Software

DST upadate for Exchange 2003 Server and Outlook Client

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Blame George Bush for this DST chaos, blame Microsoft for coming out with a solution for DST that does not work for Exchange 2003 and Outlook Client.  This reminds me of the y2k bug, but that went smoothly, all patches works.  I fear it is not the same with this DST change, Microsoft the world’s largest software manufacturer royally screwed up on this.  They did not invest a lot of time developing a patch or even testing it themselves, I mean the patch for Exchange 2003 server and Outlook Client.I wasted a lot of time downloading the Exchange Calendar Update Tool, trying to decipher the thick installation instruction, installing the tool and testing it.  First of all, the instruction is absolutely horrendous, it is full of mistakes and extremely hard to understand.  The version of instructions does not match the version of tool downloaded.  While I was busy trying to apply the tool, Microsoft releases an updated version of instructions and tool.  Again, the instruction is full of mistakes, it does not match the tool.  Some of the options and features mentioned are no where to be found.  It seems that a new version is release every week.There are two errors that consistently showed up, ‘HrProcessMailboxTable:Unable find mailbox timezone:Error 0x80004005.’‘HrProcessMailboxTable:Unable log onto user mailbox:Error 0x80040305.’I tried every thing mentioned in article ‘support.microsoft.com/kb/930879’,  starting with “Grant Mailbox Permission scriptâ€?, and all the below.  But it was a time wasting exercise.Error messages and resolutions

• Unable find mailbox timezone:Error 0x80004005This error message may be caused by any of the following issues:

• The tool was unable to find any time zone values in the mailbox of that specific user. To resolve this issue, try adding “ReadCalendarTimeZones=1� (without the quotation marks) to the Msextmz.ini file to force the tool to examine recurring calendar items for time zone information. You can create a new input file by using the DNs from the error log that you received from the last run.
• You are referencing Tzmove.exe from the wrong directory. To resolve this issue, extract the downloaded installation file into the folder where Msextmz resides or update the Msextmz.ini to include a full path to where Tzmove.exe is installed on the workstation that you are using.Note When you download the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook, the Tzmove.exe file is the installer for the actual tool. Referencing the installer will cause errors when you run Msextmz.
• The account that you are using to run Msextmz does not have full mailbox permissions and has not been delegated the correct Exchange permissions. To resolve this issue, run the “Grant Mailbox Permission� script from an Exchange Server computer.

• Unable to process mailbox /O=CONTOSO/OU=FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=TESTMB01 – 0x80004005Carefully review the legacyExchangeDN and make any necessary corrections. To make sure that the value is accurate, use ADSIEdit to copy and paste the value.
• Unable open mailbox table for server /O=CompanyRoot/ OU=IT/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=EXCH01. Error 80040115This is an RPC error. Carefully review the legacyExchangeDN, and make any necessary corrections. Please Select the Valid ServerYou need the distinguished name (DN) of the server. The DN should resemble the following DN: ServerDN:/O=CompanyRoot/OU=IT/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=EXCH01
• The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the applicationThis error message occurs because the .NET Framework 2.0 is not installed.
• HrTestMailboxAccess:Unable Open mailbox – 0x8004011D.If you receive this error message during the update operation, the account that you are using does not have full access to the mailbox. The account must have Full Mailbox Access permissions to all mailboxes for the tool to be able to update the mailboxes.Verify that the correct permissions have been granted by using the method that is described in the “Configure permissions for Msextmz.exe” section.

The end result is that the tool is a waste of time,  I then resorted to updating the Outlook calendar manually one at a time.

Well, the technical horrow story continues.  I downloaded the DST update tool for Outlook, ‘support.microsoft.com/kb/931667’. This one is simple to use and understand, but it does not work, it is hit, miss and screw up.  I tested it on three different user’s calendar including mine.  I did not have many meetings scheduled for after March 11, 2007, the time shifted 1 hour to the correct schedule.  It fixed some and missed some for the other two user’s calendar.  While one of them reported that a meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday next week got moved to Thursday next week.

I would have asked the users to print out the calendar before applying the patch, but in this case it would not help.  For some reason, if the client computer had received the Windows XP DST patch, it skewed all existing meetings scheduled for after March 11 by one hour.

Microsoft states that Exchange server 2007 and Outlook 2007 do not require DST patch. So what does that mean ? Read between the lines, I leave it to your discretion.