Release Notes for Exchange Server 2010 SP3

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3

Topic Last Modified: 2013-02-26

For important legal information, see “Legal Notice” later in this document.

Welcome to Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. This document contains the following sections:

Installing Exchange 2010 SP3
Database Schema Upgrades
Legal Notice

Installing Exchange 2010 SP3

Consider the following when you deploy Exchange 2010 SP3:

Exchange 2010 SP3 makes updates to the Active Directory schema. To learn more about these schema changes, see Exchange Server Changes to the Active Directory Schema.
You can select an option that installs the required Windows operating system roles and features for each selected Exchange 2010 SP3 server role.
You can install Exchange 2010 SP3 only on computers that are running Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012.

For detailed information about the requirements and steps for installing Exchange 2010 SP3, see the following topics:

Database Schema Upgrades

The database schema has been updated in Exchange 2010 SP3. As a result, when Mailbox servers are upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP3, the databases are upgraded to the Exchange 2010 SP3 version of the database schema. After a database has been updated to the Exchange 2010 SP3 schema, it can't be mounted on a pre-Exchange 2010 SP3 Mailbox server.

The database schema upgrade process adds time to the overall service pack upgrade process. During the upgrade, the database is dismounted, and all mailboxes in that database are taken offline. If you're upgrading the Mailbox server from the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2010 SP3, the database upgrade process could take an additional 30 minutes or longer per database. This is because the upgrade process converts each database from Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 RTM to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1, from Exchange 2010 SP1 to Exchange 2010 SP2, and then from Exchange 2010 SP2 to Exchange 2010 SP3. If you're upgrading from Exchange 2010 SP2 to Exchange 2010 SP3, the upgrade process takes less time. You can track the progress of the database upgrade process by examining event 1185 in the Application event log on the server you're upgrading.

A database availability group (DAG) member that’s running an older version of Exchange 2010 can move its active databases to a DAG member running a newer version of Exchange 2010, but can’t do the reverse. After a DAG member has been upgraded to a newer Exchange 2010 service pack, its active database copies can't be moved to another DAG member that’s running Exchange 2010 RTM or to a service pack that's older than the service pack installed on the DAG member.

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