Turning off reminders during a calendar migration to Microsoft Exchange / Office 365

We've been doing a bunch of Oracle Calendar Server to Exchange migrations lately and this has the benefit of giving me lots of detail oriented stuff to write about, and the downside that I'm getting tired of writing about it.

So what happens when you do not want to get reminders for meetings as you migrate into Exchange?

This is an Outlook configuration issue.  That is to say, this is normal Exchange functionality.  Meeting requests in Exchange create a tentatively accepted calendar item that carries with it the “default reminder time” set in Calendar Options.  Note that this applies to meeting invitations, not to appointments (calendar events with no attendees) which will all go in with no reminders set in an OCS to Exchange migration (because Oracle Calendar Server strips them off in the ICS export).

The PowerShell syntax, to TURN OFF for all MBX USERS (before migration)

get-mailbox -resultsize unlimited  -filter {isResource -eq $false} | Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -RemindersEnabled:$false 
-DefaultReminderTime:0  -ReminderSoundEnabled:$false


to TURN ON (after migration)
get-mailbox -resultsize unlimited  -filter {isResource -eq $false} | Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -RemindersEnabled:$true 

-DefaultReminderTime:00:15:00 -ReminderSoundEnabled:$true

This can be set in PowerShell for one user as in this screenshot:

Finally, note that if a user is logged in or connected (OWA/Outlook) setting these preferences will not kick in until the user logs out and logs back in.  So, if you are testing it, you will see the settings change BUT you won’t see an reminders turn off until you log out/in.

Microsoft SQL going after Oracle? Don't forget the calendars in Oracle Calendar Server or Beehive!

Microsoft waves the 'free licenses' flag to try to grab Oracle database users?

Sure.

I'm not certain that the arrogance of Microsoft is preferable to the arrogance of Oracle (what's the difference between Larry Ellison and god?  God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison.).  But free is a hard argument.

Just remember we can migrate your enterprise calendars (Key word:  Enterprise-- if you have 100 Oracle calendars, just use client-side methods.  If you have 500+ users and mission-critical meetings, check us out).

Special case: When there is no user GUID in your OCS Exports

The ICS export for Oracle Calendar Server is inconsistent with exporting GUIDS:  As in this edited real world example:

Why is this relevant to anything that you care about?

Because interspersed with these very valid users you wish to migrate are also decommissioned users you do not.  Our process will send invitations to them during migration.

For valid (whether mapped or not) users in Exchange this is not an issue and they will be dealt with properly.

For users who have been decommissioned and do not have addresses on Exchange, this will result in NDRs (Non-delivery reports) being send back to the meeting organizer for these decommissioned users.  We have no way of knowing who they are (since they look like other perfectly valid users) and some sites keep these users in attendee lists as a matter of historical record.

The consequences to you:

1.       Our clean-up process REMOVES any NDRs before end users see them post-migration.  We find users and admins value this ease of use and clean migration

2.       The decommissioned user will still be in the meeting attendees list.  So: a.) All attendees will still see that user in the attendee list and b.) In future meeting updates post-migration the organizer will again get NDRs and it will be up to them to remove the user at that time, or maintain them in the guest list as they so choose.

#Microsoft #SQLServer is coming to Linux?

SQL Server is coming to Linux?

Sounds logical, given that we've already been informed parts of the Office 365 backend are Linux. See our earlier post: Microsoft and Linux: Sign of the End Times?

I'm glad to see this happening, also because it potentially makes it so much easier for one of those migrations where we read legacy calendar server databases directly and migrate them into Exchange -- you know:  

Oracle Beehive to Exchange

or Apple iCalendar to Exchange

Easy way of finding Oracle Calendar meetings without organizers post-migration to Exchange

You're migrating Oracle Calendar Server to Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 and you want to deal with the situation of Meetings without Organizers.  See our earlier post.

Given that we can run an analysis to identify these meetings before your migration you have your choice of informing your users about specific meetings (to make it as easy as possible), or handling it afterwards.  Both is probably good.

Easiest way to find them post-migration is to search on the "Meeting_MissingOrganizer" category in Outlook.

But if you are using Office 365 or on-premises via OWA instead of Outlook there's no easy list display.

You can can however find all of these visually using categories.

So set a specific color looking for the category we added on insertion, as so:

And you'll get an easy-to-locate display like this:

Again, better to get the word out to your users before the migration and get them used to the way things work in Exchange as opposed to Oracle Calendar Server, but we're all about the reality of the situation.

Oracle Meeting Scheduling Practices and Microsoft Exchange Best Practices

There are several common OCS meeting scheduling practices we need to document, so you, in turn, can educate your users about the differences between scheduling meetings in OCS and Exchange.

FIRST:  Oracle Calendar Server allows a user to organize a meeting and then remove themselves as an attendee.

THIS BEHAVIOR IS IMPOSSIBLE IN EXCHANGE! In fact if users manage to figure out how to do it’s one of the ways to really damage calendar data in Exchange.  We feel it our duty to recommend our customers adopt Microsoft Exchange best practices.  Thus, we do not recommend this behavior get replicated in Exchange.  To help you find and fix those meetings, we have integrated a pre-processing diagnostic step to both diagnose and remedy the issue. 

What it does is to re-create ICS files for the affected users and their meetings.  These files are then inserted using the standard Sumatra process.  The reports allow you to proactively notify or involve any critical calendaring users that they are going to be added to the meetings they though they removed themselves from.

