Basic Management of Recipient Objects

Even after they have been created, recipient objects still require care from administrators. Some of the basic management activities are as follows :

• Using templates for recipient creation

• Filtering a recipient

• Finding a recipient

• Moving a mailbox

• Using address lists

Each of these activities is covered briefly in the following discussions.

Using Templates for Recipient Creation

A template is a pattern that can be used to more efficiently create something ‚ in this case, a recipient object. A template recipient, or multiple template recipients, can be created with the desired default values. These default values can then be used when creating actual recipient objects.

Any object can be used as a template. A simple method is to create an object, such as a user , that holds all of the default attribute settings you desire . Once the template is created, use it by highlighting it and then selecting the Copy command from the Action menu of the Active Directory Users and Computers tool. The New Object Wizard will open , just as when you create a new object, except that all of the default information configured in the template will already appear in the new object. The exception is that no matter what type of template object you use, the first name, last name, display name, alias name, directory name , and e-mail address are not copied to the new recipient objects created from the template.

Note ‚  

When you create a recipient to use as a template, you probably will want to hide the recipient from the address book using the template ‚ s Exchange Advanced property page. This way, users won ‚ t be able to view it in the GAL. You will always be able to see it in Active Directory Users and Computers, though. You should also name your template in such a way that it is both easy to find and easy to distinguish from regular recipients. For example, you might name all of your templates with an underscore ( _ ) at the beginning so that they all appear at the top of the list.

Filtering a Recipient

By default, all types of recipients are shown in Active Directory Users and Computers, including public folders. You can filter that view with the View menu so that only select types of recipients are shown. Filtering your recipient view can be useful if you are looking for a specific recipient and the list based on recipient type is not very long, or if you need to select all the recipients of a certain type.

In addition to using the View menu, you can also apply more advanced filters that let you view sets of objects according to selected attribute settings. To apply a filter, select a container holding Exchange recipients in Active Directory Users and Computers (such as Users), and choose Filter Options from the View menu. This opens the Filter Options dialog shown in Figure 5.12.

Figure 5.12: Filtering recipients

The default setting is to view recipients of all types. Click the Show Only The Following Types Of Objects option, and check the types of recipients you want to view. When you click OK, only those types of recipients are displayed in the Users container. The Filter Options dialog also lets you specify how many recipients should be displayed per folder.

Note ‚  

The filter options you set apply to the entire Active Directory hierarchy, not just the Users container. This means that if you set the filter to show only users and groups, for example, no computers will show up in your Computers folder until you reset the filter.

Finding a Recipient

Active Directory Users and Computers provides a recipient search tool with sophisticated search criteria. Open this tool by selecting the Find command in the Action menu. This command opens the Find Users, Contacts, and Groups window, shown in Figure 5.13.

Figure 5.13: Finding a recipient

Use the Find field to specify what types of objects you want to find. The default is to find users, contacts, and groups. Use the In field to specify the container in which you want to perform the search. The default is to search in the Users container. Enter any part of a name or description, and click Find Now to begin the search. The Find window expands to display the results. You can manipulate objects in the Find window just as you would in the main Active Directory Users and Computers window by right-clicking them to access their shortcut menus .

There are also a few advanced options you can use to narrow your search. The Exchange tab in the Find window lets you specify that you want to view only Exchange recipients in your search results and even lets you set the specific types of recipients you want displayed.

Moving a Mailbox

Physically, mailboxes and their contents reside on their home server. Mailboxes can be moved to other servers or to other mailbox stores on the same server. This is done through Active Directory Users and Computers. Simply highlight the user whose mailbox you want to move, and select the Exchange Tasks command from the Action menu. On the first screen, select the Move Mailbox option. The Exchange Task Wizard will then step you through choosing a new server and storage group for the mailbox, as seen in Figure 5.14. When you finish the wizard, the mailbox is moved.

Figure 5.14: Moving a mailbox to a different server

When you move a mailbox, the size of the mailbox can increase. When a message is sent to multiple recipients in the same storage group, Exchange stores only one copy of the message on the server and gives all the recipients on that server a pointer to that single copy. This is called single-instance storage . But when a mailbox is moved outside the storage group, the single-instance storage for that mailbox is lost in the new location because each message must be copied there. For example, suppose 10 mailboxes take up 55 MB of disk space in the Private Information Store. Each mailbox has five messages of 1 MB and a pointer to five single-instance messages of 1 MB. If those 10 mailboxes were moved to another server, the single-instance storage would be lost, and each mailbox would have 10 MB of storage. The Private Information Store on the new server would increase by 100 MB.

Mailboxes might be moved for several reasons:

• To balance the load between servers

• To move mailboxes to a server that is on the same local area network as the mailbox owners

• To take a server down for maintenance reasons and still allow users access to their mailboxes

Because groups and contacts are primarily logical entities, they are not tied to any one specific Exchange server. You can move these objects into different containers within the Active Directory organization if needed.

