XFOR: Postoffice Lists Disappearing from GAL

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

Entire postoffice lists disappear from the Global Address List (GAL) after you introduce Microsoft Exchange Server as a Directory Synchronization (dir- sync) Requestor to the dir-sync process.

CAUSE

If a Custom Recipient (CR) is manually defined on the Microsoft Exchange Server for a user that resides on one of the Microsoft Mail postoffices, the Microsoft Exchange Server where the CR was created believes it is responsible for dir-sync for that address and that postoffice.

Please see the MORE INFORMATION section for a detailed explanation of the reproduction scenario.

WORKAROUND

A supported fix is now available for Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0 that provides a new registry entry setting to correct this behavior.

Add a registry value RequireValidImpFrom of type REG_DWORD to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeDX

When dir-sync creates a list of transactions to send to a dir-sync Server, if it finds a CR with the target address of type MS and the ImportedFrom field has a value of NULL, it will silently drop that transaction and continue. The ImportedFrom field for a record in the Directory is NULL only if the CR was created manually or imported by the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program. If a CR is created by means of dir-sync , the ImportedFrom field will have the name of the Requestor Object in it.

If you set this value to 0, or if this value is not present, the Directory Synchronization service (DXA) will behave as it did prior to the fix.

NOTE: This fix is only for address type MS. If CR of another type (SMTP, SNADS, and so forth) is imported from a Microsoft Mail postoffice later, the behavior of the DXA will be the same as before the fix.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Exchange Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K

MORE INFORMATION

In this scenario, the Microsoft Mail postoffices are MSM1, MSM2, and MSM3. MSM1 is the dir-sync server and dir-sync is fully working between these three postoffices.

Now add a Microsoft Exchange Server as a requester to the dir-sync server (MSM1) and manually add a CR to the Microsoft Exchange server with an address that resides on any of the Microsoft Mail postoffices, in other words, Network/Msm3/Testuser. Allow one dir-sync cycle to occur.

Upon completion of dir-sync, the Microsoft Exchange Server, MSM1, and MSM2 have all addresses from MSM1 and MSM2 but no addresses from MSM3.

Because of the CR that was created on the Microsoft Exchange Server, the Microsoft Exchange Server will send out the following transactions to the dir-sync server along with its normal Add transactions for the Microsoft Exchange users that exist on the Microsoft Exchange Server.

R NETWORK\MSM3            Tells the dir-sync  Server to discard all
                          addresses for MSM3
A NETWORK\MSM3\TESTUSER   Tells the dir-sync  Server to add TESTUSER
                          R NETWORK\SHADOW

and so forth.

During a normal dir-sync cycle, when a requestor requests a full export, a Replace transaction will be sent only for its own postoffice. For example:

R NETWORK\PO          Tells the dir-sync  Server to discard all addresses
                      for postoffice
A NETWORK\PO\USER1    Tells the dir-sync  Server to add USER1

To get the addresses from MSM3 back into the dir-sync stream, the administrator must request that a full export be sent from the Microsoft Mail postoffice (MSM3). You can achieve this by following these steps:

1. Start Admin.exe against MSM3.

On the next dir-sync cycle, T1, MSM3's full list will be resent to the dir-sync server and therefore propagated out to the other requestors.

The fix for this should be applied and the aforementioned registry setting should be set, or the Export Custom Recipients option should be cleared on the dir-sync Requester object on the Export Containers' property page.