Configure and use the Exchange connector (SharePoint Server 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

This article describes how to create a crawl rule and add a content source for crawling Microsoft Exchange Server public folders.

Before you begin, ensure that the crawler has at least Read permission to the public folder.

Create a crawl rule

This section describes the steps that are required to create a crawl rule. You must create a crawl rule if the default content access account does not have Read permission to the Exchange public folders that you want to crawl.

To create a crawl rule

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

  2. On the Home page of the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

  3. On the Manage Service Applications page, click Search Service Application.

  4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Crawl Rules.

  5. On the Manage Crawl Rules page, click New Crawl Rule.

  6. In the Path section, in the Path box, type a path to be crawled.

    When creating a crawl rule, the URL that you type in the Path box should be in the following form: <protocol>://hostname/*
    where <protocol> is the protocol that you want to use (typically http or https), and hostname is the NetBIOS or fully qualified domain name of the server that is running Exchange Server.

  7. In the Crawl Configuration section, select one of the following:

    • Exclude all items in this path (Default)

    • Include all items in this path

  8. In the Specify Authentication section, select the type of crawl authentication to use. This section is used only when Include all items in this path is selected.

  9. Click OK to add the crawl rule.

Add a content source for Microsoft Exchange public folders

Use the following procedures to create a content source for Exchange Server public folders. Note that there are two procedures listed that describe separate processes to add a content source based on the Exchange Server version. The first procedure describes how to add a content source for Exchange Server 2007 and earlier, the second describes how to add a content source from Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and later versions. This includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

To add a content source for Exchange Server 2007 and earlier public folders

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

  2. On the SharePoint Central Administration Home page, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

  3. On the Manage Service Applications page, click Search Service Application.

  4. On the Search Administration page, in the Crawling section, click Content Sources.

  5. On the Manage Content Sources page, click New Content Source.

  6. On the Add Content Source page, in the Name box, type the name that you want to use for the content source.

  7. In the Content Source Type section, select Exchange Public Folders.

  8. In the Start Addresses section, type the URLs for the Exchange Server public folders that you want to crawl. These URLs are typically in one of the following forms:

    • <protocol>://host name/public

      where <protocol> can be http or https, and host name is the NetBIOS or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server that is running Exchange Server.

    • <protocol>://host name/public/subfolder

      where <protocol> can be http or https, host name is the NetBIOS or FQDN of the server that is running Exchange Server, and subfolder is the name of the specific subfolder that you want to crawl.

    For example, if you want to crawl all subfolders in the public folder on a server that is named exch-01 and that is in the Contoso domain, and that server does not use SSL, you could type either http://exch-01/public or http://exch-01.contoso.com. To crawl only a specific subfolder named Bob in the same public folder, type http://exch-01/public/bob or http://exch-01.contoso.com/bob.

    Note

    For performance reasons, you cannot add the same start addresses to multiple content sources.

  9. In the Crawl Settings section, select the behavior for the kind of content that you selected.

  10. In the Crawl Schedules section, you can optionally specify when to start full and incremental crawls:

    • You can create a full crawl schedule by clicking the Create Schedule link below the Full Crawl list.

    • You can create an incremental crawl schedule by clicking the Create schedule link below the Incremental Crawl list.

  11. Click OK.

  12. Repeat steps 4 through 10 for any additional content sources that you want to create.

To add content sources for Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP2 and later versions public folders

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

  2. Open a Web browser and navigate to the Outlook Web Access Web page for the Exchange Server that has the public folders that you want to crawl.

  3. Log on to Outlook Web Access using any user account that has Read access to the public folders that you want to crawl.

  4. Navigate to the public folder that you want to crawl, right-click that folder, and then select Open in New Window.

  5. When the new window opens, navigate to the new window's address bar and copy the complete URL. This is the Outlook Web Access public folder address.

  6. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

  7. On the Manage Service Applications page, click Search Service Application.

  8. On the Search Administration page, in Crawling section, click Content Sources.

  9. Click New Content Source.

  10. On the Add Content Source page, in the Name box, type the name that you want to use for the content source.

  11. In the Content Source Type section, select Exchange Public Folders.

  12. In the Start Addresses section, paste the Outlook Web Access public folder address that you copied in step 5.

  13. In the Crawl Settings section, select the behavior for the kind of content that you selected.

  14. In the Crawl Schedules section, you can optionally specify when to start full and incremental crawls:

    • You can create a full crawl schedule by clicking the Create Schedule link below the Full Crawl list.

    • You can create an incremental crawl schedule by clicking the Create schedule link below the Incremental Crawl list.

  15. To create the content source, click OK.