Using Address Lists

Users on your network normally search for other users using the Global Address List (GAL), which contains all messaging recipients in an organization. If your network contains a large number of recipients, searching through the GAL for a specific recipient can become a daunting task. Fortunately, you can configure your own address lists that limit the scope of recipients included in the list.

Default Address Lists

Exchange Server 2003 comes with several default address lists built in. When a user opens their address list in a client application, they can choose which address list to view. Table 5.1 shows the default address lists.

Table 5.1: Default Address Lists in Exchange Server 2003

Address List	Contains
All Contacts	All mail-enabled contacts in the organization.
All Groups	All mail-enabled groups in the organization. These include both security and distribution groups.
All Users	All mailbox-enabled and mail-enabled users in the organization.
Public Folders	All mail-enabled public folders in the organization that are not hidden from the address list.
Default Global Address List	All recipients in the organization.

Custom Address Lists

Exchange Server 2003 also lets you create your own custom address lists based on most of the fields available on recipient objects. For example, you could create an address list that showed only the users based in a certain city or in a certain department. Address lists are created in the Recipients container in System Manager, as shown in Figure 5.15.

Figure 5.15: Viewing address lists in System Manager

All address lists must be created inside other address lists. To create a top-level address list, create it inside the All Address Lists list. Since address lists can be nested, you can get pretty sophisticated in creating an address list structure. For example, suppose that you wanted your users to be able to quickly locate your corporate executives. You might first create an address list called Corporate Executives. Under that you could then create additional address lists named Board Members , Executive Secretaries, and Vice Presidents. Under these lists you could go even further by creating lists for geographical location. Figure 5.16 shows a hierarchy like this example. You could alternatively create address lists that are nested by state, city, and building if you desired.

Figure 5.16: Creating nested address lists

Note ‚  

Nesting address lists also provides a way to hide address lists from users. You can deny access to an address list by denying the user the Open Address List permission on the list ‚ s Security property page. However, this only prevents the user from viewing the contents of the list, not from viewing the list itself. The way around this is to create an empty address list and deny the Open Address List permission on that list. Name this list whatever you like. Then, create any address lists you want to be hidden from view inside this address list.

When you create a new address list, a dialog box opens that lets you name the list and set up filter rules that define the recipients contained in the list. You can set up the filter rules when you create the list or go back and do it later by opening the property pages for the list. When we are creating a nest of address lists, we often find it helpful to go ahead and create the structure by simply creating and naming the lists and then going back later to set up the filter rules.

You create filter rules using an interface much like the one used for finding recipients in Active Directory that we discussed earlier in the chapter (see Figure 5.17). Use the General tab of this dialog box to choose the types of recipients you want included on the list. Use the Storage tab to specify the server on which mailboxes or public folders are stored. Use the Advanced tab to restrict membership on the list by selecting criteria for specific fields for a recipient, such as their city, department, or any custom attribute.

Figure 5.17: Setting up filter rules for an address list

Offline Address Lists

Offline address lists are typically used by people who are not always connected to the Exchange network. Offline address lists are copies of online address lists that are stored on a user ‚ s local computer using an .oab extension. By default, the Default Global Address List is used to generate a Default Offline Address List. You can also create custom offline address lists by right-clicking the Offline Address Lists container in System Manager (refer to Figure 5.15) and choosing New Offline Address List. When creating the new offline address list, you will specify the list ‚ s name, the server that will store the new list, and any address lists (default or custom) that will be used to generate the new offline address list.

Recipient Update Service

The Recipient Update Service (RUS) is a component of the System Attendant service that is responsible for building and maintaining address lists. RUS polls Active Directory for updated recipient information on a predefined schedule (every one minute, by default) and updates address lists based on any new information. The RUS is also responsible for updating the e-mail addresses of any recipients that are attached to a recipient policy. Recipient policies are covered in Chapter 10, ‚“Administration and Maintenance. ‚½

The Recipient Update Services container in System Manager is shown in Figure 5.18. By default, two RUS objects are created:

• The Recipient Update Service (Enterprise Configuration) object updates the e-mail addresses of objects in the configuration partition of Active Directory. This includes objects such as the Information Store, MTA, and System Attendant.

• One Recipient Update Service (installation Active Directory domain) object exists for each Active Directory domain that contains an Exchange server. This RUS object updates the e-mail addresses for recipients found in the domain partition of Active Directory, including users, groups, public folders, and contacts. This RUS object also updates address lists based on changes to recipient objects in a domain.

  
  Figure 5.18: Viewing RUS objects in System Manager

Even though the RUS runs automatically, you can also update address lists manually using one of the following two commands, which are available by right-clicking a specific address list:

• The Update Now command updates the address list with any new changes in recipient information.

• The Rebuild command rebuilds the entire membership of the address list.

In addition, you can modify the parameters of the RUS object itself by right-clicking it and choosing Properties. The following four properties are available:

• The domain serviced by the RUS. This is not directly modifiable.

• The server in the domain responsible for generating and updating address lists for the domain.

• The domain controller that the server connects to for updated Active Directory information.

• The update interval at which the RUS will run. The Run Always option sets the RUS to run at its default ‚ every one minute.