back to article Exchange update refusenik? Consider yourself warned by Microsoft

Exchange Server administrators lagging on their cumulative and security updates be warned: Microsoft has stated that the Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service (EEMS) might stop working on "significantly out of date" versions of the software. EEMS was released in September 2021 and connects to the Office Configuration Service ( …

  1. katrinab Silver badge
    Alert

    Bear in mind that Cumulative Updates have to be installed manually, as far as I'm aware, at least I've always done that.

  2. Excused Boots Silver badge

    "Imagine what the company must call users still clinging to Windows 10.”

    Probably not fit for polite company.

    Let’s be honest here Exchange, on premise Exchange is dead, MS don't want you to use it (be honest why would they, the money is in Azure?).

    It’ll die the death by a thousand cuts, it’ll get, gradually, so more difficult to support that most companies will simply go ‘screw it and move to M365' - and then they’ve got you; paying them; for ever......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They will get your subscription either way. Both 2016 and 2019 are end of life later this year and the next on premises version is a subscription as well.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      The minute anyone buys a license for the first Exchange, 75% of them are on the line for life. Pay M$ to manage servers, no more hardware refresh cycles. They get the Licen$e\$ub$cription money either way. Saving on hardware costs(servers and UPS), power costs makes sense. I know my life changed when Exchange was shown the door, and I didn't have to worry about the pager(yes it was that long ago) going off at 3am cause Exchange decided to shit the bed when the Minister of Finance was up actually doing work...

    3. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

      Well, there are those "companies" which cannot ever Ever EVER 3Λ3ᴚ have an online exchange service outside their country border. No matter how much the provider says "It will be hosted only on Servers in your country!" - they must be "offline" Exchange servers, currently still Exchange 2019.

      I mean, M$ has been "invited" to be questioned about their cloud security. In USA. By you-know-who.

      1. MatthewSt Silver badge

        If you want to see where your mailboxes are hosted then the get-mailbox powershell command gives you the server name. All of ours are UK based now, but a few years back they were spread all over Europe.

        If I recall correctly we were offered the chance to move when the UK datacentres opened.

        1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

          You don't understand: There is nothing that keeps M$ from preventing to clone your exchange, or mailstorage or mailbox to somewhere else in the world without telling you and without the possibility for you to notice. For many companies this possibility does not matter, they just need the right ISO/DIN/VDE stamp and done. I know that there is a lot more done to actually prevent such things from happening on the technical side, but that is not enough for some companies - and they have reason to stick to that.

    4. StinkyMcStinkFace

      Exchange on prem is dead huh?

      I've been running Exchange since version 5.0. 1990 or so.

      I can assure you my servers are not dead.

      But I will be dead before I put my data "in the cloud" or pay a subscription - for ANYTHING.

      1. gryphon

        No choice after October next year if you have to run a supported version of Exchange unfortunately.

        If you have Software Assurance on your Enterprise Agreement that's already a subscription of a sort anyway.

  3. MatthewSt Silver badge

    > since "newer than March" means April for Exchange Server 2019 and June for Exchange Server 2019, but the company has yet to respond

    I think one of those 9s is upside-down

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Big Brother

    We have you by the short and curlies

    Want your business to still be in business in 2026?

    Well, cough up now suckers.

    How many more reasons do companies need to give MS the finger?

    I'm sure they will make those holdouts suffer by remotely disabling their Exchange Server one day after the support ends.

    MS seems to have been emboldened by Trump 2.0 into screwing everyone for every cent/dollar/euro/yen/whatever possible.

    1. gryphon

      Re: We have you by the short and curlies

      They can't remotely disable.

      However Exchange Online won't accept SMTP traffic from on-prem Exchange servers that aren't in support.

      After October 2025 that means Exchange SE.

  5. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    I know one Exchange 2013 box "In my hand"

    Relatives...

    But I was wise in my setup 11 years ago, knowing how that one is at listening to advice (unless you pull the full-alpha-male-domination-communication style, as I did for the "when will you really check the backup mails every time?"):

    It is not connected directly. It uses fetchmail. Will be moved to an Exchange online provider soon after nagging him for 5+ years about it...

  6. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service

    How many other email servers can anyone name that need an “Emergency Mitigation Service”?

    What an utter shit show.

    How old is Exchange now? And how shit does it STILL manage to be? God I hate MS

  7. Too old for this sh*t

    I have yet to have a discussion with a client on 2016. I know 100% they will not go to 365 nor will they be keen on a subscription model plus having to buy a new server that requires a motherload of ram. I can see them going, like all my other smaller clients, over to imap

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How many times has the latest CU for Exchange 2019 been delayed now? Last time I checked (last week, I think), Microsoft's message had moved from 'early January' to 'soon', whatever that means!

    Another major annoyance is needing a full Exchange server to manage hybrid accounts with Exchange Online mailboxes. This is a ridiculous situation and they could easily produce a set of lightweight management tools (possibly even part of the RSAT set) to do this, but they clearly have no intention of doing so. Presumably part of their general approach to making things as awkward as possible for people who have to use hybrid accounts.

    The only alternative to the full Exchange server is to use Powershell only, which is an equally shit option. Yeah, Powershell is fine for bulk actions, but if you want to do something simply, like add an alias to an account or hide a mailbox from the GAL, the GUI is far quicker.

    1. gryphon

      I'm surprised some 3rd party hasn't come up with a GUI replacement which runs the PowerShell in the background.

      Which is all EAC does really.

  9. StinkyMcStinkFace

    O365 / gmail / yahoo

    We don't outright block o-365, but we do mark it as suspect and untrusted because it is from Microsoft's cloud.

    I may end up blocking gmail entirely, because it's almost 100% spam at this point.

    Either step up and be a proper sysadmin or get out of our way.

  10. StinkyMcStinkFace

    Exchange is not dead, MICROSOFT IS DEAD

    The company I knew 30 years ago that provided a decent product that you could purchase and use... is dead. Microsoft no longer exists.

    The steaming pile of crap we have now is all that remains of a once good corporation.

    They were never perfect by a long shot, but at least you could buy something and use it effectively.

    That no longer exists.

    There is nothing wrong with Exchange or Windows 10.

    There is something wrong with Microsoft corporation.

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