How to Upgrade your Exchange Server 2007 Environment to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (Part II: How to Upgrade a Clustered Mailbox Server in a CCR Environment).

This is the Second Part of the Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Upgrade Series. in this article i will show you the upgrade process of Second Scenario of Exchange Server 2007 Deployments, which is "Cluster Continuous Replication - CCR".

This is the First Article in this Article Series, which talks about Upgrading Typical Exchange Server 2007 to SP1:

• How to Upgrade your Exchange 2007 Environment to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (Part I: Install SP1 on Typical Exchange 2007 Installation)
  

Am using off course Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 to run my 5 Virtual Servers. these are the servers I am running on my Lab:

• PRODC01: This is my and Only Domain Controller which hosts my Single Domain Model which is called "ProRangers.net"
  
• PRO-HC1: This is Exchange Server 2007 HUB and CAS Server Roles and also my File Share Witness Server (FSW Server).
  
• PRO-CCR1: This is the First Cluster Continuous Replication Node - First CCR node or in other words, the Active Node.
  
• PRO-CCR2: Last Server which is the Second Cluster Continuous Replication Node - Second CCR node or in other words, the Passive Node.
• PROMAIL: this is my Clustered Mailbox Server Cluster Group Name.

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 Software Requirements

As I mentioned on the First Part of this Article Series, Exchange 2007 SP1 requires the following Software updates and hotfixes to be deployed under all your Exchange Server 2007 RTM Versions. its recommended to deploy these requirements before the actual upgrade process of SP1. These Requirements are:

For Production Exchange Environment (running 64-Bit Version):

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x64)
  
• Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB933360)

For Testing Exchange Environment (running 32-Bit Version):

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86)
  
• Update for Windows Server 2003 x86 Edition (KB933360)
  

in my lab, I installed the above requirements before I started the actual upgrade process of SP1.

Which Server needs to be upgraded first ? and what is the recommended upgrade process for Exchange 2007 ?

the Recommended Upgrade sequence for your Exchange 2007 Environment based on your Server Roles, is to start with Client Access Servers - CAS which is the Internet Facing Server and to leave any Mailbox Server Role till the end of the Upgrade process. Start upgrading the First CAS Server , then continue with other CAS Servers under same AD Site or other AD Sites. here is the recommended Upgrade Path based on Exchange Server Roles:

1. Client Access servers
2. Unified Messaging servers
3. Hub Transport servers
4. Edge Transport servers
5. Mailbox servers

Microsoft Says "If you upgrade your servers in this order, you may avoid potential service interruptions"

Important Points to consider for upgrade process for Clustered Mailbox Server in CCR Environment

There are specific things that must be considered and planned for with respect to upgrading a clustered mailbox server in CCR environment to Service Pack 1:

• before you can upgrade to Exchange Server 2007 SP1 , the Clustered Nodes must be running Windows Server 2003 SP2.
• a clustered mailbox server can be upgrade to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 ONLY by using the Command-Line Version of Setup (Setup.com /UpgradeCMS), you can't use the graphical user interface version of setup to upgrade an existing Clustered Mailbox Server running RTM Version of Exchange 2007 to service pack 1 Version of Exchange 2007.
• backup your clustered mailbox server prior to upgrading to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 and also after successfully completing the upgrade service pack 1.
• update the operating system for all your Servers running the RTM Version of Exchange Server 2007 that mentioned above before you start the upgrade process to SP1. the upgrade process will not start if the above update (KB933360) was not installed on all your Exchange Servers 2007.
• upgrading clustered mailbox server in CCR environment to Service Pack 1 results in outage for the email service during the upgrade process.
• Both Nodes need to be upgraded to Service Pack 1 in order to be supported, but you must upgrade each node one at a time, then after each node has been upgraded to Service Pack 1, then the Clustered Mailbox Server is upgraded and then brought online.
• move all clustered resource groups to the active node which includes the clustered mailbox server - CMS, then start with Passive Node, don't start with Active Node. (In my lab, i will start with PRO-CCR2).

