Archive for December 2013

Out of Office not working when accessing Outlook using Outlook Anywhere

In the mix environment of Exchange Server 2007 and 2010, after doing cut over of Client Access Server and Hub Transport Server to Exchange Server 2010, everything was working fine, Mailflow, Outlook, OWA, FreeBusy, OOF, OAB, IMAP, POP (Internally) and Outlook, OWA, FreeBusy, OAB, IMAP, POP (Externally) except Out of Office.

I could access the FreeBusy and OAB information using Outlook Anywhere of the users on Exchange 2007 as well as 2010, but I couldn't access the OOF for any of the users when accessing it via Outlook Anywhere.
Now, to access the FreeBusy and OOF exchange uses EWS (Exchange Web Services), which was working fine, but when it comes to accessing or setting up OOF, it use to fail with the standard error. "Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later"

We are using TMG Server 2010 to publish the exchange services like, OWA, Active Sync, Outlook Anywhere, POP and IMAP. TMG is running Active/Passive Cluster (I wouldn't do it like this). Cause you are not utilizing both the TMG server when running Active/Passive.

After spending sometime on TMG Server I found something which was kind of hard to believe. This is how you are going to fix this issue.
Open TMG Console, go to Firewall Policy, look for Outlook Anywhere Rule.









Double click on Outlook Anywhere Policy and click on Paths TAB.



























Make sure that you have Internal Path for EWS is set as /ews/*
Initially this path was missing from OA Rule, after making this entry, apply the changes. Now you can set your Out of Office and it will work like a charm from Outlook Anywhere.


This is my last article and also on the last day of year 2013. I hope everyone had great 2013 year. Wishing you all Happy and Prosperous New Year 2014.

Cheers,

EXCHANGE RANGER