Released: December 2020 Quarterly Exchange Updates
Published Dec 15 2020 08:37 AM 82.2K Views

Today we are announcing the availability of quarterly servicing cumulative updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019. These updates include fixes for customer reported issues as well as all previously released security updates. In a change to a previous announcement, we now plan to release the final cumulative update for Exchange Server 2016 in March 2021, which will include all fixes made for customer reported and accepted issues received before the end of mainstream support.  

A full list of fixes is contained in the KB article for each CU, but we wanted to highlight the following.

OWA Cannot Download Attachment

This update addresses a customer reported issue which meant that a user was unable to preview or download an attachment in a mailbox they had access to when they had signed into it using OWA’s “open another mailbox” feature. When logging in directly to the mailbox there was no issue. This update resolves this issue for both Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019.

Server Assisted Search

This update resolves an Exchange Server 2019 issue which meant that a search using Outlook in cached mode returned a maximum of 175 results. This update will ensure the search response is complete, or to a maximum of 1000 results.

New-MoveRequest Not Logged in Audit Logs

This update resolves an issue which meant resulted in New/Resume/Remove-MoveRequest actions by an admin not being logged by the admin audit logging agent. Update-MoveRequest was being correctly logged. This update resolves this for both Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019, to ensure all *-MoveRequest requests are properly logged.

Release Details

The KB articles that describe the fixes in each release and product downloads are available as follows:

These updates contain schema and directory changes and so require you prepare AD and all domains. You can find more information on that process here.

Additional Information

Microsoft recommends all customers test the deployment of any update in their lab environment to determine the proper installation process for your production environment. For information on extending the schema and configuring Active Directory, please review the appropriate documentation.

Also, to prevent installation issues you should ensure that the Windows PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to “Unrestricted” on the server being upgraded or installed. To verify the policy settings, run the Get-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet from PowerShell on the machine being upgraded. If the policies are NOT set to Unrestricted you should use the resolution steps in here to adjust the settings.

Additionally, a reminder that if you plan to install any Cumulative Update using the unattended option with either PowerShell or Command Prompt, make sure you specify either the full path to the setup.exe file or use a “.” in front of the command if you are running it directly from directory containing the update. If you do not the Exchange Server Setup program starts and may indicate that it completed successfully. Read more here.

Reminder: Customers in hybrid deployments where Exchange is deployed on-premises and in the cloud, or who are using Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) with their on-premises Exchange deployment are required to deploy the currently supported cumulative update for the product version in use, e.g., 2013 Cumulative Update 23; 2016 Cumulative Update 19 or 18; 2019 Cumulative Update 8 or 7.

For the latest information on the Exchange Server and product announcements please see What's New in Exchange Server and Exchange Server Release Notes.

Note: Documentation may not be fully available at the time this post is published.

The Exchange Team

45 Comments
Brass Contributor

Hello , do you have the new Forest and domain Range Upper and Object version after executing the /prepareAD and /prepareall domains

 

For exchange 2016 CU18 the object were

 

 Exchange version Forest range Upper       Domain Object version    Object version

2016 CU18          15332                            16218                              13238

 

Thanks

Copper Contributor

Update went smoothly yesterday, on two servers in a DAG.

 

I've got an issue in Outlook Web Access with 2016 CU19 now though, where instead of previewing PDF attachments, it will download them and just show a spinning blue circle of dots in the preview pane. Previews of Excel and Word documents are working well and rendering through our Office Online server.

 

Please can someone confirm this behaviour when previewing pdfs in 2016 CU19. Thanks.

 

PS. @benoitrando. Check versions at the bottom of this webpage, which have already been updated: https://eightwone.com/references/schema-versions/

I've just checked 2016 CU19, and my versions match:-

 

Exchange VersionForest Range UpperForest Object VersionDomain Object Version
2016 CU19153331621913239

 

 

Microsoft

@benoitrando we document the information for each release here:

 

Prepare Active Directory and domains for Exchange Server 

 

 

Copper Contributor

What about KB4581424? Is that included in 2016 CU19 and 2019 CU8?

Microsoft

@keen120 CVE-2020-16969 was fixed with Exchange 2016 build 2044.7 and 2106.3 and for Exchange 2019 with build 659.7 and 721.3.

 

Exchange 2016 CU19 is build: 15.1.2176.2

Exchange 2019 CU8 is build: 15.2.792.3

 

From here:

Exchange Server build numbers and release dates | Microsoft Docs

 

KB4581424 is not applicable for Exchange 2019 CU8 / Exchange 2016 CU19.

