Delay in ActiveSync after Mailbox Move from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013

After a mailbox move from Exchange 2010 to 2013, there seems to be an hour or so delay before ActiveSync starts working again for that mailbox. External and internal DNS is pointing to the Exchange 2013 CAS, which proxies everything just fine for mailboxes still on the Ex2010 server. After a mailbox move from Ex2010 to Ex2013, Outlook and OWA work perfectly fine and get proxied to the proper mailbox by the Ex2013 CAS immediately, but activesync does not for about an hour or so.

Running the ExRCA for Activesync with the credentials of the mailbox that just moved it fails at the Attempting to send the OPTIONS command to the server, with a HTTP 403: forbidden. Interestingly, even though the mailbox is fully on the Ex2013 server, it seems that the Ex2013 CAS is still trying to proxy the activesync session to the Ex2010 mailbox (in the ExRCA error, the X-CalculatedBETarget is still pointing to the Ex2010 server), and since the user is no longer on that mailbox you get the permission error. If you wait an hour or so after the mailbox has moved everything starts working properly and X-CalculatedBETarget points to the proper server when you run the ExRCA. 

So my question is: is it normal for there to be a delay in ActiveSync after moving the mailbox? Is there some kind of cache on the Ex2013 CAS for proxies that just takes a while to time out before it starts proxying activesync to the proper mailbox? is there any way to change this behavior if it is normal? Both Ex2010 and Ex2013 servers are in the same AD site, so there isn't any cross-site AD replication lag, and I'm not seeing any ActiveSync related errors in any of the logs. Thanks!

(Also I should note, the accounts I've tested moving are just normal AD accounts that have the 'Inherit permissions' checked in AD. I'm aware of the issue with privileged AD accounts sometimes not getting the proper Exchange permissions inherited causing ActiveSync to fail, but that is not the case here)


  • Edited by JordanLoehr Thursday, August 08, 2013 3:20 PM
August 8th, 2013 3:09pm

I'm experiencing the same issue.

I've checked the https session keep-alive duration on my geteway (even it is the same rules than the one used for exchange 2010 activesync).

Same problem on a new user with activesync newly configured (and mobile phone as well), so I think it's an Exchange 2013 side issue (IIS on 2012 on cas server ?)

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August 12th, 2013 10:35am

Good to know I'm not alone in this issue. My 2013 CAS is on 2008 R2 SP1, running Exchange 2013 CU1. I'm going to try installing CU2 tonight and see if that makes a difference.
August 12th, 2013 2:34pm

Well, CU2 makes it worse in the fact that now OWA seems to proxy back to the 2010 CAS for a while after a migration to the 2013 database. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/5990037a-8b3f-4abe-8589-22032171adc6/exchange-2013-2013-coexistence-owa-rendering-on-2010-cas-for-2013-mailbox#5990037a-8b3f-4abe-8589-22032171adc6
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August 13th, 2013 11:23pm

We validated on CU1, that the Exchange 2013 CAS/IIS caches the 2010 CAS server as the X-CalculatedBETarget instead of the 2013 mailbox server FQDN.  You can validate this with testexchangeconnectivity.com or turn on EAS logging for the mailbox you're testing from.

When we migrated to CU2 it didn't resolve anything but to date we are able to restart IIS to clear out the caching in order for the mailbox to work.  A few test required a phone restart (not having to wipe any profile data).  We've escalated the issue to MSFT Premier but since we migrate users in batches, we can suspend the migration until a safe time to complete cut over and then bounce web services.  If you have a load balancer then just do one at a time and you'll have no issues.

It will be either be confirmed as a bug and then fixed in the next available CU cycle or there may be some "KB" on how to change IIS caching for this type of behavior.  At least that's my theory.

  • Proposed as answer by El Veracruz Friday, October 04, 2013 4:56 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by El Veracruz Tuesday, April 15, 2014 6:12 PM
October 3rd, 2013 10:47pm

Did you get anywhere with Premier support?  We're seeing exactly the same issue and I'm about to open my own case.

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December 11th, 2013 1:05pm

Ben;

Sorry for the delayed thread update.  I did get this submitted as a bug with verification by escalation engineering.  I don't know if the fix will make it into the planned SP1, but the workaround is to recycle the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync application pool on all CAS servers responsible for those services.

Obviously this isn't very helpful when doing one-off moves, but if you're batch migrating hundreds of users then I can schedule completion of the migration along with a powershell script to recycle those pools remotely.

IIS App Pool Recycle Script

That script allowed me to batch migrate a few hundred users and complete each night at midnight.  I then buffered out around 1 hour to allow completions and then run the powershell app pool recycle at 1AM via task manager so I don't have to be "on-call" to manage the process.

Hope this help.

  • Proposed as answer by El Veracruz Monday, December 16, 2013 6:24 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by El Veracruz Tuesday, April 15, 2014 6:12 PM
December 12th, 2013 8:02pm

Have Exchange 2013 CU3 the same problem after moving mailbox from 2010 to 2013.

Deleted external Active Sync link on Exchange 2010

and

Restarted IIS Default Web Site on Exchange 2013

and 

Iphone was able to validate user and connect.

Thank You

R.

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December 13th, 2013 10:03am

I recently completed a migration from 2010 to 2013 and experienced the same issue.  It seemed Androids always had the issue, iPhones hardly had the issue, and Windows Phones did not experience the issue.  Recycling the MSExchangeSyncAppPool did the trick each time and had no effect on existing connections.  I had Exchange 2013 SP1 on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Exchange 2010 SP3 Update Rollup 5 on Windows Server 2008 R2.
March 12th, 2014 1:38am

Did you get anywhere with Premier support?  We're seeing exactly the same issue and I'm about to open my own case.


@All;

After much sass, I was able to get this confirmed/added as a bug to Exchange 2013.  MSFT Support did notice that SP1 reduces this time frame but as I stated when migrating 500 mailboxes at a time, if I don't suspend prior to completion, the delay from 1st completion to 500th can be hours between completion.  This means if I want zero downtime, I have to repeatedly restart these app pools via scripts which is just not an indication of a thought out business process.

I have not had similar behavior as previous users where iPhones had little issues as the first reporter to this issue was iPhone 7.X.  Android experienced the same issue.  All phones were using their respective ActiveSync builtin software (iOS 6x & 7x, Android ICS, JB, KK, no Windows phones).

This is not reported to be fixed in SP1 as it was just confirmed for me as bug 2 weeks ago so look for MSFT to do something later than the next CU after SP1.

Cheers!

-Veracruz

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March 12th, 2014 6:59am

I wanted to add that we are currently in the same situation. We're running the same release and distribution and having to manually restart application pools each time is just not a great way for us to be working.

I haven't seen any kind of update on this or a patch that fixes it. Has anyone had something shared from Microsoft or seen something I haven't in regards to a fix?

  • Proposed as answer by McGr Wednesday, April 09, 2014 3:26 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by McGr Wednesday, April 09, 2014 3:26 PM
April 9th, 2014 3:58am

Same issue here... 2013 SP1 on 2012 w/ 2010 SP3 on 2008 R2. Recycling the MSExchangeSyncAppPool and MSExchangeAutodiscoverAppPool seems to fix it. 

Any update on the premier support ticket(s) on an upcoming fix?

Cheers,

Brandon

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April 9th, 2014 5:44am

The Premier ticket is closed with "Accepted as Bug".  They don't give out CU number to expect the fix in the same way they did, I can only wait to see if the next CU does include this fix (post SP1).  What the escalation engineer did note is the time to clear cache against the application pool did go down in SP1 from a variable of 6 to 8 hours to a hour or so, still annoying but interesting something did change this behavior.


April 9th, 2014 11:38pm

Thanks for the update. Any way you could send me your ticket # so I can use it for correlation? We're wanting to open a ticket so that we can be notified when it is fixed. 

brandoncshanks AT live dot com

Thanks,

Brandon

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April 11th, 2014 3:59pm

Premier Case was: 113092310807431 

Don't have the bugID.

Enjoy.

April 11th, 2014 8:07pm

This is a known issue with Exchange 2013 (RTM/SP1) and is currently being investigated for a fix in an upcoming update with no ETA available at this moment. The workaround to recycle EAS App Pool and/or w3wp.exe should work to resolve the issue. I will post an update when I have more details on the fix. Thanks for your patience!
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April 21st, 2014 5:18pm

I recycled all the app pools on both of my Exchange 2013 CAS servers and it didn't' resolve the issue.  Is there something specific I need to do to take advantage of the workaround? Is there a particular order in which I should recycle the app pools?
June 13th, 2014 12:30am

In a few customer environments I've had to actually do a full IISRESET to get it to clear out, YMMV.
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June 13th, 2014 8:59pm

Run the failing service against testexchangeconnectivity.com and examine the results.  After you've migrated a user, do you still see the services lookup old server names?  This will determine if you're having the exact issue that was identified as bug or if you're running into something new.

What version are your servers, as of CU5, the delay is significantly reduced, at least in my tests.

-Veracruz

June 13th, 2014 10:41pm

We are at CU5.  After the migration, it took me about 2 hours to get email again after the App pools got recycled.
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June 16th, 2014 2:45pm

We are on CU5...looking at notes for CU6, doesn't look like the bug was addressed in that release.  Can anyone confirm what the behavior is on CU6?
September 18th, 2014 2:18am

We were on CU5 and had the problem, but upgrade to CU6 the day it came out.  I've migrated about 30 mailboxes since then and not had the problem at all.
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September 18th, 2014 3:02am

I am using exchange 2013 cu6 and this issue still persists. Recycling the App Pool immediately solves the issue. I also tried waiting around a day or so and ActiveSync connectivity comes back on its own (probably the App Pool recycles automatically at certain intervals)
October 5th, 2014 6:56am

So one person is saying they aren't having the problem after going to CU6, and one person is.  I didn't see this fix specifically mentioned in the CU6 update, but sometimes they put things in they don't mention on the public KB article.
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October 5th, 2014 2:00pm

Hello All,

I am seeing the same issue.  Although not running CU6 yet.  In fact in our case sometimes it does not start working for 3hrs until restart the server.