Upgrade Passive Node (PRO-CCR2) of Clustered Mailbox Server in CCR Environment

now, we can start the upgrade process of Clustered Mailbox Server in a CCR Environment, we will start with the Passive Node First, so here are the steps:

1. Logon to the Passive Node (PRO-CCR2) that has delegated the Exchange Server Administrators Role and is part of Local Administrator of on the Passive Node. for my lab i use the Domain Administrator Account. remember that we don't require a user that has been delegated the "Exchange Organization Administrators", such user account is only required when you upgrade your First Exchange Server 2007 RTM Server under your Forest, cause it needs a permission on the AD Schema and Exchange Organization Containers and Folders under the schema, since I had a Hub and CAS server already installed under this organization, i used such account to upgrade this first Hub and CAS server. after the successful installation of my first Exchange 2007 RMT Server to SP1 , then the rest of the upgrade process i only require a user which has been delegated the "Exchange Server Administrators" Role.
   
2. Move all Clustered Resources Groups to the Active Node (PRO-CCR1). make sure that the passive node hosts NO Cluster Resources, all Clustered Resources and Groups need to be moved to the Active Node. Clustered Mailbox Server Cluster Group can be left with Online Status at the Active CCR Node during the upgrade process on the passive node. you can use this command from the command line of the passive Node to move your clustered resources from passive node to active node: cluster group <Cluster_Group_Name> /Move
   
3. Start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service. This service is disabled by default, and you must set its Startup type to Manual or Automatic for the service to be started, starting this service is necessary to allow SP1 Setup to add Windows Firewall exceptions for Exchange services. After the clustered mailbox server has been upgraded on passive node, you can stop and disable this service. here i used the manual status.
   
   
   
   
4. Stop any Performance Counters services, like Performance Logs and Alerts and any Microsoft Operations Manager agents.
   
5. Stop, and then restart the Remote Registry service on the passive node.
   
   
   
6. Open a Command Prompt window, and then navigate to the Exchange 2007 SP1 installation files, then run the following command:
   
   D:\Setup.com /m:upgrade
   
   where D: Drive is my DVD Media
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Now, after we successfully upgraded the Passive Node (PRO-CCR2) , we have to restart the passive node, this is a must. Now, in my lab, i faced an issue from leaving the Windows Firewall Service in the starting state, and i lost communication between the Two Nodes, so since i don't use Windows Firewall in my lab, and since i am not enabling the Fire Wall service between the Clustered Node, i sat it again as disabled, and restarted the passive node again, and everything was working fine. If you faced the same issue in your production environment, and you are not enabling the communication between the two Clustered Nodes through Windows Firewall, just disable it back again as it was before the upgrade, and restart your passive node again.
   

Upgrade Clustered Mailbox Server - CMS (or in my lab PROMAIL) in CCR Environment

now, after successfully we upgraded the Passive Node of the Clustered Mailbox Server in the CCR Environment, the next step would be to upgrade the Clustered Mailbox Server Clustered Group - CMS , where i called it here in my lab as (PROMAIL). in this step we will upgrade the CMS from the passive node, and while the CMS Group is in Offline State, its important to bring the CMS Group or PROMAIL (as I call it in my lab) offline before you upgrade it to SP1. here are the steps you need to do:

1. after you logged into Passive Node (PRO-CCR2), open Exchange Management Shell (EMS) of Exchange Server 2007, and bring the Clustered Mailbox Server "CMS" - PROMAIL offline. you have to know that by starting this process, your Mail Service will be down, so the users will not be able to connect to their mailboxes till you successfully complete CMS Upgrade process to Service Pack 1. To bring the CMS Cluster Group (PROMAIL) offline, run the following command from EMS:
   
   Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer PROMAIL -StopReason "<Type Any Descriptive Reasons like : Upgrading CMS to E2K7SP1>"
   
   
   
   from the above screen, to can see that the command asks for Confirmation for the action that is going to be applied to your CMS Cluster Group, so click "Y" to proceed. if you want to provide this confirmation within the "Stop-ClsuterMailboxServer" command, then this is the full command:
   
   Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer PROMAIL -StopReason "<Type Any Descriptive Reasons like : Upgrading CMS to E2K7SP1>" -Confirm:$False
   
   
2. now, you need to move the Clustered Mailbox Server - CMS "PROMAIL" from CCR Active Node (which is not yet upgraded to SP1) to CCR Passive Node (which was upgraded successfully to SP1) by running the following command from Passive Node (PRO-CCR2):
   
