Lately I have seen a lot of good articles about what the new and improved features of Exchange 2010 SP1 are and also a lot about how to configure these features. This post is written while Exchange 2010 SP1 is still in Beta so the information provided may be a little off from the released version later this year. I wanted to collect the posts I find interesting here so I have them all in one place when I will deploy SP1 to my customers.

Here is the main new features in Exchange 2010 SP1 and how to configure them

• Installation of prerequisites made part of SP1 setup process
  • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/installing-exchange-2010-pre-requisites.html
• DAG improvements
  • DAC mode support for 2 node DAG’s over two datacenters and in single AD sites
    • http://www.shudnow.net/2010/06/30/exchange-2010-database-activation-coordination-dac/
  • Ability to set static IP and Alternate Witness Server in EMC
    • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/more-database-availability-group-dag.html
  • Continuous Replication – Block Mode. Each update to the log file is updated on the copy databases
    • http://blogs.technet.com/b/scottschnoll/archive/2010/04/10/new-high-availability-features-in-exchange-2010-sp1.aspx
• Archiving improvements
  • Archives can be stored in different databases, DAG’s and servers
    • http://www.shudnow.net/2010/04/07/exchange-2010-sp1-personal-archive-mailboxes-on-separate-databases/
  • Create retention policy tags for automating archiving
    • http://www.shudnow.net/2010/04/08/exchange-2010-sp1-retention-policies/
  • Outlook 2007 can access archive mailboxes
• Import and Export of mailboxes can be done directly to pst files without the need for Outlook
  • http://www.nitingupta.in/blogs/index.php/2010/06/16/how-to-import-pst-files-into-personal-archive-mailbox-in-exchange-2010-sp1-beta/
• E-Discovery improvements
  • View preview of search before actually performing the search
  • De-Duplication of emails in the search result sent to the DiscoveryMailbox
  • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/mailbox-search-improvements-in-exchange.html
• Support for iCal Calendar Sharing
  • Enables the administrator to publish calendars publicly
  • http://www.stevieg.org/2010/06/calendar-sharing-improvements-coming-in-exchange-2010-sp1/
• Administrator Audit Logging improvements
  • Review Audit Log Entries in the Shell
  • Manually Write Entries to the Audit Log
  • Review Audit Reports in ECP
  • http://www.mikepfeiffer.net/2010/07/whats-new-in-administrator-audit-logging-in-exchange-2010-sp1-beta/
• OWA improvements
  • Ability to choose themes. Branding of OWA can be down with only one theme for the entire organization
    • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/themes-are-back-in-exchange-2010-sp1.html
  • Delivery reports improvements
    • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/delivery-reports-in-exchange-2010-sp1.html
• ECP, more configuration possibilities available
  • Journar rules
    • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/transport-rules-in-exchange-2010-sp1.html
  • Transport rules
  • MailTips
  • Manage Litigation Hold
    • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/litigation-hold-exposed-in-exchange.html
• Public Folder permissions added to EMC
  • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/public-folder-permissions-added-to.htm

 Some minor changes in how to configure some features

• Change to how static ports are assigned on a CAS server
  • http://blogs.msexchange.org/walther/2010/06/09/exchange-2010-sp1-change-to-how-static-ports-are-assigned-on-a-cas-server/
• Reset virtual directories in EMC
  • http://www.howexchangeworks.com/2010/06/reset-virtual-directory-in-exchange.html
• Change to how to configure OWA integration with OCS 2007 R2
  • http://msunified.net/2010/06/22/exchange-2010-rtm-and-sp1-owa-integration-with-ocs-2007-r2/

You can find a longer list of new features here: http://exchangepedia.com/2010/06/released-exchange-sever-2010-sp1-beta.html
TechEd 2010 Interviews with folks from the Exchange Product group about SP1: http://blogs.msexchange.org/walther/2010/06/16/teched-2010-interviews-with-folks-from-the-exchange-product-group/