This article will demonstrate the step by step process for installing cumulative updates for Exchange Server 2016.

The steps for installing cumulative updates on Exchange 2016 are:

  1. Prepare by downloading update files, checking backups, and reviewing known issues
  2. Update mailbox servers in the internet-facing sites
  3. Update mailbox servers in any remaining internal sites (if any)
  4. Update Edge Transport servers (if any)
  5. Perform health checks and rebalancing of servers

Preparation

Before you install any cumulative updates on your Exchange 2016 servers, you should first:

  • Download the cumulative update from Microsoft. Do not download from any third party websites. You can download the latest cumulative update and upgrade an Exchange 2016 to the latest version in one update. You do not need to install all of the cumulative updates released between your current version and the latest version.
  • Verify that you have confirmed, working backups of your Active Directory.
  • Verify that you have confirmed, working backups of your Exchange servers and databases.
  • Verify that you have documented any customizations to your Exchange server that will need to be re-applied, such as custom OWA login pages, web.config changes, registry changes, or third party add-ons. Generally speaking you do not need to re-apply standard Exchange configurations that are set via the Exchange Admin Center or Exchange management shell (e.g. changing default message size limits).
  • Verify that your Exchange SSL certificates have not expired.
  • Check the Exchange Supportability Matrix and verify that you are maintaining the .NET Framework on your servers to remain compatible with Exchange.

Known Issues

Comprehensive lists of known issues with cumulative update installation generally do not exist, however to improve your awareness of issues experienced by other customers, you should read the comments on the Exchange team blog entry for the relevant cumulative update, and check the TechNet forums for other reported issues.

You should also be aware of the following issues:

Order of Installation of Exchange 2016 Updates

Cumulative updates for Exchange 2016 should be installed in the internet-facing site first, before installing in other sites in the organization.

  • Mailbox servers are updated first
  • Edge Transport servers can be updated last

For load-balanced servers and Exchange 2016 DAG members, there will be a period of time during which all servers are not at the same version. This is expected, and supported, but you should plan to continue upgrading servers so that they are all updated within a reasonable period of time. You can balance that recommendation with the need for caution, e.g. waiting for issues to arise on the first upgraded server before deploying to the other servers. As a rule of thumb, aim for “days or weeks” rather than “months” between server upgrades, depending on the size of your environment.

Deploying Exchange 2016 Cumulative Updates

The process for installation is as follows:

  1. Perform the Active Directory schema changes and updates. This is performed once for the entire Active Directory environment. You do not need to repeat this for each server being upgraded.
  2. Upgrade servers. For each server in turn:
    • Place the server into maintenance mode.
    • Install the update.
    • Perform testing.
    • Take the server out of maintenance mode.
  3. Perform post-installation tasks:
    • Rebalance database availability groups.
    • Restore customizations.
    • Perform a health check of the environment.

Active Directory Schema Changes and Updates

Most cumulative updates will include Active Directory schema changes, as well as other updates such as changed to RBAC roles. In some cases, the existence of changes will depend on which previous CU you’re upgrading from. So as a general rule you should plan for AD schema changes and updates to occur.

The AD preparation tasks can be run in advance of your server upgrades, or they can be allowed to run automatically as part of the first server upgrade process. In either case, Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins rights will be required. And if you’re running the update from an Exchange server, the RSAT-ADDS feature must be installed.

Before applying the schema update follow the steps provided by Michael B Smith to retrieve the existing Exchange schema version, so that you can compare it before and after the AD preparation steps have been completed to verify that the schema update was applied.

  1. Run setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms (requires Enterprise Admins and Schema Admins permissions, and must be performed in the same AD Site as the Schema Master on a server with the RSAT-ADDS-Tools feature installed – the Schema Master itself would meet these requirements)
  2. Run setup.exe /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
  3. Run setup.exe /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms in each domain in your forest that contains Exchange servers or mailboxes. If you have a single domain, the previous step has already done this for you.

When the Active Directory changes have been applied, on each server run the upgrade.

Upgrading Exchange 2016 Servers

For Exchange 2016 Mailbox and Edge Transport servers, whether they are standalone, load-balanced, or part of a DAG, use the following procedure.

Set the HubTransport component to “Draining”, and redirect any messages currently in the queue to another server. If you’re running a single Exchange server, you can skip the redirect command.

[PS] C:\>Set-ServerComponentState EX2016SRV1 –Component HubTransport –State Draining –Requester Maintenance

[PS] C:\>Redirect-Message -Server EX2016SRV1 -Target EX2016SRV2.exchangeserverpro.net

If the server is a DAG member, run the following commands. If your server is not a DAG member, skip to the command for setting ServerWideOffline.

[PS] C:\>Suspend-ClusterNode –Name EX2016SRV1

Name                 ID    State
----                 --    -----
EX2016SRV1           1     Paused

Disable database copy auto-activation. This command will also move any active database copies to other DAG members, assuming there are other healthy DAG members available. This is not instantaneous, it can take several minutes for the moves to occur. We’ll check on it shortly anyway.

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxServer EX2016SRV1 –DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $true

Make a note of the database copy auto-activation policy on the server, so you can set it back to this value at the end of maintenance.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxServer EX2016SRV1 | Select DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy

DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy : Unrestricted

If the policy is not already set to “Blocked”, run the following command to set it.

