Microsoft Schedule+ is a personal and workgroup scheduling tool that helps keep track of a user's appointments and tasks, block out time for meetings, and record notes. It can also be used to remind users of important appointments or events. In a workgroup environment, Microsoft Schedule+ allows users to view other users' schedules, find an appropriate time to meet, and then book the meeting in one step, without having to contact all of the participants individually. With Microsoft Schedule+, a user can designate another user as his or her assistant, who can then schedule appointments and set up meetings on behalf of the user. Microsoft Schedule+ is tightly integrated with Microsoft Mail in that it uses the same user name and password to logon, stores the calendar files on the Microsoft Mail PO, uses Microsoft Mail to send meeting requests and users' free and busy times, and uses the Microsoft Mail GAL for workgroup scheduling.
The client keeps a copy of the user's calendar file on the local workstation as well as on the Microsoft Mail postoffice.
The SchDist Program is the process that sends users' free/busy times, assistants' names, and resource information between POs at regular intervals. Like the Microsoft Mail External and Dispatch programs, the SchDist program should be left running 24 hours a day. SchDist uses the existing Microsoft Mail External program to route the free/busy message packets between POs.
Schedule Distribution is the process by which an administrator can send snapshots of users' Appointment Books to other postoffices so users on that other postoffice can view the data. These snapshots—Schedule Distribution mail messages, actually—contain the following information:
Free/Busy "bits" for each user on the postoffice.
Flags specifying which accounts on the postoffice are resources.
A list of the assistants for those users on the postoffice who have assistants.
In all cases, the above information is only sent if a change occurs. For example, if there are 150 users on a postoffice, but only 10 users have modified their schedules since the last schedule distribution message was sent, only 10 new sets of free/busy bits will be sent in the next schedule distribution message.
The Schedule Distribution information is kept in the CAL directory of the receiving postoffice. On any postoffice, there is one Postoffice file (POF) for each postoffice that sends it Schedule Distribution messages.
Schedule Distribution is configured through the Schedule+ Administration Program. The actual work of distributing schedule information is done when the Schedule Distribution Program is run.
When Schedule Distribution is used, users can view free/busy information for users on another postoffice without requiring them to have physical network access or LAN access privileges to the other postoffice. Once the user has viewed the free/busy time of users on other postoffices, he or she can send a meeting request which they can act on.
The network traffic due to schedule distribution is predictable, as explained below. When scheduling meetings with users on other postoffices, Schedule Distribution allows Schedule+ to quickly find out if users on other postoffices have assistants or are resources. Schedule+ needs to know this information to decide where to send meeting requests. Schedule Distribution works across different LANs by using the Mail system to route information. Schedule distribution can cause a large amount of consistent network traffic.
This process does not allow users on one postoffice to see anything more than free/busy times of users on other postoffices. Schedule Distribution alone cannot enable a user on one postoffice to view appointment details, modify Appointment Books, or act as an assistant for a user on another postoffice. Additionally, Schedule Distribution alone does not let users on one postoffice automatically book resources on another postoffice. Schedule Distribution requires the Schedule Distribution program to be run, either manually or continuously, on a dedicated machine or with other processes using the DISPATCH.EXE program.
The size of each schedule distribution message is determined by :
1. The number of Schedule+ users on the postoffice.
2. The number of schedule changes the average user makes each day.
3. The frequency with which schedule distribution messages are sent.
4. The number of months of data sent via schedule distribution.
Each Schedule Distribution message contains the following data:
Information |
Size |
Message header |
100 bytes |
Assistant/resource information for each user whose free/busy information has changed |
25 bytes |
One month of free/busy information for one user |
20 bytes |
For example, if an administrator chooses to distribute three months of schedule data and 10 users on the postoffice have changed their appointments since the last schedule distribution, the schedule distribution message will be 100+{10x[25+(3x20)}=950 bytes. Of course, these numbers will vary depending on the frequency of Schedule Distribution, number of months of data propagated, and the frequency of schedule activity per user on the postoffice.
As can be seen, each Schedule Distribution message is very small. On a large network, however, these messages can really add up. On a Mail network with 100 postoffices all participating in Schedule Distribution, for instance, each postoffice could send up to 99 Schedule Distribution messages per "round" of Schedule Distribution. If every postoffice sends to every other, this means 9900 messages are being sent during every round of schedule distribution.
Don't over-send free/busy information. If you don't need to have each others' free/busy information updated every 10 minutes, then don't set up SchDist to send this information so often. Often, users' free/busy information may not change very often and an organization just needs an idea of when a user might be free and busy. Find a reasonable interval for your organization to distribute this information, recognizing that decreasing the interval to give users more up-to-the-minute information increases the messages that must be processed. Also, only send free/busy information where it makes sense. In other words, if users on two POs don't schedule meetings with each other very often (if at all), then don't set up SchDist between them.
Don't run SchDist across timezones. Since Schedule+ doesn't work across timezones, there is no need to run Schedule Distribution across timezones. In fact, doing so will cause more confusion for the users.
Use Dynamic PO Connections very sparingly. Dynamic PO Connection establishes actual network connections between POs, instead of sending free/busy message packets. Therefore, it requires a LAN connection between the two POs and may cause network traffic to increase because every Schedule+ user could connect to multiple POs. Limiting the number of possible dynamic PO connections will help limit the amount of network traffic. A common practice is to allow everyone to be able to dynamically connect to the PO that contains the conference rooms and other resources, but that is all.
When using Dynamic PO Connections, still run SchDist between the two POs. Most users will not need to dynamically connect to other POs to see detailed, up-to-the-second information of other calendars. Rather, free and busy information as recent as the last SchDist cycle is enough. Running SchDist at least once a day will make the Schedule+ system run more efficiently by reducing network traffic.