Symptoms
Meeting invitations/updates sent to conference rooms that have been moved from Exchange 2003 with ERM to Exchange 2007 with resource calendar assistant are ignored and/or deleted without being processed.
The Problem
ERM has a bug that causes mailbox attribute 0x8217 to be set to 1 (organizer) when it places meetings on the calendar.
In OutlookSpy you would see this:
A Microsoft representative was able to confirm via testing that when 0x8217 is altered prior to the resource mailbox being moved from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 the E2k7 Resource Calendar Assistant is unable to act on the meeting invitation/update and treats it as a non-meeting message (deletes it).
The fix is to set 0x8217 to 3 (invitee), with potentially 1000s of meetings with this issue it would be very time consuming to do it manually, so we wrote one to fix it.
Not surprisingly we put it into the Sumatra Utilities.
The latest version has the following additional flags:
/ERM:fix
This can change all calendar items with x8217=1 (from ERM) and set the value to 3.
If the /ERM switch is used without the :fix then the tool will run and produce counts.
If the ":fix" qualifier is used, then the appointments will be updated.
Can also be used with /e (show all) and /s (summary)
So for example, looking at the resource "LCD":
su /ERM /u:lcd /e
Gives the following REPORT in outfile.txt
User:lcd
Resource Mtg Organizer Mtg Name MtgStart MtgEnd Meeting Type
Validated lcd lcd - test test test - - Appointment
1 Resources processed.
1 Total meetings read.
1 meetings with ERM flag=1
0 meetings skipped (didn't have flag=1)
ReadFrom:
WroteTo: outfile.txt
su /ERM:fix /u:lcd /e
Will fix and record which ERM-managed meetings are repaired.
10 comments:
Has anyone tested this with a resource that is using the autoaccept agent from microsoft? What if someone has placed a meeting on the resource using direct booking?
This far we have had no reports that either Microsoft Auto-Accept Agent or Direct Booking display the same problem (so you're safe).
I noticed two things:
1.) That Resource Manager will no longer be available after December 31, 2008.
http://www.simplerwebb.com/getdoc/1aa04829-614d-4a4b-80bf-6d32b8b694e5/FAQ.aspx
2.) A bunch of their accounts are contacting us asking about fixing this darned problem. Sorry, folks, if you've upgraded to Exchange 2007 already you're on your own. We only released code to fix it on Exchange 2003 because some friends of ours needed it.
which version of SU has this feature?
jdc, this was four and a half years ago.
i know. we only recently encountered this issue as we are in the tail-end of a 2003 to 2010 migration. i downloaded the version you have posted (2.3.25.55) with hopes that that would be the correct one that included this code - but i get the error "no command issued" when i run the /ERM switch. I'm guessing this isn't the correct version. I realize we're probably hoping against hope, but had to exhaust all possibilities. thanks.
Unless CDO has radically changed it actually (*should*) work for you -- feel free to email us the syntax you're using. You probably need to pass a resource SMTP as well as the /ERM flag.
update: the version of the Utilities for Exchange 2003 that we allow you to download does NOT include the ERM support. We've had two sites contact us and we've dug it out -- but we are not distributing it.
Zyg, is there any chance that the ERM fix piece is available somewhere? We have roughly 550 resources still in 2003 that are managed by ERM. This is the only/best option we've found.
If you are expecting us to try to support this for free: no. If you have some reasonable budget for this or a really good story about how you're helping save lives in a war zone or keeping choice legal in the US you can contact us with your details. zyg AT sumatra DOTCOM
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