Tag: Issue

Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 7 (KB4018115) and Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 18 (KB4022631)

The latest set of Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2013 are now available on the download center.  These releases include fixes to customer reported issues, all previously reported security/quality issues and updated functionality.

Minimum supported Forest Functional Level is now 2008R2

In our blog post, Active Directory Forest Functional Levels for Exchange Server 2016, we informed customers that Exchange Server 2016 would enforce a minimum 2008R2 Forest Functional Level requirement for Active Directory.  Cumulative Update 7 for Exchange Server 2016 will now enforce this requirement.  This change will require all domain controllers in a forest where Exchange is installed to be running Windows Server 2008R2 or higher.  Active Directory support for Exchange Server 2013 remains unchanged at this time.

Support for latest .NET Framework

The .NET team is preparing to release a new update to the framework, .NET Framework 4.7.1.  The Exchange Team will include support for .NET Framework 4.7.1 in our December Quarterly updates for Exchange Server 2013 and 2016, at which point it will be optional.  .NET Framework 4.7.1 will be required on Exchange Server 2013 and 2016 installations starting with our June 2018 quarterly releases.  Customers should plan to upgrade to .NET Framework 4.7.1 between the December 2017 and June 2018 quarterly releases.

The Exchange team has decided to skip supporting .NET 4.7.0 with Exchange Server.  We have done this not because of problems with the 4.7.0 version of the Framework, rather as an optimization to encourage adoption of the latest version.

Known unresolved issues in these releases

The following known issues exist in these releases and will be resolved in a future update:

  • Online Archive Folders created in O365 will not appear in the Outlook on the Web UI
  • Information protected e-Mails may show hyperlinks which are not fully translated to a supported, local language

Release Details

KB articles that describe the fixes in each release are available as follows:

Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 7 does not include new updates to Active Directory Schema.  If upgrading from an older Exchange version or installing a new server, Active Directory updates may still be required.  These updates will apply automatically during setup if the logged on user has the required permissions.  If the Exchange Administrator lacks permissions to update Active Directory Schema, a Schema Admin must execute SETUP /PrepareSchema prior to the first Exchange Server installation or upgrade.  The Exchange Administrator should execute SETUP /PrepareAD to ensure RBAC roles are current.

Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 18 does not include updates to Active Directory, but may add additional RBAC definitions to your existing configuration. PrepareAD should be executed prior to upgrading any servers to Cumulative Update 18. PrepareAD will run automatically during the first server upgrade if Exchange Setup detects this is required and the logged on user has sufficient permission.

Additional Information

Microsoft recommends all customers test the deployment of any update in their lab environment to determine the proper installation process for your production environment. For information on extending the schema and configuring Active Directory, please review the appropriate TechNet documentation.

Also, to prevent installation issues you should ensure that the Windows PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to “Unrestricted” on the server being upgraded or installed. To verify the policy settings, run the Get-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet from PowerShell on the machine being upgraded. If the policies are NOT set to Unrestricted you should use the resolution steps in KB981474 to adjust the settings.

Reminder: Customers in hybrid deployments where Exchange is deployed on-premises and in the cloud, or who are using Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) with their on-premises Exchange deployment are required to deploy the most current (e.g., 2013 CU18, 2016 CU7) or the prior (e.g., 2013 CU17, 2016 CU6) Cumulative Update release.

For the latest information on Exchange Server and product announcements please see What’s New in Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2016 Release Notes.  You can also find updated information on Exchange Server 2013 in What’s New in Exchange Server 2013, Release Notes and product documentation available on TechNet.

Note: Documentation may not be fully available at the time this post is published.

Exchange 2010-2016 Security Fixes

Microsoft released security updates to fix a remote code execution vulnerability in
Exchange Server. The related knowledge base article is KB4018588.

More information is contained in the following Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures articles:

  • CVE-2017-8521 – Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability
  • CVE-2017-8559 – Microsoft Exchange Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability
  • CVE-2017-8560 – Microsoft Exchange Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability

Depending on the lifecycle status of the product, fixes are made available either through a Rollup or as a security fix for the following product levels:

As you might notice, the security fix is made available for the N-1 builds of Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016. This could imply the issue was addressed in the latest builds of those products. I hope to receive official confirmation on this soon.

The issue is deemed Important, which means organizations are advised to apply these updates at the earliest opportunity. However, as with any update, it is recommended to thoroughly test updates and fixes prior to deploying them in a production environment.

Source

Important update for Azure Active Directory Connect – Version 1.1.553.0

Microsoft released Azure Active Directory Connect version 1.1.553.0 on June 26, 2017. More importantly, they published an important security advisory one day later.

Microsoft Security Advisory 4033453 – Vulnerability in Azure AD Connect Could Allow Elevation of Privilege explains,

The [ADD Connect version 1.1.553.0] update addresses a vulnerability that could allow elevation of privilege if Azure AD Connect Password writeback is misconfigured during enablement. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could reset passwords and gain unauthorized access to arbitrary on-premises AD privileged user accounts. The issue is addressed in the latest version (1.1.553.0) of Azure AD Connect by not allowing arbitrary password reset to on-premises AD privileged user accounts.

Microsoft highly recommends all customers update to version 1.1.553.0 or later to mitigate this vulnerability, even if you don’t use the optional password writeback feature. If you are unable to update immediately, the article above describes mitigation steps you can consider.

