News

Windows Server 2016 Still Lacks Exchange 2016 Support

• By Kurt Mackie
• May 23, 2016

Microsoft recently warned organizations that Exchange Server 2016, which was commercially released in October, isn't yet supported on Windows Server 2016.

Exchange Server 2016 is currently supported on Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, along with the Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 clients. The messaging server is unsupported on Windows Server 2016, which is still at the preview stage. Technical Preview 5 of Windows Server 2016 was released last month.

The commercial release of Windows Server 2016 will happen sometime around Q3 of this year, according to past Microsoft announcements. Possibly, Exchange Server 2016 will be supported on Windows Server 2016 at that time, but Microsoft hasn't been so specific about the timing.

Exchange Server 2016 Install Warnings
Rhoderick Milne, a Microsoft premium field engineer, advised organizations last week to not install Exchange Server 2016 on the Window Server 2016 preview at this point because "there is not much that can be done to help apart from digging out backups." He also advised against in-place upgrades to Windows Server 2016.

Earlier this year, Microsoft had warned organizations that were using Exchange Server to block the use of the .NET Framework 4.6.1 update. None of the Exchange Server versions are supported on .NET Framework 4.6.1. Exchange Server 2016 is supported only on .NET Framework 4.5.2.

Exchange Server 2016 Learning Resources
In other Exchange news, Microsoft has rolled out four new Exchange Server 2016 edX training courses to help organizations considering deployments. The first course, "Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Infrastructure," is free. The other three courses cost $49 each.

Microsoft also published a warning this month about Exchange Server migrations to Exchange Server 2013 or Exchange Server 2016, as well as Exchange Online. There can be data loss when moving from "legacy Public folders in Exchange 2010/2007 to Modern Public Folders in Exchange Online or Exchange 2016/2013," an Exchange team blog post warned. The workaround involves setting up a public folder replica that will be the source for the migration, according to Microsoft's Knowledge Base article on the topic.

Microsoft's free learning materials to achieve Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MSCE) certification for Exchange Server 2016 are a little out of date. At least that's the view of Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Tony Redmond, an Exchange expert. He suggested last week that the associated Microsoft Virtual Academy training materials reflected the 2013-branded product, rather than Exchange Server 2016.

In another blog post, Redmond noted a strange drop in mailbox count stats with Office 365's Exchange Online service. The wildly off counts could be due to "a change in behavior with the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet," he speculated.