Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23

This topic provides you with an overview of important new features and functionality in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which you can use when you're planning, deploying, and administering your organization. The following sections include information about changes to features and functionality that has occurred since Exchange Server 2010 RTM (release to manufacturing) and information about features and functionality first introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1. For more information about the features and functionality that was introduced at Exchange 2010 RTM, see What's New in Exchange 2010.

For information about known issues with Exchange 2010 SP1, see Release Notes for Exchange Server 2010 SP1.

In addition to the changes described in this topic, Exchange 2010 SP1 also includes fixes that address issues identified since the release of Exchange 2010 RTM. For a complete list, see Issues That Are Fixed in Exchange 2010 SP1.

New Deployment Functionality

During an Exchange 2010 SP1 installation, you can now select a new option to install the required Windows roles and features for each selected Exchange 2010 SP1 server role. For more information, see New Deployment Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Client Access Server Role Improvements

The improvements and new features in the Client Access server role fall under several key areas: Federation certificates, Exchange ActiveSync, SMS Sync, Integrated Rights Management, Microsoft Office Outlook Web App, and virtual directories. Each area is described in more detail in the following sections.

Federation Certificates

In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can use a self-signed certificate instead of a certificate issued by a Certificate Authority to establish a federation trust with the Microsoft Federation Gateway. A self-signed certificate is automatically created and installed on Exchange servers in your organization when you use the New Federation Trust wizard in the Exchange Management Console. For more information, see Understanding Federation.

Exchange ActiveSync

In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can manage Exchange ActiveSync devices using the Exchange Control Panel (ECP). Administrators can perform the following tasks:

  • Manage the default access level for all mobile phones and devices.

  • Set up e-mail alerts when a mobile phone or device is quarantined.

  • Personalize the message that users receive when their mobile phone or device is either recognized or quarantined.

  • Provide a list of quarantined mobile phones or devices.

  • Create and manage Exchange ActiveSync device access rules.

  • Allow or block a specific mobile phone or device for a specific user.

For every user, the administrator can perform the following tasks from the user's property pages:

  • List the mobile phones or devices for a specific user.

  • Initiate remote wipes on mobile phones or devices.

  • Remove old mobile phone or device partnerships.

  • Create a rule for all users of a specific mobile phone or device or mobile phone type.

  • Allow or block a specific mobile phone or device for the specific user.

For more information, see Understanding Exchange ActiveSync.

SMS Sync

SMS Sync is a new feature in Exchange ActiveSync that works with Windows Mobile 6.1 with the Outlook Mobile Update and with Windows Mobile 6.5. SMS Sync is the ability to synchronize messages between a mobile phone or device and an Exchange 2010 Inbox. When synchronizing a Windows Mobile phone with an Exchange 2010 mailbox, users can choose to synchronize their text messages in addition to their Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes. When synchronizing text messages, users will be able to send and receive text messages from their Inbox. This feature is dependent on the user's mobile phones or devices supporting this feature.

Server-Side Information Rights Management Support

Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policies now contain support for Information Rights Management (IRM) functionality. Information Rights Management is enabled when creating a new Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy. This new functionality allows non-Windows Mobile devices to receive and view protected e-mails. When the IRMEnabled property is configured on the Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy and IRM is enabled for Client Access Servers, the protected e-mail will be decrypted on the server before it is downloaded to the mobile phone or device. The downloaded e-mail will be downloaded with additional properties that indicate the restrictions sent with the original e-mail. Protected messages will only be decrypted and downloaded if the mobile phone or device connects to the Client Access server using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Outlook Web App Improvements

The following is a list of the new Outlook Web App functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • Improved management of the relationship between Office Communications Server and Outlook Web App. Configuration is stored in Active Directory instead of a web.config file and can be managed via cmdlet.

  • Twenty-seven themes are available, and they have new administrative options:

    • Set default theme with the DefaultTheme parameter by using either the Set-OwaMailboxPolicy or the Set-OwaVirtualDirectory cmdlet.

    • Create custom themes by modifying existing themes.

    • Control the order themes are listed in Outlook Web App.

  • By default, attachment types that are marked as Force Save will be excluded from security checks for XML or HTML. You can change this behavior by setting the ForceSaveAttachmentFilteringEnabled parameter to $true by using either the Set-OwaMailboxPolicy or the Set-OwaVirtualDirectory cmdlet.

  • Users can change unexpired passwords by default. In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can also enable users to reset expired passwords. See Configuring the Change Password Feature in Outlook Web App.

Reset Virtual Directory

In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can use the new Reset Client Access Virtual Directory wizard to reset one or more Client Access server virtual directories. The new wizard makes it easier to reset a Client Access server virtual directory. One reason that you might want to reset a Client Access server virtual directory is to resolve an issue related to a damaged file on a virtual directory. In addition to resetting virtual directories, the wizard creates a log file that includes the settings for each virtual directory that you choose to reset. For more information, see Reset Client Access Virtual Directories.

Client Throttling Policies

You can use client throttling policies to help you manage performance of your Client Access servers. Consider the following changes as you use client throttling policies to manage performance when running Exchange 2010 SP1.