  • If the AD DS account is a member of one or more on-premises AD privileged groups, consider removing the AD DS account from the groups.
  • If an on-premises AD administrator has previously created Control Access Rights on the adminSDHolder object for the AD DS account which permits Reset Password operation, consider removing it.
  • It may not always be possible to remove existing permissions granted to the AD DS account (for example, the AD DS account relies on the group membership for permissions required for other features such as Password synchronization or Exchange hybrid writeback). Consider creating a DENY ACE on the adminSDHolder object which disallows the AD DS account with Reset Password permission using Windows DSACLS tool.

Expta

New MVA learning paths for IT pros

Learn about the new paths for IT pros:

  • PowerShell: Beginner. Step up your IT pro game with foundational knowledge of PowerShell. Learn to use the command line to solve an issue, automate your infrastructure, and more.
  • PowerShell: Advanced. Go beyond the basics with scripting, reusable tools, and cmdlets—all taught by the architect and inventor of PowerShell, Jeffrey Snover.
  • Security for IT Pros. Beef up your security know-how with practical tips and tricks from the Microsoft security team.
  • DevOps for IT Pros. Your devs need you! Learn more about application performance and support monitoring with Microsoft Azure.
  • Introduction to Windows Server 2012 R2. Command this leading-edge server with tutorials on installation, roles, Microsoft Active Directory, storage, performance management, and maintenance.
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Security and Identity. Build upon your security knowledge with Windows Server 2016 fundamentals, like Active Directory, basic PKI, and BYOD concepts.
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Compute. Discover everything you need to know about virtualization and storage with courses on IP address management, server networking, Microsoft Hyper-V, and more.

Windows ADK 1703 and Windows 10 Creators Update 1703

Introduction

Microsoft have released both Windows 10 version 1703 and ADK 1703 last week, one is on MSDN the other on Microsoft’s download site.

Download the media

Two Know Issues:
OSD – App-V tools are missing in ADK 1703 when being installed on Windows Server 2016 (sometimes)

OS Deployment – Installing ADK 1703 on Windows Server 2016 could fail

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

RVTools 3.9.3 vSphere 6.5 Supported

Version Info

Version 3.9.3 (March, 2017)

  • Bug fix: unhandled exception in decrypt function solved

Version 3.9.2 (February, 2017)

  • Migrated RVTools to use .NET Framework version 4
  • Migrated RVTools to use NPOI 2.1.3.1
  • Support for vSphere 6.5
  • Improved logon performance
  • RVTools will no longer write messages to the Windows eventlog
  • All VM related tab pages now have a new column: OS according to the VMware Tools
  • All tab pages now have a new column: VI SDK Server
  • All tab pages column vCenter UUID renamed to VI SDK UUID
  • vInfo tab page: new column VI SDK API version
  • Export to Excel will now use xlsx format
  • Export to Excel all columns are now auto sized
  • Excel worksheet names will use same name as the tab page names
  • Annotations fields can now be excluded! See preference window
  • vPartition tab page new column: Consumed MB
  • vHealth _replica directories are excluded for zombie checks
  • *_sesparse.vmdk files are excluded for zombie checks
  • New tab page with license information
  • New PasswordEncryption application added with which you can encrypt your password
  • RVTools command line interface accepts now encrypted passwords
  • Bug fix: URL Link to online version info issue solved.

http://www.robware.net/rvtools/

Exchange 2007 reaches end of life on April 11

On April 11, 2017, Exchange Server 2007 will reach End of Life. If you haven’t already begun your migration from Exchange 2007 to Office 365 or Exchange 2016, you need to start planning now.

End of life means that Microsoft will no longer provide the following for Exchange 2007:

  • Free or paid assisted support (including custom support agreements)
  • Bug fixes for issues that are discovered and that may impact the stability and usability of the server
  • Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered and that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches
  • Time zone updates

Your installation of Exchange 2007 will continue to run after this date. However, because of the changes listed above, we strongly recommend that you migrate from Exchange 2007 as soon as possible.

To learn about your options for migrating from Exchange 2007 to Office 365 or a newer version of Exchange Server, check out Exchange 2007 End of Life Roadmap.

Server 2016 and ADFS Error 364 0d00-0080000000e1 EnableIdPInitiatedSignonPage False

image

On ADFS page you get error: 00000000-0000-0000-0d00-0080000000e1

Event viewer: Event 364 Microsoft.IdentityServer.Web.IdPInitiatedSignonPageDisabledException: MSIS7012: An error occurred while processing the request.

image

image

Get-AdfsProperties | select EnableIdPInitiatedSignonPage

Set-AdfsProperties -EnableIdPInitiatedSignonPage $true

adfs-server-2016-issue-testing

Azure AD Connect Adds Support for Windows Server 2016 and SQL 2016

If you’re a customer who uses Azure Active Directory Connect, you’ll want to know that Microsoft just released version 1.1.343.0, which adds support for Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 and fixes some bugs.

Improvements:
– Added support for installing Azure AD Connect on Windows Server 2016 standard or better.
– Added support for using SQL Server 2016 as the remote database for Azure AD Connect.
– Added support for managing AD FS 2016 using Azure AD Connect.

Fixed issues:
– Sometimes, installing Azure AD Connect fails because it is unable to create a local service account whose password meets the level of complexity specified by the organization’s password policy.
– Fixed an issue where join rules are not re-evaluated when an object in the connector space simultaneously becomes out-of-scope for one join rule and become in-scope for another. This can happen if you have two or more join rules whose join conditions are mutually exclusive.
– Fixed an issue where inbound synchronization rules (from Azure AD) which do not contain join rules are not processed if they have lower precedence values than those containing join rules.

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