Free/Busy is a total mess - ancient 5.5 migration to blame?
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
I recently took over the administration of an Exchange 2003 server
(SP2, patched to date). In 2005 this was migrated away from 5.5. I
believe something terrible might have happened during the process, and
I am just now being sent in to investigate an issue. It seems that
nobody's Free/Busy works correctly.
This started with one person in administration complaining that they
were being double-booked constantly. I did some searching and found
that others have had this problem over the past few years, it was just
never investigated to this degree.
I have tried all the easy fixes, and even some tough ones. Such as
"outlook /cleanfreebusy". That had no effect. I also went into the
server and reset the System Folders by creating a new GUID. For that
matter, I found that the Free/Busy was pointing to the old dead server
(which ran 5.5) and so I corrected that too using ADSIedit.msc and
following a technet arctile. Still the same problem.
Using the the MAPI and MBDVU32 tools, I found something that I will
have to include screenshots for, because it makes no sense to me.
When I go in to see what my mapping is for my Free/Busy in Public
Folders - I see *TWO* entries where I should see one. Neither one is
the right place, and so this sort of explains whats broken. See
below ...
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen1.GIF
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen2.GIF
The "O" and "OU" seen in those screenshots do not seem to exist
anywhere.
So does anyone have any ideas or some documentation on how I can fix
this? :-)
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne
![Ed Crowley [MVP]'s profile photo](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/default-user=s40-c)
Ed Crowley [MVP]
"steveballantyne.blogspot.com" <steve.ba...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f77209b0-bada-4f61...@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hello All,
>
> I recently took over the administration of an Exchange 2003 server
> (SP2, patched to date). In 2005 this was migrated away from 5.5. I
> believe something terrible might have happened during the process, and
> I am just now being sent in to investigate an issue. It seems that
> nobody's Free/Busy works correctly.
>
> This started with one person in administration complaining that they
> were being double-booked constantly. I did some searching and found
> that others have had this problem over the past few years, it was just
> never investigated to this degree.
Free/busy doesn't have anything to do with booking. It's just a collection
of bits corresponding to people's availability times.
> I have tried all the easy fixes, and even some tough ones. Such as
> "outlook /cleanfreebusy". That had no effect. I also went into the
> server and reset the System Folders by creating a new GUID. For that
> matter, I found that the Free/Busy was pointing to the old dead server
> (which ran 5.5) and so I corrected that too using ADSIedit.msc and
> following a technet arctile. Still the same problem.
Is there a replica of the free/busy system public folders on the online
public store?
> Using the the MAPI and MBDVU32 tools, I found something that I will
> have to include screenshots for, because it makes no sense to me.
> When I go in to see what my mapping is for my Free/Busy in Public
> Folders - I see *TWO* entries where I should see one. Neither one is
> the right place, and so this sort of explains whats broken. See
> below ...
>
> http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen1.GIF
> http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen2.GIF
>
> The "O" and "OU" seen in those screenshots do not seem to exist
> anywhere.
You might consider deleting the free/busy folders you have and recreate them
using this procedure:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822444
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> You might consider deleting the free/busy folders you have and recreate them
> using this procedure:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822444
I have all ready performed this procedure, and restarted the server
afterward. It presented no change. :-(
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> public store?
I missed that first question ...
If I am reading that right, yes? That is ... I have two entries under
SCHEDULE+BUSY and if I right click on one and look at it's properties,
there is an entry under replication. See screen ....
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen3.gif
Yet - if I just select one on the left, and then click the Replication
tab on the right - nothing is displayed (see screen again, behind
active window).
Does that help? :-)
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
have all ready run through creating a new GUID and the routine of
changing my SiteFolderName to match my DistinguishedName and then
restarting everything. But ... I have not tried renaming the public
folder store, and forcing a mount to create a new blank one.
We run Backup Exec 10D which backs up the IS and the Public Folders.
What if I a) force the mount to create a new Public Folder DB and then
b) restore the Public Folders from a Veritas backup. Would that
work? I know you can't backup one GUID set, and restore to another.
But I would not be changing the GUID's imbetween. Unless that is, a
new GUID gets created when a new Public Folder store is created and
mounted. There is a lot of important data out there that I don't want
to bring harm to, so I am reluctant to do something this drastic. But
this free/busy problem really needs to be corrected.
