Incorrectly generated Exchnage attributes 2

[primate]

Some of my AD user objects have Exchange attributes generated for them, such as home server, even though they have no associated mailbox.

If you try to setup a mailbox for the user the option is not available in Exchange tasks and it acts as if they already have a mailbox. There is no mailbox showing in System Manager for the affected users.

The affected objects are created on a Win2K DC at a separate AD site by another administrator. However not all the user objects are affected this way. The domain is a pure native mode domain.

The only way round it seem to be to use the Exchange "advanced" task of "remove all Exchange attributes" which then seems to clear all the spurious attributes succesfully and allow generation of a mailbox.

Has anyone got any ideas why this might be happening for some users and not others?

 

[flaurijssens]

Does the other admin have the same Exchange System Manager installed, same SP level, same patch level?

 

[primate]

No, but he's just creating AD user accounts rather than trying to create a mailbox at the same time, or at least he should be - does this matter?

 

[flaurijssens]

Probably, yes. The other admin isn't allowed to create mailboxes?

 

[crobin1]

We have observed the same behaviour. Because you have Exchange installed, AD is extended with Exchange attributes. When you create a user account on a DC that does not have any Exchange components on it, AD Users & Computers does not know about the extended attributes (or even ask whether to create a mailbox or not). Apparently the attributes get filled in with either blank or default vaules, and that blocks creation of a legitimate mailbox.

To avoid that problem here at work we have restricted (through policy & procedures) the creation of accounts to the Exchange servers or DCs that have the Exchange System Manager (ESM) installed.

You have some different options:[ul]
[li]Install ESM on the DC that admin uses[/li]
[li]Allow the admin to connect to whatever server you use to set up accounts[/li]
[li]Live with removing the attributes and then creating the mailbox[/li][/ul]
It seems like I saw an MS KB article one time telling how to get AD Users & Computers to show the Exchange properties for an account, without actually installing ESM, but I don't know if that would help with the creation of accounts.

 

[flaurijssens]

That's

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=292736.

It's just that you want to add the extra property pages. To do so, you need to register the dll that contains them. The property pages are referenced through Active Directory. In the configuration container, in CN=xxx,CN=DisplaySpecifiers,CN=Configuration,DC=yourdomain,DC=yoursuffix , you'll find those references.

There's an article on MSDN about writing custom property pages, and it's not that difficult.

 

[primate]

Ahah many thanks to you both!!