Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 has been released

Hi ladies and gentleman,

on 29th of November Microsoft released a most waited Service Pack, Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1. There's a lot of new features and improvements for every server role, support for a new continuous replication model (SCR), suppport for IPv6, more rich GUI management tools and much more. This is one of those Service Packs that everyone must have.


Exchange 2007 SP1 Overview:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs.

In Exchange Server 2007 SP1, several new features and improvements will extend the Anywhere Access capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 to help make employees more productive on whatever device they’re using, provide additional Operational Efficiency tools for administrators seeking a streamlined management and deployment experience, and enable advanced Built-in Protection for more robust high availability and compliance scenarios.

Improvements in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 include:

Anywhere Access
• Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
• Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor.
• Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents.
• Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking.

Operational Efficiency
• Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, native virtualization, advanced networking, and simplified management.
• Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access.
• Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command.
• Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions.

Built-in Protection
• Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments.
• Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement.
• Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role.
• Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role.
• Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008.

You can find all the Exchange 2007 SP1 documentation and resources on the following links:

• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 Download
• What's New in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 Release Notes
• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 UM Language Packs
• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 SDK
• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 documentation
• How to Upgrade to Exchange 2007 SP1
• Upgrading Clustered Mailbox Servers to Exchange 2007 SP1

[KEY NOTES]
1. Need to Upgrade Forefront Security for Exchange to SP1 before installing the Exchange 2007 SP1

Do bear in mind that the Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 release notes mention that you cannot use the Exchange 2007 SP1 with the product Forefront Security for Exchange RTM. You should upgrade the ForeFront Security for Exchange to SP1 before upgrading Exchange 2007 to SP1.
The Exchange 2007 SP1 pre-installation check will verify this and stop the installation process if the Forefront Security for Exchange RTM is found.

Forefront Security for Exchange SP1 is available on the link below:

Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 1
Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 1 Release Notes

2. You cannot manage Exchange 2007 Clustered Mailbox Servers from Windows Vista RTM

At the moment, Exchange 2007 SP1 adds support to use the Exchange 2007 Management Tools on Windows 2008 RTM and Windows Vista RTM with one exception, you will not be able to manage Exchange 2007 Clustered Mailbox Servers from Windows Vista RTM machines.
It is expected that in a forthcoming Administration Tools for Windows Vista (I believe that it will be included in Windows Vista SP1) you will be able to manage Exchange 2007 Clustered Mailbox Servers (Failover Clustering: RSAT-Clustering).

You can check this information on the technet article Upgrading Clustered Mailbox Servers to Exchange 2007 SP1.

Managing Clustered Mailbox Servers Running Exchange 2007 RTM or Exchange 2007 SP1

You can use the Exchange 2007 RTM version of the Exchange management tools (the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Management Shell) to manage clustered mailbox servers running Exchange 2007 RTM from a computer running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.

You can use the Exchange 2007 SP1 version of the Exchange management tools to manage clustered mailbox servers running Exchange 2007 SP1 from a computer running Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP. Remote management of clustered mailbox servers using Windows Vista is currently not possible. Remote management from Windows Vista may be possible in a forthcoming Administration Tools Pack for Windows Vista. You can manage stand-alone computers running Exchange 2007 SP1 from Windows Vista.
Because the Cluster service does not allow you to use the cluster management tools for remote administration of failover clusters across different operating systems, you can't use the Exchange management tools for remote administration of failover clusters across different operating systems. For example, you cannot:

• Manage a clustered mailbox server running on Windows Server 2008 from a computer running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.
• Manage a clustered mailbox server running on Windows Server 2003 from a computer running Windows Server 2008.

R-Tape loading error,
Luís Rato