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AnswerOAB Co-existence - Exchange 2000 to 2007 transition

  • Friday, October 16, 2009 9:32 AMMSEBlogger Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi there,

    Am in the process of an Exchange 2000 SCC to 2007 CCR transition.

    Clients are all Outlook 2007 and mailboxes are currently homed on Exchange 2000.

    Public Folders are only really used for Free / Busy and OAB at present.  We will be archiving the remaining user public folders with Symantec Enterprise Vault.

    A Public Folder store HAS been setup on the CCR, although no public folder replication has been established, due to the long period of co-existence.  We do not wish to migrate any public folder data if at all possible.

    The OAB generation server is still the Exchange 2000 Single Copy Cluster.

    If we move test mailboxes across to Exchange 2007 now, Outlook 2007 can successfully download the OAB whilst connected to the LAN via TCP and Exchange 2000 Public Folder structure.  If we connect 2007 clients via Outlook Anywhere and HTTPS, autodiscover is used, providing the OAB URL as 'Public Folders', but the OAB download fails, since there is no replica available on the 2007 mailbox server.  It doesn't seem to traverse across to the 2000 OAB Public Folder.  I expect that this is by design, but I'm sure this will be answered shortly.

    If we modify the OAB generation server to be the Exchange 2007 CCR cluster at this point (having not migrated any mailboxes yet and having no public folder replicas in 2007), I presume that OAB downloads will then fail for the entire user base?  I am aware that we can enable 'Web-based' distribution once the OAB generation server has been changed to Exchange 2007, but this will only be of any use to users homed in Exchange 2007, which they will not be at this time, so this won't be of help.

    So, THE QUESTION IS:

    This seems like a 'Catch-22' situation, whereby clients still homed on Exchange 2000 (whether Outlook 2007 or not) will absolutely need to use Public Folders to be able to download the OAB, because they cannot obtain the Web distribution settings from Autodiscover or CAS server whilst still homed on Exchange 2000.  BUT... we do not ultimately want to replicate (for CCR vs PF Replication incompatibility reasons) or host Public Folders (for getting rid of PF's completely once transitioned) in Exchange 2007 CCR.

    So, how possibly can we co-exist with Exchange 2000 whilst moving test batches of users across to 2007, and still maintain OAB download capability for both Exchange 2000 and 2007 users?

    I have referenced the following when investigating the possibilities for this:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123996.aspx
    http://forums.msexchange.org/m_1800424474/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#1800482492
    http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/30946150/public-folders-oab-outl.aspx
    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/11/15/431502.aspx


    A definitive answer or process for maintaining complete co-existence working for this would be very much appreciated.

    Many thanks in advance for your assistance.

    Kind Regards,

    MSEBlogger.


     

Answers

  • Thursday, October 29, 2009 2:35 PMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
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    Hi,

     

    Regarding question 1, in my previous step 3, please ensure the PublicFolderDatabase (SiteFolderServer) property point to old Exchange 2000 Public Folder store. According to following article:

     

    Offline Address List Generation Overview

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996113(EXCHG.65).aspx

     

    siteFolderServer   This attribute is a single-valued distinguished name attribute that stores the distinguished name of the public folder store where you want the offline address book to exist. The public folder store should be on the same server as offLineABServer to avoid network traffic.

     

    Therefore, if the SiteFolderServer is point to Exchange 2000 Public Folder store, the generated OAB files will be placed in Exchange 2000 Public Folder store instead of the Exchange 2007 folder. Nevertheless, as the article also indicated, it is not a recommended method due to network traffic.

     

    Regarding question 2, I suggest you dismount Public Folder store on CCR to ensure the Public Folder store on Exchange 2007 CCR is not used when generate OAB files. You can simply ignore the suggestion.

     

    Regarding question 3, I would like to explain after performing steps in my previous thread, the generated OAB files are published to Exchange 2000 Public folder store for Public Folder distribution and Client Access Server OAB folder for Web Distribution. By using the method, the OAB files will not be generated in the Exchange 2007 Public Folder and the external Outlook Anywhere users (Outlook 2007) are able to download OAB through Web Distribution.

     

    Nevertheless, as I described in question 1, it is not a recommended method. Therefore, I talked with my colleagues regarding the problem. I think you can consider another workaround:

     

    1. Create a new OAB on Exchange 2007 and enable Web Distribution only

    2. Configure the Mailbox Store on the Exchange 2007 server to associated with the new OAB in order to have users on this mailbox store to download the new OAB files.

