It is important to set up an Offline Address Book (OAB) Client Access Server (CAS) Pool before you start to provision mailboxes for organizations to sign up with Web-based OAB distribution.

In the following procedures, you will define a 'Pool' of available Client Access Servers which support Web-based OAB distribution, and then you will add EXCASOAB01 into this pool. This will ensure that customer's Web-based OAB's will be available for download from this server.

Tasks

  1. Define a Default CAS Pool for OAB Provisioning
  2. Add EXCASOAB01 into the Default OAB CAS Pool
  3. Install the OAB Provisioning Update Tool
  4. Configure Update Frequency for Web-based OAB's

Define a Default CAS Pool for OAB Provisioning

Procedure W08-DWHE.96: To define a default CAS pool for OAB provisioning

  1. Log on to MPS01 as a domain administrator.

  2. Edit <installdir>:\Program Files\Microsoft Hosting\Provisioning\Samples\Managed Email 2007\CreateOABCASPool.xml.

  3. Edit the <preferredDomainController> element to match the name of the preferred Active Directory domain controller; for example:

      Copy Code 
    <preferredDomainController>ad01.fabrikam.com</preferredDomainController>

  4. Set the value of the <oabCASPool> tag to CasPool001.

  5. Set the value of the <isDefault> tag to true.

  6. Set the value of the <poolTag> tag to DefaultCASPool.

  7. Save the edited file.

  8. At a command prompt, change to the <installdir>:\Program Files\Microsoft Hosting\Provisioning\Samples\Managed Email 2007 directory and run the following command:

      Copy Code 
    provtest CreateOABCASPool.xml /x2
    Note:
    /x2 formats the XML results for maximum readability.

Add EXCASOAB01 into the Default OAB CAS Pool

Procedure W08-DWHE.97: To add EXCASOAB01 into the default OAB CAS pool

  1. Log on to MPS01 as a domain administrator.

  2. Edit <installdir>:\Program Files\Microsoft Hosting\Provisioning\Samples\Managed Email 2007\AddOABCAS.xml.

  3. Edit the <preferredDomainController> element to match the name of the preferred Active Directory domain controller; for example:

      Copy Code 
    <preferredDomainController>ad01.fabrikam.com</preferredDomainController>

  4. Set the value of the <oabCASPool> tag to CasPool001.

  5. Set the value of the <cas> tag to EXCASOAB01.

  6. Save the edited file.

  7. At a command prompt, change to the <installdir>:\Program Files\Microsoft Hosting\Provisioning\Samples\Managed Email 2007 directory and run the following command:

      Copy Code 
    provtest AddOABCAS.xml /x2
    Note:
    /x2 formats the XML results for maximum readability.
Note:
If you run into an error message indicating that EXCASOAB01 is not configured with a distribution point, use the Exchange Management Console to change the internal URL of the OAB distribution to a non-existing URL (for example, http://excas01.fabrikam.com/OAB), and make a copy of the original URL. Then, repeat the above procedure to add EXCASOAB01 into the default OAB CAS pool. After the addition is complete, change the internal URL of the OAB distribution back to the original.

Install the OAB Provisioning Update Tool

When a customer organization is enabled for Web-based OAB distribution, the OAB will be provisioned to be downloadable from all CAS servers that belong to the CAS Pool.

The UpdateOABProvision.exe tool is used to update all existing Offline Address Books (OAB's) when the list of Web-based OAB CAS servers that exist in an OAB CAS Pool has changed.

For example, if a new server is added to the OAB CAS Pool, the orchestration logic will need to update all OAB's associated with that pool so that they have an accurate list of distribution points, including the new server. Similarly, if an OAB CAS server is removed from the pool, all OAB's associated with that pool should be updated so that the removed server is no longer set as a distribution point.

The command-line syntax for running the UpdateOABProvision.exe tool is:

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UpdateOABProvision.EXE -OABCASPool -Errorlog -MaxError

Procedure W08-DWHE.98: To install the UpdateOABProvision.exe tool

  1. Log on to MPS01 as a domain administrator.

  2. Open Explorer and navigate to C:\MSIShare.

  3. Run UpdateOABProvision.msi.

  4. Accept all defaults in the installation.

Configure Update Frequency for Web-based OAB's

The default polling interval (known as the FDS polling interval) which a CAS server uses to check for and copy updated OAB's from the OAB Generation Server to the OAB Web Distribution point is 480 minutes (8 hours) by default. Service providers who are concerned about how long it will take provisioning changes to appear in Offline Address Books may want to modify this interval. However, they will need to take into consideration the various processes involved in OAB generation and updates, and evaluate the potential impact on server & network performance of running more frequent updates.

  • The Hosted E-mail OAB Update batch application is responsible for triggering generation of new OAB's and updating existing OAB's based on changes in the provisioning system. These OAB's are created on the OAB Generation Server. By default, the Hosted E-mail OAB Update batch application is scheduled to run once per day at 6:00AM.
  • The FDS (File Distribution Service) on the CAS server will copy OAB files from the OAB Generation Server to the OAB virtual directory in IIS. By default this occurs every 8 hours. This timer starts when the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service is started on the CAS server in question.

Those service providers who want to modify the frequency of OAB updates should evaluate the above factors before rescheduling either the Hosted E-mail OAB Update batch application or the FDS Interval.

Procedure W08-DWHE.99: To configure update frequency for Web-based OAB's

  1. On the OAB Web Distribution server (EXCASOAB01), open the Exchange Management Shell.

  2. In order to modify the FDS Interval, use the Set-OABVirtualDirectory cmdlet to specify the -pollinterval in minutes. For example, to set the FDS interval to 4 hours (240 minutes), run the following command:

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    Get-OabVirtualDirectory | Set-OabVirtualDirectory -pollinterval 240