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Microsoft Warns Against Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2010 SP1

A Microsoft alert issued on Wednesday warned users against applying its "Update Rollup 4" (RU4) to Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1.

Microsoft had changed the RU4 release to allow for the recovery of deleted public folders. However, Outlook clients have been found to experience problems after applying RU4. According to this Exchange team blog post, "Outlook and Exchange are not correctly processing the folder move and copy operations causing the folder contents to appear to be deleted."

The items within a copied folder do not get copied over to the new location. However, they are not wholly lost. Instead, they can be recovered from the "recoverable items" folder (previously known as the "dumpster"), according to the Exchange team. Still, those IT organizations with the RU4 problems likely will face much grief having to track the displaced data.

Microsoft recommends that customers defer applying the RU4 release. However, if RU4 has already been installed in a computing environment, then IT pros should contact Microsoft Customer Support to obtain an Interim Update. The reference for this Interim Update is "KB 2581545," but Microsoft's blog noted that a live link to that Knowledge Base article isn't available yet, so Customer Support is the only way to get the Interim Update for now.

Microsoft plans to issue a fix for the RU4 issue in Exchange 2010 SP1 in the next Update Rollup 5, which is scheduled for availability in August. This fix will prevent content loss at the target location when folders are moved or copied. Microsoft's Exchange team is also working with the Outlook client development team on the issue.

Microsoft's blog post claimed that "a small number of customers" have reported the problem. Some responses by customers in Microsoft's blog post even indicated that there were no apparent problems after installing RU4. However, other comments in the blog expressed dismay; "I wish I could send the bill for my time back to MS for this," one commenter wrote.

All versions of the Outlook client are affected by the RU4 issue, according to the blog comments, although Outlook Web App and Exchange Web Services are not affected by this flaw. Exchange 2007 SP3 RU4 is not affected, according to Microsoft's blog.

Those receiving the Interim Update from Microsoft will need to install it "on all CAS and Mailbox servers that have SP1 RU4 installed," according to Ross Smith IV of Microsoft.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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