  • In Exchange 2010 RTM, only the policies to limit the number of concurrent client connections were enabled by default. In Exchange 2010 SP1, all client throttling policies are enabled by default.

  • In Exchange 2010 RTM, when the thresholds defined on a latency-based client throttling policy parameter such as EWSPercentTimeInCAS were exceeded, Exchange would cause the transactions and connections to fail. In Exchange 2010 SP1, exceeding the thresholds defined on a latency-based throttling policy parameter will not cause a failure. Instead, Exchange will delay transactions and connections until the transaction rate is within the policy limits. Such transaction and connection delays will usually not be apparent to end users. Client throttling policy parameters with a hard quota limits such as EWSMaxSubscriptions will cause a failure when exceeded. As an administrator, you can monitor the impact of your performance policies and make adjustments as needed.

  • Two new cmdlets, Get-ThrottlingPolicyAssociation and Set-ThrottlingPolicyAssociation, help you manage and apply client throttling polices to specific objects.

For more information, see Understanding Client Throttling Policies and Managing Performance with Client Throttling Policies.

Improvements in Transport Functionality

The following is a list of new Transport functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • MailTips access control over organizational relationships

  • Enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting features for MailTips

  • Enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting features for message tracking

  • Message throttling enhancements

  • Shadow redundancy promotion

  • SMTP failover and load balancing improvements

  • Support for extended protection on SMTP connections

  • Send connector changes to reduce NDRs over well-defined connections

For more information and details about these changes, see New Transport Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Permissions Functionality

The following is a brief description of new permissions features and enhancements in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • Database scope support   With database scopes, you can control which databases mailboxes can be created for a given set of administrators and also control which databases they can manage. For more information about database scopes, see Understanding Management Role Scopes.

  • Active Directory split permissions   Active Directory split permissions enable you to completely separate the administrative capabilities of Exchange administrators from your Active Directory administrators. The ability to create and remove Active Directory users and groups and manage non-Exchange attributes of Active Directory objects by Exchange administrators and servers has been removed in Exchange 2010 SP1. For more information about Active Directory split permissions, see Understanding Split Permissions.

  • Improved user interface   You can now create and manage management role groups and management role assignment policies in the Exchange Control Panel (ECP). This includes adding and removing management roles to role groups and role assignment policies, adding and removing members to and from role groups, and assigning users to role assignment policies. For more information about how to manage role groups and role assignment policies, see the following topics:

Exchange Store and Mailbox Database Functionality

The following is a list of new store and mailbox database functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • With the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet, you can detect and repair mailbox and database corruption issues.

  • Store limits were increased for administrative access.

  • The Database Log Growth Troubleshooter (Troubleshoot-DatabaseSpace.ps1) is a new script that allows you to control excessive log growth of mailbox databases.

  • Public Folders client permissions support was added to the Exchange Management Console (EMC).

For more information and details about each of these features, see New Exchange Core Store Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Mailbox and Recipients Functionality

The following is a list of new mailbox and recipient functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007, Autodiscover automatically loads any mailbox for which a user has been granted full access permission. Users can’t control or disable this behavior.

  • Calendar Repair Assistant supports more scenarios than were available in Exchange 2010 RTM.

  • Mailbox Assistants are now all throttle-based (changed from time-based in Exchange 2010 RTM).

  • Internet calendar publishing allows users in your Exchange organization to share their Outlook calendars with a broad Internet audience.

  • Importing and exporting .pst files now uses the Mailbox Replication service and doesn't require Outlook.

  • Hierarchical address book support allows you to create and configure your address lists and offline address books in a hierarchical view.

  • Distribution group naming policies allow you to configure string text that will be appended or prepended to a distribution group's name when it's created.

  • Soft-delete of mailboxes after move completion.

For more information and details about these features, see New Mailbox and Recipient Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

High Availability and Site Resilience Functionality

The following is a list of new high availability and site resilience functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • Continuous replication - block mode

  • Active mailbox database redistribution

  • Enhanced datacenter activation coordination mode support

  • New and enhanced management and monitoring scripts

  • Exchange Management Console user interface enhancements

  • Improvements in failover performance

For more information about these features, see New High Availability and Site Resilience Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Messaging Policy and Compliance Functionality

The following is a list of new messaging policy and compliance functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

  • Provision personal archive on a different mailbox database

  • Import historical mailbox data to personal archive

  • Delegate access to personal archive

  • New retention policy user interface

  • Opt-in personal tags

  • Multi-Mailbox Search preview

  • Annotations in Multi-Mailbox Search

  • Multi-Mailbox Search data de-duplication

  • WebReady Document Viewing of IRM-protected messages in Outlook Web App

  • IRM in Exchange ActiveSync for protocol-level IRM

  • IRM logging

  • Mailbox audit logging

For more information and details about each of these features, see New Messaging Policy and Compliance Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Unified Messaging Server Role Improvements

The Unified Messaging server role has been improved and has added new features in Exchange 2010 SP1. To use some of these features, you must correctly deploy Microsoft Lync Server 2010 in your environment. The following is an overview of all the new features in Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging:

  • UM reporting   The reports for Call Statistics and User Call Logs found in the Exchange Management Console are displayed in the Exchange Control Panel.

