Do you Failed to Patch Exchange 2016?

From time-to-time, patches are released by vendors to mitigate any issues or vulnerabilities in the product. Some patches may also include improvements and new features that are added to the product. Microsoft do provide patches for security and improvements in Exchange Server. These come in periodic updates, called Cumulative Updates. Now, depending on the version of Exchange Server, you might end up with your Exchange Server being out of support and has reached the end of life. So, apart from having your server updated with the latest possible patches, it’s imperative to start working to migrate your Exchange Server to a newer version or even considering migrating to Office 365, depending on your business needs.

During migration, it could be a requirement that you have a certain Cumulative Update (CU) as this will open more features, like for support and features that would be needed for the migration. You would also need to consider the migration to another Exchange Server, since the migration process involves having the old and new server coexist in the same environment. The coexistence usually has the minimum requirements. These requirements are based on the Cumulative Update (CU) level. The Cumulative Update level is not the only thing in the installation requirement of the specific version. Other requirements may involve the installation of a specific PowerShell version or .NET framework.

It’s imperative to always take a backup before any update cycle is executed. Having a backup will save your bacon and possible loss of money and data from your infrastructure. Installing an update doesn’t mean that it will run smoothly. If something goes wrong, you will always have your mind at rest as you can restore from the ad-hoc backup you have taken. When a Cumulative Update (CU) is released to the general public, it is always important to check the requirements of the update being installed. For example; if you have an Exchange Server 2016 with the Cumulative Update (CU) 10 and you wish to go for the update 20, you need to check the requirements and not just simply install the update 20. It could be required that you should have the update 15 before moving to update 20.

You must read the release notes thoroughly as these Cumulative Updates (CU) are not a small patch of a few megabytes and can take a while to install. There could be instances that the release notes were not read, a step is missed, or something happens during the installation. Such events can dramatically affect your server. There could be instances where services will not start and other functions are lost. This means that no emails can go in or out and users will not be able to see their emails. Exchange Server works with database which is proprietary. This means you will not be able to open the database and extract or read from it without having your Exchange Server in a healthy and workable form.

In case you install the latest Cumulative Update (CU) without reading the requirements, missing a step, or something happened during the installation, like sudden power cut, getting out of disk space, operating system corruption, hardware issue or any other problem, you could end up with the installation failing halfway. This would mean the services will not start at all or end up in a loop where the services will try to start and stop immediately.

In cases where a backup is taken, you can easily revert. However, any emails or work done, from the time of backup till the disaster struck, will be lost if a restore is taken. The first thing to try, when the update is interrupted, is to restart the installation of the update and hope that it will try to fix and re-run the installation. A restart of the server would help. However, depending on the damage suffered, although the server would boot, services would not start due to corrupted transaction logs or Exchange Server installation. It is important not to panic as this can lead to the server getting worst or further increasing the damage.

Always check the guidelines when installing an Exchange Server Cumulative Update (CU), which can be found at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/plan-and-deploy/install-cumulative-updates?view=exchserver-2016.

Some takeaways from this article:

- Always have a way back by taking a backup or having a contingency plan, if the update or any other matter fails.

- Make sure to check the guidelines and release notes.

- Have the right tool by your side.

Having the right tool by your side is a must and here is where Stellar Repair for Exchange comes in.

This application can open any version of Exchange Server database without having a working Exchange Server and granularly browse and export to PST and other formats. This can be used to open corrupt database files and export directly to another mailbox or Exchange Server. This can be used as a migration tool and you don’t need to hop-install on another version. It can also be used to migrate to an Office 365 tenant.