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxServer EX2016SRV1 –DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Blocked

Check for any database copies that are still mounted on the server. This command should return no results. If any database copies are still active on the server, and there are other DAG members that host copies of the database, perform a manual switchover.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server EX2016SRV1 | Where {$_.Status -eq "Mounted"}

Place the server into maintenance mode.

[PS] C:\>Set-ServerComponentState EX2016SRV1 –Component ServerWideOffline –State InActive –Requester Maintenance

For servers that are in a load-balanced pool:

  • Verify that the load balancer health checks have taken the server out of the pool or marked it as offline/inactive.
  • If the load balancer does not automatically do this, manually mark the server as offline/inactive.

For servers that are in a DNS round robin group, remove the DNS record for this server’s IP address.

Before you run Exchange setup to install the cumulative update:

  • Perform a restart of the server to clear any pending reboot status that will stop Exchange setup from running.
  • Verify that the PowerShell execution policy is set to Unrestricted as per KB981474.

After the restart, launch an elevated CMD prompt, and run the following command from the folder where the Exchange setup files are located:

X:> setup /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

After the cumulative update has installed, restart the server. When the server has been restarted, perform a basic health check of the server:

  • Review event logs for new or excessive errors and warnings
  • Check that auto-start services on the server have started

You can now remove the server from maintenance mode. Note, if the server is not a DAG member, then only the first and last commands are necessary. If the server is a DAG member, use the database copy auto-activation policy value that was set on the server prior to being placed into maintenance mode (the default is “Unrestricted”).

[PS] C:\>Set-ServerComponentState EX2016SRV1 –Component ServerWideOffline –State Active –Requester Maintenance

[PS] C:\>Resume-ClusterNode –Name EX2016SRV1

Name                 ID    State
----                 --    -----
EX2016SRV1           1     Up

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxServer EX2016SRV1 –DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Unrestricted

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxServer EX2016SRV1 –DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $false

[PS] C:\>Set-ServerComponentState EX2016SRV1 –Component HubTransport –State Active –Requester Maintenance

Post-Installation Tasks

After deploying an Exchange 2016 cumulative update there are some post-installation tasks that you should perform.

Rebalance Database Availability Groups

Throughout the update process the database copies in your DAG will have been moved between DAG members, possibly multiple times. If you want to return your active database copies to their most preferred DAG member (aka “rebalancing the DAG”), use the PowerShell script supplied by Microsoft.

[PS] C:\>cd $exscripts

[PS] C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\scripts\>.\RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 -DagName EX2016DAG01 -BalanceDbsByActivationPreference

Restore Customizations

After you have completed updating your servers you will need to re-apply any customizations that you had documented during the preparation steps above.

Perform a Health Check of Servers

Here are some suggestions for health checking your Exchange servers after applying updates.

  • Check the cluster nodes are all up – verify that you have not left any DAG members suspended in the cluster by running the Get-ClusterNode cmdlet on one of the DAG members.
  • Test service health – use the Test-ServiceHealth cmdlet to verify that all required services are running on each server.
  • Test MAPI connectivity to every database – use the Test-MAPIConnectivity cmdlet to verify that all databases are mounted and accessible.
  • Check the database copy status for DAGs – use the Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus cmdlet to verify that all database copies, copy/replay queues, and content indexes are healthy.
  • Test replication health for DAGs – use the Test-ReplicationHealth cmdlet on each DAG member to verify replication health is good.
  • Check the database activation policy for each Mailbox server – verify that each Mailbox server that is in a DAG has the correct database activation policy for your environment.
  • Check server component status – use Get-ServerComponent to verify that you have not left any servers in maintenance mode.
  • Run Exchange Analyzer to check for best practices compliance.

The Test-ExchangeServerHealth.ps1 script can perform some of the steps above for you. You should also consider running one or more tests from ExRCA.com to verify client connectivity and inbound mail flow are working.

About the Author

Paul Cunningham

Paul is a former Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works as a consultant, writer, and trainer specializing in Office 365 and Exchange Server. Paul no longer writes for Practical365.com.

Comments

  1. Natalie Frith

    Comments for this blog post are now closed; please contact team@practical365.com for any additional questions and comments, thank you.

  2. dayanand gore

    Hello I need to upgrade cumulative update 19 for exchange server 2016 ,currently we are using cumulative update 17 for exchange server 2016 .please let me know what are prerequisites for the same. is This update contains AD Schema changes, so please let me know how to plan this

  3. Keith

    Hi Paul,
    We’ve come across a rather bizarre issue after what appeared to be a successful upgrade 2016 CU17. Both OWA and ECP are unable to load – ECP displays the error;

    [Ecp] An internal server error occurred. The unhandled exception was: System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: ‘Void Microsoft.Exchange.Security.Authentication.Utility.DeleteFbaAuthCookies(System.Web.HttpRequest, System.Web.HttpResponse)’.
    at Microsoft.Exchange.HttpProxy.FbaModule.RedirectToFbaLogon(HttpApplication httpApplication, LogonReason reason)
    at Microsoft.Exchange.HttpProxy.FbaModule.OnEndRequestInternal(HttpApplication httpApplication)
    at Microsoft.Exchange.HttpProxy.ProxyModule.c__DisplayClass20_0.b__0()
    at Microsoft.Exchange.Common.IL.ILUtil.DoTryFilterCatch(Action tryDelegate, Func`2 filterDelegate, Action`1 catchDelegate)

    OWA displays the generic “something went wrong” – all other services are fine.

