Good morning,

I attempted to upgrade one of our Exchange 2013 CU7 servers to CU8 yesterday, and the process did not complete successfully. My Application Log is full of the following errors (one for each of the IIS virtual directories - OAB, Autodiscover, EWS, etc). I can't rollback the update, nor uninstall Exchange ('a previously started update is not complete').

I don't want to move ahead with Exchange on an unhealthy server, so I've removed it from the DAG, but I would like to repair the Exchange install (or, completely uninstall/reinstall) - I'm just not sure how to get past this error. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Greg

Log Name:      Application
Source:        ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0
Date:          4/23/2015 6:09:44 AM
Event ID:      1310
Task Category: Web Event
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Exchange04.xxx.com
Description:
Event code: 3008
Event message: A configuration error has occurred.
Event time: 4/23/2015 6:09:44 AM
Event time (UTC): 4/23/2015 10:09:44 AM
Event ID: 1b1425db17d1498baca09041125d30d9
Event sequence: 1
Event occurrence: 1
Event detail code: 0
 
Application information:
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT/ecp-3476-130742573842652008
    Trust level: Full
    Application Virtual Path: /ecp
    Application Path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\FrontEnd\HttpProxy\ecp\
    Machine name: EXCHANGE04
 
Process information:
    Process ID: 6756
    Process name: w3wp.exe
    Account name: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
 
Exception information:
    Exception type: ConfigurationErrorsException
    Exception message: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Strings, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\FrontEnd\HttpProxy\ecp\web.config line 44)
   at System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective)
   at System.Web.Configuration.AssemblyInfo.get_AssemblyInternal()
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath, Boolean& isRefAssemblyLoaded)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart()
   at System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException)

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Strings, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean forIntrospection)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection)
   at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString)
   at System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective)

 
 
Request information:
    Request URL: https://ZZZZ:443/ecp/healthcheck.htm
    Request path: /ecp/healthcheck.htm
    User host address: ZZZZ
    User: 
    Is authenticated: False
    Authentication Type: 
    Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
 
Thread information:
    Thread ID: 315
    Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
    Is impersonating: False
    Stack trace:    at System.Web.Configuration.CompilationSection.LoadAssemblyHelper(String assemblyName, Boolean starDirective)
   at System.Web.Configuration.AssemblyInfo.get_AssemblyInternal()
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetReferencedAssemblies(CompilationSection compConfig)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CallPreStartInitMethods(String preStartInitListPath, Boolean& isRefAssemblyLoaded)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.ExecutePreAppStart()
   at System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.Initialize(ApplicationManager appManager, IApplicationHost appHost, IConfigMapPathFactory configMapPathFactory, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters, PolicyLevel policyLevel, Exception appDomainCreationException)
 
 

I ended up altering the 11 web.config files and replacing %ExchangeInstallPath% with the hard-coded path. That let me run Exchange enough to redo and complete the CU8 install.

• Edited by Greg Beifuss 16 hours 23 minutes ago
• Marked as answer by Greg Beifuss 16 hours 23 minutes ago