Creating a New Offline Address Book

 

The Default Offline Address List contains all the addresses listed in the global address list. You can create additional offline address books if necessary.

Offline Address Lists container in Exchange System Manager

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For detailed steps about how to create a new offline address book, see How to Create a New Offline Address Book.

Process for Generating an Offline Address Book

Several services work together to generate and maintain the offline address book files. Before offline address books can be generated, the address lists in Active Directory must be up-to-date. The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service calls the Recipient Update Service to maintain address lists. If the Recipient Update Service cannot populate the address lists, Exchange Server 2003 cannot build the offline address books.

When the public folder store maintenance process runs, Exchange Server 2003 uses the following process to generate the offline address book:

  1. The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service (MSExchangeIS) generates the offline address book folders.

  2. The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service (MSExchangeSA, also known as Mad.exe) retrieves address list content and offline address book configuration information from Active Directory.

  3. The Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service calls Oabgen.dll.

    Oabgen.dll is a MAPI application that reads from Active Directory. The first time it creates an offline address book, Oabgen.dll creates the OAB Version 2 and OAB Version 3a folders. Every time Oabgen.dll runs, it creates the files for all offline address book versions, compresses the files, and then creates messages in the appropriate folders for each version of the offline address book it is configured to generate. The offline address book files are saved as attachments on the messages.