Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 will reach its end of support on April 11, 2023.
This means that Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, technical assistance, or online technical content updates for the product. It is highly recommended that organizations using Exchange Server 2013 upgrade to a newer version of Exchange.
After that date, Microsoft will no longer provide:
Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered and that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches
Bug fixes for issues that are discovered and that may impact the stability and usability of the server
Technical support for problems that may occur
Time zone updates
Even if the product continues to work after this date, It’s recommended to start “Exchange Server 2013” to “Exchange Online” or “Exchange Server 2019” migration as soon as possible.
Microsoft announced in the bulletin it shared yesterday that it has changed the update model for the Exchange Server.
Updates published quarterly (March, June, September, and December) were changed after feedback from customers. And they announced that they have commissioned a new update service.
In the announcement, two CU’s per year – will releasing in H1 and H2 of each calendar year, with general target release dates of March and September (these dates may change).
If you are planning to make cumulative updates to your Exchange Servers, you must first put the server on which you will install the update into maintenance mode. To perform maintenance on Exchange Servers, follow these steps:
First of all, if you are using a load-balancer, make sure that there is no mail traffic to the server you will maintain.
Pre-Check 1 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize
Pre-Check 2 – Get-MailboxServer ExchServerName | ft DatabaseCopy* -Autosize
Control 1 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize
Control 2 – Get-MailboxServer ExchServerName | ft DatabaseCopy* -Autosize Get-ClusterNode ExchServerName | fl Get-Queue
By the way, if you have made changes to the configuration files (Web.config,Edgetransport.exe.config etc) before starting the update process, it is recommended to backup them, because the changes you made after the update will return to their default settings.
You can now update the server.
After completing the update process we need to take the server out of maintenance mode.
After 1 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component ServerWideOffline -State Active -Requester Maintenance
After 2 – CD $ExScripts .\StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 -serverName ExchServerName
After 3 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component HubTransport -State Active -Requester Maintenance
After 4 – Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
After 5 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize
If you have specific configuration backups, you can compare them with your backups and rearrange them. (Don’t forget to restart the server)
Now you can add your server to the load-balancer again and include it in the mail traffic.
