• Article

The Microsoft System Attendant attribute is missing

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2010-04-01

The Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer queries the Active Directory directory service to examine the attributes of the Microsoft System Attendant directory object. The Analyzer parses the available attributes to determine whether any of the following attributes for the Microsoft System Attendant object have missing values:

  • proxyAddresses

    This attribute contains e-mail address information.

  • Mail

    This attribute contains a value that corresponds to the primary Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) proxy address for the object.

  • textEncodedORAddress

    This attribute contains a value that corresponds to the primary X.400 proxy address for the object.

The Microsoft System Attendant object is used when Collaborative Data Objects or Outlook Web Access pushes Free/Busy information to the information store. Also, the Microsoft System Attendant mailbox is required during mailbox move operations.

If the Analyzer finds that any of the three attributes have missing values, an error is displayed. This error indicates that reliability problems may exist with Exchange. These reliability problems include the following:

  • Free/Busy information is not published in Outlook Web Access.

  • Mailbox move operations fail, and events 9175, 9167, and 1008 are logged in the Application log.

To use the ADSI Edit tool to view the Microsoft System Attendant attributes

  1. Start the ADSI Edit tool. To do this, click Start, click Run, type adsiedit.msc, and then click OK.

  2. On the Action menu, click Connect to.

  3. Click Select a well known Naming Context, click Configuration in the Select a well known Naming Context list, and then click OK.

  4. Expand the following path:

    • Configuration [<domainController>.contoso.com]

    • CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=com

    • CN=Services

    • CN=Microsoft Exchange

    • CN=<organizationName>

    • CN=Administrative Groups

    • CN=Exchange Administrative Group (<ID>)

    • CN=Servers

    • CN=<ExchangeServerName>

  5. In the details pane, right-click CN=Microsoft System Attendant, and then click Properties.

  6. In the Attributes list, click proxyAddresses. The proxyAddresses attribute should contain a value such as SMTP:<ExchangeMailboxServerName>-SA@contoso.com.

  7. In the Attributes list, click mail. The mail attribute should contain a value such as <ExchangeMailboxServerName>-SA@contoso.com.

  8. In the Attributes list, click textEncodedORAddress. By default, this value is <not set>.