cumulative Update 11 now officially supports .NET Framework 4.7.2. Framework 4.7.2 is only optional at this point and will not become mandatory until the June 2019 updates. Due to no quarterly update scheduled for December, it is expected that CU13 will be the first version to enforce 4.7.2 as a requirement.
Support for 4.7.2 has been officially added to Exchange 2013 CU21, which was released back in June. 4.7.2 will also be a requirement for Exchange 2019. However, 4.7.2 is preinstalled with Windows Server 2019, so it will not require a separate download. For a great resource on navigating which .NET update goes with which CU I recommend reading Upgrade Paths for CU’s & .NET by Michel de Rooij.
In the June updates, it was stated that all Exchange roles would require Visual C++ 2013. Microsoft has since clarified this statement to the following:
Cumulative Update 11 will now perform prerequisite checks to confirm the necessary versions of Visual C++ are installed.
These updates contain 22 security and bug fixes. Check KB 4134118 for a list of issues CU11 resolves.
[Read more…] about Exchange October 2018 UpdatesMicrosoft hosted its annual Ignite conference in Orlando this September. Ignite was massive at 1,610 sessions. That is a lot of sessions! For the first time ever, Microsoft live-streamed most of its sessions. Not just the keynotes! You can find the on-demand sessions at the Microsoft Tech Community. Here are the top 15 sessions I think every Exchange admin should watch.
Tip: I have included extensive notes for each session and the time each topic starts. You can expand the session notes under each video by clicking “Show more session notes”
[Read more…] about 15 Ignite sessions every Exchange admin should see (2018)
Last week Microsoft announced the public preview of Exchange 2019. It is expected that Exchange 2019 will ship later this year.
You can download the preview bits using the link below. Please note, that this is preview code and you should not deploy this in production.
The biggest announcement is that Exchange 2019 is the first version of Exchange to work on Windows Server Core. The benefit of Server Core is added security. Server core reduces your attack footprint and a smaller footprint means fewer things to secure and keep up to date.
It’s worth noting that from an administrative standpoint Server Core is a bit of a different animal. If you access Server Core via a console or remote session you are only going to see a command line. You will quickly notice that programs that use an MMC, such as Services or Event Viewer, are unavailable. In addition, shell programs such as Windows Explorer, or, Task Manager are also unavailable.
For Exchange, this is not much of an issue because the Exchange Admin Center and Exchange Management Shell can be run remotely from anywhere. For everything else, you will need to use Remote Server Administration Tools or remote PowerShell. For a list of tools that are directly accessible on Server Core check out the article: What is the Server Core installation option in Windows Server?
For a great write-up on installing Exchange 2019 on Windows Server Core, check out this article from the Exchange Team.
Of course, if you prefer to have the full desktop experience you can still install Exchange 2019 on a server with a GUI.
[Read more…] about Exchange 2019 Public Preview Released
Today was a big day for Exchange updates. Not only did we get Cumulative Update 10 for Exchange 2016, but we also got Cumulative Update 21 for Exchange 2013. Exchange 2010 also receives a critical update in rollup 22.
As always, test these updates in a lab first! I recommend checking out this 7-part guide on configuring Exchange in your lab. It doesn’t take much to get one going.
The updates are as follows:
Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 10 | KB4099852 | UM Language Pack
Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 21 | KB4099855 | UM Language Pack
Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 22 | KB4295699
In case you missed it Exchange 2013 entered into extended support on April 10th. Cumulative Update 21 is the last planned update for Exchange 2013 and no further product development is expected. Any cumulative update after 21 is at Microsoft’s discretion. However, security and timezone updates will continue to be available until April 11th, 2023, delivered primarily through the Windows Update Catalog.
As a reminder, Exchange 2010 has less than 18 months of extended support remaining. After January 10th, 2020, no further technical support or updates will be available. This includes security, bug, and time zone updates. If you are still on 2010, I would recommend planning a migration to Exchange 2016 or Office 365 as soon as possible.
One prerequisite change is the need to install Visual C++ 2013. This is required for a third party software component–that manages WebReady document viewing and data loss prevention–which ships in these updates. Visual C++ 2012 was the previous requirement for older cumulative updates. However, Visual C++ 2012 was installed automatically by the Unified Communication Management Agent (another Exchange prerequisite), so it never required administrator intervention. This means Visual C++ 2013 will also be a requirement for new server installations.
Exchange 2010 received a significant update in this release, which is the ability to leverage Windows 2016 domain controllers and global catalog servers. While 2016 DCs could exist in an Exchange 2010 environment, Exchange 2010 would simply not use them. With this update, 2010 will now leverage 2016 domain controllers and allow for the domain and forest functional levels to be raised to Windows Server 2016. This will allow you to eliminate all older domain controllers.
These updates contain a lot of security and bug fixes. Aside from the May 8th security update each cumulative update includes time zone updates and a dozen bug fixes. Check the appropriate KB article above for a list of issues each update resolves.
[Read more…] about Exchange June 2018 Updates
