Exchange 2010 activesync questions

There's no automated way of doing this that I found.  We actually wrote a Powershell script to create all new users, which creates the user, mailbox, adds them to any groups, etc.  It also disables Activesync by default for all new users.

There's no way to disable ActiveSync by using the ActiveSync policies (Though you could seriously hinder ActiveSync this way.)

What you want to do is leave the policy as is, then disable ActiveSync on a user-by-user basis.  Here's the Powershell line we use when we create users -

set-qaduser [USERID] -ObjectAttributes @{ msExchOmaAdminWirelessEnable = 7 }

You would need to have the Quest powershell tools for this one.

If you want to disable ActiveSync for new mailboxes without disable it on the mailboxes that already use it you can use cmdlet extension agent

There is a really very handy feature in Exchange 2010 that Microsoft have barely documented and therefore goes, for the most part, unused and forgotten, it is called the cmdlet extension agent.

You can look at the very sparse bit of Microsoft help in the form of the following file C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\ScriptingAgentConfig.xml.SAMPLE, which gives you basic instructions to use as a base, all of which will confirm the instructions I give below.

To just disable Active-Sync, follow these 2 very simple steps, it should be very easy to modify this to include OWA by simply adding -owaenabled $false but I have not personally tested that so I won't add it to the code I post here, which I HAVE tested and verified myself.

1 : Copy and paste the code below into notepad, save the file as ScriptingAgentConfig.xml into the directory mentioned above

2 : run the following Exchange shell command. Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent"

Thats it. Hope this helps.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Configuration version="1.0">
 <Feature Name="MailboxProvisioning" Cmdlets="enable-mailbox">
  <ApiCall Name="OnComplete">
   if($succeeded)
    {
    $user = (Get-User $provisioningHandler.UserSpecifiedParameters["Identity"]).distinguishedName
    Set-CASMailbox $user -ActiveSyncEnabled $false
    }
  </ApiCall>
 </Feature>
 <Feature Name="MailboxProvisioning" Cmdlets="new-mailbox">
  <ApiCall Name="OnComplete">
   if($succeeded)
   {
   $user = (Get-User $provisioningHandler.UserSpecifiedParameters["Name"]).distinguishedName
   Set-CASMailbox $user -ActiveSyncEnabled $false
   }
  </ApiCall>
 </Feature>
</Configuration>

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/729bfaf1-76ac-44e7-9b03-8730e7ff54a7/disable-owa-activesync-as-default-for-new-users?forum=exchange2010

Thanks, liorkr.  I will try the script, but will have to wait until after hours, just in case we run into any issues.  I was wondering which server(s) this needs to be installed on.  I assume on my 2 mailbox servers, but does it also need to be on my CAS/HT servers?

Thanks,
Johnny

To be honest I only used it on server's with all roles installed on one server, but I'm think that using it on the mailbox server should be enough, As for problems I used it many time without any problem hope that will be the case for you also
good luck.

liorkr:

I copied, pasted the script above and saved it as the .xml file as suggested and saved it in the location you listed.  I ran the Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent" and got no errors.  When i created a new user, i received the below warning message.  The account was created but activesync was enabled.  Not sure if i missed something.  Hopefully it is just a minor thing on my part...Any help is greatly appreciated...

Thanks,
Johnny

Summary: 1 item(s). 1 succeeded, 0 failed.
Elapsed time: 00:00:01


Public, John Q.
Completed

Warning:
The cmdlet extension agent with the index 5 has thrown an exception in OnComplete(). The exception is: Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningException: ScriptingAgent: Exception thrown while invoking scriptlet for OnComplete API: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Identity' because it is null.. ---> System.Management.Automation.ParameterBindingValidationException: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Identity' because it is null.
   at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderBase.ValidateNullOrEmptyArgument(CommandParameterInternal parameter, CompiledCommandParameter parameterMetadata, Type argumentType, Object parameterValue, Boolean recurseIntoCollections)
   at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderBase.BindParameter(CommandParameterInternal parameter, CompiledCommandParameter parameterMetadata, ParameterBindingFlags flags)
   at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindParameter(CommandParameterInternal argument, MergedCompiledCommandParameter parameter, ParameterBindingFlags flags)
   at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindParameter(UInt32 parameterSets, CommandParameterInternal argument, MergedCompiledCommandParameter parameter, ParameterBindingFlags flags)
   at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderController.BindPositionalParametersInSet(UInt32 validParameterSets, Dictionary`2 nextPositionalParameters, CommandParameterInternal argument, ParameterBindingFlags flags, ParameterBindingException& bindingException)
   at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderController.BindPositionalParameters(Collection`1 unboundArguments, UInt32 validParameterSets, UInt32 defaultParameterSet, Boolean ignoreArgumentsThatLookLikeParameters, ParameterBindingException& outgoingBindingException)
   at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindCommandLineParametersNoValidation(Collection`1 arguments)
   at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindCommandLineParameters(Collection`1 arguments)
   at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.BindCommandLineParameters(CommandParameterInternal[] parameters)
   at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.Prepare(CommandParameterInternal[] parameters)
   at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessorBase.DoPrepare(CommandParameterInternal[] parameters)
   at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.Start(Boolean incomingStream)
   at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.SynchronousExecuteEnumerate(Object input, Hashtable errorResults, Boolean enumerate)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentHandler.OnComplete(Boolean succeeded, Exception e)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningLayer.OnComplete(Task task, Boolean succeeded, Exception exception)

Exchange Management Shell command completed:
New-Mailbox -Name 'Public, John Q.' -Alias 'JQPublic' -OrganizationalUnit 'kennedy-center.org/Users' -UserPrincipalName 'JQPublic@kennedy-center.org' -SamAccountName 'JQPublic' -FirstName 'John' -Initials 'Q' -LastName 'Public' -Password 'System.Security.SecureString' -ResetPasswordOnNextLogon $false -Database 'DB09'

Elapsed Time: 00:00:01

liorkr,

I finally got it working.  Had to edit the AgentConfig.xml.sample file and then copied it to the mailbox servers.  I still got the warning message.  I then copied the file to the CAS/HT servers and still got the errors.  Lastly, and I don't know why this made it work, I copied the file to my UM servers and then ran the Enable-CmdletExtentionAgent "Scripting Agent" and created a new user and there were no warnings and the user had ActiveSync disabled.

Whew!!! Thanks for your assist on this...