Exchange 2000 SP3: Packed with essential fixes
Del Smith CCNA, CCA, MCSE
Published: 04 Sep 2002 08:40 BST
Major fixes and enhancements
Microsoft has learned from past experience that integrating additional features in service packs can be dangerous. Good or bad, the folks at Redmond followed the safe approach and did not introduce any new features with SP3. However, it did implement a number of security and permissions changes. Microsoft refers to this new security approach as a Security and Permission Sweep.
All told, Exchange 2000 SP3 includes more than a 150 fixes and enhancements. I've outlined some of the most notable ones below. This short list is meant to give you an idea of the types of changes you can expect to see. You can refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q311456 for the complete list.
Microsoft .Net support
SP3 enables you to have Exchange 2000 servers in Active Directory domains running Windows .Net DCs/GCs. But Exchange 2000 is still not supported on a Windows .Net server. This includes the ESM.
Global Catalog caching
Microsoft says that it has experienced a 15 to 20 percent reduction in Global Catalog load after the installation of Service Pack 3. This is made possible because of changes in the caching frequency of Exchange when querying a GC server, as well as changes in the way it requests the information.
Virtual memory fragmentation (Event 9582)
A heavily loaded Exchange 2000 server may generate 9582 Events or suffer performance problems as memory becomes fragmented. To help avoid such fragmentation, this fix changes the method by which memory is allocated at startup. Problems with 9582 fragmentation errors are virtually eliminated. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q324118.
Malformed mail attribute exhausts CPU resources
According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q320436: "A denial of service (DoS) vulnerability exists in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. A hacker who can successfully connect to an Exchange 2000 server and pass raw, hand-crafted mail messages directly to that server can exploit this vulnerability and cause the system to become unresponsive." SP3 resolves this problem.
System Attendant crashes
If all the domain controllers in a local site shut down, and the number of failover Global Catalog servers is less than the number of local Global Catalog servers, DSProxy could crash. SP3 contains a fix that stops the System Attendant process (Mad.exe) from crashing as well. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q318067.
Memory leak in Information Store degrades performance
According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q322125: "Over time, an Exchange 2000 server that is part of a mixed Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 environment may gradually become unresponsive. Clients may also report an overall reduction in mail system performance. Exchange System Manager may not be able to connect the Information Store service and may display the database as offline."
IS does not respond to RPC requests
According to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q322124: "The Information Store can cause undue memory pressure to a system that has a large number of users. This causes performance issues for Messaging Application Program Interface (MAPI) and non-MAPI users. In extreme cases, the Information Store may not respond to remote procedure call (RPC) requests."
Summary
Exchange 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is a cumulative service pack that provides interoperability with Windows .Net Server domain controllers, fixes a number of customer-reported issues, and provides security updates based on the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing initiative. The service pack is essential for most Exchange 2000 installations. You can download it here.
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