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Exchange 2007 Offline Address Book issue

OK, stick with me here... I have read so many web-articles about issues like mine, all with different solutions and fixes, I am thoroughly confused. This is what happened:

a) A few days ago, we realised that new Exchange users were not showing up in Global Address List
b) Outlook (2010) runs in cached mode here, so flipped it out of cached mode, and ALL NEW USERS show up fine
c) Put it back into cached mode.
d) Opened cached GAL, and noticed that if I change the view FROM "Global Address List" TO a specific address list (i.e. "All Users") then the new users DO show up.

So... I appear to have an issue ONLY with the Offline Address Book/Default Global Address List.

All other address lists work fine.

Unfortunately, telling 9000+ users to switch address lists each time they want to see all users just isn't going to cut it... Also when drafting email, typing the name of a new user and hitting CTRL+K does not name match these new missing users (so I assume it looksup against the Default Global Address List).

I have tried the obvious stuff like updating the Offline Address Book via EMC and PowerShell, no joy.

Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this? Or what the next logical troubleshooting step would be?

QuattroCS

in my experience Offline address book and gal on cached mode only update once a day. is your time-frame longer than that?

we had a similar issue, it turned out we had the oab syncing being done thru public folders. and the new way we did it you have to create an IIS virtual folder under Exchange. Then you have to create an OAB, link it to the databases.

i'll look for the actual article that helped me. in the meantime. here are a couple that jumped out at me

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996917.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123595.aspx

also in a computer that you are experiencing the problem do a send and receive > download address book, are you getting any errors?

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suriyaehnop

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QuattroCS

To Create OAB Virtual Folders:

New-OABVirtualDirectory -DomainController <Fqdn> -ExternalUrl <Url> -InternalUrl <Url> -Path <String> -PollInterval <Int32> -RequireSSL <$true | $false> -Server <ServerIdParameter> -WebSiteName <String>

Then can create OAB via Exchange Console and tie to each database. Organization Config > Mailbox > Offline Address Book tab.

The Address Lists need to be converted to Exchange Server 2010 as well. To achieve this open an Exchange Management Shell and enter the following commands:

Set-AddressList “All Users” –IncludedRecipients MailboxUsers

Set-AddressList “All Groups” –IncludedRecipients Mailgroups

Set-AddressList “All Contacts” –IncludedRecipients MailContacts

Set-AddressList “Public Folders” –RecipientFilter {RecipientType –eq “PublicFolder”}

Set-GlobalAddressList "Default Global Address List" -RecipientFilter {(Alias -ne $null -and (ObjectClass -eq 'user' -or ObjectClass -eq 'contact' -or ObjectClass -eq 'msExchSystemMailbox' -or ObjectClass -eq 'msExchDynamicDistributionList' -or ObjectClass -eq 'group' -or ObjectClass -eq 'publicFolder'))}

Check IIS for the OAB virtual folder. It may not get any contents for 480 minutes. To rush this process, cycle the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service. Then check IIS again. Hopefully a GUID will appear under the OAB virtual folder and the content will populate. You have to watch the permissions on this folder or users may not be able to read it.

This is what we did.

Hendrik Wiese

All you need to do is after manually updating the gal from EMC or EMS. Go to services and restart the exchange File Distribution Service. The have user click on send and receive and download full address book.

There is no reason to re-create etc. Should you require more info please just follow my article to manually updated your GAL and let me know if it helps?

Global Address List (Exchange 2003 + 2007 + 2010) + Outlook 2003-2010 common Issues and Solutions

Should the article help with the solution please mark the article as helpful?

Cheers!!!

Ninjade

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@QuattroCS

Our OAB regenerates every 3 hours.
We distribute through web not public folders
None of the Outlook clients receive any errors at all, they just don't show new users in the default global address list (but they do show up in other address lists in the local cached OAB)

Ninjade

ASKER

The issue turned out to be with the oab.xml file on the generating server. Working through the article for CCR servers, that was linked above, put us on the right path, so that is where I will award the points. Thanks to all for your replies.