XADM: Troubleshooting Failure to Generate Offline Address Book Problems

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Troubleshooting Procedure

To troubleshoot, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure that you are logged on as a user with at least Administrator permissions at the Organization, Site, and Configuration levels. If not, change the permissions or log on as someone with those permissions, and then attempt to generate the Offline Address Book. Ensure that the offline address book server is the server you are connected to when generating the OAB.
2. Ensure that the Offline Address Book folder is listed in the Folders on this Information Store option. To confirm whether it is listed, perform the following steps:
   
   
   1. In the Administrator window, click Servers, and select a server.
   2. Double-click Public Information Store.
   3. Click Instances.
   If the OAB is not listed, add it to this location and allow time for it to replicate. You should be able to view the properties of the OAB. Now try generating the Address Book.
   
3. If steps 1 and 2 both fail, try generating the OAB on different servers in the site. To do this, use these steps:
   
   
   1. Connect to the Exchange Administrator program on another server, and then change the OAB server entry to the new server.
   2. In the Administrator window, click Configuration, and then double- click DS Site Configuration.
   3. Click Offline Address Book and change the OAB server entry to the new server.
   4. Try to generate the OAB.
4. Next try different containers (Recipients, Custom, or Global Address List). Also, create a new container to test.
5. Start the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program in raw mode.
   
   WARNING: Using raw mode of Exchange Server Administrator incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT Server and/or Exchange Server. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of raw mode can be solved. Use raw mode at your own risk.
   
   Expand the site that contains the server. In the Configuration container, expand the Information Store Site Configuration. On the File menu, click Raw Properties. Check the server name listed for Site- Folder-Server, making sure that there is a Replica of the offline address book on this server, and that you can access the properties while you are connected to this server. If not, follow the instructions in step 2, and then try generating the Address Book.
6. If steps 3,4, and 5 fail, restart the Exchange Services in Control Panel. Double-click the Services icon, and run DS/IS consistency adjustment on the server indicated in Site-Folder-Server.
   
   NOTE: Do not perform the DS/IS consistency adjustment if the replication connection has been broken and will be reconnected later or if Directory Replication is occurring.
   
   Now try generating the OAB.
7. Check to see if there is more than one Language Template installed in any site. To verify this:
   
   
   1. Connect to one server in each site.
   2. Double-click the site name.
   3. Under the Site globe, click Configuration, Addressing, Details, Templates.
   This can also be verified at the following location:
   Configuration/Addressing/One-Off Address Templates.
   
   If more than one language is listed, make sure the server generating the OAB has the same languages installed in its site. When this situation exists, it can be resolved by either removing the additional language(s) from the other sites or installing the language templates in the site that is having problems generating the OAB.
8. Check the version of the Mapi32.dll file. It should match the appropriate version of Exchange Server. The version numbers can be verified according to the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 172036, "INFO: MAPI Version Cross Reference."
   
9. Shut down the Exchange Server computer and restart it. There may be an issue involving cached information or a locked open file that's needed for address book generation.
10. If all of the above steps seem to result in the same errors and/or events, it will be necessary to implement Guidgen on the Exchange Server computer.

CAUTION: The Guidgen utility should be used with caution. Guidgen will rebuild (erase) all the site folders. Before using Guidgen, Oabgen.dll may be the better solution.

NOTE: At each step, check the application log for errors. Run the Guidgen utility on the server that will become the new Site-Folder-Server. This will delete the existing Offline Address Book. After this has been successfully done, the Information Store on each server in the site, must be stopped and restarted before generating the offline address Book.