Sep 3, 2010 12:17 GMT  ·  By

The first major upgrade for Exchange Server 2010 was released to manufacturing a week ago, and the release is accompanied by documentation detailing the evolution from Exchange Server 2007 as well as issues customers might come across and how to streamline deployment.

According to Bharat Suneja, and additional members of the Microsoft Exchange team, companies looking to integrate Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server 2010 should first have a look at the online resources offered by Microsoft.

“The starting point for SP1 setup/upgrade should be the What's New in SP1, SP1 Release Notes, and Prerequisites docs,” Suneja stated.

“As with any new release, there are some frequently asked deployment questions, and known issues, or issues reported by some customers.”

Suneja published a blog post dealing with problems reported by users, as well as the solutions they can turn to.

Still, ahead of the actual deployment, customers should be familiarized with the new features that Exchange Server 2010 SP1 brings to the table, as well as the known issues associated with the product.

At the same time, installation should be preceded by an assessment of the IE infrastructure in order to all prerequisites to be in place.

“SP1 requires the installation of 4-5 hotfixes, depending on the operating system – Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2".

“To install the Exchange 2010 SP1 administration tools on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, you requires 2 hotfixes,” Suneja said.

“Due to the shared code base for these updates, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista share the same updates".

“Similarly, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 share the same updates. Make sure you select the x64 versions of each update to be installed on your Exchange 2010 servers,” Suneja added.

It might also be a good idea for customers that did not test drive Exchange Server 2010 SP1 during the development process to grab the free VHD release offered by Microsoft and try the product out in a testing environment.

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM is available for download here.

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM is available for download here.