Apply Cumulative Update Cluster Exchange2016

Question

Hello, I have some questions regarding the operation of exchange 2016 on-premise.

We currently have the following scenario:

• Cluster exchange 2016 with two nodes in Active / Passive with the same versioned patches (CU11 on each server)
  Get-ExchangeServer | ft * version *, name, edition
  AdminDisplayVersion ExchangeVersion Name Edition

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Version 15.1 (Build 1591.10) 0.1 (8.0.535.0) node1 Standard
Version 15.1 (Build 1591.10) 0.1 (8.0.535.0) node2 Standard

• In node1 we have all the bases mounted
• The OWA is published only on node1
• Node2 is only used for exchange management (ECP access)
• Two domain controllers
  DC-01 with Server 2012 r2
  DC-02 with Server 2016
  Forest and domain functional level -> "Windows Server 2012r2"

Objective: Apply the latest Cumulative Update for the current exchange version

Possible Task Plan

• Put node2 into maintenance
• Update node2 from cu11 to cu21 (see attached image with steps)
• Restart node2, take node2 out of maintenance, pass active bases from node1 to node2
• Put node1 into maintenance
• Update from cu11 to cu21 (see attached image with steps)
• Restart node1 and take out of maintenance

Now the doubts or queries numbered

0) Is the task plan correct or any suggestion for change?

1. To apply the cu21 on node2 and taking into account the current scenario, can it be done without loss of service? Do we understand that it would be transparent to the active services in node1 or should it be convenient to put both nodes under maintenance and plan outage?
2. After updating node2, we would pass the active bases from node1 to node2 and we would put node1 in maintenance mode to continue with the update, then, there would be some incompatibility issue in case of tracing the bases of node2 understanding that we are going from node1 (cu11) to node2 (cu21)?

Answer 1

Thanks for the advice, another question we have is whether the launch of CU installation setup should it be done using powershell or cmd?

In this link and lab recommend cmd (Always use a CMD prompt to run Exchange setup, not PowerShell)
https://practical365.com/installing-cumulative-updates-on-exchange-server-2016/

what do you think?

Answer 2

@Eduardo

0) Is the task plan correct or any suggestion for change?

Before putting node 1 into maintenance, change public DNS to node 2 to make sure the access from Internet. If you don’t need external access for a short time, you can ignore this step

1) To apply the cu21 on node2 and taking into account the current scenario, can it be done without loss of service? Do we understand that it would be transparent to the active services in node1 or should it be convenient to put both nodes under maintenance and plan outage?

You need to update them one by one, you cannot put both of them into maintenance. For more detailed information about putting DAG member into maintenance, you can have a look about this article: Performing maintenance on DAG members

2) After updating node2, we would pass the active bases from node1 to node2 and we would put node1 in maintenance mode to continue with the update, then, there would be some incompatibility issue in case of tracing the bases of node2 understanding that we are going from node1 (cu11) to node2 (cu21)?

Exchange DAG members could in a different CU for a period of time, and CU differences will not be a problem.

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