     

    By using the method, we can avoid the network traffic issue and the external Outlook 2007 Anywhere client is able to download OAB files through Web Distribution. Nevertheless, for internal users whose mailbox are on Exchange 2007, if they use Outlook 2003, they are not able to download OAB files. It is because the new OAB files do not have Public Folder distribution enabled.

     

    Thanks,

    Mike

     

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  • Monday, October 19, 2009 7:32 AMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,

     

    Regarding your problem:

     

    "If we connect 2007 clients via Outlook Anywhere and HTTPS, autodiscover is used, providing the OAB URL as 'Public Folders', but the OAB download fails, since there is no replica available on the 2007 mailbox server."

     

    I would like to explain that Outlook 2007 should be able to download OAB files when connecting to Exchange Server through RPC over HTTPs.

     

    At this time, would you please let me know?

     

    1. Whether the mailbox database on Exchange 2007 server is configured to associated with the Public Folder database on Exchange 2007 server? If yes, please change it to Exchange 2000 Public Folder database to check whether the issue persists.

    2. Whether the Exchange 2000 users are able to connect to mailbox through RPC over HTTP? If yes, whether do they connect to Exchange 2000 cluster through the Client Access Server either?

    3. I suggest you check following registry key on the CAS server:

     
    a. Open REGEDIT on the Client Access Server where the Rpcproxy service is installed.
    b. Navigate to the following key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Rpc\rpcproxy

    c. In the right-hand pane, select and open the ValidPorts key.

    d. Please ensure the NetBIOS and FQDN names of Exchange 2000 back-end servers can be located in the ValidPorts key with the required ports. For example:

    Mail:6001-6002;mail:6004;mail.contoso.com:6001-6002;mail.contoso.com:6004

    e. Next, you need to add the following regkey to prevent the Exchange Host Service from overwriting the values you just entered:

    1) Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeServiceHost\RpcHttpConfigurator

    2) In the right-hand pane, open the PeriodicPollingMinutes key and replace the value with a ‘0’.

     

    For more information regarding the ValidPorts and PeriodicPollingMinutes key, you can refer to following article:

     

    How does Outlook Anywhere work (and not work)?

    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/06/20/449053.aspx

     

    PS: Would you please let me know whether the Free/Busy issue which you submitted in another thread still persists?


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

    Mike Shen

    TechNet Subscriber Support in forum

    If you have any feedback on our support, please  contact tngfb@microsoft.com 

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  • Monday, October 19, 2009 11:11 AMMSEBlogger Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi Mike,

    In answer to your initial queries:

    1/  Yes, Mailbox Stores in E2K7 are configured to use the E2K7 Public Folder database as per default.  I will need to change this and check if OAB download still fails.  I will get back to you on this.
    2/  No, Exchange 2000 users cannot connect using RPC / HTTPS.  Exchange 2007 mailbox users can connect via RPC / HTTPS with no problem.  We have configured Exchange 2007 to allow this.
    3/ Again, I will need to check these settings and get back to you.  I would imagine that the NetBIOS and FQDN of the E2K back-end mailbox cluster will not be present here, but the RPC / HTTPS configuration is not so much the issue, more the OAB download.

    I am due to be working on this again tomorrow, so I will check these first thing and post back.  Do you have any initial thoughts around this?


    PS:  The issue still does persist unfortunately, I will post back in the relevant thread.


    Best Regards.

     
  • Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:30 AMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,

     

    Please understand the Outlook needs to connect to Public Folder to download OAB. By default, the Outlook will first contact the Public Folder Store associated with the mailbox store to check which Public Folder store contains replication of OAB folder. If the local Public Folder store contains the replication of OAB folder, the Exchange will connect to the store to download OAB files. If the local Public Folder store does not contain OAB folder replica, it will redirect Outlook to Public Folder store which contains the OAB folder replica. In your case, Outlook needs to connect to Public Folder store on the Exchange 2000 cluster.

     

    Therefore, if the external Outlook client is not able to connect to Exchange 2000 cluster through RPC over HTTPs, it will not be able to download OAB files. Currently, I think we firstly need to ensure the external Outlook able to connect to Exchange 2000 cluster through RPC over HTTPs.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Mike Shen

    TechNet Subscriber Support in forum

    If you have any feedback on our support, please  contact tngfb @ microsoft.com 

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     
  • Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:59 PMMSEBlogger Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi Mike,

    RPC / HTTPS for an Exchange 2000 mailbox simply does not work.  We hadn't anticipated or required this to work in the project, so this is fine.  RPC / HTTPS for an Exchange 2007 mailbox works completely, apart from the issue described originally.  Let me summarise the tests today.