    Have tried – DependentAssemblyGenerator.exe as well as updatecas.ps1 both to no avail.

    Any help appreciated.

    1. Kevin Miller

      I am having the same (or very similar issue). OWA and ECP both initiate a second prompt for authentication. We cannot seem to figure this one out. Were you able to remedy your issue?

      1. Gary

        Hi, did you find a solution? I upgraded one server and got a similar problem, but the other server which is still on CU14 is OK.

        Thanks

    2. Carl

      Hi,

      We are experiencing this exact problem as well.
      Did you find any solution?

      Thanks!

  4. Abdulrehman Altaf

    thanks for the article…

  5. Catherine

    Hi Paul,

    We have an On-Premise Exchange Server 2016 environment which includes an Edge server. Both Mailbox Servers and the Edge are at CU5. We are looking to migrate to On-Premise Exchange Server 2019 and understand we need to update to CU16 to successfully move the mailboxes.

    Do we need to update the Edge server to CU16 along with Mailbox Servers?

    Because we have limited space on the Edge we may not be able to update it to CU16 and are considering simply installing an Edge Exchange Server 2019 and using it with our Exchange 2016 Mailbox servers until we can upgrade them to Exchange Server 2019. Is this a plausible option.

    Please advise.

    Thank you

  6. John

    Hello All

    My customer has Exchange 2016 CU5 and along the way someone has updated the server to .Net Framework 4.7.0. What can I do about updating .Net Framework and getting Exchange to CU14 supported by .net 4.7.2 or CU 16 supported by 4.8?

    Thank you

  7. Bryan Bivins

    Paul,

    We performed a Cumulative Update 15 days ago and I still have a database stuck in HealthyAndUpgrading status with 88 mailboxes left in ContentIndexMailboxesLeftToCrawl

    We have 6 databases in the DAG and the other 5 are fine. At first I thought it would just take a few days but there’s no way it should take this long. Something is wrong.

    What can I do to correct this?

  8. Babu

    Hi Paul,

    Currently I have Exchange Server 2016 CU5 (Build Number 15.1.845.34) running on Windows Server 2012 R2
    Current AD is running Windows Server 2008 R2
    I need to install Exchange Server 2016 CU15

    Do we need to run /PrepareDomain or /PrepareAD

    1. Can I go directly from Exchange Server 2016 CU5 to CU15?

    2. If not, then how should I go? for example: from Exchange Server 2016 CU5 to 10 and then go to CU15?

    3. How many steps Do I need to go from Exchange Server 2016 CU5 to CU15?

    4. Could you please kindly let me know Exchange Server Upgrade 2016 CU5 to CU15 Step-by-Step

    Thank you.

    1. Jonboy

      Babu – I’m curious if you have completed this yet? I’m in the same position, except the domain is 2012 R2. If you have not already, you need to upgrade AD, because 2008 R2 was end of support in January. Also, make sure you complete DFSR migration if you haven’t already.

  9. Dean Maher

    Hello ,

    Great Blog , I’ve found this how to works perfect .

    I have a question , We have a few database dag , would you recommend we set the “Activation preference number:” to 1 well before we start, for all database to the server we are not upgrading . that way we can do controlled failover for testing . Plus when place it in maintenance mode , we would have to do a Server Switch ,

    1. Dean Maher

      Sry for the Double post , My earlier post was there .

  10. Dean

    HI Paul,

    thanks so much for all your blog. they are GREAT!

    I have a 2 member dag . I just about to do my first 2016 CU upgrade . Our plan is to do one at a time (waiting a few days for burn in and testing ) , then do the other.

    So would you recommend we set database “Activation preference number:” on all dag database member to the server we not going are not upgrading . Making that the Primary . This way we test 1 database in a control setting. Allowing the other to stay where they are . Minimise auto moves .

  11. Ward A

    Do you have to do these steps on the passive boxes in the DAG? I need to patch my two passive DR ones and felt like I should be able to just patch through.

  12. John

    Hi Paul,
    Great article. A quick question. I hope you will shed light on it.
    We are going to upgrade to Exchange CU14 from CU12.
    Do we have to run Step 1 and 2
    Step 1-
    E:\Setup.exe /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /PrepareSchema

    step 2
    E:\Setup.exe /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:”Contoso Corporation”

  13. Stephen Isenberg

    Hi Paul,

    As always your directions are impeccable.

  14. Gavin Ross

    Trying to run the upgrade, I get the following error message.

    Installing product C:\Exchange CU14\exchangeserver.msi failed. Fatal error during installation. Error code is 1603. Last error reported by the MSI package is ‘The Installer has insufficient privileges to modify this file: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\mapi\emsmdb\global.asax

    Anyone have any ideas how to get past this error?

    1. RavinduM

      Use the elevated CMD instead of powershell.