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne
Ed Crowley [MVP]
--
Ed Crowley MVP
"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
"steveballantyne.blogspot.com" <steve.ba...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:709fd927-842b-4a4a...@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
Ed Crowley [MVP]
--
Ed Crowley MVP
"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
"steveballantyne.blogspot.com" <steve.ba...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:dbabf29a-84a1-421f...@k10g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> I see the picture but since I'm not psychic it's all Greek to me.
I think at this point, I have given up. This problem is so deeply
rooted that I don't think it's going to come out. I built a virtual
PC to try and restore the database to for some testing and
troubleshooting - but it's gotten far too complicated with having
separate domains/forests.
Perhaps this problem will go away if/when we migrate to Exchange 2007.
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
But wait ... here are some new clues.
Using MDBVU32 I have found an interesting permission problem. When
doing the "Get Security" on the affected SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder on
my Exchange Server, I get this error message ...
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen6.gif
That ain't right! If I click "OK" to retain the permissions, I see
this ...
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen7.gif
From what I can see, Anonymous is being denied access to this system
folder. From what I know - that means that NOBODY can access this
folder. Now I just need to *remove* this bad permission, right? Yet
if I remove the Anonymous entry and click "OK" I get an access denied
message. Also, if I do a Get Security and then click Cancel (to reset
the permissions) it simply removes Anonymous from the ACL. But then I
click OK and get access denied.
What do I have to do with this tool to remove this security entry? I
have tried running it as various users. Exchange Admins, Domain
Admins, Enterprise Admins, you name it. I get Access Denied with all
of them. Is it the tool?
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
1) Backup all of the public folders to a PST file.
2) Use the PFDAVAdmin tool to backup the Public Folder permissions.
3) Take the Public Folder store offline, and rename the two DB files.
4) Remount, forcing a new blank Public Folder store.
5) Restore Public Folders from the PST.
6) Restore permissions with PFDAVAdmin.
This will effectively give me back all the "real content" from what
the user see, while completely ripping and removing the invisible (and
well damaged) system files.
... at least, I *think* that's how it would work. Again, correct me
if I am wrong. :-)
-Steve Ballantyne
Massimo
messaggio
news:ef2f61b7-9642-43fe...@a23g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
> 1) Backup all of the public folders to a PST file.
> 2) Use the PFDAVAdmin tool to backup the Public Folder permissions.
> 3) Take the Public Folder store offline, and rename the two DB files.
> 4) Remount, forcing a new blank Public Folder store.
> 5) Restore Public Folders from the PST.
> 6) Restore permissions with PFDAVAdmin.
That should definitely work.
I would also at the same time re-create the System Attendant mailbox, which
is somewhat related to free/busy processing; you don't want anything related
sticking around while you re-create the public folder db, don't you? :-)
Massimo
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> That should definitely work.
Why wouldn't it work, right? It didn't work. I am really getting fed
up with this product.
I tried all the above as planned. I did alter the plan a bit. For
example, I think there may have been some errors with the permissions
on my system folders. So before I re-imported the permissions back
over the restored Public Folder contents, I went into the exported
permission file and removed all system folder entries. Just in case
that would cause problems. Also, as documented in TechNet, I re-ran
the GUID.exe tool and restarted the Exchange Services to reset the
system folders.
The good news I suppose is that public folders cleaned up very
nicely. There have been some folders which appear to have never been
accessible since the Exchange 5.5 migration. I can delete those
suckers now. Also, this is probably the worst way to perform a
defragmentation of your public folder store ... but it's very well
defrag'd now. No production data was lost in this process.
Now the NEW problems ...
Free/Busy doesn't work for anyone now (everyone gets "not available").
My new SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder in System Folders has no
Replication. Following some old documentation, I am told I should
"Send Hierarchy" on my folders to perform something magical. When I
do, I get this error message ...
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen11.gif
If I go into the upper part of the folder tree to examine the Replicas
or add a Replication partner, the SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder does not
*appear* in the Public Folder Instances list. See this screen ...
http://www.oddree.com/steveb/screen10.gif
WHAT A MESS.
