How To Configure a Free/Busy Synchronization in an Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 Environment (4241022)

Step 1.

Perform these Steps at the Publishing Site

1. On the Forest to publish Free/Busy information Open the Collaboration Services Console
2. Right Click On the "Collaboration Services" node and select Properties
3. Navigate to "Syncronization | Active Directory | Namespaces"
4. Record all namespaces listed in the SMTP NameSpaces List
5. The Best Practice would be to create two publications. The first to publish AD Objects, and second to publish Free/Busy information for the same AD Objects.

Step 2.

Perform these Steps at the Subscribing Site

1. Ensure that there is a valid public folder store with a replica of the Schedule+Free/Busy Public folder
2. Ensure that this Public folder store is listed as the default public folder store in the properties of the Mailbox database hosting the user mailboxes
3. Open the Exchange Management Shell and issue the following Cmdlet for each of the namespaces recorded in Step 1-4
   • Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace -ForestName -AccessMethod PublicFolder
   
    
4. Open The Collaboration Services Console and subscribe the the AD Publication Created in Step 1-5 (Wait for the subscription to complete it's initial Sync)
5. In the Collaboration Services Console subscribe to the Free/Busy Subscription Created in Step 1-5
6. Once the Free/Busy Subscription has completed it's initial syncronization allow a short amount of time and verify that the Free/Busy information for the stub objects is now available.

NOTE!!: To prevent Free/Busy lookup errors when using Legacy public Folder based Free/Busy, Microsoft requires that the "Require SSL" option is disabled on the "Public" virtual directory of the default website on each Exchange Mailbox/Public Folder Server. Both OWA and The Availabiltiy Service connect to the public folders using standard HTTP requests to obtain free/busy information, and do not use SSL. For Additional Information please see the links below.

1. • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd421845(v=exchg.80).aspx
   • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg263433(v=exchg.80).aspx
   • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232134(v=exchg.141).aspx

NOTE!!: When running Exchange 2007 or 2010 the Microsoft Availability Service does require both ASP.NET and .NET Framework to be installed. These can both be installed by using the Add Features option in Windows 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2. If you have any question regarding installing ASP.NET or .NET Framework on your Windows Server please consult with Microsoft.