14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has re-released Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Rollup Update 4, after it pulled the initial version of the refresh due to a severe regression issue it introduced. The new version of Rollup 4 is dated July 23, 2011, and is the one that customers running Exchange Server 2010 SP1 should deploy instead of the June 22, 2011 refresh, which was recalled.
Although its dated July 23, 2011, the latest iteration of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Rollup Update 4 was actually made available on July 27, and can be grabbed from the Microsoft Download Center.
The re-released Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Rollup Update 4 is designed to resolve an issue detailed in KB2581545, which was only introduced because of the initial version of RU4 in the first place.
“While fixing a bug that prevented deleted public folders from being recovered, we exposed an untested set of conditions with the Outlook client. When moving or copying a folder, Outlook passes a flag on a remote procedure call that instructs the Information Store to open deleted items which haven’t been purged,” explained Kevin Allison, General Manager Exchange Customer Experience.
“Our fix inadvertently caused the RPC to skip all content that wasn’t marked for deletion because we were not expecting this flag on the call from Outlook on the copy and move operations.”
Allison revealed that the team behind Exchange updates thought that they had tested for the scenario mentioned above, although they in fact hadn’t, in spite of running some 100,000 automated tests.
This allowed the regression issue to slip through and find its way to customers. The Redmond company subsequently offered KB 2581545 to help those affected deal with the glitch, recalled the original RU4, fixed the regression issue, essentially by adding KB 2581545, and started offering the refresh package yet again.
Allison notes that the software giant has taken the necessary precaution measures for such problems to be avoided in the future.
“We have conducted a top-to-bottom review of the process we use to triage, develop and validate changes for Rollups and Service Packs and are making several improvements. We have changed the way we evaluate a customer requested fix to ensure that we more accurately identify the risk and usage scenarios that must be validated for a given fix,” Allison said.
“Recognizing the diversity of clients used to connect to Exchange, we are increasing our client driven test coverage to broaden the usage patterns validated prior to release. Most notably, we are working even closer with our counterparts in Outlook to use their automated test coverage against each of our releases as well. We are also looking to increase coverage for other clients as well.”
Exchange Server 2010 SP1 RTM VHD is available for download here. Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM is available for download here.