Offline Address Book generation schedule has been set to Never

[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: 2006-12-04

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool queries the Active Directory® directory service to determine the value for the offLineABSchedule attribute of the offline address book configuration object. The offLineABSchedule attribute represents the offline address book generation schedule for the Default Offline Address List object in the Address Lists container in Active Directory. If the Exchange Server Analyzer finds the offLineABSchedule attribute set to Never, a warning is displayed.

By default, Exchange maintains a single offline address book. Exchange updates this offline address book (or generates a new version of it) every night during its maintenance cycle. You can create additional offline address books, and use the following procedure to check their generation schedule.

This warning indicates that the schedule has been changed to Never. Exchange will not update the existing offline address book until you set a new schedule. This means that while users will be able to download the existing offline address book, they will not receive any updates.

To correct this warning for Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003

  1. Open Exchange System Manager.

  2. Under Recipients, click Offline Address Lists.

  3. In the right pane, right-click Default Offline Address List and then click Properties. If you do not want to use an offline address book, right-click Default Offline Address Book, and then click Delete. Otherwise, use the rest of this procedure to set a schedule.

  4. On the General tab, select the run time from the Update interval drop-down list, or click Customize to set a custom schedule.

  5. Click OK to save the changes.

To correct this warning for Exchange Server 2007

  1. Open the Exchange Management Console.

  2. Expand Microsoft Exchange, expand Organization Configuration, and then select Mailbox.

  3. In the results pane, click the Offline Address Book tab.

  4. On the Offline Address Book tab, select "Default Offline Address Book". In the action pane, click Properties.

  5. On the General tab, select the run time from the Update Schedule drop-down list, or click Customize to set a custom schedule.

  6. Click OK to save the changes.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to set Offline Address Book generation schedule

  • Run the following command:

    Set-OfflineAddressBook -Identity <OAB Name> -Schedule <Schedule>
    

    Where: <OAB> is the distinguished name (DN), Domain\Account name, or GUID of the OAB and <Schedule> specifies the scheduled times to start OAB generation and the format is StartDay.Hour:Minute [AM/PM]. You can use the following values for the days:

    • Full name of the day

    • Abbreviated name of the day

    • Integer from 0 to 6, where 0 = Sunday

    If you prefer to use a 24-hour clock, omit AM/PM.

    For example, to set the Default Offline Address Book generation schedule to daily between 1AM and 3AM, you would enter:

Set-OfflineAddressBook -Identity "\Default Offline Address Book" -Schedule 0.01:00-0.03:00,1.01:00-1.03:00,2.01:00-2.03:00,3.01:00-3.03:00,4.01:00-4.03:00,5.01:00-5.03:00,6.01:00-6.03:00

For more information about working with offline address books in Exchange Server 2003, see "Configuring Exchange Server 2003 Offline Address Books" in Working with the Exchange Server 2003 Store (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47595).

For more information about working with offline address books in Exchange Server 2007, see "Organization Configuration > Mailbox > Offline Address Books" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=79247).