TROUBLESHOOTING FREE/BUSY ISSUES IN EXCHANGE 2003 SERVER

Below are the steps to troubleshoot free/busy related issues:

STEP 01: Check if the user is some kind of Manager and has a Delegate who accepts meeting requests on his behalf. If that is the case, it is a known issue and described in the below KB: 309185.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309185

Open user's Outlook and click on Tools-->Options and go to the "Delegates" tab.

 "Meetings that are placed in an owner's calendar by a delegate do not display free/busy information for additional meeting attendees in Outlook" and suggested workaround "To see the free/busy information for all recipients, the meeting request must be accepted by the mailbox owner, or the delegate can open the owner's Inbox and accept the meeting request from the owner's Inbox"

Mentioned in the kb: 309185

Meetings that are placed in an owner's calendar by a delegate do not display free/busy information for additional meeting attendees in Outlook

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=309185

STEP 02: If one user is unable to see free busy information of other users from Outlook, check if he can see from OWA. If he can see from OWA and not from Outlook, then the issue is with his Outlook client. This is not server related issue. Create a new Outlook profile for the user or configure his Outlook profile on a different machine. Also try sending a new meeting request by configuring the user's profile in online mode. Make sure Outlook is not set to work offline.

STEP 03: Run Outlook with "/cleanfreebusy" Switch. This switch resets the Resource Scheduling and Delegate Settings. Once Outlook has started with this switch, it will clear and regenerate free/busy information, removing scheduled resources from mailboxes that no longer exist. In short, it will update the free/busy information.

1. From your computer's Desktop screen, navigate to Start and select Run

2. At the Run dialog box type in: Outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy

PLEASE NOTE: you must include the space between Outlook.exe and the /cleanfreebusy switch

3. Press OK

Even the affected user can check the above three steps.

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You can ask the user to follow the below steps and ask the below questions:

1. Configure a new profile in Outlook online mode and check the free busy information.

2. Start Outlook with Outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy from run command.

3. Check in Tools--->Options and Delegates tab. See if there is any other user as delegate and check what all can the Delegate does on behalf of the owner.

A. How often does the client experience this problem? Is client able to view/publish free/busy sometimes?

B. If one user is unable to view another user's free/busy, can anyone else that person's free/busy information?

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STEP 04: Check the mailbox store in which the user's mailbox is located. Check which public folder store that mailbox store is homed. [OR] If unable to view/publish one users free/busy, where is the free/busy Public Folder for that person homed?

You can check this from mailbox store's properties in the General tab under "Default public folder:". Make sure that this server is located locally and that it is not remote. This server is generally the public folder server in the same Administrative group.

STEP 05: Check replica for Schedule+ free/busy folder under System Folders in ESM. Make sure the right servers are added here for replication.

Open ESM, Expand Folders and Public folders, connect to the server desired and right-click and select "View System Folders". You will see a folder by name "SCHEDULE + FREE BUSY". You will see sub folders under this folder. Right click on the sub-folders, go to the properties and check the following:

-- Replication tab. Ensure that right servers are listed here. If not, add the server. Add only public folder servers here.

-- Public Folder replication Interval.

STEP 06: Check the contents tab in ESM for the F/B folder under public folder. Ensure that you see the posts for the affected users.

Open ESM, Expand Folders and Public folders, connect to the server desired and right-click and select "View System Folders". You will see a folder by name "SCHEDULE + FREE BUSY". You will see sub folders under this folder. Select the sub-folder and in the right pane, click on content. Check the Schedule + Free Busy folder entry for the user. It is a post. Check if the affected user has a post here. If not there, then send a test meeting request to the user.

STEP 07: Check for the siteFolderServer attribute and make sure it is pointing to the right server.

Open ADSIEdit.msc. Check the attribute value of siteFolderServer of the Administrative Group where the users' mailbox resides and ensure that the public folder store server listed is correct and is not remote but a local server. You need windows support tools to be installed to run ADSIEdit tool.

STEP 08: Use Updatefb.exe to republish absent free/busy data in case you do not see any posts at all in the F/B folder contents.

How to use Updatefb.exe to republish absent free/busy data

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=294282

STEP 09: Run DCDiag and Netdiag to see if there are any replication failures across domain controllers in the forest. Run ExBPA. Analyze the results. Increase diagnostics logging for Public folders and System  folders under MSExchangeIS and monitor the events. You need windows support tools to be installed to run netdiag and dcdiag. You need to download and install ExBPA to run ExBPA.

Try the URL: http://www.exbpa.com/. This will automatically take you to <http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/exchange/bb288481(en-us).aspx>.

STEP 10: Use MFCMAPI (MapiEditor) to determine if Free/Busy information is present in the user's local folder. Also, check for duplicate F/B messages for the user. If multiple copies exist, delete the oldest ones and leave the newest one.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;291794

STEP 11: Obtain an LDP dump of a working user and non-working user (if applicable) and compare the output:

XADM: Alternative Methods to Obtain a Dump of an Object

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;271201

Look for the LegacyExchangeDN value of a working user and a non-working user. Make sure to add X500 address if not present. 

I am sure there would be many, who would have more info on troubleshooting FreeBusy, would love hear from them and their Tips and tricks.