Exchange 2003 GAL Groups

[phughes]

Hello people,

This is my first post but here goes...

I am experiencing a problem with the GAL within exchange/outlook 2003. I am getting all the contacts and groups through correctly, but the members of these groups have changed. For example our ART_STAFF group only has one member!?!?

Our groups are pulled from security groups in AD. The group membership in AD is perfectly fine, and the groups were working perfectly within exchange until recently.

I have read some of the older posts and solution suggestions, and i have tried a few of them;

1. Re-building the offline GAL

2. Send/Receive All

3. Download offline address book

to no avail.

Has anyone got any more suggestions for me to try?

I'm hoping that it will have fixed itself by the morning

Thanks,
Pete

[PiqueABoo]

I'm not clear about the problem. Are you saying:

Last week: GroupA was in the address book and contained accounts X,Y & Z.

This week: GroupA in the address book and only contains account X, but if you look in the AD GroupA it still contains accounts X, Y & Z. Oh and that no one has been doing evil things with AD permissions inbetween?

[phughes]

Yes. That was a much better description of the problem.

[adamf]

Are any of the clients configured to use cached mode?

[phughes]

Clients are all configured to cached mode

[adamf]

Have you tried changing one back to not using cached mode and seeing if the GAL is then correct? Are they laptops or dekstops?

[phughes]

Our mahcines are both laptops and desktops.

My desktop machine is configured to live mode, the groups are still incorrect?

[adamf]

I presume you have a Global Catalog - Are there any relication errors in event viewer? Given how much Exchange relies on the GC if there are replication errors this might explain why there is a difference between AD and the GAL

[phughes]

There doesnt seem to be any replication errors.

Is there a way to view and edit the offline GAL?

[SYNACK]

I would make sure that your Global Catalogue server is not set up on a DC that holds the Infrastructure, PDC or RID roles as this can cause issues with corruption.

I would also go into the properties of both the Mailbox store and the Public folders store (attachment) and re-set the offline address book specified in the general tab. Even if it looks right this can end up pointing to a different server id and mess stuff up. Just click on the browse button next to it and type default into the search box. This should find it.

Once you have done that and preferably restarted the Exchange system attandant service and Recipient update service (better to reboot whole pc) then force a rebuild and an update of the recipient update services policy from inside System Manager then try the rebuild of the offline adress book.

Once you have done that it may take from 5 min to hours depending on how many users you have for the rebuild and update to take place (usually minutes). When this is done there should be a message in the event log to say that it has finnished.

When all of this is done I would restart the Exchange system attandant and RUS service again (again better to spring for a full reboot) and check the event log to make sure that it does not complain about the offline address book syncronisation or anything else

[phughes]

sounds like a plan.

I will give it a go on monday.

Cheers,
Pete

[phughes]

Well I started the recipient update service rebuild and and saw the event to confirm this. I did not see an event to say it had completed? This was at least 24 hours ago.

I have started an offline address list rebuild regardless and we'll see what happens. Will this mark an event as complete in application events?

Thanks for your help so far guys,
Pete

[SYNACK]

A rebuild should mark as complete but it depends on your logging level in the exchange server properties.

[phughes]

Well, rebuilt and updated everything.

I'm still in a pickle? Any more things for me to try?

I'm considering moving to another server and starting from scratch.

[SYNACK]

Well my last resort would be to go into the properties of the server object in system manager and crank up debugging as high as it will go then restart all of the exchange service and leave it for two or three hours to hopefully generate an event that will help you track it down, it may not even show as an error but only as a warning in the event log.

As Exchange is so hugely integrated with AD reinstalling may not solve the problem as it is quite likely to be linked to AD in some way.