Friday, February 3, 2012

Exchange AD Schema Changes


We all know that with every Exchange Service Pack [SP] we have to run the usual setup /PrepareSchema (or setup /ps) in order to prepare the Active Directory Domain Services Schema for the newer version of Exchange. This is because every new SP introduces new attributes and modifies some existing classes and attributes in the Schema. But what exactly is added and/or changed?! To help answering this question, Microsoft made available the Exchange Server Active Directory Schema Changes Reference document.

The latest version of the document, from November 2011, includes changes made by:
  • Exchange Server 2010 SP2, SP1 and RTM
  • Exchange Server 2007 SP3, SP2, SP1 and RTM
  • Exchange Server 2003

Not sure why the file is not available a “simple” download, but you have to download a nADSchemaRef.msi file, install it and then get the document from (by default) C:\Program Files\Microsoft\ExDevCenterDownloads\Exchange Server Active Directory Schema Changes Reference. Very strange...


Other alternative you have, is by looking at all the .ldf files that are used in the process, which are located in the \amd64\Setup\Data\ directory on the setup DVD.

I recon you will prefer the first method   :)

No comments:

Post a Comment