    I have connected a 'Domain-Joined' workstation wtih Outlook 2007 installed and an Exchange 2007 mailbox user profile created.  All works as expected via a LAN-based TCP / IP connection.

    If I then close outlook, configure the settings for RPC / HTTPS on fast network in the Mail Properties for Outlook and re-launch outlook, I can seemingly still connect fine and download the OAB.  When I 'Ctrl-right click' on the Outlook icon and select 'Connection Status', I can see that all Directory and Mail connnection types are using HTTPS to the Exchange 2007 mailbox cluster, but the Public Folders connection type has failed back to TCP/IP to the Exchange 2000 cluster.  A full address book download still works at this point, but this is because the TCP/IP connection is still being utilised.

    So next, I connected the client to the outside world network only (internet) to see what results we get.  A sync error then occurs for OAB download, because the connection to the Public Folders is not available.

    So, as per original post, via a TCP / IP LAN-based connection from an Exchange 2007 mailbox, connection to OAB (via Public Folders) is well.  But, via the RPC / HTTPS internet-based connection, the sync error with OAB occurs.

    So the major decision points still are:

    1/ For the most efficient resolution, would replicating the public folders over to 2007 (not desired as we want to get rid of these as part of the migration) solve this issue?  (I am presuming yes, since the HTTPS connection is fine to the E2K7 mailbox cluster, although we don't really want to have to do this.)

    2/ Which then leads us back to the question:  When do we move the OAB distribution server to 2K7 CCR cluster...  before the transition / pilot (users existing in both E2K and E2K7), during or after (as part of the decommision process)?  If we 'Move All Replicas' from E2K to E2K7, then presumably we can move the OAB Distribution server whenever.  But if we don't want to migrate public folders, when / how can this be achieved for both E2K and E2K7 mailboxes to be able to access the OAB?

    Any help with this would be very much appreciated as always.

    Thanks for your time.

    MSEBlogger.

     
  • Friday, October 23, 2009 3:07 AMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,
     

    For your issue, we have following methods currently:

     

    1. Configure the CAS server and Exchange 2000 cluster to allow the external client is able to connect to the Exchange 2000 cluster store through RPC over HTTPs

     

    Comments: I think it is the most convenient method. Nevertheless, from your description, you do not plan to configure ROH for the Exchange 2000 cluster

     

    2. Replicate the OAB folder to Exchange 2007 Public Folder store

     

    Comments: According to your description, you would not like to replicate the OAB folder to Exchange 2007 Public Folder store. In addition, according to “Planning for Cluster Continuous Replication” article:

     

    CCR and public folder replication are two very different forms of replication built into Exchange. Due to interoperability limitations between continuous replication and public folder replication, if more than one Mailbox server in the Exchange organization has a public folder database, public folder replication is enabled and public folder databases should not be hosted in CCR environments.

     

    Therefore, for your scenario, Microsoft do not recommend host the Public Folder database in the CCR environment. If you still would like to do this, please refer to following suggestion:

     

    If you are migrating public folder data into a CCR environment, you can use public folder replication to move the contents of a public folder database from a stand-alone Mailbox server or a clustered mailbox server in an SCC to a clustered mailbox server in a CCR environment. After you create the public folder database in a CCR environment, the additional public folder databases should only be present until your public folder data has fully replicated to the CCR environment. When replication has completed successfully, all public folder databases outside of the CCR environment should be removed, and you should not host any other public folder databases in the Exchange organization.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Mike Shen

    TechNet Subscriber Support in forum

    If you have any feedback on our support, please  contact tngfb@microsoft.com 

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  • Friday, October 23, 2009 6:04 AMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,

    After some local test on my lab, I think that you may consider following workaround:

    1. Move the offline address book to be generated on new server. You can move offline address book by using EMC or use Move-Offlineaddressbook command
    2. Enable Web Distribution for the Offline address book. Please ensure Public Folder distribution is still enabled.
    3. Run Get-offlineaddressbook and check whether the PublicFolderDatabase property point to the Public Folder database on the Exchange 2000 server
    4. Please configure the external OAB URL by using set-oabvirtualdirectory command
    5. Run Update-offlineaddressbook coomand to generate OAB files (You can temporarily dismount the Public Folder database on Exchange 2007 server to check whether any error is encountered)
    6. If OAB can be generated with no problem, please restart the Exchange File Distribution service on the Client Access server to copy the OAB files to the Client Access Server

     

    Note: There is known product issue regarding OAB on CCR if the CCR is deployed on server 2008 which has been fixed in Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 Rollup 5.