Brass Contributor

Good morning,

 

I am on my second day with Office 365 technical support trying to understand when they would stop supporting Exchange 2016 in a hybrid configuration.  When would they stop assisting with migrations or Exchange 2016 related issues.  So far, I have links to multiple EOL articles, but I don't have clarity.

 

Mainstream end date was October 13, 2020, but that has extend.

Cumulative Update 19 released December 15, 2020.

Cumulative Update 20 should come out in March 2021, with no further Cumulative Updates.

Extended End is October 14, 2025.

 

O365 support assists with issue on current version released minus 1.  CU 19 and CU 18 currently.  Assuming CU 20 is released in March 2021.  Does O365 tech support provide support for Exchange 2016 CU 19 and 20 through October 14, 2025?  When does O365 tech support stop supporting Exchange 2016 as of today?

 

Any pointers or information provided would be greatly appreciated.

 

Scott Stancil

Columbia Southern University

Iron Contributor

Hello Microsoft,

 

How can I migrate on-premises public folders from Exchange 2016, cross-forest, to another Exchange 2016 org ? 

Microsoft

@aleach thanks for bringing this up to our attention. We'll have a look at this.

Copper Contributor

Hello,

 

Any updates on removal on Exchange management-only server (last Exchange server), after migrating to Exchange Online ?

 

/Rasmus

Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl @aleach same issue after applying CU19 to exchange 2016 : OWA (with Edge Chromium) wants to download PDF attachments and no more preview through Office Online Server. Preview of .docx, .xlsx still works.

if anyone has a clue...

Regards

Copper Contributor

please delete this post

Iron Contributor

Hello Microsoft,

 

How can I migrate on-premises public folders from Exchange 2016, cross-forest, to another Exchange 2016 org ? 

Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl @aleach We don't run an Office Online Server, and I can confirm the same issue - we can no longer preview PDF files, but can download them. Preview just is blank.

Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl  Update Exchange 2019 to CU8, we experience the same behavior as reported in the post above by @aleach,

@Dominique SCHMIT  and others. PDF can no longer be previewed and are downloaded instead. 

Copper Contributor

@JSho03  @Chris_Cyril @Dominique SCHMIT  Thanks all for confirming this is a common regression, and isn't unique to my setup.

 

@Lukas Sassl Hopefully the bug has been reported and a fix will be released for an upcoming Patch Tuesday? :smile:

Copper Contributor

I experience the same behaviour which @aleach commented. The bug appears in the first opened mailbox and in the additional one too. As far as i can see it's only happens with .pdf attachments. Other previewable attachments (e.g. .png files) aren't affected.

 

Edited for clarification: i installed Exchange 2019 CU8 in our lab environment

Microsoft

Thanks everybody for reporting. Engineering is currently investigating this behavior.

Iron Contributor

Hello Microsoft,

 

How can I migrate on-premises public folders from Exchange 2016, cross-forest, to another Exchange 2016 org ? 

Copper Contributor

Hello Lukas,

after installing the CU8 for 2019, I can confirm that there are many errors in the application log every 1 hour.

 

These are:

- "ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0" Evend ID 1309

- "MSExchange Front End HTTP Proxy" Event ID 1003

- "MSExchange Common" Event ID 4999

 

All are related to "DuplicateKeyException", "TimeoutCache.DuplicateKeyException"

 

More information at: https://www.reddit.com/r/exchangeserver/comments/khhfa1/possible_2019_cu8_bug/

 

Best regards Marco

Microsoft

@Marco thanks for reporting. We’ll have a look at it.

Copper Contributor

Thanks guys,

 

quick one - does the schema update for CU8 also qualify us to apply CU19 in our 2016 environment?

We plan to introduce 2019 now, and the question is do we only need to run /prepareschema /prepareAD off the 2019 sources or also from 2016 to apply the CU19 to our existing 2016 environment

Schema modifications seem to be the same but does the setup process identify this prereq as fulfilled then after running from 2019 CU8?

 

thanks for confirming

 

rgds

Martin

Copper Contributor
Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl @aleach I have experienced the same issue. we are unable to preview the PDF, spinning is going on. after the CU19 update in DAG. 

Microsoft

@Rana_Shahzad please track the following support article for the .pdf preview issue. Microsoft is still researching this problem.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4583558/pdf-preview-function-in-owa-leads-to-download-actio...

