Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 Coming in Early 2014
Published Nov 20 2013 11:10 AM 88.3K Views

Today on the Office blog we announced that service pack 1 for the 2013 set of products including Office, SharePoint and Exchange will be released early next year. We know our Exchange customers have been looking for confirmation of the release but also have a desire for an early look at what's coming with Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1). So let's have a first look a few things you can expect to see in SP1. But wait… we haven’t released CU3 – well, news about CU3 is imminent - stay tuned for more information about CU3 coming very soon.

In this post we are highlighting a few of the notable improvements to be included in SP1. This isn't an all-inclusive list, so stay tuned for additional details as we approach release.

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Support First answering one the most common questions since the release of Windows Server 2012 R2. Exchange 2013 SP1 will add Windows Server 2012 R2 as a supported operating system for Exchange Server 2013 with SP1. Let your planning begin.
  • S/MIME support for OWA Support for S/MIME in OWA will be brought back in SP1. With SP1 customers will have S/MIME support across Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync clients, and OWA.
  • Edge Transport Server Role The Edge Transport server role for Exchange Server 2013 will be available with SP1.
  • Fixes and Improvements Of course, SP1 will include fixes and improvements in areas you've helped us identity. SP1 is the first service pack issued in the new Exchange Server cumulative update release model - thus SP1 is essentially CU4. The installation of SP1 will follow the same process as the prior Exchange 2013 CU releases. SP1 will include all fixes included in previously released cumulative updates for Exchange 2013.

SP1 will require customers to update their Active Directory schema - customers should assume this requirement for all Exchange Server 2013 updates. Plan for this required update to quickly take advantage SP1 updates. Active Directory Schema updates for Exchange are additive and always backwards compatible with previous releases and versions.

On behalf of the Exchange Product Group, thanks again for your continued support. As always, let us know what you think!

Brian Shiers
Exchange Technical Product Manager

123 Comments
Not applicable
PowerShell cmdlets Get-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration and Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration were available in Exchange 2010, but they are not in Exchange 2013. This is a problem and no real solution is available. The alternative DelegateSentItemsStyle registry entry is not a real solution and is not working properly.

PLEASE give us powerShell cmdlets MailboxSentItemsConfiguration in Exchange 2013 SP1 !!!!!!!

Not applicable
Ok, it's early 2014, so when is SP1 going to be released? Thanks.
Not applicable
Still waiting for Exchange 2013-SP1.

We have a site running on Server 2012 R2 Active Directory, we need to install Exchange 2013 on one of their servers.

Give us at least when we can expect the SP1......

Not applicable
Quite upsetting how this has gone - would have expected MS to be on top of this, especially with the release of the new OS. Going to use alternatives now, sorry MS. You just lost my business.
Not applicable
@Mika Vistab We continually work with L&EDPS programs to maintain updated content – refer to the program directly for planned content updates. If you have specific content requests for the program refer the contacts available @ http://planningservices.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/en/pages/contactus.aspx

to share your requests

Not applicable
Folks, thanks for asking and patiently waiting. When we have SP1 related news, it'll be on the blog on the front page. Things look good so far, but we will not announce anything specific until we are confident and ready to release.
Not applicable
Hi, guys. I suppose, you need more tools in ECP to manage mail server. Now 2/3 of tasks i do in EMS - this is not good. It's not a Unix - this is Windows. For Example: - How to see users, connected now ? - EMS - How to import-export user mailboxes ? -

EMS - How to manage Antispam defense ? - EMS - How to repair EDB file ? - EMS, EMS. EMS ... Guys, i dont like Unix cause command promt. I like Windows with buttons and "windows", and look at you window - 2014 year already ... voice recognition and more cool

stuff ... but with Exchange 2013 i returned 20 years ago - back to the command promt. Sure, we need EMS sometime, bt, i suppose, most of regular tasks we need to do through ECP. Thanks.

Not applicable
+1
Not applicable
Exchange TEAM,

Any chance that you could extend your functionality around ABP.

There have been some great improvements, but for hosters somthing important is still missing.

For example you gave us "AddressBookPolicyRoutingEnabled" to prevent name resolution. Im sure you can also build something like that to deal with the issues around internal/external OOF - AND the issue around Mail Tips.

I know about custom transport agents, but that, I think, is not THE great solution. I believe that this functionality shuold be IN the product ???

Not applicable
@M. Kaelin; @waiting for godot; @ Avin; @Luca @ KNE; @Exch Admin; @Earl; @Service Pack 1 Release; @Early 2014?; @Mike; @Ridiculous; @Michael Blaser; @Clint Boessen [MVP]; @SP1 Fan; @Mike We appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm to get SP1, but we won’t be providing

a more specific timeline in advance of the SP1 release. We will announce availability on the EHLO blog as soon as it becomes available early this year.

