Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 9 and Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 20

On March 20, 2018 Microsoft has released two new quarterly updates:

  • Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 9 (CU9)
  • Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 20 (CU20)
TLS 1.2

There aren’t too many new features in these CUs. The most important ‘feature’ is that TLS 1.2 is now fully supported (most likely you already have TLS 1.2 only on your load balancer). This is extremely supported since Microsoft will support TLS 1.2 ONLY in Office 365 in the last quarter of this year (see the An Update on Office 365 Requiring TLS 1.2 Microsoft blog as well).

Dot.net Support

Support for .NET Framework 4.7.1, or the ongoing story about the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework 4.7.1 is fully supported by Exchange 2016 CU9 and Exchange 2013 CU20. Why is this important? For the upcoming CUs in three months (somewhere in June 2018) the .NET Framework 4.7.1 is mandatory, so you need these to be installed in order to install these upcoming CUs.

Please note that .NET Framework 4.7 is NOT supported!

If you are currently running an older CU of Exchange, for example Exchange 2013 CU12, you have to make an intermediate upgrade to Exchange 2013 CU15. Then upgrade to .NET Framework 4.6.2 and then upgrade to Exchange 2013 CU20. If you are running Exchange 2016 CU3 or CU4, you can upgrade to .NET Framework 4.6.2 and then upgrade to Exchange 2016 CU9.

Schema changes

If you are coming from a recent Exchange 2013 CU, there are no schema changes since the schema version (rangeUpper = 15312) hasn’t changed since Exchange 2013 CU7. However, since there can be changes in (for example) RBAC, it’s always a good practice to run the Setup.exe /PrepareAD command. For Exchange 2016, the schema version (rangeUpper = 15332) hasn’t changed since Exchange 2016 CU7.

As always, check the new CUs in your lab environment before installing into your production environment!!

Exchange 2016 CU9 Information and download Links
Exchange 2013 CU20 Information and download Links

Exchange Server 2013 enters the Extended Support phase of product lifecycle on April 10th, 2018. During Extended Support, products receive only updates defined as Critical consistent with the Security Update Guide. For Exchange Server 2013, critical updates will include any required product updates due to time zone definition changes.

EXCHANGE 2013 CU17 AND EXCHANGE 2016 CU6

On June 27, 2017 Microsoft has released its quarterly updates for Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016. The current version is now at Exchange 2013 CU17 (15.0.1320.4) and Exchange 2016 CU6(15.1.1034.26) . But this time there are some interesting things I’d like to point out.

A couple of days before the release of Exchange 2016 CU6 (15.1.1034.26)
Microsoft blogged about Sent Items Behavior Control and Original Folder Item Recovery. With the Sent Items Behavior Control, a message that’s sent using the Send As or Send on behalf of permission is not only stored in the mailbox of the user that actually sent the message, but a copy is also stored in the delegator mailbox sent items. This was already possible for shared mailboxes, but now it’s also possible for regular mailboxes (like manager/assistant scenarios).

The Original Folder Item Recovery feature is I guess on of the most requested features. In the past (before Exchange 2010) when items were restored after they were deleted, they were restored to their original location. With the Dumpster 2.0 that was introduced with Exchange 2010 this was no longer possible, and items were restored to the deleted items folder. In this case the items had to be moved manually to their original location. With the introduction of the Original Folder Item Recovery the restore of deleted items again takes place in the original folder.

Unfortunately, both Sent Items Behavior Control and Original Folder Item Recovery are only available in Exchange 2016 CU6 (and NOT in Exchange 2013 CU17).

When it comes to security TLS 1.2 is a hot topic. Microsoft is aware of this and working hard towards an Exchange environment that only uses TLS 1.2 (so that TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.0 can be disabled). We are not yet at that stage. Exchange 2016 CU6 does have improved support for TLS 1.2, but Microsoft is not encouraging customers to move to a TLS 1.2 environment only.

