If the data in the Schedule+ Free Busy system folder is
deleted (by the use of the Guidgen.exe utility or by other means), there is an
unsupported utility that allows the free/busy data to quickly and automatically
repopulate. This utility is used to add an appointment to the calendar of all
affected users, which is the equivalent of sending an appointment by means of
e-mail and having all users accept it manually.
To obtain this
utility, please contact Microsoft Support.
Important Microsoft does not support this utility. The use of this utility
may corrupt your free/busy information. Microsoft cannot guarantee that
problems caused by the utility can be fixed. Use of this tool is at your own
risk.
Currently two versions of this utility exists that you can
obtain by contacting Microsoft Product Support Services:
- Updatefb.exe - A graphical user interface (GUI) Visual
Basic version of the utility.
- CPPCDO - A command-line .cpp file version.
To obtain the two versions of the utility, contact Microsoft
Product Support Services at the following Microsoft Web site:
Note To use the two utilities, you must install Collaboration Data
Objects (CDO) on the Exchange Server computer that runs the utilities. For the
best results, run these commands from the console of the Exchange Server
computer. In addition, you must log on to the Exchange Server computer by using
a Microsoft Windows NT account, and you must have the permission to change each
user's calendar (for example, service account).
For more information about how to assign service account access in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
262054
How to get service account access to all mailboxes in Exchange 2000
821897 How to assign service account access to all mailboxes in Exchange Server 2003
Before you run either of these utilities, create a
Comma Separated Value (CSV) input file that lists each user's mailbox whose
free-and-busy information you want to update. In the CSV file, list the
mailboxes in the following format:
Mailbox Alias, Mailbox Home Server
To run the Updatefb.exe Visual Basic (GUI) utility:
- Double-click the Updatefb.exe file.
- In the GUI, type the path to an input file, and then type a
path to an output file.
- Click UpdateFB, to start processing the CSV file.
Note The input file is the path to the CSV input file. The output
file logs the procedures performed by the UpdateFB program as the program
runs.
The CPPCDO command-line version of the program runs with the
following parameters:
CPPCDO <input filename><output filename>
The utility performs the following steps:
- The utility reads the CSV file into memory.
- The utility connects to the calendar of each mailbox
listed, one at a time, in the CSV file by using MAPI and CDO.
- The utility adds a 30 minute appointment, that has no
reminder, for 11:00 P.M., today's date, to the user's calendar.
- The utility quits the CDO and MAPI session, which forces
the local free-and-busy map to be changed.
- A message is then posted in the free-and-busy system folder
that represents the user's free-and-busy time.
Note If you use Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 and you require an automated method to create the input file for UpdateFB, follow these steps:
- Install Microsoft Windows 2000 Support Tools or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Support Tools.
- Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
- Type the following command, and then press ENTER: csvde -f updatefb.txt -d "CN=organizational unit,DC=domain name,DC=com" -r (mailnickname=*) -l mailnickname,msexchhomeservername -p subtree
This command creates a three-column file with the distinguished name, mail nickname, and home server name. - Delete the distinguished name, and then use Microsoft Excel to remove the home server name so only the network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) name of the server remains.