Out Of Office (OOF) Not working

[1sae]

I have a win2k3x64 server SP2 / Exchange 2007 fully updated, and cannot get oof to work.

First off let me say that it did work temporarily, but one day just stopped in during one persons absence. The user goes in and creates their message with no errors (via OWA or Outlook 07). But on a test message, I get no response. On login to OWA, I get the message that OOF is on and do I want to turn it off?

Remote Domains OOF properties are set to allow external & 2003, but I've tired all of them.

Verified it with Shell:

Name DomainName AllowedOOFType
---- ---------- --------------
Default * ExternalLegacy

I don't see any errors in the event viewer, and I've searched all over this site and google with no ideas on what the problem is.

 

[markdmac]

You say Exchange is fully updated, just want to verify SP3 is installed?

Does this problem exist for all users or just one?

What happens if you run the following against the user mailbox?

Set-Mailbox -id <mailbox identity> -ExternalOOFOptions External

Do you get a message then?

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[1sae]

Well I was doing ms update (didn't know that it didn't show SP's). I did go ahead and install SP3, but no change.

As far as the shell command, I had already tried that (and retried after SP3 install), but that didn't work either.

I wish there was something in the error log so I knew what to troubleshoot.

 

[markdmac]

And it happens to everyone or just one user?

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[1sae]

Oh yah, it happens to everyone. I even created a new user and it doesn't work there either.

 

[markdmac]

What is the output you get when you run

Get-OutlookWebServices?

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[1sae]

I get an error message saying it's not a recognized cmdlet.

Did you mean Test-OutlookWebServices?

I get:

Id : 1003
Type : Information
Message : About to test AutoDiscover with the e-mail address xxx@xxx.net.

Id : 1007
Type : Information
Message : Testing server dc2.guard.corp with the published name

https://mail.xxx.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx

&

https://mail.xxx.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx.

Id : 1019
Type : Information
Message : Found a valid AutoDiscover service connection point. The AutoDiscover URL on this object is

https://mail.xxx.net/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

Id : 1013
Type : Error
Message : When contacting

https://mail.xxx.net/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

received the error The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.

Id : 1006
Type : Error
Message : The Autodiscover service could not be contacted.

 

[markdmac]

Sorry, yes I meant Test-OutlookWebServices

Sounds like your permissions are not set right on the Autodiscover virtual directory in IIS.

Verify that the Authentication is set to both Basic and Windows Authentication. Under SSL make sure that the boxes are not checked and that it is set to Ignore Client Certificates.



I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[1sae]

I checked the permissions, and they are as you said. When I browse to that page it does authenticate and the page says 600 Invalid Request. I checked testexchangeconnectivity.com as well and it passes those autodiscover tests. I'd point out that we use a self signed certificate if that matters.

 

[markdmac]

The self signed cert should not matter for this part, however with a cert only costing $29 from goDaddy I think it is silly not to invest in a valid 3rd party cert and get rid of the errors that the self signed certs do introduce.


Sorry I will need to think about this some more to see what else you can check.

One thing I would like you to confirm is that your Outlook clients are 2007 and not 2003 right? The two use different mechanisms for Free/Busy and OOF.


I hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript

Work SMARTER not HARDER. The Spider's Parlor's Admin Script Pack is a collection of Administrative scripts designed to make IT Administration easier! Save time, get more work done, get the Admin Script Pack.

 

[1sae]

Thanks, I appreciate the help!
Oh and the cert would cost a lot more since I'd need a ucc for for multiple domain names, not to mention the autodiscover issue.

 

[1sae]

Oh ya they are all 2007.

 

[theravager]

Does ooo working to internal accounts, internal and external are different settings. External ooo has to be turned on which you can do globally or per mailbox.

Outlook 2007 and up as well as owa will show the internal and external messages by default unless you specifically turn it off regardless of the exchange mailbox setting.

 

[1sae]

No, it does not work from internal or external accounts. I've tried all ExternalOOFOptions (including internal) without any of them working.

FYI, when I look at the message tracking log it shows this:

2010-08-31T19:02:37.324Z,192.168.0.3,DC2,,DC2,"MDB:0754ecd6-a74f-44b9-973f-089be36ad410, Mailbox:b797917f-5024-4b78-b671-6fdbbd0fef4a, Event:248351, MessageClass:IPM.Note.Rules.OofTemplate.Microsoft, CreationTime:2010-08-31T19:02:36.683Z, ClientType:Transport",,STOREDRIVER,SUBMIT,,<8FD55C04967B50488134F78C2CE7F837D24A6A3146@dc2.guard.corp>,,,,,,,Out of Office: test,<>,,

2010-08-31T19:02:38.120Z,192.168.0.3,DC2,,DC2,"MDB:0754ecd6-a74f-44b9-973f-089be36ad410, Mailbox:b797917f-5024-4b78-b671-6fdbbd0fef4a, Event:248354, MessageClass:IPM.Note.Rules.ExternalOofTemplate.Microsoft, CreationTime:2010-08-31T19:02:36.995Z, ClientType:Transport",,STOREDRIVER,SUBMIT,,<8FD55C04967B50488134F78C2CE7F837D24A6A3147@dc2.guard.corp>,,,,,,,Out of Office: test,<>,,

Not sure if I'm reading it right, but is it saying that it's sending it out?

 

[theravager]

Is the msexchangemailboxassistants service running on your mailbox server?

 

[1sae]

Yes, the mailbox assistants service is running.

PS. Somehow internal started working even though the the settings were set to external only.

 

[1sae]

Sorry, another update... the internal oof only work 1 time after setting. After that, it doesn't respond again. Also, it never works from external accounts.

 

[theravager]

Pretty sure you can only set it to internal only, none or internal+external.

If its now working internally then everything is ok, its just a matter of setting external if required. If it works internally then all the core stuff is working fine.

I was going to suggest removing the cert via iis and then enabling it manually via powershell or even generating a new one but that obviously not the issue now. Probibly the next step would of been to rebuild the iis site.

 

[1sae]

Actually the way I understood it there is 4 different ways to set it:
1. Allow none
2. Allow external out-of-office messages only
3. Allow external out-of-office, and out-of-office messages set by Outlook 2003 or earlier clients.
4. Allow internal out-of-office messages, and out-of-office messages set by outlook 2003 or earlier clients.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997463(EXCHG.80).aspx

Also, it only works on the first message sent after that it doesn't work anymore.

OOF is set by IIS? What folder?

 

[1sae]

Turns out it's my Smart host, they are somehow blocking it. I hate AT&T!