Continuing my predecessor’s efforts, in this post we are going to take a deeper look at resource mailboxes in Exchange 2010. These special purpose mailboxes are used for scheduling conference rooms, audio-visual equipment, bridge lines, loaner laptops, and any other resource that may be in broad demand and for which Outlook is a good choice to use for reserving the resource.

Meeting or conference rooms are a natural fit, since in the process of scheduling a meeting, most of the time you will need a place to hold the meeting. Extending this paradigm to other shared resources is a natural fit. When you want to use Exchange and Outlook to manage a shared resource, you create either a room mailbox, or an equipment mailbox using the EMC or EMS. This will create a disabled user account in Active Directory to represent the item. Then mailbox is used to hold calendar entries, and you populate the user object with attributes appropriate to the resource. For rooms, this can include the seating capacity, location, and whether or not there is a projector or display system. For other resources this may include details such as where to pick up the resource.

When creating a resource, one of the key decisions has to do with how requests from a user will be approved. In larger organizations, frequently a request will be routed to a facility manager or a receptionist who will approve or deny the request, while other organizations opt for an automatic approval on a first-come-first-served basis. You can also create more granular rules, including users whose requests will be automatically approved versus those who must be approved by someone else, what to do with conflicting requests, etc.

To create a room, use the EMC to create a new mailbox, and select the option to make it a room mailbox on the first screen. It helps to have a naming convention in place for rooms, especially if you have more than one location. The wizard will walk you through setting up a room, including the capacity and how requests should be processed. You can modify the properties of a room at any time to change the capacity or acceptance policy, and to add custom attributes to note whether the room has additional features like a conference phone, projector, etc. You can use the EMS command New-Mailbox to do the same thing, adding the -Room attribute to the end of the command to identify the mailbox as a room. Whether you tick the box in the GUI or use the -Room attribute, the mailbox is created with a disabled account in AD, and given additional attributes for RecipientTypeDetails, ResourceType, ResourceCapacity, and ResourceCustom. You can modify these in the EMS, or in newly exposed tabs in the EMC.

Best practices include the following administrivia:

• Create an OU in Active Directory to store resource accounts.
• Establish a naming convention that allows users to readily identify rooms by site and location.
• If you decide to have a user approve requests, make sure they have a backup who can approve things in their absence.
• Resource mailboxes will be smaller than normal users, and require less resources from Exchange, but are just as important as users’ mailboxes. Make sure to use DAGs to provide redundancy for these mailboxes the same as any other user.

Here are some examples tweaked from the Exchange Team’s blog on how to create resource mailboxes at the shell.

Create a Room mailbox:

New-Mailbox -database “FirstStorageGroup\RoomMailboxDatabase” -Name ConferenceRoom1 -OrganizationalUnit “Conference Rooms” -DisplayName “ConfRoom1″ -UserPrincipalName ConfRoom1@example.com -Room

Create an Equipment mailbox:

New-Mailbox -database “FirstStorageGroup\EquipmentDatabase” -Name LoanerLaptop1 -OrganizationalUnit Equipment -DisplayName “Loaner1″ – UserPrincipalName loaner1@example.com -Equipment

Create Custom Properties for Resource Mailbox

Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema (“Room/TV”, “Room/SpeakerPhone”, “Equipment/Auto”)

Configure Resource Mailbox Properties

Set-Mailbox -Identity “ConferenceRoom1″ -ResourceCustom (“TV”,”SpeakerPhone”) -ResourceCapacity 12

With a better understanding of resource mailboxes, you should be able to provide your users with a great experience for reserving resources. And since that experience is the same for remote users even if they use OWA, you’ll find your meetings take place without a hitch…at least as far as where they happen. Donuts are another story.

Inside Exchange 2010: Resource Mailboxes

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One of the beneficial features of Exchange server is the ability to create resource mailboxes. Resource mailboxes can be used for scheduling and booking resources such as meeting rooms, audio/video equipment, transportation, etc.