  15. DG

    Do we need AD prep commands if updating from CU12 to CU14 ?

    Thanks.

    1. Mohammad Noor

      Did you get the answer yet? I’m to upgrade from CU 7 to 14 by tomorrow.If you got any answer please contact me :my Email :eng.nor@gmail.com

      1. Jonatan Pacci R.

        you are upgrading from Cumulative Update 13 for Exchange Server 2016 or a later cumulative update for Exchange Server 2016 to Cumulative Update 15 for Exchange Server 2016, then there’s NO NEED to run the /PrepareAD or /PrepareDomain. No additional actions (prepareAD, prepareDomain, or assigning permissions) are required.

        1. John

          Do we have to run /PrepareAD /PrepareDomain if we upgrade from CU12 to CU14?

  16. Avinash Thakur

    We have on premises server and hybrid servers as well. So while upgrading shall we First upgrade hybrid servers and then on premises. Some articles saying IST Hybrid servers and then on-prem servers.
    Currently both on-prem and hybrid are at Exchange 2016 CU10.

  17. Avinash Thakur

    We have on premises server and hybrid servers as well. So while upgrading shall we just upgrade hybrid and then on premises. Some articles saying IST Hybrid servers and then on-prem servers.
    Currently both on-prem and hybrid are at Exchange 2016 CU10.

  18. david shane

    Hi Paul,

    Great article and thanks for the informative content. A quick a question:

    After upgrading the first server and mounting databases on the new CU level, can these databases then be mounted on the other server at the lower CU level?

    Or is it once the DB’s are mounted on the newer CU they can only be mounted on server with the same CU or greater?

    Regards,
    David

  19. neyc

    Going well in co-existence but don’t upgrade everything at the same time and read everything carefully. I will never learn Exchange till Paul does everything. Keep up the good work and I better learn programming to script the whole thing, not sleeping enough is bad for your health, best regards

  20. Jim Semmelroth

    I successfully completed an Exchange 2016 Mailbox server CU update from RTM directly to CU11 by following these instructions. There were a few Outlook client issues afterwards, fixed by recreating profiles. There are a few App Event log errors to resolve. But a day after the update, all is still functioning. Thanks Paul.

    Jim

  21. Ivan

    The problem is solved by reinstalling. During the analysis of the problem, I came to the conclusion that the installation in cmd did not finish correctly, although there were no errors, but there were too few complete messages. I do not understand why MS can not write a message in case of incorrect completion.

  22. Ivan

    Typo in the previous message. In IIS the certificate is established correctly.

  23. Ivan

    Hi.
    Aftef update CU 10, there was the following error:
    Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cann
    ot process the request. It cannot determine the content type of the HTTP response from the destination comput
    er. The content type is absent or invalid. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.

    In ISS сертифакт it is established. Who can help? Thanks.

  24. Thomas Grassi

    Paul

    Great article Just upgraded my Exchange 2016 DAG from CU9 to CU10 on NODE 2

    Just add this before you start
    Install Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 64 bit

    Add this
    Close EMS before running
    setup /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

    Now need to upgrade NODE 1 but this process helped a lot.

    Thank you

  25. oguzhan

    Hi Paul,

    Is is possible to use different CU version of Exchange Servers 2013 in the single Exchange organization. They are not in the DAG.
    Does any cause arise?

    Thank you.

  26. Noel Esguerra

    Hi Paul,

    Thank you for the quick reply.

    I already tried the /m:upgrade initially and I got the message “The parameter ‘roles” is not valid for current operation ‘Upgrade’.” This is why I’m using the Install mode on the EdgeTransport (2nd) server.

    Yes, I am aware that CU4 is very old. The plan is to upgrade to CU4 then finally to CU9. Going forward, I was thinking of having the current release being 2-3 months behind the latest CU available.

    Kind regards,

    Noel

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      When using /m:upgrade you do not need to specify the roles. It just upgrades the roles that are already installed. If you’re ever unsure about the cmd line parameters they are documented on TechNet.

      1. Noel Esguerra

        Hi Paul,

        The CU 9 has been successfully applied to both servers.

        Thank you very much for your advice.

        Kind regards,
        Noel

  27. Noel Esguerra

    Hi Paul,

    I followed this article to upgrade the main exchange server 2016 RTM to CU4. But I’m having issue in upgrading the Edge Transport server to CU4.

    I tried to run the unattended setup.exe as follows
    setup.exe /mode:Install /role:EdgeTransport /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

    In the setup log, it shows the following snippets of msgs
    ….
    RuntimeAssembly was started with the following command: ‘/mode:install /role:EdgeTransport /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms /sourcedir:D:\ExchangeServer2016-x64-cu4’

    [ERROR] Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory: ADAM is installed on this machine; only the Microsoft Exchange Edge Transport server role may be installed…

    ‘GatewayRole’ is installed on the server object.
    The installation mode is set to: ‘Install’.


    Applying default role selection state

    InstallModeDataHandler has 8 DataHandlers
    RootDataHandler has 1 DataHandlers
    Mailbox role: Transport service

    [ERROR] The Edge Transport role cannot be installed with other roles.
    [ERROR] Transport service cannot be installed without Mailbox service.

    … Setup did not complete!

