These release notes apply to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Community Technology Preview (CTP). The release notes and the software included in the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP download are intended for evaluation and deployment planning purposes only, and not for production use.
Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP is unsupported pre-release software distributed for feedback and testing purposes only, and is not supported by Customer Services and Support (CSS). For questions about this technical preview, see the Exchange Server Newsgroups or the Exchange Team Blog.
© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The release notes list important information that you should know before you deploy and use Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2. Make sure that you have also read the Exchange Server 2003 and the Exchange Server 2003 SP1 release notes before you start.
For detailed information about Exchange Server 2003, see the Microsoft Exchange Server TechCenter.
When you install Exchange Server 2003 SP2, the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 online Help, which contains procedures that relate to new tasks for Exchange Server 2003 SP2, will be installed in D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin.
Important Make sure that, if you are installing SP2 for Exchange Server 2003, you are running on either of the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), or Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server Service Pack 4 (SP4). For information about an update rollup to Windows Server 2000 SP4, see " Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 and known issues ." For more system requirements for Exchange Server 2003 (Pre SP1 and SP2), see System Requirements for Exchange Server 2003 .
Important Ensure that Hotfix 898060, " Installing security update MS05-019 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 may cause network connectivity between clients and servers to fail ," has been installed on your system. You can determine whether this hotfix is installed by running the Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool, which checks for the hotfix being installed, and then reviewing the output log. If you do not run the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer, you must manually verify that Hotfix 898060 is installed on your system. If this hotfix is not on your system, you must install it now.
This hotfix is applicable only to Windows Server 2003 customers who applied security update MS05019 or Windows Server 2003 SP1.
Important For more information about the latest support policy for Exchange Server running on a virtual machine, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 897615, " Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software ."
For information about how to deploy Exchange Server 2003, see the Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Guide.
For general information about Exchange Server, see the Microsoft Exchange Server TechCenter.
The Exchange Server 2003 online Help has been updated for Exchange Server 2003 SP2 as follows:
To install the online Help
Immediately before and after you upgrade your servers to Exchange Server 2003 SP2, it is recommended that you make a full backup of the servers, so that you are assured of a valid backup if you require one. Making a full backup of servers is considered to be a best practice for all upgrades.
If you run front-end servers in a load-balanced configuration, upgrade all front-end servers to SP2 at the same time. To do this, take all your front-end servers offline, upgrade each server, and then bring the servers back online. When you upgrade all front-end servers to SP2 at the same time, the chances of having errors in mobile clients is minimized. If some of the front-end servers are running SP2 but others are running the original release version of Exchange Server 2003, mobile clients might receive synchronization key errors. These errors result when client requests are redirected from SP2 to released front-end servers.
Because it is unlikely that all front-end servers can be upgraded at the same time to SP2, you should expect a short period of time during which mobile users will receive synchronization key errors. These errors will stop after all load-balanced front-end servers are running SP2.
If your Exchange Server 2003 organization uses a front-end and back-end architecture, you must upgrade your front-end servers before you upgrade your back-end servers.
There are several new features in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) that support mobility, anti-spam initiatives, and mailboxes (public folders and database size restrictions). Following is information about the new features in SP2.
There are some important mobility enhancements for both the mobile device user, and the mobility administrator.
Important To use the mobility features, you need a mobile device with Windows Mobile™ 5.0 installed. For most of the other features to work, the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0 must be installed also.
Direct push is a new Exchange technology that maintains an open connection between the mobile device and the server. When new items arrive, they are automatically "pushed down" to the device.
Remote wipe is a new feature that enables administrators to erase sensitive data from a lost or stolen mobile device. The administrator receives an acknowledgement that the device has been wiped after the task has been completed.
Global address list (GAL) lookup enables users to receive contact information for users in the global address list from a mobile device. This feature helps users search for a person quickly, based on name, company, and so on.
