Add people to GAL but not create mailbox?

[geomic]

Hello,

sorry to ask beginners question.

Is is possible to add a group of people to Exchnage 2003 GAL without creating accounts for them on Exchange?

I have a request to add entire list of 50 people from different domain and different company to the GAL and I have them on the Excel spreadsheet. Is that possible and how?
Thanks

george

 

[DanMIS]

Add them as contacts, instead of the usual users. Your GAL will show them, and their outside mail will receive the mail.

You can import them using CSVDE (command line tool) but if you're not comfortable with that you can add them manually.

Dan

CCA Citrix 4.0
MCSA: Messaging 2003

 

[geomic]

Now, it would help me to import addresses on a single user computer. What about importing it for everyone, like in the GAL? Does it mean that I have to do it one user at the time?

 

[DanMIS]

No, you'd be adding them to Active Directory. The GAL is part of Exchange, and available to everyone via Outlook.

CCA Citrix 4.0
MCSA: Messaging 2003

 

[geomic]

Is there a third party utility, more user friendly, to accomplish the same?

I might need to import few hunderds contacts.

Microsoft has a scary disclaimer for usage at the bottom of their CSVDE page (

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327620):

'If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, or both Windows and Exchange. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.

 

[RichardHuang]

There are some other script to create users, like this one:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/may06/hey0516.mspx

But they are not so handy as csvde