Configure default Offline Address Book

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Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes or longer, depending on the number of mailbox databases in your organization

Before you install Exchange 2016, you need to make sure that all existing Exchange mailboxes in your organization are assigned a default offline address book (OAB). If you don't do this, any mailbox that isn't assigned a default OAB when Exchange 2016 is installed will automatically download the new OAB generated by Exchange 2016. If you have hundreds or thousands of mailboxes, this could cause significant network traffic and server load.

The steps below show you how to assign a default OAB to Exchange mailbox databases. Assigning a default OAB to a mailbox database has two advantages:

  • Mailboxes stored in a mailbox database that have no assigned OAB will inherit the OAB assigned to the database in which they're stored. This inheritance allows you to assign an OAB to many mailboxes, eliminating the need to update each mailbox individually.

  • When the mailbox is moved from an existing Exchange server to Exchange 2016, the mailbox will automatically begin using the new Exchange 2016-generated OAB if the mailbox itself isn't assigned an OAB.

{#Text:E16ExchangeMixedIntro#} Important   You need to run the commands below on your Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013 servers separately. The Get-MailboxDatabase and Set-MailboxDatabase cmdlets running on an Exchange 2010 server can't configure mailbox databases running on Exchange 2013 and vice versa.

How do I do this?

  1. {#Text:E16_E14orE15Upgrade#}

    Open the Exchange Management Shell on your Exchange server.

  2. {#Text:E16MixedUpgrade#}

    Open the Exchange Management Shell on an Exchange 2010 server, and on an Exchange 2013 server. Run the following commands on your Exchange 2010 server, and then on your Exchange 2013 server.

  3. Run the following command to retrieve a list of OABs.

    Get-OfflineAddressBook

  4. Run the following command to view all the mailbox databases in your organization and the OABs assigned to them.

    Get-MailboxDatabase | Format-Table Name, Server, OfflineAddressBook -Auto

  5. For every mailbox database that doesn't have an OAB assigned, assign an OAB from the list you retrieved earlier. You can either individually set the OAB on each mailbox database or simultaneously set the OAB on all mailbox databases. Use the command below that best suits your requirements.

    • To individually set the OAB on each mailbox database, run the following command. The command example uses "Sales Employees" for the mailbox database name on an Exchange server, and the "Default Offline Address Book" for the name of the OAB.

      Set-MailboxDatabase "ExServer\Sales Employees" -OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address Book"

    • To simultaneously set the same OAB on all mailbox databases, run the following command. The command example uses "Default Offline Address Book" for the name of the OAB.

      Warning

      The following command will overwrite the OAB assigned to every mailbox database in your organization. If you want to verify the command has the intended effect, run it first with the WhatIf switch parameter.

      Get-MailboxDatabase | Set-MailboxDatabase -OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address Book"

How do I know this worked?

To verify that every mailbox database in your organization is assigned a default OAB, run the following command. Every mailbox database should have an OAB listed in the OfflineAddressBook column.

Get-MailboxDatabase | Format-Table Name, Server, OfflineAddressBook -Auto

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.