.NET Framework and Exchange server continues to be a difficult scenario. This is understandable, Exchange is just a consumer of Windows and .NET so the Exchange Product Group does not have much influence on the .NET (and Windows) Product Group.

Exchange 2016 CU6 does NOT support.NET Framework 4.7 at this moment, and you should NOT install .NET Framework on a server running Exchange 2016. Not before and not after the installation of Exchange 2016 CU6. This is also true for Exchange Server 2013 CU17. More information regarding .NET Framework and Exchange server can be found here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2017/06/13/net-framework-4-7-and-exchange-server/.

The .NET Framework 4.6.2 is supported by Exchange 2016 CU3 and higher and Exchange 2013 CU15 and higher. For a complete overview of which scenarios are supported, navigate to the Exchange Server Supportability Matrix on https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728623(v=exchg.150).aspx.

KB articles that describe the fixes, features and information in each release are available as follows:

Version

Build

KB Article

Download

UMLP

Schema Changes

Exchange 2016 CU6

15.1.1034.26

KB4012108

Download

UMLP

Yes

Exchange 2013 CU17

15.0.1320.4

KB4012114

Download

UMLP

No

Source: jaapwesselius

Exchange 2016/2013/2010 Updates March 2017

Today, the Exchange Team released the March updates for Exchange Server 2013 and 2016, as well as Exchange Server 2010 and 2007. The latter will receive its last update, as Exchange 2007 will reach end-of-life April 11, 2017.

As announced in December updates, Exchange 2013 CU16 and Exchange 2016 CU5 require .NET 4.6.2. The recommended upgrade paths:

  • If you are still on .NET 4.6.1, you can upgrade to .NET 4.6.2 prior of after installing the latest Cumulative Update.
  • If you are on .NET 4.52, upgrade to Exchange 2016 CU4 or Exchange 2013 CU15 if you are not already on that level, then upgrade to .NET 4.6.2, and finally upgrade to the the latest Cumulative Update.

The Cumulative Updates also include DST changes, which is also contained in the latest Rollups published for Exchange 2010 and 2007.

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

Exchange 2016 CU5

15.1.845.34

KB4012106

Download

UMLP

Exchange 2013 CU16

15.0.1293.2

KB4012112

Download

UMLP

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 17

14.3.352.0

KB4011326

Download

 

Exchange 2007 SP3 Rollup 23

8.3.517.0

KB4011325

Download

 

Exchange 2016 CU5 fixes:

  • KB4015665 SyncDelivery logging folders and files are created in wrong location in Exchange Server 2016
  • KB4015664 A category name that has different case-sensitivity than an existing name is not created in Exchange Server 2016
  • KB4015663 “The message content has become corrupted” exception when email contains a UUE-encoded attachment in Exchange Server 2016
  • KB4015662 Deleted inline picture is displayed as attachment after you switch the message to plain text in Exchange Server 2016
  • KB4015213 Email is still sent to Inbox when the sender is deleted from the Trusted Contacts list in Exchange Server 2016
  • KB4013606 Search fails on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2013
  • KB4012994 PostalAddressIndex element isn’t returning the correct value in Exchange Server 2016

Exchange 2013 CU16 fixes:

  • KB4013606 Search fails on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2013

Notes:

Exchange 2016 CU5 doesn’t include schema changes, however, Exchange 2016 CU5 as well as Exchange 2013 CU16 may introduce RBAC changes in your environment. Where applicable, use setup /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 allowed to stay at least one version behind (n-1).

  • 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 forums for any issues.

Source

Exchange Team has released Quarterly Exchange Updates

– A new Outlook on the web compose experience
– Support for .Net 4.6.2
– Change to Pre-Requisites installed by Setup
– Update on Windows Server 2016 support KB3206632
– Latest time zone updates
– Important Public Folder fix included in these releases

Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 4 (KB3177106), Download, UM Lang Packs
Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 15 (KB3197044), Download, UM Lang Packs
Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 Update Rollup 16 (KB3184730), Download
Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 Update Rollup 22 (KB3184712), Download

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