    Could you please advise if I’m updating the EdgeTransport server incorrectly?

    Thank you.

    Noel

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      You’re using the wrong command line switches for an upgrade.. It’s not /m:install to perform an upgrade. Use /m:upgrade instead.

      Also CU4 is way out of date now. The latest release is CU10, and only CU9 and CU10 are currently supported.

  28. Duncan

    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for a great article (again). We are in the middle of migrating from 2010 to 2016. I was wondering if I should the steps you’ve outlined above, or perform a server switchover to perform the monthly updates to the OS on the 2016 servers.

    Best regards,

    Duncan

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Should you perform the same maintenance steps for installing OS updates? Yes. The same maintenance steps apply to pretty much any maintenance/update/planned outage scenario.

  29. Anup

    how to Perform the Active Directory schema changes and updates ?

  30. Anup

    Hello,

    What is the exact procedure to patch exchange server 2016 ?

    Do i need to update AD schema as well ?

    Thanks in advance !

      1. Anup

        Hi Paul,

        Thank you very much for kind reply!

        Can you please let me know how to update the schema while performing CU update?

        I know the procedure of schema update while doing Exchange server installation.

        Best regards,

        Anup

  31. Dan Wheeler

    Exchange 2016 has its own StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 and StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 scripts in *ExchangeInstallDir*\scripts – are they not written explicitly for Exchange 2016, or are those just old versions included?

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      They aren’t suitable for Exchange 2016. AFAIK they are just the Exchange 2010 scripts left over.

        1. Gene

          I tested the process outlined in the technet article and there are a couple problems but it does seem to work.

          The scripts are called by the wrong name in several locations. The scripts correct names are startdagservermaintenance.ps1 and stopdagservermaintenance.ps1.

          They also tell you to run:

          .\StartDagMaintenance.ps1 -serverName -MoveComment Maintenance

          But left out the -pauseClusterNode parameter. The command should look like:

          .\StartDagMaintenance.ps1 -serverName -MoveComment Maintenance -pauseClusterNode

          1. Gene

            Correction, the command should look like:

            .\StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 -serverName -MoveComment Maintenance -pauseClusterNode

  32. Michael Gates

    Hey Paul, I am hoping you can point me in the right direction with an issue. I recently took over a Server 2012R2 Exchange 2016 environment. I am trying to get it updated to CU8 and 4.7.1 .net

    It is currently on CU2 with .net 4.6.1. My plan was to take it to CU4, update the .net to 4.6.2 and then update to CU8 and finally update .net to 4.7.1. My first problem is CU4 is no longer available to download.

    How should I proceed? Update to CU8 and then update .net to 4.7.1? Will this break anything to do it, in that order? This is production environment with standalone single server.

    Thanks for all your continued assistance.

    1. Michael Gates

      Snap! Looks like you already answered that same question above.

      Thanks again Paul!

  33. Trev

    Hi Guys,

    I have an exchange 2016 with CU2 (I know I am way out on updates) and my question is , can I install .Net 4.7.1 now and upgrade straight to CU8?

    I know the CU updates allow for upgrade from any version, just not sure how the .Net installation will affect CU2 if I upgrade the .Net 4.7.1 now.

    N.B I have a standalone server with all roles and databases on one server. No personalized configurations.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      There’s a note on the supportability matrix about situations like yours.

      https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728623(v=exchg.150).aspx

      “When upgrading Exchange from an unsupported CU to the current CU and no intermediate CUs are available, you should upgrade to the latest version of .NET that’s supported by Exchange first and then immediately upgrade to the current CU. This method doesn’t replace the need to keep your Exchange servers up to date and on the latest, supported, CU.
      Microsoft makes no claim that an upgrade failure will not occur using this method, which may result in the need to contact Microsoft Support Services.”

  34. Peter Nørredal

    Hello Paul,
    I have a 2 node Exchange 2016 DAG setup, currently running CU4

    Due to quite a lot of know bugs – and to be fully up2date – I want to update my Exchange 2016 DAG to CU8 as soon as possible.

    What would you recommend I do ?
    – Taking 2 CU´s at a time (I.e. from CU 4 to CU 6 – and then from CU 6 to CU 8 ) as I think is Microsofts best (and tested)
    practise ?

    or

    – Should I update directly from CU4 to CU8 ?

    Please advise here 🙂

    Thanks
    BR
    Peter, Hostnordic

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Microsoft supports updating from any CU to the latest.

      Microsoft only tests the N-2 upgrade scenarios though.

      I’m not aware of any specific issues with your scenario. Given you’ve got a DAG i would probably just go straight to the latest one.

  35. David

    Thanks for the great article Paul.
    I have a 4 node DAG exchange 2016 setup behind a hardware load balancer. All running CU2. I upgraded one of the server to CU4 then CU5. All seemed to go well until I added the server back into the load balancer. Random users started getting kicked out of Outlook and being prompted for user name and pw. They cant get back in until I remove the updated server from the load balancer. After doing a lot of digging in many different log files I think I found something. In the IIS Exchange Back End logs it looks like the only traffic between the updated server and the rest is the Healthmailbox. On all other three servers I seem users being redirected to other servers, but not on the updated server. I’m just not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions??
    Thanks so very much!!

