Trouble Upgrading your Exchange 2003 Cluster to SP1?

Note: This information is now available as a public KB article: KB.867624

Some folks on the newsgroups are having difficulty getting their Exchange 2003 clusters upgraded to Exchange 2003 SP1. One example of an error that's been reported:

Not able to upgrade the EVS because of error c1037b44:
"Version of Exchange on this machine does not match the version of Exchange on server ...."

Evan's comment:
Note: If you're running Windows 2003, you will also need to install the Windows/IIS6 GZIP hotfix KB.831464 prior to upgrading the SP1 binaries. This is not specific to clustering, but is a prerequisite for Exchange 2003 SP1 on Windows 2003 (does not apply to Windows 2000/IIS5).

The process to upgrade the cluster to SP1 is very similar to the process followed when upgrading to Exchange 2003 initially, and should look something like this:

1) Move EVS to Node1
2) Upgrade binaries on Node2
3) Take Exchange group resources offline (except for IP, Disk, and Network Name) and move them to Node2
4) Sitting at Node2 (upgraded) Cluadmin, right-click on System Attendant resource and choose "Upgrade Virtual Server"
5) When this completes, bring the resources online on Node2.

Now the resources and the EVS have been upgraded to SP1 and will not be able to come online back on Node1.

6) Upgrade binaries on Node1
7) Confirm that moving the group between nodes is again functional.

Update: June 7, 2004 - It's also been reported that some folks hit a block at Step 4 where the “Upgrade Virtual Server” option isn't available in the context menu. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that the Exchange resources may also not come online and may log Event 1025 “The Exchange virtual server needs to be upgraded before coming online. From the Cluster Administrator Program, select 'upgrade Exchange Virtual Server' from the resource context menu to upgrade this Virtual Server” There are a number of reasons this might happen.

If you've evicted the node from the cluster, your bet bet is to run back through Exchange 2003 Setup and choose the “reinstall” action (which should make the option reappear, and will fix other broken things as well).

But presuming you haven't evicted the node, one possible workaround to get the node back in shape is to trick it into thinking it needs to be upgraded by manually changing the version stored in the ResourceBuild private property. Proceed at your own risk, but a command-line way to do this is:

  CLUSTER RES “<Your System Attendant Resource Name>” /priv ResourceBuild=455081984