Not applicable
Exchange 2013 cu2 works fine on Server 2012r2 we already 3 months, 1500 mailboxes.
Not applicable
Can someone from the team explain why Auto Attendant menu navigation was changed in Ex2013 to only allow as many digits are in the dial plan? In Exchange 2010 we used 11 digits (the full DID) there because it made mapping to users easy regardless of Dial Plan/matching. Now that we are limited to 4 digits we are having to recreate every single Lync dial plan to match the fqdn of the Exchange dial plan, and then create normalization rules for every area code and prefix we have. Argh!
Not applicable
Would be really good to have a way to set the image size pushed in the thumbnail AD attribute.

We have some other application that are using the thumbnail attribute picture from AD and expect a 96x96px picture, or even 120x120.

Thanks !

Not applicable
Nice Playaz
Not applicable
HI Guys,

Some news about Exchange 2013 Sp1 release date ?

Not applicable
I am running ex2013 latest cu and fixes on a server 2012 R2 with the highest domain functional level on DC's!!

not a problem!

Spam filtering is terrible. and the rest others have complained enough about already.

just for those who wanted to know if it would work.

Not applicable

So what is considered "early"?  We need the R2 support as we skipped 2012 as a base image in favor of R2.  We have our Exchange upgrade project which puts server OS installs at the end of Jan 2014.....

thanks for all the hard work to get us here....it is appreciated.

Not applicable

This is a GREAT news for Exchange 2013 On-Premises customers worldwide :)

Not applicable

@Bob: Thanks for the feedback from on-premises customers! :)

Not applicable

@Tom Phillips: We can't provide a more specific answer at this point as the top priority is quality and we don't want set incorrect expecations.   Thanks for your feedback.

Not applicable

Thank you for addressing the SP1 question.  We are looking forward to CU3.  Can you please include fix notes so that we will know which issues are addressed with each cumulative update?  It will help us in deciding the timing the rollout of each patch.  There is nothing more frustrating than planning and deploying only to find out that our problems persist since we had no idea if a particular CU even addressed our issues.

Not applicable

@David: We include the list of issues fixed in the accompanying support article (KBA). We can't share it before an update is released, sorry!

Not applicable

Since Exchange is one of the core products, the cycle of releasing CU's, SP's that provide support for the newest OS's should be more in line with Windows Server releases. Much like System Center products. Still welcome news that R2 support is coming.

Not applicable

Any mention of "Show Exchange Management Shell Command" or "View Exchange Management Shell Command Log" functionality in EAC with SP1?

Not applicable

@Matt: This post provides a view of a few of the SP1 updates we are committed to shipping with SP1 - we can't provide a list of additional updates that will be included in SP1 at this time.  More details of course will be provided with the SP1 release.  Thanks for your feedback.

Not applicable

Do we get Powershell 4.0 support for Exchange after this Service pack, As we know it is not supported till date with Exchange 2013, same as with powershell 3.0 for Exchange 2010

Not applicable

This is real Fun. Recent Launch of Exchange 2013 is a real Pain. Half of the features working in 2010 doesn't work in 2013 any more. we have spent tons of hours with with support teams to fix the issues, unwanted

head aches and time waste bcs they don't fix and end users are crying.

Instead of fixing the prodcut issues first, what's the hurry for SP1. something is really worng the way these releases are happening.

Not applicable

Commenting on David's comment, why would a specific list of fixes be published for Service Pack and not a Cumulative Update?  On-Premise customers need to know what is specifically being fixed in CU's , not having a fix list is pretty sad.

Not applicable

CU3? We have the fourth quarter of the year!!! CUs were announced quarterly.  SP1 in "early 2014"????? And I shall let you know what I think? Better not.

Not applicable

@Steve: Please note, the response was to releasing a list of included fixes *before* the update is released. 

" We include the list of issues fixed in the accompanying support article (KBA). We can't share it before an update is released, sorry!"
Not applicable

What about desired state configuration resource for exchange ?

Not applicable

Will Anti-Spam be supported on regular single-box installations?

Not applicable

when will the hierarchy of a mailbox folder and public folder be able to be restored from recover deleted items/dumpster?

I cant believe this feature is not "enabled"

how can we run restores using single item restore when we cant restore a users folder:)?

need to restore the whole mailbox from backup for one user folder(meaning cannot go to Hugh databases and mailboxes)

Thanks

Not applicable

@PrivateFolder: Thanks for the feedback regarding lack of ability to restore a soft deleted item (using Single Item Recovery or Recover Deleted Items) to its original folder. The original folder info is not stored with the deleted item, so it's not something that can be enabled via a config change.

While this is being considered, would you restore an entire mailbox to ensure some deleted items are recovered back to their original folder?

Not applicable

@Georgi Ivanov: Can you provide more info? Thanks!

Not applicable

I've never seen a list of bug fixes contained in a Cumulative Update for Exchange 2013.  If they exists for CU1 & Cu2 then please share the link? Or is MS changing its tune with CU3 to include the bugs (that we have found) that will be fixed?