     

    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/11/18/450112.aspx

     

    7. If the OAB files can be copied to Exchange Client Access server with no problem, please run Outlook 2007 from external network to check whether it can download OAB files successfully.

     

    Note: Please ensure the Outlook 2007 use external URL which you configured in previous command set-oabvirtualdirectory.

     

    I would like to explain that the workaround should be able to have external Outlook 2007 to download OAB files through https instead of RPC over HTTPs. Nevertheless, for previous version Outlook, as they are not able to download OAB through Web Distribution and they are not able to connect to Exchange 2000 server through RPC over HTTPs, I am afraid that they are not able to download OAB from external network.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Mike Shen

    TechNet Subscriber Support in forum

    If you have any feedback on our support, please  contact tngfb @ microsoft.com 

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     
  • Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:47 PMMSEBlogger Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi Mike,

    Thank you for your detailed testing instructions.  Just a couple of queries on the above solution:

    1/ Bearing in mind that the majority of users will still be homed on E2K, the above suggests moving the OAB generation server to 2007 CCR 'without replicating public folders' to 2007.  Will this mean that the OAB will get newly created in the 2007 CCR Public Folder database and users of Exchange 2000 mailboxes will get a referral to this public folder for OAB download?  Was this tested in your local lab scenario?

    2/ I'm not sure why we would want to temporarily dismount the Public Folder database in CCR, and surely this would prevent OAB downloads from Exchange 2000 mailbox users if we did?  If you could confirm step 5 and why this is necessary, it would be very much appreciated.


    3/ My summary of this potential solution is that we could change the OAB Generation Server to 2007 CCR, retain OAB distribution to a Public Folder on the Exchange 2007 CCR PF Database (which could be utilised by the Exchange 2000 mailbox users) and add 'Web Distribution' for the OAB for use by mailboxes homed on the Exchange 2007 CCR.


    I look forward to hearing back from you on these.  Many thanks for your time and consideration.


    Kind Regards,


    MSEBlogger.
     
  • Wednesday, October 28, 2009 2:11 PMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,

    Thanks for your response.

    I need to perform some further research and update to you.

    Thanks,
    Mike
     
  • Thursday, October 29, 2009 2:35 PMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
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    Hi,

     

    Regarding question 1, in my previous step 3, please ensure the PublicFolderDatabase (SiteFolderServer) property point to old Exchange 2000 Public Folder store. According to following article:

     

    Offline Address List Generation Overview

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996113(EXCHG.65).aspx

     

    siteFolderServer   This attribute is a single-valued distinguished name attribute that stores the distinguished name of the public folder store where you want the offline address book to exist. The public folder store should be on the same server as offLineABServer to avoid network traffic.

     

    Therefore, if the SiteFolderServer is point to Exchange 2000 Public Folder store, the generated OAB files will be placed in Exchange 2000 Public Folder store instead of the Exchange 2007 folder. Nevertheless, as the article also indicated, it is not a recommended method due to network traffic.

     

    Regarding question 2, I suggest you dismount Public Folder store on CCR to ensure the Public Folder store on Exchange 2007 CCR is not used when generate OAB files. You can simply ignore the suggestion.

     

    Regarding question 3, I would like to explain after performing steps in my previous thread, the generated OAB files are published to Exchange 2000 Public folder store for Public Folder distribution and Client Access Server OAB folder for Web Distribution. By using the method, the OAB files will not be generated in the Exchange 2007 Public Folder and the external Outlook Anywhere users (Outlook 2007) are able to download OAB through Web Distribution.

     

    Nevertheless, as I described in question 1, it is not a recommended method. Therefore, I talked with my colleagues regarding the problem. I think you can consider another workaround:

     

    1. Create a new OAB on Exchange 2007 and enable Web Distribution only

    2. Configure the Mailbox Store on the Exchange 2007 server to associated with the new OAB in order to have users on this mailbox store to download the new OAB files.

     

    By using the method, we can avoid the network traffic issue and the external Outlook 2007 Anywhere client is able to download OAB files through Web Distribution. Nevertheless, for internal users whose mailbox are on Exchange 2007, if they use Outlook 2003, they are not able to download OAB files. It is because the new OAB files do not have Public Folder distribution enabled.

     

    Thanks,

    Mike

     
  • Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:25 AMMike ShenMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi,

    Any update regarding the issue?

    Thanks,
    Mike