Mailbox creation delay

The key word you mention here is remotely.
Two key things here
1.When you create an account, make sure you select domain controller that sits the site where exchange is located. Remember your DCs must be replicated before exchange uses RUS to update the new AD objects.  in active directory users and computers, right click the dc and click connect to domain controller and connect DC on that location. That way, you avoid  AD replication latency.
2. Set your exchange RUS update interval to run always. If you want a quick update, check the account you just created the mailbox and once you know all the extra three tabs show up in AD users and computers, go to your exchange esm> RUS> right click and say update now.

try this

Also, just to add, the new mailbox doesn't show up, period, until the user logs in. the mailbox is created upon login, hence the welcome message that Outlook sends whenever you create a new outlook account. If you have multiple DCs, you may want to force replication in Sites and Services to hurry the process along. But you definitely have to do what ydirie said first, update and rebuild the RUS.

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thanks for replying...
in my scenario exchange is on the only DC in this domain (with one DC is replication an issue? if yes, is there a way to tell the DC to not bother replicating?). Also RUS is set to always run. I did the " right click the dc and click connect to domain controller and connect DC on that location" as you said, but with only one DC does it have a choice?
As far as the 'update now' option from RUS, that still does not enable account immediately. also this does need to be done remotely or automatically.

I need to add a couple things - this is an online application creating new mail accounts from users who sign up. It is not using outlook. And I did try logging in with outlook to test what Kidego said and I get the same result - password incorrect. And to reiterate - given time the new user is able to log in.

forgot to add that the mailbox IS created - given time - without logging in. The only issue is the time delay.

the user may have a mailbox, but the resource isn't created until a message is sent to the mailbox. It won't show in the ESM until this happens, just a fact of Exchange. your online app may be doinig this for you. Once again, though, this really is a replication issue with your GCs. Outlook contacts the GC to find its mailbox, so until the GC knows about it, no login happens. Is exchange on a member server, a DC, or a DC/GC?

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OK yes, my app is sending an email to new user, I forgot I did this for the purpose you stated, sorry.
Now to the delay... what settings should I look at to get around this?
Exchange is on the only DC in the domain.

The only DC/GC in the domain? After the update/rebuild of the RUS? Wow, there shoudln't be ANY delay, like only the time it takes for the object to be stamped with a proxy address. Less than 300 users, this takes about 2-3 minutes. If you make the user object and mailbox using the ADUC, instead of your application, do you still have a delay logging in with the new account?> I usually test my new accounts with OWA directly on the server. Works immediately. It's worth a try.

creating an account with ADUC usually gives immediate access. when it doesn't I've noticed that the email address isn't defined - sometimes it's not - don't know why that is either.
thanks. any ideas?

that's the RUS, stamping the object with a proxy address (SMTP address). If I want it to happen immediately, I always update the RUS, then rebuild after I create the object. If it's less than 500 on 1 DC/GC, it really doesn't take that long. If no email address is defined, the RUS hasn't stamped it yet.

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OK - sounds like you're pretty knowledgeable. Is there anything I can do with this? when a person signs up for a hotmail account - you don't need to wait 10 minutes to log in and try it out. If I could get this delay down to 2 or 3 minutes as long as it was always 2 or 3 minutes - I could post a notice that they'd be able to log in in 3 minutes and I guess I could live with that if I can't find a way to do this. But I'm having delays of 15 minutes or more (haven't actually timed it). This will make trial users leave the site and may never come back. They might leave with a 2 minute delay also though.
Any ideas on how to 'refresh' this. keep in mind this will be done from a web page - not at the DC where one can update the RUS or something similar. In the beginning I was hoping there was simply a setting that controlled this. The always run option in the RUS doesn't seem to be exactly it though.
thanks

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823153

Basically, the delay is unavoidable, unless you perform the manual rebuild of the RUS after mailbox creation.Now I'm not a programmer, but I'd bet there's a way to write a call to the RUS and force rebuild after the app creates the mailbox for you. The delay you're experiencing though, isn't because of Exchange (15+ minutes), it's the app if I had to guess. A single DC/GC/Exchange server, with the RUS set to Always Run, shouldn't take that long. Is this an app you wrote, or someone else's packaged app?

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I wrote it - but I create the account with an ldif file, this is the only contact with AD other than a user logging in.

If I find anything else that will help, I'll post back to here. I'm bookmarking this question....

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excellent!

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