ANN: ORF 5 and compatibility with the new Microsoft platforms - ORF Forums

The compatibility test results for ORF 5 and the new Windows platforms are just in. We are happy to report that ORF 5.0 is fully compatible with Windows 8 (for ORF Management Tools) and it is also compatible with Windows Server 2012 (with IIS 6 SMTP).

However, Microsoft® Exchange 2013 introduced a few breaking changes, so ORF 5.0 will not install on this platform. We will address these changes in ORF 5.1, a release specifically dedicated to Exchange 2013 compatibility.

@scott.townsend: I think we may be able to ship the 5.1 beta mid/late March if Exchange 2013 CU1 doesn't break any assumptions we currently work with. Alas, Exchange 2013 support is a harder nut to crack than it sounds at first, because the new Exchange release changes many things from ORF perspective.

Once all Exchange 2013-related tasks are fully specified and scheduled, we'll have a better understanding of the release date and we'll post a blog entry regarding the changes in the Vamsoft Insider blog at http://blog.vamsoft.com.

It should be noted, though, that you can already use ORF 5.0 with Exchange 2013. As you are probably aware, Exchange 2013 currently lacks an Edge Transport role, but Exchange 2010 Edge Transport may be used with Exchange 2013 CAS (or Hybrid), as recommended by Microsoft. ORF 5.0 fully support 2010 Edge Transport and unless you want to expose your Exchange 2013 CAS (which is part of your domain -- not really DMZ friendly) to the Internet, this is the secure way to go.

@NorbertFe: I have to admit I'm a bit confused in this regard -- I was under the impression that only Exchange 2013 SP1 will enable the direct migration. From what I gather, 2010 SP3 + CU1 is just an important preliminary step, which upgrades the AD schema, the mailbox databases and other parts Exchange 2010 so as to enable coexistence scenarios and prepare the organization for migrating to Exchange 2013 once it's ready for migration.