Not applicable

@Bharat-

KB article for Exchange 2013 cu2: support.microsoft.com/.../2859928

KB article for Exchange 2013 cu1: support.microsoft.com/.../2816900

Where is the "list of issues fixed" on either of those links?

Not applicable

Gold News. Exchange 2013 better with SP1

Not applicable

Looking forward to see whats new in Exchange 2013 Edge Role Architecture and its features :)

Not applicable

@Steve: You're right. Apparently I was still in Exchange 2007/2010 RU mode earlier, where corresponding KBAs did include the list of issues that customers reported and were fixed in those releases. Both the Exchange 2010 CUs do not have the list. I will update when I have more to share, either in this thread (or perhaps an upcoming post).

Not applicable

Will we have a full architecture and features available before SP1 for the Edge role so it helps in planning for deployment and migrations? When in the near future can we expect this?

Not applicable

@Steve, @David and others: An update on this - the list of fixes for customer-reported issues will be included in the Exchange 2013 CU3 KBA and SP1 documentation will also make this easy to track. 

We know the lists were not generated for Exchange 2013

CU1 &

CU2 and are attempting to go back and update those KBAs. But the list of fixes will be included from CU3 onwards. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks again for the feedback.

Not applicable

@Bharat Suneja,

One of the great new feature in PoweShell 4.0 is DSC, where you can use build-in DSC Resources or create your own to declare the configuration of a system.

As I`m aware the Exchange team is pretty innovative with PowerShell, so I was thinking what about leveraging this PS DSC feature to declare the exchange configuration, so it can be auto-remediated on regular basis.

It will be extremely useful in large deployments or multi-tenant deployments in *-cloud environments.

It will be also very easy to migrate the configuration from DEV to Test and to Prod Environments.

And also as some of the settings are reverted when you install new CUs, they will be auto-remediated on regular basis.

Not applicable

Is Exchange 2013 supported now on Windows Server 2012 running in a domain with only Server 2012 R2 DCs?

Not applicable

Feels like a fluffy post to me that is just to distract from the 'Road ahead' post and all of the comments it generated.

Why talk about features in SP1 when that is effectively CU4? - just concentrate on explaining CU3 and how that might help some of the poor people here trying to get things working

I'm the Exchange architect for a very large migration piece and there are plenty of delays - seems with all of the randomness with Exchange updates and in the field pain the delay will actually be a good thing

Looking forward to better communication

Not applicable

Microsoft should make up his mind, why Edge was removed in first place if its back in SP1? We moved to Iron Port (costly implementation) and now we have Edge role. Idiots.

Not applicable

@Rick Eveleigh, we are working through the process to validate Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller support with Exchange at this time. Once everything is ready we'll update the supportability matrix at aka.ms/ExchangeSupportMatrix with that information.

Not applicable

" ..... we are working through the process to validate Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller support with Exchange at this time" Ah, so the release of Windows Server 2012 R2 was a surprise to the Exchange Team and fully unexpected, therefore the delay in supporting Exchange 2013 on 2012 R2. So the developers of Server 2012 and the developers of Exchange must be in two complete different companies ....

Come on guys, Server 2012 R2 wasn't developed in a few days so you had plenty of time for a CU supporting Exchange 2013 on it!!!!

Do you think we believe in Santa Clause and Earth is a disc?

Not applicable

@Bharat,

"We know the lists were not generated for Exchange 2013 CU1 & CU2 and are attempting to go back and update those KBAs. But the list of fixes will be included from CU3 onwards. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks again for the feedback."

So, you fibbed to us about the information being in the kb articles, even after numerous people have brought this to your attention. Then, when you have egg all over your face, you are now "attempting" to go back and update them?

When you say "attempting" what does that mean? To me, that means that you probably won't fix anything. You either fix it or you don't. "Attempting" to fix something means, you probably are not really going to fix it in the end or it will be done half-assed, which is the current state of things as well.

Not applicable

@Zoher: We've previously stated that the Edge Transport server role is not available in Exchange 2013 at RTM or that it's not available yet (as opposed to the role being discontinued altogether). Workarounds have also been suggested, including using an Exchange

2010/2007 Edge Transport server or FOPE.

From one comment from July 2012 when

Exchange 2013 was announced:

@G: Exchange Server 2013 doesn't yet have an Edge transport server role, but you can continue to use Exchange 2010 Edge servers until we deliver an Edge transport server role in a future release. You can also use FOPE for protecting inbound/outboud mail.

From

Use an Edge Transport Server in Exchange 2013 in Exchange 2013 documentation:

The Edge Transport server is not currently available in Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. However, you can continue to use existing Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2010 Edge Transport servers that you have deployed in your perimeter network. Or, you

can install a new Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server in your perimeter network for a new or upgraded Exchange 2013 organization.

Also note, in

What's Discontinued in Exchange 2013 > Architecture, the Hub Transport and Unified Messaging server roles are listed as discontinued - the Edge Transport server role is not.

Version history
Last update:
‎Jul 01 2019 04:16 PM
Updated by: