Our Exchange environment is Exchange Server 2007 SP2. We have a new server that we plan to install a third-party app to provide Exchange monitoring. This server is at Windows Server 2008 R2 Sp1. We have determined that the SP2 install for Exchange Server 2007 will not install, and that SP3 is the only acceptable version. So we would like to know if we can install the EMC only on this server and use the SP3 install for the EMC and connect to our Exchange servers that are running SP2. The entire environment is SP2 so no schema updates have been installed for SP3. Thanks.

The installer will do the schema updates whether you like it or not. Therefore you would be well advised to do the upgrades and then install the management tools. Any reason why you haven't gone to SP3 already? Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.

Can't say for sure it will work for 2007, for 2010 it won't work, EMC will complain of version mismatch from client and server and won't connect. In either case I would upgrade to SP3 especially if the doc says SP3 is the only acceptable version for the app.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

We will be migrating to Exchange 2010 in a couple months so didn't want to go through the work to upgrade Exchange 2007 to SP3. Our monitoring server is off lease and the replacement came in with our new image which is server 2008 R2. We have actually installed the SP3 management tools only on a non-administrative stand-alone server in our test environment. This server is Server 2008 R2 SP1. Our test environment mimics our production environment so all exchange servers are at SP2. I verified that the new schema attributes that are introduced with SP3 are not in the test environment, so the statement about the schema updates will be done automatically is not true. We know this setup works, we were just looking for gotchas like maybe an object would be updated if it was connected to like can happen when you use and Exchange 2010 console and do certain things on an Exchange 2007 server. Or we were looking for the warm and fuzzy feeling of a statement or support matrix that shows that inter-operability between the two is fine. If anyone has any information like this it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, As per my knowledge, there is no official announcement that states Exchange 2007 SP3 management tools work well with Exchange 2007 SP2. But I find another article ‘Management Tool Interoperability’, which states management tool interoperability of various functions between Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010. Hope this helps. ThanksPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.