Coexistence Manager for Notes 3.8.1 - FBC Scenarios Guide

Step 3: Configure the Exchange side

Configure domains, permissions and other server parameters and attributes so they will be able to work with CMN’s Free/Busy Connector.

If you are configuring FBC for a hybrid Office 365: Remember that the FBC for a hybrid O365 is configured only between Notes/Domino and the local on-premises Exchange, while synchronization of the local Exchange to O365 is configured apart from CMN (and documented separately by Microsoft). Configuration of CMN’s FBC for a hybrid O365 is therefore the same as configuring for a local on-premises Exchange—as described here.

CMN’s Free/Busy Connector can facilitate the flow of free/busy information among multiple subdomains supported by both the Exchange and Domino servers. To support this scenario, run the Add-AvailabilityAddress­Space cmdlet on the Exchange server or Office 365 for each Domino SMTP domain supported.

Configuring on-premises Exchange 2003 or 2007 to use Exchange public folders

Older versions of Exchange (e.g., Exchange 2000 and 2003) stored free/busy information in system public folders. Beginning with Exchange 2007, F/B information is stored by default in object mailboxes, although Exchange 2007 also permits storing F/B information in public folders, so this later version of Exchange can be backward-compatible with Outlook 2003 clients.

CMN's Free/Busy Connector (FBC) was originally designed to function in a direct, immediate query-and-response model. CMN FBC subcomponents facilitate processes by which an end-user client in system "A" asks system "B" for the free/busy info for one of its users, and system "B" replies with the requested info. This model was designed to facilitate F/B coexistence between Domino and Outlook 2007 or later, but the same approach does not work for Outlook version 2003, because that version can only obtain F/B information from external systems and provide its own F/B info to external systems if the information is relayed through Exchange public folders.

CMN supports a public-folders option too, and it requires an alternate configuration with some different subcomponents. This section describes the two options to implement CMN's Free/Busy Connector to support Outlook 2003 clients, with either Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 servers.

The F/B Connector’s public-folders model for Outlook 2003 clients is not a direct query-and-response system when Outlook users seek Notes users’ F/B info. Exchange public folders instead function like a holding tank that must be regularly refreshed with updated data, so at any given moment the public folders F/B info for Notes users will lag some interval (typically several minutes) behind the true current state of Notes users’ F/B status. The polling interval is configurable, so the latency period can be minimized by a shorter interval, although an increased polling frequency places greater demands on system resources.

The public-folders FBC model does, however, support a direct query-response process in the other direction—when Notes users seek Outlook users’ F/B info. The Exchange public folders serve as a repository for F/B info for both systems’ users, but the information for Outlook users is very nearly current, almost continuously refreshed (internally, by Exchange), whereas the F/B info for Notes users must be explicitly obtained and relayed by CMN's F/B Connector, at less frequent intervals.

The F/B Connector process overview in the FBC section of the CMN User Guide lists the five FBC subcomponents used in typical configurations (in environments without Outlook 2003 clients). With public folders, however, the configuration must include one or both of these additional F/B Connector subcomponents:

CMN’s Free/Busy Connector offers two options to configure F/B coexistence with Exchange public folders to support Outlook 2003 clients:

Note that Option 1 is required if you need to support Outlook 2003 clients connected to an Exchange 2003 server. For an Exchange 2007 server, however, either option will work. These procedures include pertinent notes for configuring either option of the F/B Connector with Exchange public folders.

Option 1 uses CMN’s Public Folder Reader Service to relay Notes F/B queries from CMN’s QCalCon task (on the Domino server) to Exchange public folders, and relay the F/B info back to QCalCon.

Outlook users’ queries for Domino F/B info are routed directly to Exchange public folders (internally within the Exchange environment), and the public folders transmit the F/B info directly to the Outlook users. (No CMN components are used for that query-reply portion of the F/B functionality.) But CMN’s Public Folder Writer Service is used to get Notes users’ current F/B info from Domino and, at regular intervals, refresh the corresponding F/B info held in the Exchange public folders. The Public Folder Writer Service also communicates with Active Directory to get and maintain a current list of Domino contacts in the Exchange system.

Option 2 is one option for an Exchange 2007 environment (Option 1 also works with Exchange 2007), but is not an option with Exchange 2003. These procedures include pertinent notes for configuring either option of the F/B Connector with Exchange public folders.

This configuration uses CMN’s Exchange Free/Busy Connector Service to relay Notes F/B queries from CMN’s QCalCon task on the Domino server to Microsoft’s Autodiscover and EWS on the Exchange server, and relay the F/B info back from MS Autodiscover and EWS to QCalCon. (Microsoft’s Autodiscover and EWS in turn relay Notes F/B queries to Exchange public folders, and receive the public folders’ F/B info.)

Just as in Option 1, CMN’s Public Folder Writer Service is used to get Notes users’ current F/B info from Domino and, at regular intervals, refresh the corresponding F/B info held in the Exchange public folders. The Public Folder Writer Service also communicates with Active Directory to get and maintain a current list of Domino contacts in the Exchange system. And Outlook users’ queries for Domino F/B info are routed directly to Exchange public folders (internally within the Exchange environment), while the public folders transmit the F/B info directly to the Outlook users—again the same as in Option 1.

Step 4: Configure CMN's FBC Web Server

To configure CMN’s FBC Web Server:

4-1: Physically install the CMN FBC components

All CMN FBC components are installed by the AutoRun utility that accompanies the CMN product kit.

The AutoRun installer automatically checks the environment to verify CMN prerequisites, but you can bypass the prerequisites check by running the installer from the command line and appending ignoreprerequisites=1 to the command before executing.

For a typical configuration (with only Outlook 2007 and higher users in Exchange):

For Exchange queries for Domino F/B information, the simplest approach is to dedicate a separate CMN FBC server for each Domino server, with all the CMN servers feeding into the single Exchange server. It is technically possible, but somewhat more complicated, to configure a single instance of the Domino FBC Service, EWS and Autodiscover to process free/busy traffic to and from multiple Domino servers—an approach that requires more elaborate Domino configurations.

You must install CMN’s Public Folder Writer Service on the FBC Web Server, and maybe also the Public Folder Reader Service, which are available only via the Custom Setup option of CMN’s F/B Connector Setup utility. These scenarios are explained in step 3 of this procedure. In these scenarios the CMN Domino FBC Service is still required, but CMN’s Autodiscover and EWS web services are unnecessary and need not be installed.