Exchange 2013 CU1 setup fails with “All Exchange 2010 servers in the organization must have Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 or later installed”
Symptom
When upgrading from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013 CU1 the setup might fail with the bellow error when the server specified in the error is running Exchange 2010 Edge Role and has been upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP3
All Exchange 2010 servers in the organization must have Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 or later installed. The following servers don't meet this requirement: ServerName.
For more information, visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/library(EXCHG.150)/ms.exch.setupreadiness.E15E14CoexistenceMinMajorVersionRequirement.aspx
Reason
KB2756920 causes IIS to crash
I have faced a recent issue on OWA of Exchange 2010 installed on windows 2008 R2 on various server.
The issues caused OWA - Blackberry - Out of office and autodiscover to totally crash and the application log was filled with errors similar to the below
EventID: 3
Source: System.ServiceModel 3.0.0.0
WebHost failed to process a request.
Sender Information: System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment+HostingManager/30542218
Exception: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/EWS/exchange.asmx' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation. The exception message is: Method not found: 'System.String System.ServiceModel.Activation.Iis7Helper.ExtendedProtectionDotlessSpnNotEnabledThrowHelper(System.Object)'.. ---> System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.String System.ServiceModel.Activation.Iis7Helper.ExtendedProtectionDotlessSpnNotEnabledThrowHelper(System.Object)'.
at System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.MetabaseSettingsIis7V2.WebConfigurationManagerWrapper.BuildExtendedProtectionPolicy(ExtendedProtectionTokenChecking tokenChecking, ExtendedProtectionFlags flags, List`1 spnList)
After some troubleshooting removing KB2756920 solved the issue.
Although I only faced the issue with Microsoft Exchange, this is rather an IIS issue and I guess it could affect any other web-based application.
Microsoft Exchange 2010 Management console is pointing to a wrong / orphan server
Sometimes Microsoft Exchange 2010 Management console get stuck and tries to connect to the wrong server instead of the one you are logged on to.
If it is only connecting to the wrong server (but connecting) you can simply right click on "Microsoft Exchange On-Premises (ServerName)" properties and select the server you want to connect to.
However things get more complicated if the server it is trying to connect to no longer exists or is orphaned. In that case you cannot right-click properties and this will yield your management console totally useless
To fix this follow the below steps
- Close EMC
- Browse to C:\users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\MMC\ and delete the file called "Exchange Management Console".
- Using your favorite registry editor go to HKCurrentUser\Software\Microsoft\Exchangeserver\v14\AdminTools\ and delete the value NodeStructureSettings
- Now run Exchange Management Console again and your problem should be fixed
Exchange 2010 Hosting Mode dead! Long live Exchange 2010 SP2
Finally the service pack 2 for exchange 2010 has been released to the public you can find it here
with this release the exchange multi-talent mode has been eliminated, this suppose to be a hit in the messaging and collaboration environment.
Bulk Mailbox creating mailboxes in Exchange 2010 multi-tenant
I recently received this email in my inbox so I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate a post answering this question.
Hi Antoine,
First of all, I'd like to thank you for you blog, I used your guide to set up an Exchange 2010 multi tenant set up and it worked like a dream! Very clear instructions, just what I needed to guide us through the potential minefield!
Do you have any blog posts or examples on how to bulk create mailbox in a multi tenant environment, I'd like to a take a spreadsheet with users name, e-mail address etc. and create multiple mailboxes using a powershell script. I'm a GUI man at heart and I find powershell tricky at the best of times. I saw your blog on how to import PST files which I also think will be very useful.
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Before getting started, and if you are new to Exchange 2010 multi-tenant mode I suggest you check the list of tutorials I wrote : Exchange 2010 hosting for hosters.
Lab Setup
For this tutorial I am using a single exchange server in hosting mode running all the roles, but the number of exchange servers you have in your setup will not change anything.
I have also created 2 test organizations for this tutorial TestOrg1 and TestOrg2.
A look to the CSV file
Quick Tip: Fix “Enable Web-based distribution” greyed out in offline address book
After upgrading from Microsoft Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 or 2010 you might notice that the "Enable Web-based distribution" option is greyed out. The first thing to check is if you have moved the Offline Address Book generation to an Exchange 2007/2010 server.
However if you have already done this and the option is still disabled it can easily fixed by running ApplyMandatoryProperties on it. This can be done by running the below powershell command
Get-OfflineAddressBook | Set-OfflineAddressBook -ApplyMandatoryProperties
Et voila! you can now "Enable Web-based distribution"