valleeo
asked on
To which server does a user default for his public folders?
This is a simple question with an obvious answer in theory that doesn't seem to be correct in practice.
I have two identication W2K SP4 - E2K SP3 servers, Server A and Server B. They are on their own domain, only two meters apart. Replication is working between the two servers. I can go into Exchange System Manager (ESM) and right-click on the public folder tree and select between the A and B public folder trees, and they are identical.
I have a user on A whose mailbox is on A's private store. In theory his public folders should be on A and indeed, he is able to look at his public folders, even when the public store on B is dismounted.
I have a user on B whose mailbox is on B's private store - I have checked this by looking at the mailboxes in B's private store, in ESM. In theory his public folders should be on B and he is able to look at his public folders. However, when I take the public store on A offline, he loses access to his public folders.
What I thought would happen is that if I took a pair of wire cutters and cut the network link between A and B, then of course replication would stop, but user A would have access to his public folders on A, and user B would have access to his public folders on B. This does not appear to be the case? If there a way to know where a user's public folders are homed?
I have two identication W2K SP4 - E2K SP3 servers, Server A and Server B. They are on their own domain, only two meters apart. Replication is working between the two servers. I can go into Exchange System Manager (ESM) and right-click on the public folder tree and select between the A and B public folder trees, and they are identical.
I have a user on A whose mailbox is on A's private store. In theory his public folders should be on A and indeed, he is able to look at his public folders, even when the public store on B is dismounted.
I have a user on B whose mailbox is on B's private store - I have checked this by looking at the mailboxes in B's private store, in ESM. In theory his public folders should be on B and he is able to look at his public folders. However, when I take the public store on A offline, he loses access to his public folders.
What I thought would happen is that if I took a pair of wire cutters and cut the network link between A and B, then of course replication would stop, but user A would have access to his public folders on A, and user B would have access to his public folders on B. This does not appear to be the case? If there a way to know where a user's public folders are homed?
ASKER
Thanks for the response. To answer your question, user B gets the blank, grey outlook page that displays "unable to access public folders" when the public folders node is selected in the folders pane of outlook.
I haven't checked the event viewer, that is a very good question. I will check later today.
Your comment has lots of information but it doesn't address the main question: why does a user whose mailbox is on B access have difficulty reading public folders when the public store on A is down?
Replication is 100% perfect between the two servers, but in theory this is irrelevant since it doesn't matter what is on server B. If there is nothing on B, the user should see nothing. In fact replication is complicating things; since the public stores are identical on both machines, I don't which one I'm looking at until I dismount one of them!
I haven't checked the event viewer, that is a very good question. I will check later today.
Your comment has lots of information but it doesn't address the main question: why does a user whose mailbox is on B access have difficulty reading public folders when the public store on A is down?
Replication is 100% perfect between the two servers, but in theory this is irrelevant since it doesn't matter what is on server B. If there is nothing on B, the user should see nothing. In fact replication is complicating things; since the public stores are identical on both machines, I don't which one I'm looking at until I dismount one of them!
ASKER
I did check the event viewer - no errors at all.
Is there a way to find out where a user's public folders are homed?
Is there a way to find out where a user's public folders are homed?
A mailbox store has a “default” public store, which is the store the client will contact for any information about folders, but not necessarily for any content. This is also the server where new folders are created by the client.
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ASKER
OK guys, I found the problem, but I'm not impressed with your answers. ikm7176 hinted that there is a default public store for each mailbox store, but didn't say how to get to it. The blog that he posted did have a reference to it, you have to right-click the mail store and select "properties". In fact, what happens is that when you build a mail server, server A for instance, then it creates a mail store, a public folders store, and then assigns the public store as the default one for those users using that mail store. The same thing happened when I created server B: mail store B, public store B assigned to the mail store B.
I don't know how it happen that the mail store B somehow ended up with public folders A as the default. At one time, when I was trying to fix replication problems, I deleted public store B and recreated it, possible at that time the server B went out and found public store A and grabbed on to it without telling me. Then, when I recreated the B public store, the A pubic store was not replaced as the default to mail store B.
I don't care how it happened, all I wanted to know was how to change it. So I'm awarding the points to ikm7176.
Thanks
Olivier
I don't know how it happen that the mail store B somehow ended up with public folders A as the default. At one time, when I was trying to fix replication problems, I deleted public store B and recreated it, possible at that time the server B went out and found public store A and grabbed on to it without telling me. Then, when I recreated the B public store, the A pubic store was not replaced as the default to mail store B.
I don't care how it happened, all I wanted to know was how to change it. So I'm awarding the points to ikm7176.
Thanks
Olivier
What errors occur in event viewer ?
What is the Replication Status for the servers ?
Exchange associates every user mailbox with a home public information store. In many smaller installations, the public information store is on the same server as the user's mailbox. In larger installations, dedicated public folder servers simplify administration and minimize replication traffic.
Messaging API (MAPI) clients such as Outlook establish remote procedure call (RPC) sessions to the home public information store at logon. The clients fetch information about the public folder hierarchy and use this information to build the public folder tree users see. Users might see folders in the hierarchy that they cannot access because either Exchange has not replicated the folder to a server they can access, or an ACL prohibits them from accessing the folder.
Replication flows smoothly as long as messages flow between Exchange sites. Most problems with replicated folders stem from problems with user access. Most user access problems arise from one or more of the following conditions: the user's site does not contain a replica of the folder, you haven't defined affinity, affinity can't work because necessary servers lie in untrusted NT domains, or the user doesn't have permission to access a folder
You can monitor replication events on any server that holds a replica, but replication problems are most evident on a folder's home server. Select a folder that has a replica on the site you are having difficulty replicating to. Set the folder's replication interval to Always. Add content to the folder: Create a new item or drag a small file into the folder. If replication is working, replication events will appear in the Application Event Log on the server that you added content to and on every other server that maintains a replica. Check the Application Event Log on the server that holds the problematic replica for events indicating that the server received the content change