   Move-ClusteredMailboxServer PROMAIL -TargetMachine PRO-CCR2 -MoveComment "<use your own comments here>"
   
   
   
   also, to append the confirmation for this command along with your command, here is the full command:
   
   Move-ClusteredMailboxServer PROMAIL -TargetMachine PRO-CCR2 -MoveComment "<use your own comments here>" -Confirm:$False
   
3. Now, after we move the Clustered Mailbox Server "CMS" - PROMAIL from Active CCR Node (PRO-CCR1) to Passive CCR Node (PRO-CCR2), we need to upgrade the Clustered Mailbox Server - CMS - Cluster Group to Service Pack 1 Version. browse to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Setup Files , and run the following command from the command line:
   
   D:\Setup.com /UpgradeCMS
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   After successfully upgrading the Clustered Mailbox Server - CMS (PROMAIL) to Service Pack 1 Version, the Setup brings this Cluster Group Online again, and your users can access their mailboxes again. when you reach this stage, actually your Exchange Service provided by Exchange Server 2007 will be running Service Pack 1 Version of Exchange Server 2007 with full features provided by SP1, the only remaining step is to upgrade your First (Active CCR Node - PRO-CCR1). which will be demonstrated in the following section.

Upgrade Active Node (PRO-CCR1) of Clustered Mailbox Server in CCR Environment

now, we can start the upgrade process of the first CCR Node (PRO-CCR1) in the CCR Environment:

1. Logon to the First Node (PRO-CCR1) that has delegated the Exchange Server Administrators Role and is part of Local Administrator of on the First Node.
   
2. Move all Clustered Resources Groups to the Second Node (PRO-CCR2). make sure that the First Node (PR-CCR1) hosts NO Cluster Resources, all Clustered Resources and Groups must be moved to the Second CCR Node which was successfully upgraded to SP1 and which runs the CMS Cluster Group. Clustered Mailbox Server Cluster Group can be left with Online Status at the Second CCR Node during the upgrade process on the First CCR Node. you can use this command from the command line of the First Node to move your clustered resources from first node to second node:
   
   cluster group <Cluster_Group_Name> /Move
   
3. Start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service on the First CCR Node.
   
   
   
4. Stop any Performance Counters services, like Performance Logs and Alerts and any Microsoft Operations Manager agents.
   
5. Stop, and then restart the Remote Registry service on the First Node.
   
   
   
6. Open a Command Prompt window, and then navigate to the Exchange 2007 SP1 installation files, then run the following command:
   
   D:\Setup.com /m:upgrade
   
   where D: Drive is my DVD Media
   
   
7. After successfully upgrading the First CCR Node, you need to restart the CCR Node first, and don't forget to disable back the Windows Firewall Service before the restart.
8. after you upgraded all your Exchange 2007 Servers from RTM to Service Pack 1 Edition, open Exchange Management Console, and make sure that all your Exchange Servers have the same Version Edition.
   
   
   

Conclusion

I know that this article and most of my articles are very detailed ones :) but i feel that i have to be detailed in my articles so others can understand exactly what i am talking about in my articles. I would appreciate from the readers to rate this article if they found it good, Excellent, or even Bad article.

stay tuned for others upcoming articles.

The First Rollup Update after Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 is now RELEASED

Yes, Its true :) Microsot Exchange Product Team, has just release the First Rollup Update for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Edition. This update is different than the Rollup Update 6 for Exchange Server 2007 RTM (Release To Manufacture) Edition, and can't be used to update the RTM Version of Exchange 2007 even, as Microsoft said.

so,

• if you have already deployed Exchange 2007 SP1, then use Rollup 1 for SP1, and here is the link for it to Read more about this new Rollup and to download it:
  
  Description of Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
  
  
• If you are still on Exchange 2007 RTM Version, then use Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 RTM, from this link :
  
  Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007

Note, before you update your Production Exchange SP1 or RTM Version, you have to test the update process on the lab, which is the recommendation always from everybody. so start testing it, and update your production servers to the latest updates and rollups for RTM and SP1 Versions.

