Exchange GAL gone!

[Gatt]

OK slight crisis here
started getting calls saying that email was down (for kids)
I checked and all ok
Then more calls stating same - eventually i get someone kind enough to give me an error message

"Bookmark Not Valid" when they launch Outlook!

OWA running fine though

Checked System Manager and after much searching narrowed it down to the GAL - I couldn't find it at all!! It's gone completely!! No reference to it what so ever..

Normally I'd pull exchange off and re-instal, but since kids now have emai's that are needed as coursework - I cant

Is there anyway to restore the GAL to System Manager?

[mrforgetful]

I don't know, but you can backup the Store and do a re-install then restore the Store.

[Gatt]

have spoke to Head of ICT and he says they should be finishing the outlook tasks soon so will hang fire and wipe exchange and re-install it...

[klawd]

Maybe force a restart of the recipient update service (RUS)

This is responsible for building the GAL.

[DMcCoy]

This happens if you change the security settings on the GAL, can the administrator see the GAL? I have fixed this in the past after an accident when setting up exchange. There are some command line utilities that can set the security even if you can't access the object in things like adsiedit (to be used with caution).

[Gatt]

Tried that but the GAL has gone AWOL from System Manager

Got a feeling the ACL has got screwed too cos admin's can log into outlook & OWA fine, whereas the kids can only log into OWA
And, surprisingly, the GAL shows up!

[DMcCoy]

owa uses a different method to build the addresses.

[Gatt]

ah that would explain that part then
Do you know what the command line utils are?

[DMcCoy]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286296

is worth a look

[DMcCoy]

I'm trying to remember what I had to alter on the command lines as I couldn't get it working to start with, but I did use this to fix my GAL.