Copper Contributor

 

We are also running into the same issue as @Marco

 

These are:

- "ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0" Evend ID 1309

- "MSExchange Front End HTTP Proxy" Event ID 1003

- "MSExchange Common" Event ID 4999

 

seem like our are all related to the MAPI protocol..

Copper Contributor

We have also the same issues as @Marco
Ever since we updated to 2019 CU8.

 

These errors appear in Exchange Server Application log when users connect to the server with their Outlook desktop apps.

ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0" Evend ID 1309
"MSExchange Front End HTTP Proxy" Event ID 1003
"MSExchange Common" Event ID 4999

 

in MAPI and Autodiscover protocol.

Copper Contributor

+1 to @Marco & @harminckilenc about errors

ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0" Evend ID 1309
"MSExchange Front End HTTP Proxy" Event ID 1003
"MSExchange Common" Event ID 4999

Microsoft

@Sasha_Odarchuk Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when it becomes available.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/event-ids-1003-1309-and-4999-are-logged-after-installing-e...

Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl

 

Thanks for the update on this.. I hope there is a solution soon, maybe a hotfix?

Not only is this annoying as it appears that when the MAPI type event happens for a user.. they are prompted to login again shortly after the event.

 

Also we try to teach our users to avoid login windows when dealing with email as a security conscious effort.. but now we are having them identify this login box as "safe" but all other are bad. This leads to confusion.

Brass Contributor

https://support.microsoft.com/help/4602646 now seems to have disappeared

Copper Contributor

+1 to @Sasha_Odarchuk & @Marco & @harminckilenc about errors

ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0" Evend ID 1309
"MSExchange Front End HTTP Proxy" Event ID 1003
"MSExchange Common" Event ID 4999

Copper Contributor

 

@Neil_Flanagan

 

I hope they are updating the KB Article with a fix.

 

Microsoft
Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl we have the same problem after updating to CU8. Any updates available?

Employees report at the same time some Outlook interruptions.
Network tests like DNS en PING does not show any problem.


Exchange eventlog:
We have 
Dennis1991_0-1612185713032.png

Outlook 365 (2019) Client eventlog:
Dennis1991_1-1612185801030.png
Translation; log says "network problems are preventing connecting to Microsoft Exchange".

Best regards Dennis

 

Microsoft

@Dennis1991 we’ve updated the KB with a possible workaround. Please have a look.

Brass Contributor

Same "OWA with PDF-Attachments-Problem" here. This is not only an problem, when working with delegated mailboxes. Exchange 2016 CU 19 installed.

 

Attachments with PDF can´t be opened in "preview" anymore, they are always "downloaded". Other Attachments like .docx, .xslx are opened in "preview" AND can be downloaded., this works as expected,

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/pdf-preview-function-in-owa-leads-to-download-action-unexp...

 

Please fix this, so PDF´s are displayed in "preview" again!

 

regards

Juergen

 

Brass Contributor

Can someone please clarify if the PDF Download/preview issue only affects mailboxes that reside in the on-prem server? For example, all our mailboxes are in the cloud.  We only have one mailbox in our Exchange Server 2019.  Will all our users still experience this issue if I upgrade our Exchange 2019 to cumulative 8?

Microsoft
Brass Contributor

@Lukas Sassl - Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate your time on it.

Copper Contributor

Hi all, I have hit a funny ex2019 cu8 setup error. Installation on clean English Win2019 srv. Setup script ConfigureCryptoDefaults.ps1 throws error that registry path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\DES 56\56' does not exist. There is apparent error in construction of the path within this script because there is wrong slash at the end (correct 56/56). However it kills the setup. Solution seems to create key '56' under key 'DES 56' and than update disabling of 'DES 56/56' manually. What is interesting running this script on Win2012R2 runs correctly, on 2019 ends up this error.

Microsoft

@DAvid445 thanks for reporting. We’ll have a look at it.

Microsoft

@DAvid445 I was not able to reproduce the issue described above. I've dropped you a PM.

Copper Contributor

@Lukas Sassl Info for others. No issue with setup. Customer side registry trouble (policy) which created a combination in which Set-ItemProperty command as part of the setup script fail. Thanks Lucas for testing assistance. D.

Copper Contributor

FYI to anyone following the PDF preview issue. According to the link @Lukas Sassl provided, here, it looks like the PDF Preview issue is resolved in the March 2021 CU, for both 2016 and 2019. I won't get a chance to patch and test my servers until tomorrow, but am downloading now and looking forward to the fix.

 

Guess a lot of people updating Exchange on-prem probably have bigger concerns right now, though. Good luck all.

Copper Contributor

Appreciate the heads up @aleach

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