Upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

Microsoft has released Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1.  Organizations already running Exchange Server 2010 (RTM) can upgrade to Service Pack 1, however the upgrade must be planned out properly to ensure a successful outcome.

Preparing for Exchange Server 2010 SP1

One of the first issues encountered with Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 was the additional hotfixes required for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 before Exchange 2010 SP1 could be installed.

At the time of this writing these hotfixes were not available from the Microsoft Support website, and need to be obtained through various hotfix request channels.  The hotfixes are fully supported though and are expected to be in the next service pack releases for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.

Note: some websites have made available ZIP files containing all of the required hotfixes.  I strongly advice you not to obtain the hotfixes from any source other than Microsoft directly, because of the risk that these third parties may be deliberately or inadvertently hosting malware-infected versions of the files.  If you have multiple servers to update just download the files once and keep them stored somewhere handy.

For Windows Server 2008 (not R2) the following hotfixes are needed:

• 979744 – A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application
• 977624 – AD RMS clients do not authenticate federated identity providers in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista. Without this update, Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) features may stop working
• 979917 – Two issues occur when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0-based application on a server that is running IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 in Integrated mode
• 973136 – FIX: ArgumentNullException exception error message when a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application tries to process a response with zero-length content to an asynchronous ASP.NET Web service request: “Value cannot be null”.
• 977592 – RPC over HTTP clients cannot connect to the Windows Server 2008 RPC over HTTP servers that have RPC load balancing enabled.

982867 – WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

For Windows Server 2008 R2 the following hotfixes are needed:

• 979744 – A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application
• 983440 – An ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup package is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2
• 979099 – An update is available to remove the application manifest expiry feature from AD RMS clients.
• 982867 – WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• 977020 – FIX: An application that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 and that invokes a Web service call asynchronously throws an exception on a computer that is running Windows 7.

You will also need to download the Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 install file.

Exchange 2010 SP1 Upgrade Issues

The Microsoft Exchange Team blog is tracking a list of known issues with Exchange Server 2010 SP1 upgrade.  Before proceeding you should familiarise yourself with that list.

The issues won’t all occur for every organization, and you can’t always mitigate them with prep work.  Some also do not have solutions at the time of this writing, so if those risks are too great for your business then you might rethink the upgrade at this time.

Which Order to Upgrade Servers

Because of the relationship between the various server roles the recommended order of upgrade is:

1. Edge Transport servers (note, if you are running the Edge Transport server on a Forefront TMG server there is a patch required to fix a known issue)
2. Client Access servers.  Upgrade the internet-facing Client Access servers first.  If you are running a CAS array see how to upgrade an Exchange 2010 CAS array.
3. Hub Transport servers.
4. Mailbox servers.  If you are running a Database Availability Group see how to upgrade an Exchange 2010 DAG.
5. Unified Messaging servers.

After upgrading the servers you should also upgrade the management tools on administrator workstations.

Note that there is no rolling back from the SP1 upgrade.  If you uninstall the service pack it will remove Exchange entirely from the server, it will not revert to Exchange 2010 RTM.

Upgrading from Exchange Server 2010 RTM to Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Download the Exchange Server 2010 installer and extract the setup files to a folder on your server.  Launch an elevated command prompt and run this command to perform the upgrade.

setup /mode:upgrade /installwindowscomponents

The upgrade will run for a short while, about the same amount of time it took to install the server originally.

Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unattended Setup

Preparing Exchange Setup

    Copying Setup Files                           COMPLETED

The following server roles will be upgraded
Languages
Hub Transport Role
Client Access Role
Management Tools

Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check

    Configuring Prerequisites                                 COMPLETED
    Organization Checks                                       COMPLETED
    Language Pack Checks                                      COMPLETED
    Hub Transport Role Checks                                 COMPLETED
    Client Access Role Checks                                 COMPLETED

Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server

    Organization Preparation                                  COMPLETED
    Preparing Setup                                           COMPLETED
    Stopping Services                                         COMPLETED
    Language Files                                            COMPLETED
    Removing Exchange Files                                   COMPLETED
    Preparing Files                                           COMPLETED
    Copying Exchange Files                                    COMPLETED
    Language Files                                            COMPLETED
    Restoring Services                                        COMPLETED
    Languages                                                 COMPLETED
    Hub Transport Server Role                                 COMPLETED
    Client Access Server Role                                 COMPLETED
    Exchange Management Tools                                 COMPLETED
    Finalizing Setup                                          COMPLETED

The Microsoft Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.