How this works / what you need to do

1.   Export ALL your ICS files into a single directory.  You need to do this anyway for the migration process.

2.   If you create a separate directory that contains the oCalreader, please configure it, and point to the ENTIRE export of ICS files created in step 1

3.   Press the Organizer not Attendee button. Note: this might change in some versions of the tool.  You will have to check “Show Migration Steps”, and then you can click the Organizer button.

                                                        

4.       The tool outputs things in TWO directories

a.    The “Logfile” directory contains three files: the summary text file, along with the two CSV files for the Organizer not Attendee accounts.  These tell you which meeting organizers are affected by this situation.

b.    A subdirectory of the iCalData path gets created called “SpecialICSUsers”. The tool regenerates the ICS files that contain JUST those problem meetings -- and adds the organizer back to the meeting.  This is where the newly generated ICS files are stored

5.      It is possible there are situations where not all meeting organizers’ ATTENDEE record can be found.  Look in the SpecialICSUsers subdirectory, and see if there are any files that start with “_noattendee_”. You will have to figure out how to handle these users/meetings.  For example, if you might see a file called “_noattendee_sarah.jane.smith.ics”. You will have to either have the organizer to the meeting by hand, ask the organizer to add him/herself to the meeting in OCS and then re-export the ICS files, or choose not to migrate the meeting by deleting the files.

6.      oCalReader also checks for missing or invalid email information.  The resultant file is written to the “logfile path”, and called “AccountMissingOrInvalidEmail.txt”.  Read and act on these in advance of your cut-over into production.  For example:

CN=Clara Oswald:mailto:""

CN=Companions Conf Rm:mailto:""

CN=Companions Conf Rm:mailto:100000518943623636038552@email.invalid

CN=Medieval History Room:mailto:""

CN=Medieval History Room:mailto:182D1D7DF8E9ECA5E050C68489657375@email.invalid

CN=Martha Jones:mailto:""

CN=Martha Jones:mailto:100000250843623636038553@email.invalid

                                               

The logfile shows two users, Clara Oswald and Martha Jones, no longer have email addresses (are they terminated accounts?)  It also shows two rooms with problems.  You will have to add those rooms, “Companions Conf Rm” and “Medieval History Room”, to the resources map file to map those accounts to valid SMTP addresses.

7.       Finally to insert meetings where oCalReader has added the organizer back to the meetings, follow these steps:

a)       In the ocalreader directory include your accounts and resource mapping file(s)

b)       Edit the oCalreader Configuration

i.      Change the ICS data file directory to the “SpecialICSUsers” subfolder

ii.     Ensure there are no “limits” set

8.   Push “Read and Insert”

Note these assumptions:

• We add the organizer back to the entire series to preserve recurrence patterns and the integrity of the meeting -- even if the organizer cancels their presence on some (but not all) of the instances.  Implication: There is the potential for duplicated meetings if some occurrences do have the organizer present.)
• We set the organizer to ACCEPT the meeting (that happens by default).  Because the organizer removed themselves from the meeting we set their Free/BUSY status to FREE UNLESS the organizer has set the series to BUSY (then it becomes busy).
• For the very curious this is a full ICS generated by this process.

SECOND:  Oracle Calendar Server allows resources to be meeting organizers.

In Exchange unmanaged public resources should NOT be organizers, but we relax this in certain cases to migrate data.  Why should unmanaged public resources not be meeting organizers?  Resource accounts are DISABLED by default.  As with many rules there are exceptions.  It is perfectly acceptable to have a room direct booked or managed by a delegate (for example: “CEO’s Private Conference Room”).

If you choose to allow direct booking into conference rooms:

Exchange, by default, strips both the subject and owner in the resource calendar

If you wish to retain this information (which is common in Oracle calendar)

You will need to execute this command for those resources: 

set-calendarprocessing  : -deletesubject: $False -addorganizertosubject: $True

This has privacy repercussions!  Showing subjects and organizers reveal potentially sensitive information, such as (these fabricated examples): “Interview James Bond to replace Provost”, “Implications of the 2019 500% Tuition Hike on staff reduction plans” booked in the “President’s Conference Room.” 

You have been warned.

If you do want to determine which resources organize meetings, the “Organizer as Attendee” component generates a file, ResourcesAsMeetingOrganizers, which lists of those accounts. For example, if the Doctor as a designate to the “Tardis Control Room” proposed a meeting on behalf of the “Tardis Control Room”, called “How to use the New Dimensional Portal Controls”, the ResourcesAsMeetingOrganizers file would contain:

CN=Tardis Control Room:mailto:doctor@drwho.timetraveller.org

THIRD:  Oracle calendar server allows resources emails to be assigned to a user account.

In Exchange resources have their own SMTP accounts.  OCS allows the OCS administrator to assign a designate/delegate email to the room (so messages are sent to him/her. For example, the Tardis Break room has an email address that belongs to Amy Pond

ORGANIZER;X-ORACLE-GUID=269167A2DA4992BCE050C6848965230C;CN=Tardis Break Room:mailto:amy.pond@drwho.timetraveller.org

                                                                      

What are your choices?

1)       REMOVE the email address from the OCS rooms and re-export the data;

2)       Leave it unchanged, the designate will become the organizer of the meeting, something that they will not be happy to see on their calendars.

3)       Figure out how big a problem this is.  The “Organizer as Attendee” button generates a file, ResourcesWithUserEmails , that shows the list. For example, the file would contain:

CN=Tardis Break Room:mailto: amy.pond@drwho.timetraveller.org