Another thing, If you don't upgrade your RTM Version to SP1, then you missed the whole fun :) SP1 has a great features and new technologies as well as the latest rollup updates for SP1 which are 5 (Rollup Update # 6 came after the release of SP1 so its not included in this version of Service Pack, it might be included in the newer release of Service Pack 2, I don't know really :) )

Hareware and Software Requirements for Installing MS Exchange Server 2007

There are some requirements for MS Exchange Server 2007 in order to be installed successfully. Without these prerequisites and requirements the installation will not continue. These requirements were covered in my previous article, but now I will brief these requirements again for the people who didn’t get the change to check my previous blog articles:

1. Hardware Requirements

Processor:

• Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T). or
• AMD Opteron or AMD Athlon 64 processor, which supports AMD64 platform.

Memory:

• 2GB of RAM per server plus 5MB per user minimum

Disk space:

• At least 1.2GB on the hard disk where Exchange Server 2007 will be installed.
• 200MB on the system drive
  

Paging file size:

• Page File Size should be equal to the amount of RAM in the Server plus 10 MB
  

Note:

• That Inter Itanium IA64 Processors are NOT SUPPORTED.
• These hardware requirements from Microsoft are the bare minimum and should not be used in best-practice scenarios. In addition, hardware requirements can change because of features and functionality required by the company, for example, the implementation of Unified Messaging voice mail services or clustering on an Exchange 2007 server can require more memory.
  
  2. Infrastructure Requirements
  
  · The Schema Master Domain Controller must have Windows Server 2003 SP 1 or Windows Server 2003 R2 Installed.
  · Global Catalog Server used by Exchange Server 2007 must be running Windows Server 2003 SP 1 or Windows Server 2003 R2 Installed.
  · Active Directory Domain Functional Level must be Windows 2000 Native or higher for all domains in the Active Directory Forest where you will install Exchange Server 2007 or have mailbox-enabled users.
  · Forest Functional Level must be Windows Server 2003 Functional Level.
  · If you are deploying MS Exchange 2007 on an Active Directory Forest that already contains Exchange Organization (2000 or 2003), then this Exchange Organization must be in Native Mode which means “No Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Servers” should exists under this Exchange Organization.
  · Domain Name System (DNS) is configured correctly in the Active Directory Forest.
  · Active Directory is prepared for the Exchange Server 2007.
  · WINS is not required anymore for Exchange Server 2007 Installation, operation and management.
  · All Exchange Server 2007 which will deployed under Active Directory Forest needs to be member “Joined” of this Active Directory Forest, so Hub Transport, Client Access, Mailbox, and Unified Messaging (UM) Servers needs to be running on Member Servers. Well these roles can run on Domain Controllers, but its not recommended at all. The only exception to this condition is the Exchange Server 2007 – Edge Transport Server Role, this server role CAN NOT run on Server which is joined to Active Directory Forest. This server role was designed to work on a Stand Alone Server located in the DMZ Area (This server will act as SMTP Gateway Server for all Internet-Facing Email Connections from the external world).
  
  3. System Requirements
  
  Exchange 2007 has the following System Requirements which needs to be installed on the server that will run any Exchange Server 2007 Roles:
  
  · Windows Server 2003 – 64-Bit (or Windows Server 2003 R2 – 64-Bit) as Operating System.
  · .Net Framework 2.0
  · Microsoft Management Console (MMC) v 3.0
  · Microsoft PowerShell v 1.0.
  · Windows Security Updates.
  
  For each and every Exchange Server 2007 which will be deployed under the Production network, all the above software and updates must be installed prior to install Exchange Server 2007. You will not be able to proceed with Exchange Server 2007 Installation on any server if one of the system requirements was not installed.

What's New in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is the latest release of the messaging and communications system from Microsoft built on the Windows operating system. At its core, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is an email, calendaring, and address book system that runs on a centralized Windows Server 2003 server system. However with the release of Exchange 2007, now the sixth major release of Exchange in the 12-year history of the product, Microsoft has made significant improvements in the areas of security, reliability, scalability, mobility, and unified communications. In this Article, We will list some of the New Features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, not a comprehensive list of all the new features in Exchange 2007, but It is intended to help you start testing and running Exchange 2007. For a complete list of all the new and improved features, see the Following Microsoft Site “Features of Exchange Server 2007”.

• Exchange Management Console: The Exchange Management Console is one of two new administrative interfaces for Exchange 2007 and is based on Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0. The Exchange Management Console is required to install and manage Exchange 2007. The Exchange Management Console combines all management tasks into one user interface. By using the Exchange Management Console, you can manage all Exchange servers, recipients, and organizational components in your Exchange 2007 organization.

