Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack (SP2) is released!

Last week when the internal announcement was made to say that SP2 had been completed and was scheduled for release, I added a few blog articles onto my “to do” list.  Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up to find that the internets were crammed full of SP2 news and that most of the articles I was planning to write, had already been written! (if only that happened with my design deliverables!)

So, I have decided to write a post today about all of the others posts instead.

Firstly here is a link to download SP2 if that's all you need – I still recommend that you skim through the release notes, even if you are progressing through your own test plan since it may save you some time.

• https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28190

Released: Exchange Server 2010 SP2

The Exchange Team Blog (this is owned by the Microsoft Exchange Server Product Group if you were not aware) announced the release of SP2 on Dec 5th at 6.38pm with the following post…

• https://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/12/05/released-exchange-server-2010-sp2.aspx

Some interesting things to note…

1. It requires a schema update (just like every other Exchange SP since 2007!)
2. It provides the following new features…

• • Hybrid Configuration Wizard
  • Address Book Policies
  • Cross-Site Silent Redirection for Outlook Web App
  • Mini Version of Outlook Web App
  • Mailbox Replication Service
  • Mailbox Auto-Mapping
  • Multi-Valued Custom Attributes
  • Litigation Hold

Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Release Notes

Before you consider deploying any new service pack for Exchange I strongly urge you to take a look at the release notes…

• • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh529928.aspx

For this release the following areas may require attention – all are discussed in the release notes.

• Installation Prerequisites for Client Access Servers has changed
• Possible issue with RBAC on non SP2 servers after upgrading one server to SP2 in the organisation
• Outlook Web App redirection issue after upgrading to SP2
• Mailbox Replication Proxy
• Hybrid Configuration Wizard error with domains starting with a numeric value

It is worth noting here that Exchange Service packs are inclusive of all previous service packs and update rollups.  This means that Exchange Server 2010 SP2 includes the fixes and changes up to and including Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1.

Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Internet Content

This is a subset of the non-TechNet material I recommend reading to get up to speed on Exchange Server 2010 SP2

• Greg Taylor : Featuring GAL Segmentation (This is a TechEd recording on ABP’s)
• Greg Taylor: Exchange Server 2010 SP2 and Support for Hosted Exchange
• Henrik Walther: Changes to the MRSProxy Service Configuration
• Tony Redmond – Installing Exchange 2010 SP2

Other Interesting Stuff

I spotted that we released a new version of the Exchange Server User Monitor yesterday also – I don't know if this is required if you deploy SP2 but I thought I would include it here just in case

• • Exchange Server User Monitor 14.2.247.5 (EXMON)

Hopefully this provides enough information in one place to save you searching the rest of the internet for your Exchange Server SP2 news

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I havent done this specifically with UR4 and the IU but usually you have to remove the IU before upgrading to another UR or SP.

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2012
  Neil, On our CAS and Mailbox servers, we have interim update for RU4 installed and our latest RU level on the servers is RU4.  In this case, should the interim update for RU4 be uninstalled first before installing SP2? Kevin