Policy provisioning allows administrators to make supported policies, such as device passwords, more secure by enforcing them in one of two modes:
Allowing only devices that have policies to synchronize (Windows Mobile 5.0 and Microsoft Feature Pack)
Allowing all devices, including older devices, to synchronize
Support for certificate-based authentication
Use of S/MIME to sign and encrypt mail
The anti-spam improvements are driven by the release of the integrated Version 2 of the Intelligent Message Filter, and Sender ID, which is an industry-standard framework. Following are the highlights of the initiatives around anti-spam.
Intelligent message filtering in the form of updated SmartScreen Technology (Microsoft research technology that is used to detect spam messages in Hotmail®, Exchange Server, and Microsoft Office Outlook®). This is achieved through Version 2 of the Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter that contains significant improvements in the anti-spam area for SP2.
Note Installing Intelligent Message Filter v2 does not "overwrite" v1. Intelligent Message Filter v2 will eventually replace Intelligent Message Filter v1. However, Intelligent Message Filter v1 will be kept active for approximately six months after Intelligent Message Filter v2 is released.
Sender ID filtering for addressing the problem of domain spoofing and phishing schemes by verifying the domain name from which the e-mail is sent. Sender ID has been integrated with the other anti-spam features that can be enabled on the General tab of the SMTP Virtual Server properties dialog box. This extends Exchange System Manager (ESM) and provides a single point for anti-spam features. Also, Sender ID can be configured on servers that use non-Exchange gateway servers.
Anti-phishing: The spam confidence level (SCL) score will be changed, based on the current Exchange store and gateway thresholds as configured by the administrator. Anti-phishing is incorporated in the SmartScreen functionality.
For the Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition, the hard-coded licensing database size limit has been increased from 16 GB to 75 GB. The administrator will be able to set a protective database size limit (prevent unintentional database size growth). The default value will be 18 GB in SP2 for Standard Edition and the default of 18 GB can be overwritten by editing the "Database Size Limit in GB" registry key.
The database size calculation will be that of the logical database size — empty space is not counted. Limit checks will be performed regularly and controlled by the store process, not by Jet. Intervals for checking will be defined in the local registry and defaults can be overwritten by editing the registry. If there are no registry settings, the default time of 24 hours is used.
There will be an early warning threshold so that warnings will arrive at set intervals. Additionally, there will be better feedback to administrators when the database size limit is reached. Administrators will be able to manually mount databases in Exchange System Manager (ESM).
Because of several enhancements, the public folders are now more manageable. The manageability includes minimizing the effect of replication storms. A replication storm occurs when too much data is replicated through the network, typically because of a change that affects many items or folders.
Log public folder deletions The logging public folder deletions feature enables the administrator to track who has deleted public folders. Specifically, every time a public folder is deleted, Exchange Server creates an event (viewable in Event Viewer) that includes information such as the name of the deleted public folder, the time that the public folder was deleted, and the name of the user who deleted the public folder.
Stop and resume public folder content replication Within Exchange System Manager, administrators will be able to right-click the Organization object in Exchange System Manager, in the hierarchy, to stop public folder content replication, do any fixing (reconfiguring) required, and then resume the replication. Being able to easily stop all public folder replication helps alleviate the consequences of a public folder replication storm.
Synchronize public folder hierarchy Synchronize the hierarchy (folders not content) to force hierarchy replication and bring a server's hierarchy in sync with the rest of the servers in the organization. The task will be accomplished in the ESM and will be made available by the administrator right-clicking and then selecting Synchronize Hierarchy. Currently, there is only a Send Hierarchy selection, which just resends previously broadcasted data. The new selection also provides a yes/no response and information message about the implications of doing the synchronization.
Propagate access control list (ACL) changes down the public folder hierarchy Lets administrators better manage client permissions in public folders in a folder subtree. Through the ESM, an administrator can set permissions for a user or group and propagate the change to all folders in a public folder subtree. The subtasks are: add users, remove users, replace users, and modify a user's permissions. There is a new selection named Manage Settings that, when clicked, displays the Manage Public Folders Settings Wizard.
