Q222893: XFOR: Troubleshooting Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes
Article: Q222893
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): 5.5
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s):
Last Modified: 30-APR-2002
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
=======
This article describes some of the steps that can be used to troubleshoot the
Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes.
MORE INFORMATION
================
The Free/Busy (F/B) process between Lotus Notes and Exchange Server is very
different depending on the direction of the F/B request. This does mean that
although an F/B transaction is successful in one direction, it does not
correlate to the same result in the other direction.
General Troubleshooting Steps
-----------------------------
- Run the Calendar Connector in console mode. For additional information, refer
to the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q197372 XFOR: How to Run Calendar Connector in Console Mode
- Enable debug-level calendaring transactions on the Notes server. For
additional information, refer to the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
Q199705 XFOR: How to Enable Detailed Logging for the Excalcon Task on Lotus
Notes
F/B Query from Exchange Server to Lotus Notes
---------------------------------------------
- Ensure that the Lotus Notes client can successfully open a connection to the
Notes server. A good test is to start up the Notes client, and attempt to
open the Name and Address book on the Notes server. If there are more than
one Notes client workspaces on the server, make sure that the correct
Notes.ini file is being used for the test.
- Make sure that Notes users do not explicitly exclude the user ID used by the
Calendar Connector. This can be ascertained by opening each person's Calendar
profile, and checking the Calendar Access option. Note that in some cases,
this user ID will be the same one used by the Microsoft Exchange Lotus Notes
Connector.
- If Notes users have not modified their Calendar profile or entered any
Calendar data, there will be no F/B information returned by the Notes server.
F/B Query from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server
---------------------------------------------
- Several changes have to be made to the mapping files used in directory
synchronization (dirsync) between Exchange Server and Lotus Notes. The
Amap.tbl file specifies which directory attributes of Exchange Server are
synchronized with the Lotus Notes directory. The Amap.tbl is located in the
Exchsrvr\Connect\Exchconn\Dxanotes directory.
1. Open the file with a text editor such as Notepad, and replace the tab stop
between CALDOM and 32 with a space.
2. Add the MailServer attribute to the end of the Amap.tbl file, and ensure
that only spaces are used to separate words. The resulting Amap.tbl should
look similar to the following:
FULLNAME 220 FullName 1
MAILDOMAIN 31 MailDomain 2
COMPANY 64 CompanyName NULL
DEPARTMENT 64 Department NULL
FIRSTNAME 64 FirstName NULL
LASTNAME 64 LastName NULL
LOCATION 128 Location NULL
SHORTNAME 64 ShortName NULL
UNID 64 $$UNID NULL
DN 256 $$DN NULL
USNCreated 16 $$USN
Initials 6 MiddleInitial NULL
Title 32 JobTitle NULL
Phone 20 OfficePhoneNumber
MobilePhn 20 CellPhoneNumber
Fax 20 OfficeFAXPhoneNumber
Resource 20 ResourceFlag
CALDOM 32 CalendarDomain
MAILSRV 32 MailServer
There will be a delay after dirsync from Exchange Server to Notes while the
Notes server reindexes some of the calendar information for Exchange
Server users. An immediate Free/Busy query might still fail until this
reindex process has completed.
- The Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes also requires that the Exchange
Calendar Connector task be added to the Notes server. In general, this add-in
server task should be included in the Notes server's Notes.ini file,
otherwise this task will have to be started manually after a restart of the
Notes server.
You can check to see that the add-in has loaded properly by typing "show task"
(without the quotation marks) in the Notes Server Console. The task name is
Excalcon, and the status line will provide the information in the following
syntax:
Exchange Cal conn <status> to <exchange server name> for
<calendar system name>. Stats=<a> <b/c> <d>
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Status Line Field | Contents |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <status> | Connected or Not Connected, depending on whether or not the task is currently connected to the Calendar Connector. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <exchange server name> | The name of the Exchange Server computer on which the Calendar Connector that this task is communicating with is installed. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <calendar system name> | The name of the Calendar System, in most cases, Exchange.box. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <a> | Total number of Exchange Server calendar requests made from Notes. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <b/c> | Average number of invitees over the average response time, in seconds, for each Exchange Server calendar request made from Notes. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| <d> | Maximum response time for all calendar requests. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Communication between this add-on task and Exchange Server is remote procedure
call (RPC)-based. If there are network communication problems, this would
also prevent the F/B information from reaching the Exchange Server computer.
For more information on testing RPC connectivity, refer to the following
article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q167260 XCLN: How to Use RPCPing to Test RPC Communication
- Make sure that the Calendar fields in the Notes document for the "Foreign
Domain for Exchange" has been updated as well. In general, the information
for the Calendar fields should match up with the existing information in the
Mail fields.
- When performing an F/B query for an Exchange Server user, do not include the
@EXCHANGE at the end of the address. This is contrary to how messaging works
between Lotus Notes and Exchange Server. For example, the following might be
used as a typical address for an Exchange Server user:
John Smith/Central/Microsoft@EXCHANGE
When entering the list of users to find F/B time, the address will be:
John Smith/Central/Microsoft
- If multiple Notes users simultaneously request F/B information for Exchange
Server users, it may cause corruption to the Exchange.box file.
- Notes users may also notice timeouts when attempting to query F/B information
for Exchange Server users. Further investigation might show that the F/B
transaction was sent successfully from Notes using the Exchange Calendar
Connector Add-on task to the Calendar Connector, but the response will fail
to come back to Notes. This might be due to a misconfiguration in the
Calendar Connector for the Lotus Notes connection.
Additional query words: calcon; RTDS; notes calendar connection; tips; help
======================================================================
Keywords :
Technology : kbExchangeSearch kbExchange550 kbZNotKeyword2
Version : :5.5
Issue type : kbhowto
=============================================================================
THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.
Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1986-2002.