  36. MannoKing

    small type-O:

    You wrote Exchange 2013 instead of 2016 at Perform a Health check of Servers.

  37. Samy

    Thanks a lot Paul.Much Appreciated.

  38. Samy

    Hello Paul,

    Thanks for the wonderful article. I’m facing an issue when trying to run the upgrade setup from Exchange Powershell I received the following error message and setup fails

    Please help

    Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check

    Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED
    Prerequisite Analysis FAILED

    Setup can’t continue with the upgrade because the powershell (3564) has open files. Close the process, and then restart
    Setup.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Exchange setup isn’t run from PowerShell. Use a CMD prompt. You will need to close down any PowerShell sessions that have Exchange files locked as well (e.g. close all Exchange Management Shell windows).

  39. ThatGuy

    Paul, I am updating from EXCH 2016 RTM (15.1.225.42) to EXCH 2016 RU6. We are in O365 now and only keep this server around to allow for the receive connector to send email anonymously (UPSs, Storage devices). Is there anything that we need to be concerned with in 0365?

    BTW, great article. I’m never let down when reading your posted content.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      No. You’re out of date so you definitely need to update (MS wants you at latest or N-1 for hybrid deployments).

  40. Jeff

    Hi Paul,

    When referencing “If the server is a DAG member, run the following commands. If your server is not a DAG member, skip to the command for setting ServerWideOffline.”, I do not see the command for setting ServerWideOffline. Could you provide that for me?

    Thank you.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      It’s there. Do a CTRL-F and search for the word and you’ll find it.

      1. Jeff

        Hi Paul,

        Sure is, totally missed it. Sorry about that.

  41. mhody

    Hi Paul,

    Im experiencing a weird issue. Its really not giving me a more descriptive note with regards to the problem. It only says “Performance counter names and help text failed to unload. Lodctr exited with error code ‘2001’.” ive been stuck in language installing ever since. i tried doing the lodctr /r and other things from google but with no luck.

  42. Mircea Sandu

    Hello all,

    I had two Exchange 2016 servers in my infrastructure and I started to upgrade them to Exchange 2016 CU3.
    One of the servers has been updated successfully, but the second one ran into a problem at ‘Client Access Front End service’ stage.
    You can see the CMD output below.

    F:>Setup /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

    Welcome to Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 3 Unattended Setup

    Copying Files…
    File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.

    Languages
    Management tools
    Mailbox role: Transport service
    Mailbox role: Client Access service
    Mailbox role: Unified Messaging service
    Mailbox role: Mailbox service
    Mailbox role: Front End Transport service
    Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service

    Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check

    Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED
    Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED

    Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server

    Language Files COMPLETED
    Restoring Services COMPLETED
    Language Configuration COMPLETED
    Exchange Management Tools COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Transport service COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Client Access service COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Unified Messaging service COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Mailbox service COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Front End Transport service COMPLETED
    Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service FAILED

    The following error was generated when “$error.Clear();
    .
    “$RoleInstallPathScriptsUpdate-AppPoolManagedFrameworkVersion.ps1″ -AppPoolName:”MSExchangeServicesAppPool”
    -Version:”v4.0″;
    get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -server $RoleFqdnOrName | set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory
    -windowsAuthentication:$true -WSSecurityAuthentication:$true -OAuthAuthentication:$true
    ” was run:
    “System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800700B7): Filename: \?C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange
    ServerV15FrontEndHttpProxyEWSweb.config
    Line number: 8
    Error: Cannot add duplicate collection entry of type
    ‘add’ with unique key attribute ‘key’ set to ‘HttpProxy.ProtocolType’

    at
    Microsoft.Web.Administration.Interop.IAppHostAdminManager.GetAdminSection(String bstrSectionName, String bstrPath)
    at
    Microsoft.Web.Administration.Configuration.GetSectionInternal(ConfigurationSection section, String sectionPath, String
    locationPath)
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.ExchangeServiceVDirHelper.EwsAutodiscMWA.EnableOrDisableCafeEndpo
    int(Configuration
    configuration, String endpointName, Boolean enableEndpoint)
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.ExchangeServiceVDirHelper.EwsAutodiscMWA.OnSetManageWCFEndpoints(
    Task
    task, EndpointProtocol protocol, Boolean enableWSSecurity, ExchangeVirtualDirectory adVirtualDirectory)
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.SetWebServicesVirtualDirectory.InternalProcessRecord()
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.b__b()
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.InvokeRetryableFunc(String funcName, Action func, Boolean
    terminatePipelineIfFailed)
    at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ProcessTaskStage(TaskStage taskStage,
    Action initFunc, Action mainFunc, Action completeFunc)
    at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ProcessRecord()

    at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.ProcessRecord()”.

    The Exchange Server setup operation didn’t complete. More details can be found in ExchangeSetup.log located in the
    :ExchangeSetupLogs folder.

    F:>

    At this stage I cannot do anything with the server, and /owa is not working anymore. It seems that I have a corrupt installation.
    Do you have any ideas how can I solve the error and ran the installation task again?

