Exchange Server 2013 Planning and Discovery – Client Versions

Exchange Server 2013 supports the following minimum versions of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage for Mac:

• Outlook 2013 (15.0.4420.1017)
• Outlook 2010 Service Pack 1 with the Outlook 2010 November 2012 update (14.0.6126.5000).
• Outlook 2007 Service Pack 3 with the Outlook 2007 November 2012 update (12.0.6665.5000).
• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition
• Outlook for Mac 2011

Although these are the minimum versions please also take into consideration this important note from Microsoft:

The information above provides the minimum versions required for a client to connect to Exchange and Exchange Online. We strongly recommend that you install the latest available service packs and updates available so that your users receive the best possible experience when connecting to Exchange and Exchange Online.

Outlook clients earlier than Outlook 2007 are not supported. Email clients on Mac operating systems that require DAV, such as Entourage 2008 for Mac RTM and Entourage 2004, are not supported.

Support for Outlook Web App on the wide variety of operating systems and devices is also documented by Microsoft here.

Updated information on the latest available updates for Outlook is documented by Microsoft here. Unless there is some other reason in your environment not to, it is recommended to deploy the very latest available updates for Outlook and Office when planning to deploy Exchange Server 2013.

Knowing the minimum Outlook versions supported we can now look at what versions are running in our environment as we plan the upgrade to Exchange Server 2013.

Often customers have no software inventory system that can provide a fast and accurate report of this information, so other tools need to be used instead. Here are two methods.

Using the Exchange User Monitor (ExMon) to Discover RPC Client Versions

The Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor can be used to display the client versions for connected users.

Simply install and run the tool on your Exchange servers and observe the client versions connecting in real time.

You can use the “By User” tab to identify specific users of any client versions that need further attention from you.

More detailed information on how to use ExMon is available on TechNet.

Using Log Parser to Discover RPC Client Versions

Another method for discovering client versions is to use Log Parser to analyse the RPC Client Access logs on the Client Access servers.

The RPC Client Access logs are stored in the LoggingRPC Client Access folder of the Exchange installation path, eg C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14LoggingRPC Client Access.

The log files are in CSV format and therefore can be analysed using Log Parser. Two of the fields of interest are:

• client-software
• client-software-version

So a Log Parser query to show us the number of hits per client software version would look like this.

SELECT client-software as Software,
client-software-version as Version,
Count(*) as Hits
FROM *.log
GROUP BY Software,Version
ORDER BY Software

To run this query in Log Parser from the location of the RPC Client Access log files:

"C:Program Files (x86)Log Parser 2.2logparser.exe" "SELECT client-software as Software,Client-software-version as Version,Count(*) as Hits FROM *.log GROUP BY Software,Version ORDER BY Software" -i:CSV -nSkipLines:4 -rtp:-1

Depending on the applications and systems running in your environment you will likely see software other than Outlook appearing in the output of that command. For example, Symantec Enterprise Vault services make RPC/MAPI connections to Exchange, so would likely appear in the report.

Software                  Version                 Hits
------------------------- ----------------------- -------
OUTLOOK.EXE               11.0.8303.0             16
OUTLOOK.EXE               12.0.6606.1000          47
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6025.1000          420
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6126.5000          6969
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.6131.5002          77698
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7010.1000          995
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7104.5000          7221
OUTLOOK.EXE               14.0.7108.5000          583320
OUTLOOK.EXE               15.0.4420.1017          379
OUTLOOK.EXE               15.0.4551.1004          388

If you spot versions of Outlook that do not meet the minimum supported version you can run additional queries to find the specific user accounts for those versions so that you can investigate further.

For example, this query will return the client names for any version 11.x or 12.x client software that is appearing in the logs.

SELECT EXTRACT_SUFFIX(client-name,0,'=') as Name,
client-software as Software,
client-software-version as Version,
Count(*) as Hits
FROM *.log
WHERE Version LIKE '11.%' OR Version LIKE '12.%'
GROUP BY Name,Software,Version
ORDER BY Name

To run this query in Log Parser from the location of the RPC Client Access log files:

"C:Program Files (x86)Log Parser 2.2logparser.exe" "SELECT EXTRACT_SUFFIX(client-name,0,'=') as Name,client-software as Software,Client-software-version as Version,Count(*) as Hits FROM *.log WHERE Version LIKE '11.%' OR Version LIKE '12.%' GROUP BY Name,Software,Version ORDER BY Name" -i:CSV -nSkipLines:4 -rtp:-1

Summary

As you can see even without robust software inventory tools we can still gather information about the names and versions of software connecting to Exchange when planning an Exchange Server 2013 migration.