Resource mailboxes can be monitored from email clients such as Microsoft Outlook by creating and adding profiles to the existing client mailboxes. Or Administrators can add delegates to the resource mailboxes they wish to monitor. Either method allows the resource mailboxes to be monitored before an agent has processed the requests associated with those resource mailboxes. If the unprocessed requests are viewed from a preview pane then potential meetings can be inadvertently placed on the resource mailbox’s calendar prematurely. Administrators should avoid these actions as an agent will incur additional processing that would not normally have been needed.

Sometimes your end users may not be able to log on to a resource mailbox. Such errors can occur if they are trying to log on to mailboxes on Exchange server 2000 or 2003.

Another problem that can happen is not being able to move the resource mailbox. When you attempt to move the resource mailbox from one server to another server, or your end users are not able to logon to their mailbox, then the error messages may look similar to the following:

Error: Opening destination mailbox.
CN=DDD R1,OU=Recipients,DC=dune,DC=com:
The information store could not be opened.
The MAPI provider failed.
MAPI 1.0
ID no: 8004011d-0289-00000000

Additionally, the following event ID messages may be logged in the Application log:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: MSExchangeAdmin
Event Category: Move Mailbox
Event ID: 1006
Date: 12/11/2002
Time: 8:13:22 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JETS
Description:

Started to move mailbox ‘DDD R1′.
Source Database: /o=Microsoft/ou=AdminGroup/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=SERVER1/cn=Microsoft Private MDB
Destination Database:
/o=Microsoft/ou=AdminGroup/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=SERVER2/cn=Microsoft Private MDB
Exchange DN: /o=Microsoft/ou=AdminGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=Jets
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSExchangeIS
Event Category: General
Event ID: 9548
Date: 12/11/2002
Time: 8:13:22 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JETS
Description:
Disabled user /o=Microsoft/ou=AdminGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=Jets does not have a master account SID. Please use Active Directory MMC to set an active account as this user’s master account.
Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS Mailbox Store
Event Category: Log ons
Event ID: 1022
Date: 12/11/2002
Time: 8:13:22 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JETS
Description:
Log on Failure on database “First Storage Group\Private Information Store (JETS)” – Windows 2000 account DOMAIN\administrator; mailbox /o=Microsoft/ou=AdminGroup/cn=Recipients/cn=Jets. Error: -2147221231
The error message ID 0x8004011d references MAPI_E_FAILONEPROVIDER. Error event IDs 0×80040111 and -2147221231 correspond to MAPI_E_LOGON_FAILED.

The reason why they are receiving these error messages is because there is a missing msExchMasterAccountSID attribute associated with the disabled Active Directory service user account of the mailbox being accessed.

A workaround does exist for mailboxes on Exchange server 2000 and 2003. An administrator needs to disable the Active Directory user accounts associated with the error messages. This will prevent event 9548 from being logged. The administrator can then generate the msExchMasterAccountSID attribute for those service user accounts by following the steps below.

1. From the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, navigate to the View menu and click on the Advanced Features.
2. Find the disabled user object that owns the mailbox that is having logon problems. Then, from the Exchange advanced properties click on Mailbox Rights.
3. Select the Associated External Account permission from the list of accounts.
4. The SELF account should be granted “Associated External Account” and “Full Mailbox Access” permissions if no account has these permissions.
5. The Associated External Account permission should be reset to SELF.

If the Associated External Account permission is owned by another account that should not have it then that permission must first be removed before applying it to the SELF account. An administrator may need to add the SELF account if it is not listed in the Permissions dialog box.

Once the Associated External Account permission has been removed from an account then an administrator will need to exit out of all dialog boxes – just click OK, not Cancel, at all levels. If an administrator does not exit out of all dialog boxes then the changes that have been made will not be applied. The object properties for the user must first be exited for the changes to occur. Any changes attempted to be made to the owner of the Associated External Account – without having been closed and then re-opened – will have those changes blocked.

Troubleshooting Exchange Resource Mailbox Problems

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In part 1 of this series I introduced Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes and demonstrated how to create Room Mailboxes.  In part 2 of this series I went on to demonstrate how to create Equipment Mailboxes.  Now in part 3 of this series I’ll demonstrate creating custom resource properties for Resource Mailboxes.

What are Custom Resource Properties?

