Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 was released on December 4, 2011. But I’ve waited over a month before deciding to install this on my production server.
First, two questions you may have:
Q: Why don’t I see the Exchange SP2 in WSUS or Windows Update?
A: The explanation is simple: there is no ability to uninstall Exchange Service Packs, so Microsoft does not automatically push them out.
Q: If it doesn’t show up in WSUS or WU, how would I know that there is an Exchange Service Pack to download?
A: The SBS 2011 Best Practices Analyzer will inform you if there is a Service Pack to be installed (see screenshot of warning message)
And since we have to manually download and install Exchange Service Packs, this also gives us a chance to make sure that our server has been backed up before proceeding. So, let’s get started:
Step1: Reboot, Backup and Download
- I would strongly advise that you restart your server before proceeding
- Then make sure you have a current backup of your server on hand (just in case)
- Download SP2 by clicking on the link in the Resolution portion of the BPA warning message, or click this link to go to the Exchange 2010 SP2 Download page
- Click on the Download button and then select to Save the SP2 file (be sure to click on SAVE, and not RUN
I normally create a specific folder for service packs. In this case, I created E2010SP2.
- When finished with the download, click on Open Folder
Step 2: Unblock – Extract – Stop Services
This is a very important, and perhaps unexpected step: after downloading the SP2 executable, you must UNBLOCK it before you can extract it, and then we must stop a service before we begin installing SP2.
- Right click on the Exchange2010-SP2-x64.exe file, then click Properties. From the bottom of the Properties window click Unblock –> Apply –> OK
- Double click the .exe file to extract it, then click OK to extract it to the directory you created
- Click OK when you see the Extraction Complete message
- Click Start –> type: services.msc, and then locate and stop the Windows SBS Manager service.
Step 3: Run the Update
Finally, we are ready to install Exchange 2010 SP2!
- Double click on setup.exe
- Click on ‘Install Microsoft Exchange Server upgrade’
- Click Next on the Introduction window:
- Click to “I accept the terms in the license agreement”, then click Next
- It now performs a Readiness check to verify that Exchange is ready to be upgraded. If everything passes, you are ready to click Next. Otherwise you will need to resolve any identified issues, and then restart setup.exe.
- Click finish when the upgrade is completed
- Be sure to restart the Windows SBS Manager that we stopped in Step 2. Although not required, I would also suggest rebooting your server
Rerun the BPA to confirm that the Exchange SP2 warning no longer displays.