Server being strange / Wrong Address Book in Outlook Client

[slartie]

Hello,

My company does a lot of mail hosting, particularly on Microsoft Exchange.

We host multiple domains on the same exchange server, which is fine, but suddenly the server has started acting a little strange.

1: The address book in any given Outlook client may show up with an address book belonging to another customer. This is not practical to say the least.

2: System Manager -> Recipients -> All Address Lists - is empty even though at least 8 address lists should be there. When I try to recreate the address list, I get an LDAP error, telling me that it already exists.

Whether or not these two problems are linked, I cannot say.

I am configuring a mirror copy of the Exchange server on another VmWare GSX server, to test whether or not a reinstall / maintenance install can help solve the problem. I somehow doubt it will make a difference.

Also - I haven't installed the latest Exchange Service Pack. Many speak against installing it as it may break the Exchange server. Can anyone here tell me whether or not it is safe to install the Exchange Service Pack?

I hope someone can help.


With kind regards,

Lars

 

[PScottC]

System Manager -> Recipients -> All Address Lists

Do you mean "All [blue]Global[/blue] Address Lists?

It sounds like you were using permissions to hide the GAL's from groups who weren't supposed to see them? Have you checked ADSIEdit to ensure that the objects still exist in AD?

PSC

Governments and corporations need people like you and me. We are samurai. The keyboard cowboys. And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo! --Mr. The Plague, from the movie "Hackers

 

[xmsre]

Could be permissions, could also be your query base DN. The howto is:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822940

Compare your setup to that.

 

[slartie]

Hi both,

The Global address lists show up just fine in the system manager. It's the regular address lists I can't see. The Offline address lists are there as well.

I can't RDP to the Exchange server from my current location, but from my trials yesterday, everything indicates that the address lists are there, because the LDAP server gives me an error when I try to re-create the address lists I can't see. It basically tells me it can't create the address list, because it's there already.

The msExchQueryBaseDN has been set on all users. Just for the h*ll of it, I re-set all the msExchQueryBaseDN's, but to no avail.

I have rechecked all permissions and they are identical across the board. The few users that have experienced getting a different address book so far, have identical permissions as everybody else. I have also reset the permissions just in case, but with the same result.

I just created a new user for one of the companies. She gets the right address book in the Outlook client as well as OWA. If only the problem was more constant ...

Might there be some sort of caching inside the Outlook Client that will make it remember an address book regardless of what the server wants to send out?

The reason I ask, is this: The laptop I use at one location has the wrong Global Address List. When I get on my desktop computer back at the office, it's the right Global Address List I get.

This is a bit weird, but I hope you guys have some input.


With kind regards,

Lars