Just a quick blogpost about the latest Exchange 2019 release. Yesterday, May 3, 2023 Microsoft has released Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 13, or 2023 H1 Cumulative Update for Exchange server as it is officially named.
There are two interesting new features in Exchange 2019 CU13:
- Exchange 2019 CU13 now supports Modern Authentication. Please note that previously Exchange 2019 supported Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA). Modern Authentication is targeted specifically to customers that do not have any hybrid or any cloud integration as it works with your on-premises ADFS implementatation. At this moment only Outlook clients are supported to work with Modern Authentication, support for other clients is expected later this year.
- Configuration preservation. When this CU is installed and you have any customized config files, they are now preserved and not overwritten as was the case in earlier Cumulative Updates. When updating to CU13, it reports that config files are preserved:
PS Z:\> .\Setup.EXE /Mode:Upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms_DiagnosticDataOn
Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 13 Unattended Setup
Copying Files...
File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation.
Languages
Management tools
Mailbox role: Transport service
Mailbox role: Client Access service
Mailbox role: Mailbox service
Mailbox role: Front End Transport service
Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service
Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED
Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Language Files COMPLETED
Restoring Services COMPLETED
Language Configuration COMPLETED
Exchange Management Tools COMPLETED
Mailbox role: Transport service COMPLETED
Mailbox role: Client Access service COMPLETED
Mailbox role: Mailbox service COMPLETED
Mailbox role: Front End Transport service COMPLETED
Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service COMPLETED
Finalizing Setup COMPLETED
The Exchange Server setup operation completed successfully.
Exchange Setup preserved the required configurations during upgrade. More details can be found in Exchangesetup.log located in <SystemDrive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs folder. For more information, visit:
https://aka.ms/PreserveExchangeConfig2019.Unfortunately, support for TLS 1.3 (which is in Windows Server 2022) is not in this Cumulative Update, hopefully support for TLS 1.3 later this year.
More information, tips and downloads:
- This Cumulative Update contains all binaries from previous Cumulative Updates, including all previously released Security Updates.
- Download at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=105180
- Knowledgebase article KB5020999 contains more information, including known issues with this release.
- Before bringing in production, please test thoroughly in your testenvironment.
- The onlly supported versions of Exchange 2019 are Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 13 and Cumulative Update 12. Earlier versions are no longer supported.
- Exchange 2013 is old, and out of extended support. No more Security Updates will be released for Exchange 2013. If you are still running Exchange 2013, make sure you migrate to Exchange 2019 or Exchange Online anytime soon!
Jaap Wesselius 