    Regards,
    Mircea

  43. Alice Goodman

    Hi Paul – Great information as always. I have a question about removing the server from maintenance mode. What is the difference between Set-ServerComponentState EX2016SRV1 –Component ServerWideOffline –State Active –Requester Maintenance and the subsequent same command but for HubTransport? Doesthe ServerWideOffline also take care of the HubTransport?

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      No, ServerWideOffline is a separate component state to HubTransport, so they both need to be set individually.

  44. Alan

    Hi,
    very useful info. Do you recommend performing this on live servers? I usually do regular Widows updates during scheduled downtime (i.e the wekend), will this procedure cause issues to end users or does it still need downtime? (for a system with multiple CAS servers and a DAG with 3+ copies of each database).

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Yes. What’s the point of high availability if you still need to patch late at night and on weekends?

      1. Alan

        Great thanks, will try it this week!

  45. Jeff

    Hi Paul,

    Great job with your documentation of the install process, thank you!

    I’ve installed 2016 RTM a while ago and accidentally installed .Net 4.6. I don’t recall if it was before or after installing Exchange. So if you’ve already installed .Net 4.6, can you still install CU2? I see that it’s recommended to install Exchange 1st then .Net but that’s not the my current situation.

    If not, how would you recommend proceeding? Thank you.

      1. Jeff

        Yes, 4.6.1 thanks Paul.

        Will the removal of 4.6.1 cause any problems with the current install of Exchange if I don’t have time to install CU2 right after the uninstall of 4.6.1?

        1. Avatar photo
          Paul Cunningham

          No. It is recommended if you’ve inadvertently installed 4.6.1 to remove it following the guidance. You don’t need to immediately install or reinstall Exchange afterwards.

  46. Allen Stalker

    Hey Paul, running into an issue during setup and followed your instructions to a “T.”
    Here is the error that’s getting thrown. It seems to be a permissions issue but I can’t figure out why. I am running from an elevated cmd.exe and I have all the appropriate permissions on the Exchange server.

    Write-ExchangeSetupLog -Info (“An exception ocurred while configuring
    Search Foundation PowerShell Snapin. Exception: ” + $_.Exception.Message);
    }

    }
    ” was run: “System.Exception: Failure cleaning up SearchFoundation Data
    folder. – C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange
    ServerV15BinSearchCeresHostControllerData – Exception calling “Delete”
    with “2” argument(s): “Access to the path
    ‘Microsoft.ClientResourceView.FlowService.dll’ is denied.”
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.WriteError(Exception exception,
    ErrorCategory category, Object target, Boolean reThrow, String helpUrl)
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.WriteError(Exception exception,
    ErrorCategory category, Object target)
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Deployment.WriteExchangeSetupLog.InternalProcessRe
    cord()

    at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.b__b()
    at
    Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.InvokeRetryableFunc(String
    funcName, Action func, Boolean terminatePipelineIfFailed)”.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Locked file perhaps by a service still running, or antivirus has it locked.

  47. skykitchen

    Hi Paul. Great Arcticle. I have a problem with the unattenend upgrade – First it shows CU1 but it is definetly CU2 – When i start the GUI installation i see CU2… very strange…

    But the setup hang @ Restoring Services COMPLEDTED and nothing happen anymore. Do you know what can be the Problem ?

    Thanks for help

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Running from powershell.exe or cmd.exe? You should be using cmd.exe.

  48. Piet v.d. Hout

    Can the exchange 2016 scripts: StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 and StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 be used for this ?
    If not, why not ?

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      No. The scripts don’t do all the steps that are recommended for DAG member maintenance.

      1. Piet v.d. Hout

        Thanks Paul, do you think that the Microsoft exchange team will change the scripts accordingly. I guess these scripts are there for a reason namely to do maintenance on a Dag member server.

        1. Avatar photo
          Paul Cunningham

          No, I don’t anticipate them putting any development time into those scripts. They were originally introduced in Exchange 2010, and were recommended for use with 2010. But that had a different maintenance process than 2013/2016. The scripts were changed, but like I said they don’t include all the recommended steps for performing maintenance (same is true for both 2013 and 2016).

  49. Darrell Q

    Hello Paul,
    We run Exchange 2010, but are moving to 2 new Edge servers in a different DMZ. First off I setup 2 Exchange 2016 (Edge Servers) in the new DMZ, but am not sure if I have to PrepareAD internally to successfully introduce them. Because they are the latest version (and internally its still all 2010) is it necessary to prep AD and the schema first?

  50. filip

    Thanks for this awesome post.
    Do you have or know a maintenance script?

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      Michael Van Horenbeeck has one for Exchange 2013 that he published (do a Google search to find it) but I don’t know if it works the same for Exchange 2016. I suspect so.

      1. John Carney

        At first glance, the answer is “no”:


        WARNING: The specified Exchange Server is not an Exchange 2013 server!
        WARNING: Aborting script…

        I’m sure MVH will update this at some point.

        1. Avatar photo
          Paul Cunningham

          If he hasn’t updated it by now …. 🙂

          A keen community member might patch it and send him the updated code.

  51. Eric

    Greetings Paul ,

    I have come across a weird issue while upgrading My exchange 2013 Mail Box server from CU 5 to CU 11 and would dearly need your help. We have 4 2013 servers running in our environment 2 CAS and 2 MBX servers. Have successfully upgraded the first 3 servers to CU 11 without any issues and this is the last server in the organization. Find below the Details of the issue.

