Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is due for release on 30 November 2007! Microsoft has prepared a major update for its flagship mail server which has now received many new features and improvements and can be downloaded from site.
Support for new platform
Microsoft Exchange Server is now fully compatible with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and can be deployed to a computer running Windows Server 2008 RC0 Escrow build. The full list of supported operating systems can be found here.
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has a mixed IPv6 128-bit addressing by default when running on a Windows Server 2008 platform. That is it only runs IPv6 when the obsolescent protocol IPv4 is enabled. Otherwise Exchange server will fail running on IP. If you are running a deployment for multiple machines you can create a rule to deploy only for the defined IPv6 range thus avoiding unsupported setup conditions with IPv6-enabled management tools or based on general information about support of IPv6 in Microsoft operating systems. Another way is to call a function that can resolve to an IPv6-address, that is something like IsResolvableEx used to resolve a hostname when performing a Web-Proxy autodiscovery or just issue a ping command on IPv6-address like say
ping6 -n 2 ::1
That is we ping 2 times on a loopback address 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 using a short notation (two-colon notation) for writing IPv6 addresses.
New features were added to a remote access for a remote client
Exchange Active Sync a has received a remote wipe confirmation feature and is now enabled with Enhanced Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy settings which include ability to
Disable Removable Storage
Disable Camera
Disable Wi-Fi
Disable POP/IMAP e-mail
Block Internet Sharing
It both provides for a data protection and ensures a security for sensitive data on mobile devices should they be stolen or accidentally lost by user. This all can be done centrally from within Exchange Management Console or Exchange Management Shell and works in a best traditions of what is meant under a centralized management.
Mobile work becomes faster
The new Service Pack improves and speeds-up long-standing connections between a server and a mobile device mobile devices.
Dramatic improvements in remote work though Outlook Web Access
Microsoft has completely rewritten the Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2007 and SP1 brought many of those that were not enabled in the RTM so that OWA now comes with lightning new features too.
First off, running in a Light mode OWA does not time out any longer and no longer drops the session out if user is composing a long message or just working with its calendar for a long time. OWA now prevents you from losing your typed messages by automatically saving the them in as Draft folder as-you-type.
In Premium mode for Outlook Web Access it is now possible for a user to create and edit Personal Distribution Lists and server side rules.
What about support for Microsoft Office System 2007? WebReady Document Viewing has finally been added with support for decoding and viewing in HTML of Word/Excel and PowerPoint X-Documents in OpenXML format.
It is now possible to copy or move folders using a dedicated context menu command.
Public Folders functionality now offers following features:
It is now possible to get full access to public folders from OWA and you don’t have to use the Public virtual directory. And you can get full access to public folders on Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers is now available for users without the need for you to provide Public Folder access from Outlook Web Access on Exchange 2003 Mailbox server. Microsoft has also added search features for Public Folders.
Increased manageability within Exchange Management Console
Exchange Management Console has been enhanced with a brand new interface for administering POP3 and IMAP4 protocols.
Hub Transport Server role has been added with functionality to set message size limits on Active Directory site links.
New features in Mailbox Server role
It is now possible to import and export mailbox by using .pst files. I believe this will provide greater flexibility administrator especially combined with such functionally available in standalone applications as automatic configuration of .pst files for the end user profile.
Those companies that use IP telephony are now able to create SIP URI and E.164 dial plans and add a SIP or E.164 address for a user by using the Enable Unified Messaging Wizard.
Security changes
Exchange Web Services were added with a more granular permission configuration that now supports configuring folder level permissions so that both users and user applications are now able to list and configure permissions on folders. It is also possible to delegate management with services.
Official Document describing what’s new in Exchange Server 2007 SP1
Automatic configuration of mailboxes and Outlook profiles for the client side on the post-deployment stage
Additional information on what you have to do to deploy Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 family
More information about what’s new about client access features in Exchange Server 2007 SP1
