The
purpose of an OAB is to provide access to the address information while
offline, so there are a few things administrators can configure. They
can create additional address books, they can choose which ones are
made available, and they can determine the distribution method used
(either web-based or Public Folder distribution).
Create an Offline Address Book
1. | Open the EMC.
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2. | From the Navigation Tree, expand the Organization Configuration work center.
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3. | Select Mailbox and select Offline Address Book.
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4. | Notice
the Default Offline Address Book. From the Actions pane, select New
Offline Address Book to open the wizard. On the Introduction screen
(shown in Figure 1), you are asked to provide the following information:
You are asked to provide a name. You
are asked to Browse and choose an Offline Address Book Generation
Server, which is the mailbox server where OABs are generated. There is a checkbox to Include the Default Global Address List. You can select the checkbox Include the Following Address Lists and click Add to include additional lists.
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5. | After you answer the questions, select Next.
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6. | You are taken to the Distribution Points screen, where you can select the following:
- Enable Web-Based Distribution—
This is only for clients that run Outlook 2007. If you select it, you
have to also choose the virtual directory it will be distributed from.
- Enable Public Folder Distribution— For Outlook clients 2003 SP1 or earlier. This will use the Public Folder database to ensure the OAB is available to clients.
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7. | After you choose your distribution method, choose Next.
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8. | Review your Configuration Summary on the New Offline Address Book screen, and choose New.
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9. | When complete, click Finish.
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Move the OAB Generation Server
To
move the OAB generation server (which handles the creation and update
process of the OAB before placing the files on a share) after the OAB
has been created, perform the following steps:
1. | Open the EMC.
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2. | From the Navigation Tree, expand the Organization Configuration work center.
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3. | Select Mailbox, and select Offline Address Book.
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4. | Select the OAB you want to move the generation server on.
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5. | From the Actions pane, select Move.
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6. | Click the Browse button to locate the other server you want to serve as the generation server, and click Move.
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7. | When complete, click Finish.
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Change the Default OAB
Although
it’s not something you would consider doing often, you can alter the
default OAB. To do this, after you have the new OAB created, perform
the following steps:
1. | Open the EMC.
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2. | From the Navigation Tree, expand the Organization Configuration work center.
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3. | Select Mailbox, and then select Offline Address Book.
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4. | Select the OAB you want to make the default.
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5. | From the Actions pane, select Set as Default.
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6. | You
receive a warning message that asks, “Are you sure you want to set
‘Name of OAB’ as the default offline address book for all new mailbox
databases?” Click Yes.
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View and Modify OAB Properties
To access the properties of the OAB after it is created (or the default OAB), perform the following steps:
1. | Open the EMC.
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2. | From the Navigation Tree, expand the Organization Configuration work center.
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3. | Select Mailbox, and then select Offline Address Book.
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4. | Select the OAB you want to access the properties of. From the Actions pane, choose Properties.
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5. | Notice there are three tabs—General, Address Lists, and Distribution:
- General—
Shows the name of the OAB and some other information, such as which
server is the generation server, whether this OAB the default, and when
it was last modified. It also shows the Update Schedule, which can be
modified.
- Address Lists—
Here you can modify the selections you made initially when you created
the OAB. You can include the default Global Address List or not. You
can add or remove other address lists.
- Distribution— This tab, shown in Figure 2,
enables you to configure different types of distribution methods
(web-based and Public Folder-based). You can select the clients that
will be supported (if Outlook 2007, the web-based version is needed).
You can select different Outlook clients pre-2007. You can configure
web-based distribution by selecting the location of the OAB virtual
directory, which is normally the default OAB directory with the IIS
default site. You can enable Public Folder distribution as long as you
have a Public Folder database.
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Note
You
can update the OAB at any time by selecting it and choosing the Update
option from the Actions pane. You are asked, “Update causes the Offline
Address Book to be regenerated, which can take several minutes. Are you
sure you want to continue?” Click Yes and the update begins.
Require SSL for OAB Distribution
In
the event you are working with all Outlook 2007 clients and using a
virtual directory through your IIS server, you might feel that a Secure
Socket Layer (SSL) connection is a necessary aspect to security.
To require SSL for your OAB virtual directory, perform the following:
1. | Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
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2. | You can see your server in the Navigation pane. You can expand Sites by clicking the plus sign.
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3. | You should see the Default Web Site option, which can be expanded by clicking the plus sign.
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4. | Locate the OAB folder, and in the Results pane, scroll down to the IIS category and choose SSL Settings.
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5. | Click the checkbox Require SSL and the secondary checkbox Require 128-bit SSL, as you can see in Figure 3.
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6. | In the Actions pane, select Apply to apply the changes.
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Assign OAB to Clients at the Database and Individual Mailbox Levels
Eventually
you have to make a decision about which OABs should go to which
persons. You can perform this on a database level or on an individual
mailbox level.
To establish an OAB for an entire database, perform the following:
1. | Open the EMC.
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2. | From the Navigation Tree, expand the Server Configuration work center.
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3. | Select Mailbox and the server you wish to make adjustments to the mailbox database on in the Results pane.
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4. | Select the mailbox database from the Work pane and go into the Properties of the mailbox database.
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5. | Select the Client Settings tab, and under the Offline address book settings, choose Browse.
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6. | Select the OAB you want all mailboxes to use within this mailbox database. When finished, click OK.
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7. | Then click OK to close the Properties.
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PS Note
The cmdlet through the EMS used to configure the database to use a Public Folder database and offline address book is Set-MailboxDatabase.
You use it in the following way: Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity
<DatabaseIdParameter> -OfflineAddressBook
<OfflineAddressBookIdParameter> -PublicFolderDatabase
<DatabaseIdParameter>
To configure the OAB for an individual recipient, you should use the Set-Mailbox cmdlet from the EMS. You can configure multiple recipients by filtering and pipelining them into the Set-Mailbox cmdlet
Set-Mailbox -Identity <MailboxIDParameter> -OfflineAddressBook <OfflineAddressBookIdParameter>
