14 DAY TRIAL // The upcoming second service pack for Exchange Server 2008 cannot be installed by default on Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008. The Redmond company has confirmed that Exchange 2007 SP2 fails to play nice with Windows SBS 2008, and has indicated that it is working to help customers circumvent the issue. At the same time, there is the possibility for a manual workaround to be delivered, but Microsoft is advising that business users wait until an installation tool will be provided.
“Installing Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP2 on Windows Small Business Server 2008 currently causes problems in some web services of Windows SBS 2008 and requires manual steps to fix the problems. A prerequisite check is deployed in Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP2 setup program for Windows SBS 2008 so that Windows SBS users will be alerted and prompted before proceeding with installation,” revealed Microsoft's Fang Xie.
Of course, Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server 2007 is not available yet, but judging by the urgency of Xie's tone, the service pack is nothing short of around the corner. Microsoft already confirmed the proximity of the Exchange SP2 update. The clues offered by Xie point to a possible availability date by early next week. Xie notes that it will take Microsoft until next week, in early August to put together a Knowledge Base article with the information necessary for customers to perform the manual workaround. It seems that the publishing of the KB article and the release of Exchange Server 2007 SP2 are set to coincide.
“For users who want to deploy Exchange 2007 SP2 on their Windows SBS machines urgently, manual steps are provided in KB 973862. However, we strongly recommend users to leverage our upcoming installation tool for a successful SP2 installation,” Xie stated.
The promise from Microsoft is that KB 973862 should be made available by the coming week. Customers can also decide to wait until a solution will be offered by the company to expedite the integration of SP2.
“Microsoft Windows SBS team is working on a Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP2 installation tool on Windows SBS 2008. The tool will automate the Exchange 2007 SP2 installation with a better user experience. With this tool released, users can download the tool to the Exchange 2007 SP2 setup folder and launch the SP2 setup from the tool. The tool will remove the prompt, stop the FSE services, launch Exchange 2007 setup UI, and then perform post-setup cleanup after SP2 installation is successfully completed,” Xie explained.