XADM: AutoReply Attributes Do Not Affect Out Of Office Option

Auto-Reply, AutoReply-Message, and AutoReply-Subject are three attributes in a mailbox object that are no longer used by Microsoft Exchange Server. The Mialbox.csv file that shipped with Exchange Server 4.0 includes these fields; the Resource-Kit "Import Header Tool" program also generates these fields. These are valid attributes that can be set, modified, and read, but do not affect any functionality within Exchange Server. This functionality is also incorrectly documented in the Schema.hlp file.

When you export to a CSV that has all of the fields defined, the Auto- Reply, AutoReply-Message, and AutoReply-Subject fields will be empty by default. These fields can be modified via the import function, but the Out- Of-Office function of the mailbox will not be changed.

The Out-Of-Office function of a mailbox cannot be set via the Import function of Exchange Server.

Originally, the Out-Of-Office functionality in Exchange Server was handled by the MTA; therefore, these properties were in the directory object. Since the release of Exchange Server version 4.0, this functionality is handled in the information store to allow for increased flexibility of the Out-Of- Office function.