Users not seeing Free/Busy information in environments where Microsoft Exchange Server InterOrg R (4288623)

Microsoft Exchange Server InterOrg Replication utility can be used to synchronize Free/Busy data between two different Exchange organizations. If then Quest Migration Manager is installed, users are migrated, and Free/Busy synchronization job is implemented, the target users may not see Free/Busy information in Outlook even though log files are showing successful synchronization results.

Microsoft Exchange Server InterOrg Replication utility relies on Contacts/Custom Recipients representing users in another organization's GAL (Global Address List). When replicating Free/Busy information between two Exchange organizations, Free/Busy messages are created for the corresponding Contact/Custom Recipient and then getting replicated with the matching message from the other side. Both messages have the same "SourceKey" value that serves as an unique identifier on Exchange server.

After Quest Migration Manager for Exchange is used, target Contacts are normally merged with the migrated users in order to avoid duplication of e-mail addresses. Also there is no need for those Contacts anymore since every source user will be represented by matched target user in the target organization GAL (Global Address List).

However the target environment still contains old Free/Busy messages left for those contacts. LEDN (Legacy Exchange Distinguished Name) values for Contacts and users they were merged into will be different. Because of that, the old Free/Busy data will no longer represent source users on the target. The Quest Migration Manager software matches free/busy messages based on their SourceKey, a unique value within Exchange Information Store. Since these free/busy messages already exist in the target and are matched via the same SourceKeys, the tool will continue to sync these messages even though they correspond to the deleted contact's LEDN (Legacy Exchange DN).

In order to resolve this issue:

RESOLUTION 1
1. Target Free/Busy messages corresponding to the old Contacts need to be deleted.
2. Source Free/Busy messages need to be deleted and recreated again. This will subsequently assign new unique SourceKeys and Free/Busy agent will be able to create new messages on the target corresponding to the matching migrated users. Procedure can be automated with the help of script or some other utilities that would go directly to Schedule + Free/Busy public folder.

a) Deleting multiple F/B messages at once. The following tools can be used:

MFCMAPI (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291794/en-us)Log into user's mailbox and access NON_IPM_SUBTREE under Public Folders. Select Schedule + Free Busy and the corresponding F/B folder named by DN of Administrative Group.

FBScrubber.exe (not a public tool and needs to be requested from Microsoft).

b) Creating new F/B messages.

Updatefb.exe from Microsoft will help to quickly regenerate F/B messages (they need to be deleted first!):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294282/en-us

PLEASE NOTE:
1. Deleting Free/Busy data on the target for the corresponding Contacts without recreating Free/Busy messages on the source will cause tombstone problem and SYNC_E_OBJECT_DELETED errors will appear in the log files.
2. Running Outlook with /cleanfreebusy switch is only going to re-create local Free/Busy message within the mailbox itself, leaving the one in Schedule + F/B public folder unchanged. Rather F/B message for the corresponding user's LEDN (Legacy Exchange DN) needs to be found under Schedule + F/B folder and physically deleted.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311823

"... run Outlook 2002 with the/cleanfreebusyswitch because Outlook deletes the local free and busy message of the user in the information store, and then regenerates the local free and busy message. ... "

RESOLUTION 2
The target F/B messages corresponding to Contacts can be modified to reflect correct LEDN (Legacy Exchange DN) values in their subject line using some scripted solutions.This task is beyond the scope of current article. More information about additional Quest Software services can be obtained from your Account Manager.

RESOLUTION 3
Once DirSync merges Contacts with the newly created target users it is possible to script swapping LEDN (Legacy Exchange DN) values of the users with the X500 addresses added from the LEDNs of "consumed" Contacts. As a result users are going to have the same LEDNs as the merged Contacts used to have. This is only possible for the newly created users as LEDN is later used in many Exchange related scenarios and changing this attribute on production users can result in very severe consequences for the user messaging environment.This task is beyond the scope of current article. More information about additional Quest Software services can be obtained from your Account Manager.

Applies to all versions of Migration Manager for Exchange.

There are Microsoft Utilities that can assist when performing free/busy cleanup and updating tasks described above such as FBscrubber and UpdateFB. These can be obtained from Microsoft.