Propagate replica list changes down the public hierarchy Enables administrators to add replica servers, remove replica servers, or substitute a replica server that has another server. You can do this for a selected public folder and all the folders under it. This change should address the issue of replication storms caused by unintended replica changes. Again, the new Manage Public Folders Settings Wizard will be invoked to step the administrator through the public folder management tasks.
Additionally, messaging is improved when you uninstall or remove a server and delete a public store (MDB). These tasks are currently performed by using the Exchange Installation Wizard or ESM Remove Server, or the Delete a Public Store task in ESM. To make these tasks less risky, there will be a new feature that will prevent the removal of a public store unless it has no date in it. There are also improvements to two dialog boxes to more intuitively help administrators in their tasks.
The offline address book (OAB 4.0) has been improved for performance.
Note You must have Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed to realize this enhanced performance.
In cached mode, with the improvements, there will be fewer situations that could result in a company-wide, full OAB download.
Specific features of OAB 4.0 include the following:
Significantly reduce the size of the OAB.
Differential OAB update files use a generic, binary compression technology (BinPatch).
You now can have customizable properties and indexes.
OAB indexing will be based on the locale setting (language and country) of the client. This enables users on the same server (with different local settings) to correctly view the OAB, sorted based on their locale setting and not the servers.
Improved diagnostic logging.
Exchange Server 2003 SP2 adds functionality to enable administrators to completely turn off MAPI access for a given user, or to grant access to a user whose Microsoft Office Outlook is configured for cached mode, but to deny access otherwise. This functionality is valuable to providers of hosting services who want, as an example, their end users to connect to Exchange Server with Outlook Web Access, but not with Outlook.
The ProtocolSettings attribute on the user object in the Active Directory® directory service stores client access settings. This attribute is a multi-valued string property, where each string applies to a different protocol. MAPI access can be restricted by manually adding the following string to the ProtocolSettings attribute using a tool such as ADSIEdit:
MAPI§<Bool1>§<Bool2>§§§§§§
The eight § separators define exactly nine fields. The fields have the following meanings.
MAPI |
Specifies that this string contains settings that apply to the MAPI protocol |
Bool1 |
0 to block all MAPI access; 1 to determine MAPI access based on Bool2 |
Bool2 |
O for noop; 1 to deny access to non-cached mode Outlook clients |
Remaining 6 fields |
Currently not used |
If there is no MAPI string in ProtocolSettings, all MAPI clients are allowed.
Note If the MAPI string does not have the eight separators and conforms to the expected data types, the behavior is undefined.
The access restrictions specified earlier do not apply in the following cases:
The client is an Exchange component (for example, the mailbox moves work correctly regardless of the MAPI access settings for the mailboxes).
The client is doing delegate access to the mailbox.
For information about how to use the new user interfaces and tasks, see the Exchange Server 2003 SP2 online Help.
Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter is integrated with the Sender ID feature in the Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Note that, for Exchange Server 2003 SP2, Intelligent Message Filter is built into the product and is considered to be version 2. Version 1 of the Intelligent Message Filter was a stand-alone tool.
Intelligent Message Filter helps companies reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), also know as spam, that can be received by users.
If Intelligent Message Filter version 1 is detected as being on the target server computer when you start the upgrade to SP2, a flag is raised and you must uninstall version 1. After the SP2 upgrade, Intelligent Message Filter version 2 is automatically installed on the server. However, the administrator still must enable version 2 on the Virtual Server Instance (VSI).
Note Do not install Intelligent Message Filter version 1 after the upgrade to Exchange Server 2003 SP2. Version 2 has been installed automatically with SP2.
For information about Version 1 of Intelligent Message Filter, see the Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter Deployment Guide.
During the upgrade to Exchange Server 2003 SP2, the server will not be available. When the server becomes available again, the administrator must enable Intelligent Message Filter immediately. Or, the server must be taken offline and Intelligent Message Filter enabled, if more time is required. Otherwise the server will be subject to spam attacks.
