Quick step-by-step Exchange 2010 SP2 install guide

This guide Might be a Little on the Old Side but is useful for updating any older servers.

My setup is a small “one server” Exchange 2010 install, i.e one box with CAS, Hub Transport, Mailbox all on one server. I don’t have UM/Edge or any DAGs deployed….

WARNING

Exchange 2010 SP2 will update your schema by itself as part of the installation in the same way that SP1 did. In an enterprise environment you might have strict controls about this sort of stuff so be careful! It also means to run the installer you need to be an “Enterprise Administrator” or the installer will fail.

CN=ms-Exch-Schema-Version-PT rangeUpper is now 14732 up from 14726 in Exchange 2010 SP1

You can see a list of the Exchange schema versions here

Preparation

• Download and extract the 2010 SP2 installer to a network location or somewhere on your server
• The download is about 535mb which will extract to 1.38GB. So this looks to follow the same tradition started in Exchange 2007 where SP’s are actually full binary installs so no need to slipstream it for a brand new installation.

• Ensure you have a good backup of your server & if it’s a Virtual Machine you might want to consider taking a snapshot of it
  • Note a snapshot wont help you if you have schema upgrade issues as this affects your entire AD
• If you are installing it on a Client Access Server (CAS) there seems to be a requirement to have IIS6 WMI compatibility installed

• Go to Server manager
• Under “Roles” find IIS
• “Add role feature” and select “IIS 6 WMI Compatibility”

• This wont need a system reboot

Installation

• From the extracted SP2 folder run “setup”
• Choose “Install Microsoft Exchange Server Upgrade”

• The “Read more link” currently still talks about SP1 but you can check here
• Setup will then copy some files around and eventually start up

• Step through the screens

• And let the installer start

• After some time it should complete (about an hour for me on my small VM environment)

• Check your Exchange MMC “About” and you should have a new version number

Post install tidy up

• The installer didn’t need a reboot but you might want to give it one anyway?
• Check your Active Directory replication is functioning correctly after the schema upgrade (if you didn’t do this separately)
• Do some mail flow tests & check email is coming and going as you expect
• When happy remove any snapshots you had open during the install
  • Be careful not to let your snaps get too large & remember with Hyper-V the snap wont consolidate until you shut down the VM
• Sit back & Enjoy your new SP2 install