    1. The server is a Mailbox server participating in a DAG. The other mailbox server is already upgraded to CU 11 without any issues.

    2. Have tried installing CU 11 upgrade through GUI, intial screen appears and disappears immediately. Exchange setup logs do not have any conclusive logs.

    3. Tried to install through powershell (setup /m…..), the setup failed but with some conclusive error messages. please find below a snippet of the log files.

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0475] [0] The following roles have been unpacked: BridgeheadRole ClientAccessRole MailboxRole UnifiedMessagingRole AdminToolsRole

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0475] [0] The following datacenter roles are unpacked:

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0490] [0] The following roles are installed: BridgeheadRole ClientAccessRole MailboxRole UnifiedMessagingRole AdminToolsRole

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0537] [0] [ERROR] Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0553] [0] [ERROR] Requested value ‘15.0.913.22’ was not found.

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0553] [0] CurrentResult SetupLauncherHelper.loadassembly:444: 1

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0553] [0] The Exchange Server setup operation didn’t complete. More details can be found in ExchangeSetup.log located in the :ExchangeSetupLogs folder.

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0553] [0] CurrentResult main.run:235: 1

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0553] [0] CurrentResult setupbase.maincore:396: 1

    [04/20/2016 06:11:31.0568] [0] End of Setup

    The things which i derived from the setup logs

    1. It is clear that the steup is failing when the setup tried to find the adminversion ID of the CU5 installer15.0.913.22.

    2. Now, when i see the exchange setup logs of the servers where the installation was successful, it says 15.0.913.22 was present.

    3. Would dearly want to know whether you have faced this issue , or a solution would be nice. even now the setup fails with the same error ” [ERROR] Requested value ‘15.0.913.22’ was not found.”

    Thanks in Advance.
    eric

    1. Eric

      Hi Paul,
      Would appreciate a reply.

  52. Cedric Chadeau

    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for this VERY useful post (thus, thanks for your entire blog, and the knowledge you share with us)

    Some Technet articles or blog posts (like this one: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298065(v=exchg.150).aspx#Pm ) mention that the transport services should be restarted to take into account their new state (e.g. draining, active, …)

    From your experience, is this necessary or not?

    Regards

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      In my experience it has not been necessary, but it’s been coming up in conversation lately so I assume Microsoft is making that recommendation for good reasons.

  53. User2001

    Hi,

    To be able to start setup.exe /prepareschema ou prepareAD from E2016 source files, you do require to use Windows 2012+ server OS. So if it is done from your Schema master AD server, it has to have that OS (Which might not be the case)

    Regards.

  54. Elizabeth Barnes

    HI Paul, thank you so much for your blog. I’m a new Exchange Server Administrator and your tutorials are invaluable to me. I have 2 questions:

    1) If I run the schema update with the setup.exe /PrepareSchema or the setup.exe /PrepareAD switch and is not required by the CU, will I break anything in by doing this?

    2) At the beginning of the Article you said “Verify that you have documented any customizations to your Exchange server that will need to be re-applied”. If I inherited the Exchange environment, how will I know what has been done? or how can I check this in more detail?

    Thank you in advance.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      1) No

      2) Look for things that make your Exchange installation different from a “vanilla” installation, such as customized OWA login pages, integration with third party products that are installed on the Exchange server, that sort of thing.

  55. Manfred

    Hi Paul,

    Thank you very much for the information and your article!

    I’m currently plan to migrate from Ex2010 to 2016 and have installed Ex2016 RTM with 2x ExNodes (DNS-RoundRobin) and 1x DAG, mainly with your instructions. Again, THX for this great Job! 🙂

    At the past, I’m using for my Ex2010 enviroment PS-Script ‘StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1’ for maintenance start and ‘StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1’ for maintenance stop.

    At some other posts I can found for Ex2013 Server Update to use also post scripts ‘UpdateCas.ps1’ and ‘UpdateConfigFiles.ps1’ scripts.

    … “After each installation of a cumulative update for Exchange 2013, remember to execute both the UpdateCas.ps1 and UpdateConfigFiles.ps1 Windows PowerShell scripts.”

    Here some questions:

    1. Should the script ‘StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1’ no longer be used?
    2. If yes, in which order and combination with your post information?
    3. Should the both ‘UpdateCas’ scripts are also executed after the CU update?
    4. How is the order at a Exchange coexistence (Ex2010/Ex2013/Ex2016) to expand the Scheme/Forrest/Domain and updating each ExNode?

    Excuse my bad English and greetings.

    1. Avatar photo
      Paul Cunningham

      1. Correct, the 2010 maintenance scripts should not be used for 2013/2016.
      2. n/a
      3. I’ve never found it necessary for 2013, and only once have needed to run UpdateCas.ps1 for a 2010 server, many, many years ago.
      4. Schema/AD update is performed once only. Update the highest version of Exchange first.

      1. Manfred

        Hi Paul,

        THX for your reply.

        Was not really clear for me, but I have now understood. Updated yesterday Exchange 2016 CU1 with no problem, thanks to your guidance.

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