The Intelligent Message Filter is not cluster-aware and cannot be installed on an Exchange server that is a member of a server cluster. However, it can run on front-end servers and Exchange Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) gateways that are members of a network load-balanced cluster. It can also run on non-clustered Exchange Server 2003 computers.
The custom weighting feature in Intelligent Message Filter for SP2 lets administrators customize the behavior of Intelligent Message Filter, based on phrases that are within the body of an e-mail message, the subject line, or both.
There is no user interface associated with the custom weighting feature. Custom weighting is made available in the form of an XML configuration file that is read by Intelligent Message Filter upon initialization, and then reloaded any time the file changes. If the XML configuration file is not present when Intelligent Message Filter is started, you must restart the SMTP service. The custom weighting file, MSExchange.UceContentFilter.xml, should be located in the same directory as the MSExchange.UceContentFilter.dll and .dat files.
The following sample XML file and the table of values demonstrate how this feature can be used, and how the behavior of Intelligent Message Filter can be customized.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<CustomWeightEntries xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2005/CustomWeight">
<CustomWeightEntry Type="BODY" Change="1" Text="foo1"/>
<CustomWeightEntry Type="BODY" Change="-1" Text="foo2"/>
<CustomWeightEntry Type="BODY" Change=”5" Text="the quick brown fox"/>
<CustomWeightEntry Type="BODY" Change="-9" Text="über sentence"/>
<CustomWeightEntry Type="SUBJECT" Change="MIN" Text=" こんにちは"/>
<CustomWeightEntry Type="BOTH" Change="MAX" Text="J’aime Français!"/>
</CustomWeightEntries>
Value |
Description |
Type= BODY |
Searches for a match in the displayed body of a message. |
Type= SUBJECT |
Searches for a match in the displayed subject of a message. |
Type= BOTH |
Searches for a match in both the subject and body of a message. |
Change |
Defines what the effect of a match will be on the spam confidence level (SCL) score of a matched message. Change can be any integer value. If the phrase is matched, the change will be added to the original SCL value. SCL values will be normalized to a 0 to 9 range (if they exceed that range because of custom weights). Change can also use the MIN or MAX keywords. Any time a phrase with the MIN keyword is matched, the message is given an SCL of 0 regardless of any other weights. Any time a phrase with the MAX keyword is matched, the message is given an SCL of 9 regardless of any other weights. Any time there is both MIN and MAX matches for one message, the message is given an SCL of 0. |
Text |
Custom weighting can accept any Unicode phrase up to 1,000 characters. |
When the schema of the custom weighting file is broken or malformed, it will cause the filter of Intelligent Message Filter to fail loading.
If the custom weighting file does not exist, Intelligent Message Filter will continue to load and/or behave normally, without the use of the custom weighting feature.
After first creating a custom weighting file, the SMTP service must be restarted to pick up the file. When the filter has been loaded with a valid custom weighting file, any changes made to the file are immediately picked up.
The following is a brief description of the design changes and fixes for Exchange Server 2003 SP2. This list includes the new events and error messages created for SP2.