  • UM management in the Exchange Control Panel   You can usethe ECP to manage UM components in a cross-premises environment.

  • Cross-Forest UM-enabled mailbox migration   In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can use the New-MoveRequest cmdlet with the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) to move a UM-enabled mailbox within a local forest and multiple forests in an enterprise.

  • Outlook Voice Access improvements   Outlook Voice Access users can log on to their Exchange 2010 mailbox and choose the order to listen to unread voice mail messages, from the oldest message first or the newest message first.

  • Caller Name Display support   Exchange 2010 SP1 includes support for enhanced caller ID resolution for displaying names for voice mails from unresolved numbers using Caller Name Display (CND).

  • Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow cmdlet   With this Exchange 2010 SP1 cmdlet, you can test UM connectivity and call flow.

  • New UM Dial Plan wizard   An additional page has been added to the New UM Dial Plan wizard that allows you to add a UM server to the dial plan.

  • Lync Server 2010 Support   Migrating SIP URI dial plans and Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) notifications in a cross-premises environment has been added.

  • Secondary UM dial plan support   You can add a secondary UM dial plan for a UM-enabled user.

  • UM language packs added   New UM language packs are now available in Exchange 2010 SP1. In addition, the Spanish (Spain) (es-ES) UM language pack available for Exchange 2010 SP1 now includes Voice Mail Preview, a feature that wasn’t available in the Exchange 2010 RTM release of that language pack.

  • Call answering rules improvements   There are three updates to Call Answering Rules for UM-enabled users in SP1.

  • Unified Communications Managed API/speech platform improvements   Beginning with Exchange 2010 SP1, the UM server relies on Unified Communications Managed API v. 2.0 (UCMA) for its underlying SIP signaling and speech processing.

  • UM auto attendant update   In Exchange 2010 SP1, a UM auto attendant will play only the holiday greeting on a holiday.

For more information and details about each of these features, see New Unified Messaging Functionality and Voice Mail Features in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Audit Logging Improvements

Exchange 2010 SP1 provides improvements in functionality related to administrator audit logging and new functionality for mailbox audit logging:

  • Improvements in administrator audit logging   Exchange 2010 enhances the administrator audit logging functionality by providing you with the ability to perform searches of the admin audit log using the Exchange Management Shell. You can search on cmdlet and parameter names, date, the user who ran the command, and more. The results generated by your search can be displayed on the screen or e-mailed to a recipient you specify and viewed as an XML file. And, because all the administrative interfaces run Shell cmdlets in the background, the actions that occur in all the interfaces can be logged.

    For more information, see Overview of Administrator Audit Logging.

  • New mailbox audit logging   Exchange 2010 SP1 introduces new mailbox audit logging functionality to allow you to track mailbox access by administrators, delegates, and mailbox owners, and actions taken on mailbox items such as moving or deleting a message, using SendAs or SendOnBehalf rights to send messages, and accessing a mailbox folder or a message. You can use the ECP to generate a report of non-owner mailbox access and use the Shell to search mailbox audit logs. For more information, see Understanding Mailbox Audit Logging.

  • The Exchange Control Panel also provides several reports which are generated based on the audit logs in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Support for Hybrid Deployments with Exchange Online

Exchange 2010 SP1 includes the following functionality that supports hybrid deployments with Exchange Online:

  • Migration of UM-enabled mailboxes   The New-MoveRequest cmdlet can be used with the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service (MRS) to move a UM-enabled mailbox within a hybrid deployment.

  • IRM support for hybrid deployments   IRM is fully supported for hybrid deployments. The tenant administrator can export the trusted publishing domain from the on-premises Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) server and import it to the cloud-based service. This functionality allows IRM-protected messages to be decrypted in the cloud, and cloud mailbox users to send IRM-protected messages that on-premises mailbox users can decrypt and access.

  • Remote Mailboxes   A new set of SP1 cmdlets allow you to create and manage a mail-enabled user in the on-premises Active Directory site and at the same time create and manage the associated mailbox in the cloud-based service. The cmdlets are:

  • Transport   Updated features in Transport help ensure that message flow remains protected between users regardless of where their mailboxes are located. Enhanced Transport features such as MailTips, delivery reports, and message moderation also support this deployment scenario.

Support for Multi-Tenancy

With Exchange 2010 SP1 built-in multi-tenant support, service providers that use Microsoft Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) no longer need a solution such as Microsoft Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 4.5 to host multiple organizations. Multi-tenant support in Exchange 2010 SP1 provides the core feature set of Microsoft Exchange that can be deployed to multiple customers in a single installation, and it also provides ease of management and flexibility of provided features to end-users.

In addition to including most of the features and functionality available in Exchange 2010 SP1 Enterprise deployments, the multi-tenant solution available for Exchange 2010 SP1 also includes features and functionality that allow you to create and manage tenant organizations. For more information, see Multi-Tenant Support.