Custom resource properties are additional attributes that can be assigned to Room and Equipment mailboxes to indicate which features are available for those resources.

For example, in an organisation that has several meeting rooms with different features, custom resource properties can be used to show which room has teleconferencing equipment, which one has a whiteboard, which one has tea and coffee facilities, etc.

Similarly for Equipment mailboxes custom resource properties can indicate features such as which vehicles have a GPS installed, or what kind of vehicle (such as truck, van, car) it is.

Extending the Resource Property Schema

By default in an Exchange Server 2007 there is no custom resource properties defined.

[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {}

Resource properties can be defined using the Set-ResourceConfig cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.

In this example I define a custom resource property to indicate that a Room Mailbox contains a projector.  The change is immediately applied and will appear when running the Get-ResourceConfig cmdlet again.

[PS] C:\>Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema
 Room/Projector

[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Projector}

Schema changes made by the Set-ResourceConfig cmdlet overwrite existing settings instead of adding to them.  For example if I run another command to add a whiteboard property the earlier property of “projector” is overwritten.

[PS] C:\>Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema
 Room/Whiteboard

[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Whiteboard}

To prevent existing properties being overwritten with new updates you must first read the existing configuration into an array.

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Whiteboard}

Make modifications to the array using PowerShell commands.  For example, to add an additional feature of “whiteboard” to the schema:

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/Projector")

Apply the changes to the resource property schema.

[PS] C:\>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig

[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig

Name                      ResourcePropertySchema
----                      ----------------------
Resource Schema           {Room/Projector, Room/
Whiteboard}

Note that the Get-ResourceConfig cmdlet now shows both the existing and newly added properties.

You can use the same method to add multiple new entries.

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/Teleconference")
[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Room/TeaCoffee")
[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/Van")
[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/Car")
[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Add
 ("Equipment/GPS")

[PS] C:\>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig
[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig | fl ResourcePropertySchema

ResourcePropertySchema : {Equipment/GPS, Equipment/Car
, Equipment/Van, Room/TeaCoffee, Room/Teleconference,
 Room/Projector, Room/Whiteboard}

Custom properties can also be removed from the resource schema using a similar method.  For example, to remove the “TeaCoffee” feature from the schema:

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig = Get-ResourceConfig

[PS] C:\>$ResourceConfig.ResourcePropertySchema.Remove
 ("Room/TeaCoffee")
True
[PS] C:\>Set-ResourceConfig -Instance $ResourceConfig
[PS] C:\>Get-ResourceConfig | fl ResourcePropertySchema

ResourcePropertySchema : {Equipment/GPS, Equipment/Car,
 Equipment/Van, Room/Teleconference, Room/Projector,
 Room/Whiteboard}

Applying Changes to Resource Mailboxes

Custom resource properties can be added to mailboxes via the Resource Information tab in the mailbox properties.

Click on the Add button, choose the custom property you wish to add, and then click OK.

Click on OK again to apply the change to the mailbox

The custom property is now visible to end users in Outlook when choosing the room for a meeting request.

Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 3 – Custom Resource Properties

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In my last post I explained the concept of resource mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007, and demonstrated the creation of a Room Mailbox for managing meeting room bookings.  In this post I will discuss the other type of resource mailbox – Equipment Mailboxes.

Equipment Mailboxes

Many businesses have tools or equipment that is provided by the company for staff to share and use for work related activities.  For example, a company might have a portable projector that sales staff can carry to client offices for demonstrations, or a pool car that is used by field technicians to get to remote locations.

In order to manage the allocation of these resources to staff an Equipment Mailbox with a calendar is created so that staff can book the resource using Outlook.To create an Equipment Mailbox launch the New Mailbox wizard in the Exchange Management Console.

After choosing Equipment Mailbox I then choose to create the mailbox with a new user account.

Fill out the user information fields. Although you must choose a password here you are not likely to ever need to use it, so just make it something secure.

Choose a mailbox database to store the Equipment Mailbox.

Complete the New Mailbox wizard.  You can now see the newly created Equipment Mailbox in the recipient list for the organisation.