Being the sneaky, clever guy that I am - I noticed that the permission
tool PFDAVAdmin can also be used to manage Replication. I navigated
to the SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder, went into the Replication tab and
found "No Replicas.". So I clicked add, found my server as the only
one on the list, added it ... and the tool crashed. It crashes every
time I try it.
Anyone have any ideas on how to fix *this* one?
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
I found this article and stumbled through it ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830501/en-us
I found that as the System Attendant (using the Mdbvu32 tool) I could
*NOT* open the SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder (access denied). This seems
to be the root of my new problem. The question is, how do I reset his
permission to this folder if nobody can access it?
Another question ... why am I having these problems if I completely
blew these folders away? Something seems to have been re-attached, or
reloaded. They came across damaged.
Time to switch to Groupwise, or Domino Server? :-)
Jamestechman
with mfcmapi and you could not access the
SpecialPrivateFolderForFreeBusy folder? Whats the error when you
highlight that folder?
Also in Exchange System Manager; drill down to your public folder
tree; find your schedule +free busy; right click that properties.
Click the permissions tab; click ctrl+right click. This will bring up
NTFS permissions what do you see? Please list; I have anonymous logon
and everyone having specify access.
James Chong (MVP)
MCITP | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+,
Security+, Project+, ITIL
msexchangetips.blogspot.com
On Apr 26, 8:41 pm, "steveballantyne.blogspot.com"
<steve.ballant...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Also, after some more digging around.
>
> I found this article and stumbled through it ...http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830501/en-us
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
But wait - I made some progress.
I performed this procedure *(AGAIN)* ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284200/en-us
And it seemed to have fixed all my strange permission issues. Now,
when I go into System Folders in ESM I have a Sub Folder in SCHEDULE+
FREE/BUSY with a correct name to it. And inside, is a handful of
people whom have been playing with their calendar in the past 10
minutes. Plus, I was able to run outlook /cleanfreebusy for several
profiles and it was successful. It's by all means ... "fixed".
Except for one problem.
I have a couple users with VERY busy schedules, and they still show
with up with a lot of free time. Namely, the user who reported the
problem. She has an hour or two showing busy when you schedule
something with her, but she is booked solid all day for Tuesday. I
have done the /cleanfreebusy for the both of us.
Hoping someone can shed some light on this mystery. I think I am back
where I started before I began breaking everything - I mean FIXING
everything.
-Steve Ballantyne
Ed Crowley [MVP]
time goes away if she schedules another appointment for the same time.
--
Ed Crowley MVP
"There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
"steveballantyne.blogspot.com" <steve.ba...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:187e74f6-e241-4ea8...@t63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> Check her schedule and be sure that she's really busy. See if that open
> time goes away if she schedules another appointment for the same time.
I've tried that. It seems that my new appointments show up without
any problem. Which makes me think that it has something to do with
the way she is creating or accepting them. There is a KB article with
"the 30 ways in which you can screw up Free/Busy time". I don't know
that I have the time, nor the inclination to sit down and go through
all these with her. It wouldn't help anyway. She has no delegates,
so there's a whole set of issues ruled out there. But she does check
e-mail (and accept meetings) from both OWA and her SmartPhone (using
Activesync to OWA). I am reading that this could be a problem, which
makes me wonder why this broken functionality has never been
addressed.
I digress.
Also - I should mention an ill side effect that I should have seen
coming. By removing and recreating the Public Folders I broke all the
Favorites and Other Calendar links that folks had in their mailboxes.
Its easy enough to remove the dead link, and re-add the Calendar as a
Favorite, but this user base doesn't know where these Folders actually
reside. This has resulted in a load of phone calls this morning.
Fun!
Thanks,
-Steve Ballantyne
steveballantyne.blogspot.com
> See if that open
> time goes away if she schedules another appointment for the same time.
Whoah - this is neat. I created a day long appointment between her
and I as a test. That time showed up as Busy when looking at the
scheduling tab for a new appointment. Then, when I hovered over the
appointment in various areas, I could see the conflicting appointments
which were not showing up before. Then ... I deleted the test
appointment and re-checked. Now, back to the thing of nothing showing
up.
I suppose it could be fixed, but only for new appointments that get
created? Yet, I don't think so. It still looks well broken to me.
What could keep all these items from showing up normally? I performed
another outlook /cleanfreebusy for her profile this morning as well -
no change.
-Steve ballantyne