Component/Area Affected |
Description |
Admin |
Compression is enabled for the traffic between the mobile device and the Exchange ActiveSync® virtual server. The administrator can disable the functionality. |
Admin |
Improvements to the user interface let users configure Sender ID and junk e-mail filtering. |
Admin |
The issue of having a cluster physical node name of exactly 15 characters that prevents the metabase update service from starting has been fixed. |
Clustering |
Can now pause the SMTP service on a clustered server to take care of backlogged queues |
Directory |
The DSAccess API has been changed to return a list of all servers in the topology with their home domain DNS names. This causes the DSProxy RFR service to return global catalogs only from the root directory of the mailbox of the client. |
Offline Address Book |
OAB version 4 has been implemented to help avoid company-wide, full OAB downloads |
Database engine |
A field was added to the database header to track the total number of Error Code Correction (ECC) fix-ups |
DSAccess (LDAP logging) |
A new event has been created for LDAP_REFERRAL. Level for this event is set to Max. |
Web Client |
Spelling checkers for Brazilian Portuguese and Iberian Portuguese have been added. |
Web Client |
The Logoff command has been fixed to include redirect URL information. |
IMAP4 |
IMAP4 services no longer show the Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and Draft folders when they are marked as hidden. |
Exchange System Manager |
Message about the Exchange store not mounting has been improved by directing users to examine the Application log for events related to the error. |
Exchange ActiveSync |
Exchange ActiveSync has been enabled to use any SMTP address to access the mailbox. |
Exchange ActiveSync |
Performance counters implemented for IP-based up-to-date. |
Exchange ActiveSync |
An error message is added to the Event log when the maximum number of Exchange ActiveSync users has been reached. |
Exchange ActiveSync |
A message is added to the Event log that alerts administrators about common server misconfigurations. |
Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) |
The accepting a meeting request or update behavior has been changed to match that of Outlook. |
MDB |
Administrators can now enable or disable MAPI access on a per-user basis. |
MDB |
The Manage Settings Wizard has had enhancements that enable administrators to make incremental changes to MAPI client permissions. |
MDB |
New wizard lets administrators add replica servers, remove replica servers, or replace a single replica server with another one. Should reduce incidence of replication storms. |
MDB |
The Virus Scanning API (VSAPI) version 2.5 now deletes infected messages when Intelligent Message Filter is invoked. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 883522, "E-mail messages that contain a virus remain in the SMTP local delivery queue after you configure Intelligent Message Filter in Exchange Server 2003." |
MDB |
Increase in mailbox storage size limits to 75 GB for Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition. |
MDB |
Content conversion of inbound mail is subject to the 16-KB soft limit on named property creation. |
MDB |
A selection has been added in the ESM UI for the administrator to be able to stop and then resume content replication. |
Transport |
The epoxy leak in envelope journaling has been fixed. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 885281, "You receive an "Out of virtual memory" error message after you enable the Envelope Journaling feature in Exchange Server 2003 SP1." |
Transport |
For the new Sender ID feature, a new IP Parsing Algorithm has been implemented to ensure that the new feature works correctly. The IP Parsing Algorithm has been adopted for connection filtering so that filtering can work behind the perimeter. |
Setup |
For Sender ID, Performance Monitor counters have been implemented. During Setup, these new counters will be registered. (Registry entries are created before the Performance Monitor counters are loaded.) |
System Attendant |
Memory leaks have been fixed in Mad.exe. |
Management Pack |
The ScriptContext.TargetFQDNComputer has been removed. The custom GetFQDN function should be used instead. |
Error message |
A new message was added for Error -551. |
Error message |
Message for Error -1018 has been improved with the addition of logical page numbers. |
Error message |
Change to Error 1216 to indicate solution to problem, instead of only advising to call Microsoft Product Support Services. |
Eseutil (2 changes) |
A feature was added to Eseutil to insert artificial 1-second pauses periodically during the physical consistency check to address performance problems when running consistency checks of VSS backups on a production server. In Eseutil, option /K, a fix has been applied so that Eseutil counts the 1-bit error correction code (ECC) fixed pages. |
Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Rename tool |
An option was added to reset .ost (offline folder file) settings for Outlook 2003 in the Exchange Server Profile Rename tool. The server FQDN is now stored in the PR_Profile_Server_FQDN property. |
For the new Direct Sync feature to work, the firewall timeouts must be increased. The minimum recommended time-out is 15 minutes. At Microsoft, we use 30 minutes.
The following sections have been updated in the What's New in Exchange Server 2003.
Administration Features in Exchange Server 2003
Performance and Scalability Features of Exchange Server 2003
Transport and Message Flow Features of Exchange Server 2003
Storage Features of Exchange Server 2003
Schema Changes in Exchange Server 2003
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