RE: Where does OWA client get its GAL information from? GC?

Hi Winfred,

first of all - thanks for the very explicit and clear information. You've
provided one of the best answers received through newsgroups without multiple
round trips.

The incident is resolved. Whether the root cause had to do with OAB
generation fix, RUS or not, cannot be determined now.

I would still like to clarify one item which is AD related. As you mention,
the GC is used to pull the information. In our case, we are a single domain
Forest (aside from an empty placeholder domain), and all our DC's are setup
as GC's. I confirmed the DSaccess for DC and GC is on the same server. What
I do not understand is, when I looked in ADUC on the DC (same as GC), the
entry was there, however it was not when down through OWA. Is there is
latency involved in updating the GC area on the same DC that could have
caused this? Or is there some RUS stamping (for DL's - I manually created an
SMTP address, but the X.500 address comes from RUS) that must be done before
it is copied over to the GC area?

Ed

""Winfred Weng [MSFT]"" wrote:

> Hi Ed,
>
> Thank you for posting here!
>
> Based on my knowledge, essentially OWA clients get the Global Address List
> (GAL) information from GC server. Let me explain in more detail:
>
> OWA clients (i.e. browsers) do not have the ability to send LDAP or NSPI
> requests. Instead any user operation involving an address lookup (such as
> Check Name or a user search) will generate a HTTP request to the OWA server
> running on the Exchange machine. This HTTP request will contain details of
> the lookup the user is attempting. OWA functionality is handled by an ISAPI
> application called DAVEX.DLL which runs under IIS. DAVEX will take this
> request and forward it to DSAccess via the DSAccess API. DSAccess will then
> execute the request against a GC from its working GC list and send the
> response back to DAVEX which will pass it to the client via HTTP.
>
> I understand that when you create a new distribution group, it does not
> show in GAL on OWA clients. This issue may occur in several situations.
> First of all we need to narrow down if it is a server side or client side
> issue. Please try the following suggestions for troubleshooting:
>
> Step 1:
> ----------------
> Please double the problematic distribution group and make sure they are not
> hidden from GAL.
>
> (1) Start Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) on your Exchange
> Server.
> (2) Right click a problematic distribution group and click Properties.
> (3) On the Exchange Advanced tab, ensure the "Hide group from Exchange
> address lists" check box is not selected.
> (4) On E-mail Addresses tab, make sure that "Automatically update e-mail
> addresses based on recipient policy" is checked.
>
> Step 2:
> ----------------
> If we make sure that the setting is correct, I suggest that we directly
> check GAL on Exchange Server. To do this:
>
> (1) In Exchange System Manager (ESM), expand Recipients -> All Global
> Address Lists.
> (2) Right click Default Global Address Lists -> Properties.
> (3) Click Preview -> Find Now.
>
> Can you see the distribution group here? This allows us to know if the GAL
> on the server has been updated. If not, make sure that the Search filter
> looks like the following one:
>
> (& (mailnickname=*) (|
> (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(homeMDB=*))(!(msExchHomeServer
> Name=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHome
> ServerName=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=contact))(objectCategor
> y=group)(objectCategory=publicFolder) ))
>
> (4) If the filter displays incorrectly, please refer to the method in the
> Microsoft KB article below to troubleshoot this issue:
>
> 315531 Newly Created Mailbox Is Not Displayed in the Global Address List
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=315531
>
> Step 3:
> ----------------
> If the steps above did not help, this issue is likely to be related to
> Recipient Update Services (RUS):
>
> (1) Open Exchange System Manager (ESM).
> (2) Expand Recipients -> Recipient Update Services
> (3) Check the Properties of each entry of RUS in the right pane, and make
> sure that the Update interval is configured to Always run.
> (4) Click OK.
> (5) Right-click each entry of RUS in the right pane, and then click Rebuild.
> (6) Then right click on each item one by one, and click Update Now.
>
> Step 4:
> ----------------
> If we make sure the settings above are all configured correctly, I also
> suggest that we test this issue from different OWA clients and check if it
> is related to a specific client.
>
> I hope the information above is helpful.
>
> If anything in my post is unclear, feel free to let me know.
>
> Have a good day!
>
> Thanks & regards,
>
> Winfred Weng
> Microsoft Online Partner Support
>
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
>
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>
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.

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