Exchange 2013 SP1 transport agents issues – KB2938053

After you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or you upgrade an existing Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 installation to Exchange Server 2013 SP1, third-party or custom-developed transport agents cannot be installed correctly.

Additionally, the Microsoft Exchange Transport service (MSExchangeTransport.exe) cannot start automatically. Specifically, you cannot enable third-party products that rely on transport agents. For example, you cannot enable anti-malware software or custom-developed transport agents.

Products experiencing the issue are:

  • TrendMicro ScanMail
  • McAfee Email Security (GroupShield)
  • Symantec Mail Security for Exchange
  • AVG for Servers
  • ESET Mail Security for Exchange
  • CodeTwo Exchange Rules

This problem occurs because the global assembly cache (GAC) policy configuration files contain invalid XML code.

Microsoft published article about this issue KB2938053 where you can download script which will repair xml files Exchange2013-KB2938053-FixIt.zip.

 

 

Exchange 2013 SP1 not accepting emails

After installing SP1 for Microsoft Exchange 2013, you can expect some issues.

One of them is that after applying SP1 your Exchange server will stop accepting inbound emails and connections to port 25.

If you check Event Log, in Applications Log you will find entries with ID 7012 with source MSExchangeFrontEndTransport and with information:

“The service state for frontedn transport is inconsistent. Current state – Inactive. Expected state – Active.”

Using Powershell you can check state of this component:

Get-ServerComponentState servername01 -Component FrontendTransport

But you will see that this component is Active.

Also you can test inbound external email using Microsoft Remove Connectivity Analyzer, where you can find information about connection error to TCP port 25.

To resolve this issue you need to restart Microsoft Exchange Frontend Transport service.

You can do this using Powershell:

Restart-Service MSExchangeFrontendTransport

or just restart service in Services.msc.

When you do this, your server should now accept connections to port 25, and also you shouldn’t see warnings in Application Log.

 

 

Exchange 2013 SP1 new features

Last time we metion about Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Exchange 2013.

Below we present new features and improvements included in Service Pack 1:

Exchange Admin Center Command Logging

Finally Exchange 2013 will “tell” you how to use Powershell.
Like in Exchange 2010 EMC now in Exchange 2013 SP1 EAC you can see Powershell command for operation which was made in EAC.

The feature can be found in the top-right corner of the EAC, when clicking the question mark button, select Show Command Logging

ShowCommandLogging1

ShowCommandLogging

You can see up to 500 command executed in the EAC user interface.

 

Support for Windows Server 2012 R2

Exchange 2013 SP1 adds Windows Server 2012 R2 as a supported operating system and Active Directory environment for both domain and forest functional levels.

Better text editor in OWA

In OWA Exchange Team added rich text editing features. Now you can easly add or modify tables, more paste options, previews to linked content.

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Microsoft Exchange 2013 Service Pack 1 (KB2926248)

Exchange Team released today long awaited Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.

This update raises Exchange 2013 version number to 15.0.847.32

Exchange2013SP1

 

Service Pack 1 for Exchange 2013 can be downloaded here:

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

And list of changes can be found here:

Description of Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1

Installation of Service Pack 1 for Exchange 2013 will made changes in Schema and Active Directory.

To apply schema changes run:

setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

To apply Active Directory changes run:

setup.exe /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

Upgrade to SP1 you can start GUI installer or run:

setup.exe /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms

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Exchange server 2013 Service Pack 1 will be in early 2014

The Exchange Team Blog announced that service pack 1 for the Exchange Server 2013 will be available in early 2014.

Probably this mean Q1 of 2014.

SP1 for Exchange Server 2013 will include below improvements:

  • 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 CUreleases. SP1 will include all fixes included in previously released cumulative updates for Exchange 2013.

 

SP1 will require to update Active Directory schema.

Active Directory Schema updates for Exchange are additive and always backwards compatible with previous releases and versions