November Exchange Releases delayed until December

[The_Exchange_Team]

We know that many of you are anxiously awaiting the release of our quarterly Exchange updates planned for November. Earlier today the Exchange Team decided to hold the release of these packages until December. We made this decision to provide more time to resolve a late breaking issue in the Installer package used with Exchange Server 2013. We have discovered that in some instances, OWA files will be corrupted by installation of a Security Update. The issue is resolved by executing an MSI repair operation before a Security Update is installed. We do not believe this is acceptable behavior and is unfortunately something that customers might only discover after they install a Security Update.

As of this blog announcement, we believe the installer defect is limited to Exchange Server 2013. However, we are also evaluating previous versions of Exchange Server and are delaying the planned 2007 and 2010 releases as well to complete that investigation.

The Exchange team remains committed to ensuring that our customers have the best possible experience and because of that we have opted to delay the November releases to address this issue.

Exchange Team

[#2]

@Richard Pasztor: I can confirm similar issues with KB2982998 and OWA/ECP. Issues disappeared when KB298998 uninstalled.

[#3]

@Darth Squishy: the pending Russian time zone patch is to make OWA display the right zone names. The timezone definition is already fine after patching the OS, and there should not be other impact to users than the visual inconsistency of the time zone

names.

[#4]

I have Exchange 2013 CU6 with all Windows updates, but we have problems with Russian Time Zone: if recurring meeting is in 2014 and 2015, sometimes Exchange declines new meeting requests to shared room, saying that it conflicts with existing. If meetings

in year 2014 - no problem. It is sad, that CU7 fixes only OWA text for timezone...

[#5]

Do you already have a time schedule regarding Exchange 2013 CU7? On the very short term I will begin installing Exchange 2013 but with CU7 if possible.

[#6]

Thank you for saving us the trouble. But as far as I know, Exchange 2013 CU7 contained an "Important" security update, too. Can we safely wait until December?

[#7]

Thanks and no rush :)

Please take your time with CUs, we (On-Premises customers) are not in rush and totally understand you need to test it before we (On-Premises customers) get the CUs. Again please take your time & no rush.

[#8]

I was under the impression that the update for the change in Russian time zones was to be included in this update (I am referring to Exchange, the OS update is already out). So does this mean that our Russian users' calendars will be broken while waiting

for this update to be released, then tested, then finally deployed?

[#9]

@Naus Jiri: then this should be raised to the MS guys ASAP, as it messed with a couple of our Exchange servers! Wondering if Lync / Sharepoint or other IIS-based servers may be also broken worldwide?

[#10]

Slightly related:

in my simple 1-server Exch2013 environment, KB2982998 breaks the whole OWA / ECP webservices. Uninstalling the update restores functionality. Can anybody else confirm? Smells quite serious issue.

[#11]

The updates have now been released.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2014/12/09/exchange-releases-december-2014.aspx

[#12]

thanks you very mutch

[#13]

And the Russian Time Zone fixes

[#14]

Thank you for not include a Office 365 advertisement in this announcement.

[#15]

Hope all bugs from CU6 regarding co-existence to Exchange 2007 will be fixed too.

[#16]

ok guys, ist better :)

[#17]

Thank you for holding back on this important update. Seriously. I think I speak for many that the most recent CU's were released without enough testing. I'm glad to see that additional, in depth, testing is being performed before the release. I just wish

there were interim updates or hot fixes to fix the system degrading issues we are having and the security updates others are waiting for.

[#18]

Looks Like MS is hitting right at the Installer now, Great going, Good work

[#19]

I'm curious if it was a specific security patch that brought this up? i just installed the schannel patch (https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS14-066) on my test mailbox

servers (2013 CU6) and now OWA does not work on one of them

[#20]

Do you have a changelog for CU7?

[#21]

Exchange 2014 team is not realy tested patchs and many critic features is not implemented. Exchange 2010 is best email server.

[#22]

We're happy to wait until its finished. Thats why we're on 2010.

[#23]

You are doing the right thing!

[#24]

@Richard Pasztor, I am experiencing the sample issue that you did on my simple 2-server Exch2010 & Exch2013 environment. I only installed two updates, KB3011780 and KB2992611, on Nov 18. This is based on both the Windows Update history and the System event

log. I did uninstall KB3011780 but somehow cannot find KB2992611 in Programs -> Installed Updates. After uninstalling KB3011780, my Exch2013 EAC/OWA is still not working. At this stage, I don't know what to do to bring my servers back to normal.

[#25]

@Richard Pasztor:I can confirm similar issues with KB2982998 and OWA/ECP. Issues disappeared when KB298998 uninstalled.

[#26]

Can you please let us know if you are planning to release this soon or just some time before the end of the month/year?

[#27]

Do you have a new release date for Cu7 now, because it is always december ;)