Exchange 2010 SP3 Upgrade

ubern00b

ubern00b

ubern00b

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25 Nov 2004
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Hi all

I have been tasked with upgrading our Exchange 2010 SP2 environment (all but 2 servers are on RU3 and I need to standardise the patch level across all servers hence going SP3) but I have a question regarding this.

Due to time-scales I am only going to be able to upgrade the CAS and HUB role servers this week and the DAG servers next week. My understanding is that the mail databases are upgraded during the install and while you can fail a SP2 database over to a SP3 DAG server you cannot fail it back again, hence needing to upgrade all DAG servers at the same time.

If I were to upgrade the CAS/HUB servers this week and the DAGs next week would I run into any issues in my environment. I don't think I will and from what I read on the internet I won't but I would just like to ask you good people before I press on.

Thanks.
 
Out of interest what time scale stop you from doing them all at the same time?

I only ask when I did my 3 2007 servers I just do them all at the same time

Are these physical machines or virtual?
 
My time scale problem is more a problem with my boss and being incredibly "risk averse". He doesn't want to upgrade this week as we have other systems going live and doesn't want to deal with the potential fallout from multiple systems going wrong.

He does want me to upgrade the front facing servers this week though as our understanding is you can do them independently, I just want confirmation of this that's all.

Also, it's a completely virtual environment.
 
We're doing Exchange 2010 SP3 upgrades at the moment for many of our customers.

I have been tasked with upgrading our Exchange 2010 SP2 environment (all but 2 servers are on RU3 and I need to standardise the patch level across all servers hence going SP3) but I have a question regarding this.
Click to expand...
Brrr... Set aside time for this, be thorough, and have backups. This is not something you can just 'wedge in' amongst other day-to-day work. We do our work mostly on weekends / out of hours, and we've had a few hiccups so far. Our backout plans for each site has been a full restore of all the Exchange servers and the AD incase anything goes seriously mammories skyward.

You will need to uninstall RU3 from all the servers you're upgrading before moving forward to SP3. Read up on interoperability between the remaining SP2 RU3 servers and SP3.

How many DAG servers are we talking about?
 
Last edited:
Yamahahahahaha said:
We're doing Exchange 2010 SP3 upgrades at the moment for many of our customers.


Brrr... Set aside time for this, be thorough, and have backups. This is not something you can just 'wedge in' amongst other day-to-day work. We do our work mostly on weekends / out of hours, and we've had a few hiccups so far.

You will need to uninstall RU3 from all the servers you're upgrading before moving forward to SP3.

How many DAG servers are we talking about?
Click to expand...

Interesting. Uninstall only RU3? The other servers that are only SP2 with no RUs installed, do I need to update them to RU2 first?

There are 3 DAG servers in total. 2 in our live DC and 1 in our DR DC.

I have been reading this as a guide to follow to update Exchange: http://exchangeserverpro.com/installing-exchange-server-2010-service-pack-3
 
ubern00b said:
Interesting. Uninstall only RU3? The other servers that are only SP2 with no RUs installed, do I need to update them to RU2 first?
Click to expand...
I remember doing the SP1 upgrades and having to uninstall the RollUps for those before moving to SP2. There's literally no mention of having to take SP2 RUs off before putting SP3 on though... You might be ok on this one. We've been taking the RUs off though, your mileage may vary.

There is an AD schema update so take a backup of your AD before installing your first SP3 upgrade.

ubern00b said:
There are 3 DAG servers in total. 2 in our live DC and 1 in our DR DC.
Click to expand...
Hmm... That's a tricky one. I'd be tempted to take the DR DC up to SP2 RU6 for a few days, then do the live environment up to SP3. If it breaks, do a non-authoritative AD restore on the live servers and migrate the Exchange data back from the DR DC.
 
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