Thanks,

October 7th, 2014 5:58pm

Did some moves today for about 150 people.  Took about 2.5 - 3 hours even after cycling the app pools.  Major pain.
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October 8th, 2014 1:53am

Hello Jason,

I have been seeing this issue as well.

I just wanted to confirm that under HTTPRoxy EAS logs do you see that Exchange 2013 CAS server keep proxying to CAS 2010.  On CAS 2010 you see event id 1052

The Exchange ActiveSync user Domain.com\UserID has a mailbox on a Client Access server running a newer version of Exchange. Exchange ActiveSync doesn't support proxying users to Client Access servers running a newer version of Exchange. The user needs to connect to a newer Client Access server.

Someone suggested me that check all URLS on ActiveSync virtual directories that it is pointing towards Exchange 2013.  But did not make any effect in our environment.

I am just wondering if there are any new ideas where and what to check?

Thanks,

October 16th, 2014 4:43pm

Our Active Sync URL is load balanced with a load balancer and only the 2013 servers serve as the CAS servers for all Active Sync, MAPI, IMAP, etc connections.  Once the mailbox is moved, there seems to be some kind of cache delay.

Already spoke to Microsoft, and they say it's working as it should.  Due to the architecture change for 13, it just takes a while for cache to update.  I find the delay unacceptable and so do my users.  They are working to reduce it the time, but I doubt it will ever be immediate.

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October 16th, 2014 4:47pm

Hi,

I have same configuration load balancer send connections to Exchange 2013 CAS and then 2013 CAS decides where is mailbox located and according to that proxy the connection to Exchange 2010 CAS (if mailbox is on 2010) or Exchange 2013 mailbox (If mailbox is on 2013).  Although, Outlook and OWA started to work right after the move completes. 

Not sure if Outlook and OWA has a separate cache than ActiveSync.  Did MS support say anything about that Outlook and OWA starts working without delay?

Thanks,

October 16th, 2014 4:54pm

Cache is separate for MAPI and OWA connections.

My guess is AS cache is treated differently given the nature of the protocol.  We are kind of stuck with the issue and just hope they reduce the time in a future CU update.  CU6 still has the issue.  Maybe CU7

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October 16th, 2014 5:05pm

Thanks for your reply.

I am also awaiting CU7 and I hope it would resolve it or at least bring the time

October 16th, 2014 5:09pm

Hello,

Is any one able to upgrade to CU7 and see that if after move from Exchange 2010 to 2013 ActiveSync picks up that information promptly?

I am in middle of mailbox moves and really struggling after move Exchange 2013 CAS keep sending ActiveSync connections to CAS 2010 even mailboxes are now on Exchange 2013.  I re-cycle ActiveSync pool several times eventually it works but sometimes I had keep monitoring it and restarting it for couple of hours after every 20mins before all migrated mailboxes ActiveSync starts to work.

There is no information regarding this behavior in CU7 as well.  Not sure if upgrading would help.  I really do not make major change in middle of mailbox migration since, I do not even know if it would work.

Is anyone from Microsoft reading this thread?

Thanks,


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December 15th, 2014 2:43am

We are done migrating mailboxes, and getting ready to go to CU7.  But man, this issue was a MAJOR pain during migration.  Lot's of user complaints.  In a mobile first world, a delay in getting email on mobile devices is a mega fail I think.  I hope Microsoft fixes the issue for people still migrating, and in the next version of Exchange, there better not be a delay at all.
December 15th, 2014 2:48am

As an FYI -- we are on CU8 and experiencing much the same issue.  If you look at the EAS logs, the proxy for some users remains pointed at the 2010 server for some random period of time.  Recycling the app pools seems to hurry this process along, but not for all users.

Haven't tried bouncing IIS completely -- that's a little intrusive -- and recycling the app pools seems to keep the time frame where iPhones aren't getting mail down to under an hour so we've just been doing that.

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May 8th, 2015 1:28pm

Has anyone tried CU9?  We're encountering the similar issue with CU8.  Before migrating the mailbox from 2010 to 2013, the iPhone could send/receive the emails normally by accessing CAS 2013, but, after migrating, the iPhone started failing in accessing CAS 2013.  To avoid the issue, if CU9 might work, we'd like to try it, but, the KB article (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3049849) doesn't mention the issue as of now...

July 5th, 2015 2:43am

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