• Exchange Management Shell: The Exchange Management Shell is a new task-based command line shell and scripting language for system administration. You can use the Exchange Management Shell to perform every task that the Exchange Management Console can perform and additional tasks that cannot be performed in the Exchange Management Console.





• Unified Messaging: Exchange 2007 includes support for Unified Messaging (UM). Unified Messaging combines multiple messaging infrastructures into a single messaging infrastructure. Therefore, Exchange 2007 users who are enabled for Unified Messaging can receive all voice mail, e-mail, and fax messages in their Exchange 2007 mailboxes and can access their mailboxes from a variety of devices. These devices include mobile devices and cellular, analog, or digital telephones.

• Performance improvements: Exchange 2007 supports deployment on a 64-bit architecture for improved performance and capacity. Because of the move from a 32-bit architecture to a 64-bit architecture, the Enterprise Edition of Exchange Server 2007 now supports a larger number of storage groups and databases per server. Exchange 2007 lets you create as many as 50 storage groups per server. Although a storage group can contain as many as 5 databases, there is a limit of 50 databases per server.
  

32 bit = 232 or 4 gigabytes of addressable memory
64 bit = 264 or 16 exabytes of addressable memory

• Availability: When multiple Exchange 2007 computers that are running the Hub Transport server role are deployed in a site, mail flow between Hub Transport servers and Mailbox servers is automatically load balanced and does not require any additional configuration by the administrator. If a Hub Transport server (formerly known as a bridgehead server) is unavailable because of a failure or regularly scheduled maintenance, failover to the other Hub Transport servers is automatic.

• High availability: for Mailbox servers Exchange 2007 includes three Inbox features that provide high availability for Mailbox servers: Local continuous replication (LCR), cluster continuous replication (CCR), and single copy clusters (SCC). The continuous replication features use log shipping to create a second copy of a production storage group. In an LCR environment, the second copy is located on the same server as the production storage group. In a CCR environment, the second copy is located on the passive node in the cluster.
  


• Messaging Policy and Compliance Features: Exchange 2007 includes many new messaging compliance features. You can use the policy and compliance features of Exchange 2007 to apply rules to messages that are sent and to enforce retention requirements for stored data. The new Messaging Records Management (MRM) feature in Exchange 2007 helps users and organizations retain the messages that they need for business or legal reasons.

• Security and Protection: Exchange 2007 includes several improvements to the suite of anti-spam and antivirus features that were introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In Exchange 2007, the anti-spam and antivirus features provide services to block viruses and spam, also known as unsolicited commercial e-mail, at the network perimeter.
  
  

• Autodiscover: To optimize bandwidth, when a remote user connects to an Exchange 2007 computer that has the Client Access server role installed, the Client Access server that accepts the initial request locates the user's mailbox. After the user's Mailbox server is located, the client request is redirected to the Client Access server that is nearest to the user's Mailbox server.

• Extensibility and Programmability: Exchange 2007 includes a new set of services, known as Exchange Web Services, which enable developers to interact with Exchange mailboxes and contents by using standard HTTP. Exchange Web Services provides access to the mailboxes of authenticated users and the items in their mailboxes.

Introducing Server Roles in MS Exchange Server 2007

Exchange Server 2007 has a new architecture based on server roles. Server roles organize Exchange Server 2007 services and features into preset server configurations. While Exchange Server 2003 provided primitive server roles in the form of back-end servers and front-end servers, Exchange Server 2007 has more granular divisions.

There are five server roles in Exchange Server 2007:

• Mailbox: Hosts mailbox databases, which contain user mailboxes and public folders.


• Client Access: Allows browser-based, remote, and mobile clients to communicate with Exchange Server through Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTP), Outlook Web Access, ActiveSync, POP3, or IMAP4.


• Hub Transport: Provides message transport services within the organization. All messages flow through the hub transport, allowing organization-wide enforcement of policies.


• Unified Messaging: Provides telephony capabilities including voice mail, fax receiving, automated attendant, and Outlook Voice Access.


• Edge Transport: Serves as an e-mail gateway, helping to block spam and viruses at the network perimeter before they reach internal mail servers.