Absolutely.
These are called resource mailboxes. You can create two different
kinds: a room mailbox and an equipment mailbox. With the room mailbox,
you can assign it to a conference room, auditorium, training room, and
any other room that people share ordinarily. With an equipment mailbox,
you can assign these to items that are usually shared among workers
such as a projector, laptops, company cars, and equipment.
Note
When
you create a resource mailbox (room or equipment), an account is also
created for those resources in AD. However, the accounts are disabled
by default. This prevents a person from logging in to the network with
a resource account.
Create a Room Mailbox
To create a room resource mailbox, perform the following steps:
1. | Open the EMC.
| 2. | From the Navigation Tree, select the Recipient Configuration work center.
| 3. | From the Actions pane, select New Mailbox and the New Mailbox Wizard opens.
| 4. | On the Introduction screen, select Room Mailbox and click Next.
| 5. | You
are asked if you want to create a mailbox for a New User or Existing
User. In this case, leave the default New User, and then click Next.
| 6. | You
are taken to the User Information screen, where you are asked to
provide the OU to place the new user, the name and logon information,
and the password with confirmation. There is also a User Must Change
Password at Next Logon checkbox that you can select. (Note: This might
seem odd considering that this is a room and not a person you are
creating the mailbox for. So, fill in the information accordingly. Call
it literally Conference Room 1 or CF1. The password ensures someone can
take ownership of the schedule of that room.) After this information is
complete, click Next.
| 7. | You
are then presented with the Mailbox Settings options, which include the
database, managed folder mailbox policy, and ActiveSync mailbox policy.
Choose your options and click Next.
| 8. | You are presented with a configuration summary. Confirm your options and select New.
| 9. | After the wizard completes, you see a Completed green check mark and you can click Finish.
|
Create an Equipment Mailbox
The
procedure for creating an equipment mailbox is a duplicate of what you
would do when creating a room mailbox. The only difference is in
choosing equipment rather than a room. To create an equipment mailbox,
perform the following:
1. | Open the EMC.
| 2. | From the Navigation Tree, select the Recipient Configuration work center.
| 3. | From the Actions pane, select New Mailbox and the New Mailbox Wizard opens.
| 4. | On the Introduction screen, select Equipment Mailbox, and click Next.
| 5. | You
are asked if you want to create a mailbox for a New User or Existing
User. In this case, leave the default New User, and then click Next.
| 6. | You
are taken to the User Information screen, where you are asked to
provide the OU to place the new user, the name and logon information,
and the password with confirmation. You can also select a User Must
Change Password at Next Logon checkbox. (Note: This might seem odd
considering you are creating the mailbox for equipment and not a
person. Fill in the information accordingly. Call it literally
Projector 1, Laptop 10, or whatever acronym and numerical order you
wish to put in place. The password ensures someone can take ownership
of the schedule of that piece of equipment.) After this information is
filled in, click Next.
| 7. | You
are then presented with the Mailbox Settings options, which include the
database, managed folder mailbox policy, and ActiveSync mailbox policy.
Choose your options and click Next.
| 8. | You are presented with a configuration summary. Confirm your options and select New.
| 9. | After the wizard completes, you will see a Completed green check mark and you can click Finish.
|
Configure Resource Mailbox Properties
You
can configure many properties, and to do so properly takes command-line
work. For starters, look at the Resource Information tab that is added
in with a resource mailbox. To do this, perform the following steps:
1. | Open the EMC.
| 2. | From the Navigation Tree, select the Recipient Configuration work center.
| 3. | Select Mailbox.
| 4. | From
the Results pane, locate the resource mailbox you want to view (room or
equipment). Right-click the mailbox and choose Properties or locate it
from the Actions pane.
| 5. | Note the Resource Information tab. You can specify the Resource Capacity and the Custom Properties.
| 6. | The
Resource Capacity is simply an indication of the number of people that
can use the resource. For example, if it is a room, you indicate the
number of people the room can handle.
| 7. | The
Resource Custom Properties enables you to click the Add button and
select from a list of certain features that are unique to that
particular room. For example, you might select the room that includes
the projector or other AV equipment, or the room with the cappuccino
maker.
|
The
difficult part for those who dislike the command-line work is that the
options you can choose for the Resource Custom Properties have to be
input through the EMS using the cmdlet Set-ResourceConfig.
In the example shown in Figure 1, you see the Resource Custom Properties with a variety of options included in the EMS using the following command:
Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema ("Room/Projector",
"Room/CappuccinoMaker", "Room/AV")
|