As with the Room Mailbox created in the last post, the Exchange server has automatically disabled the user account associated with the Equipment Mailbox and set the password to never expire.

Equipment Mailboxes also have the “Resource Information” tab the same as Room Mailboxes.  Although the “Resource Capacity” field makes little sense for something like a portable projector, it can still be relevant to other uses of the Equipment Mailbox.  For example a company car might have the seat capacity listed here.

To automate the booking process you can set the mailbox calendar to automatically accept new bookings.

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings portableprojector
 -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept

This will set the Equipment Mailbox to automatically accept any new bookings provided they do not conflict with an existing booking.

Users within the organisation can now add the Equipment Mailbox as a Resource to meeting requests.

In a practical sense the portable projector is invited as an attendee and automatically accepts the booking because there are no prior bookings that conflict with it.

By creating Equipment Mailboxes for shared items within the business it makes it fast and simple for staff to book the items they need when they need them, without incurring any administrative overhead for IT administrators or other staff who might normally manage such resources.

Read the next part of the series: Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 3 – Custom Resource Properties

Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 2 – Equipment Mailboxes

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Prior to the release of Exchange Server 2007 the concept of a resource mailbox was already well established.  Organisations had a need to make bookings for meeting rooms or equipment, and so the Exchange administrators created a user account and mailbox so that a calendar was available to manage the bookings.

Although this suited most organisations pretty well there were administrative overheads with this approach.  The calendars could not be easily managed by administrators without logging on to the mailbox to change certain settings.  Delegating management of the calendars to specific staff was also cumbersome.

Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes

With the release of Exchange Server 2007 resource mailboxes are much easier to create and manage.  Exchange Server 2007 introduced two types of resource mailbox:

Room Mailbox – These are intended for locations such as meeting rooms and training rooms.

Equipment Mailbox – These are intended for items such as pool cars, video projectors, or any other shared portable item.

Room Mailboxes

Most businesses have some kind of meeting room in their offices that needs to be booked for scheduled meetings.  The Exchange Server 2007 Room Mailbox is perfect for this task, providing a bookable calendar resource that people can add to meetings in Outlook.To create a Room Mailbox launch the New Mailbox wizard in the Exchange Management Console.

Here I am creating a mailbox for a new user account.

Fill out the user information fields.  You can record the password somewhere if you like, but you will likely never need to use it so any secure password you enter here is fine.

Choose a mailbox database to store the Room Mailbox.  Some organisations choose to have a specific mailbox database for resource mailboxes so that different storage quotas can be applied to them.

Complete the New Mailbox wizard.  You will now see the newly created mailbox in the list of recipients for the organisation.  Note that the recipient type is shown as Room Mailbox instead of User Mailbox.

You will also notice that Exchange has automatically disabled the user account for you, and set the password to never expire.  Prior to Exchange Server 2007 this had to be performed manually by the Exchange administrator.

A closer look at the properties of the Room Mailbox reveals an additional “Resource Information” tab.

You can use this tab to set properties such as the room capacity.  Here I have set the capacity to 12 seats.  Capacity is an informational attribute only, it does not prevent a person from inviting too many people to a meeting in a room without enough capacity.

To reduce the burden of managing bookings for a Room Mailbox you can set the mailbox calendar to automatically accept bookings.  This can be subject to certain conditions, such as only accepting bookings during certain times of day, whether or not to accept recurring bookings, and whether or not to allow conflicting bookings to be made.

To configure the Room Mailbox to automatically accept bookings use the following Exchange Management Shell command.

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings meetingroom1 -AutomateProcessing
 AutoAccept

Users within the organisation can now simply add the Room Mailbox to a meeting that they are organising in order to book that meeting room.

The Room Mailbox will accept the booking and update its calendar accordingly.

Other people making bookings for that room will now be able to see whether the room will be available at the time they wish to make their booking.

And all of this is achieved using built in functionality of Exchange Server 2007 without a lot of administrative overhead.

Part 2 of the series: Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 2 – Equipment Mailboxes

Part 3 of the series: Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 3 – Custom Resource Properties

Exchange Server 2007 Resource Mailboxes Part 1 – Room Mailboxes

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