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Q268324: XCLN: Corrupted Offline Address Books from Changes to PDN List

Article: Q268324
Product(s): Microsoft Exchange
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbExchange550preSP4fix kbOffice2000preSR2fix kbExchange550sp4Fix kbExchange2000SP1Fix
Last Modified: 13-JUL-2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Outlook 98 
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 
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SYMPTOMS
========

Outlook 98 for Microsoft Windows NT or Outlook 2000 for Microsoft Windows NT
users who use the offline Address Book may not be able to send an e-mail message
to a user in the offline Address Book. After the user sends the e-mail message,
the user may receive non-delivery report (NDR) error messages that are similar
to the following:

  

  Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. 

     Subject:  Subject of the Message 
     Sent:     6/18/00 2:00 PM 

  The following recipient(s) could not be reached: 

     Andersen, Amy on 6/18/00 2:00 PM 
           The message was undelivered because the specified recipient postal address was incorrect 
           MSEXCH:MSExchangeIS:SITENAME:SERVERNAME

  -or-

  Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. 

     Subject:  Subject of the Message 
     Sent:     6/27/00 2:51 PM 

  The following recipient(s) could not be reached: 

     's/cn=DirectoryName' on 6/27/00 2:51 PM 
           No transport provider was available for delivery to this recipent.

This issue occurs when users perform incremental offline Address Book downloads
rather than full offline Address Book downloads.

CAUSE
=====

This issue can occur if the parent distinguished name (PDN) list changes on the
server.

RESOLUTION
==========

To resolve this problem:

1. Obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server 5.5.

2. For Outlook 2000 clients, obtain SP 2 for Office 2000.

NOTE: For Outlook 98 clients, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to
obtain a fix. Visit the following Microsoft Web site at:

  http://support.microsoft.com/directory/default.asp

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server 5.5.
For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q191014 XGEN: How to Obtain the latest Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or
later:

Component: Outlook 98

+----------------------------+
| File name    | Version     | 
+----------------------------+
| Emsabp32.dll | 5.5.2654.5  | 
+----------------------------+
| Emsmdb32.dll | 5.5.2652.94 | 
+----------------------------+
| Emsui32.dll  | 5.5.2651.80 | 
+----------------------------+
| Mspst32.dll  | 5.5.2651.85 | 
+----------------------------+

Component: Outlook 2000

+---------------------------+
| File name    | Version    | 
+---------------------------+
| Emsabp32.dll | 5.5.3142.0 | 
+---------------------------+
| Emsui32.dll  | 5.5.3141.0 | 
+---------------------------+
| Mspst32.dll  | 5.5.3138.0 | 
+---------------------------+
| Exsec32.dll  | 5.5.3137.0 | 
+---------------------------+
| Contab32.dll | 9.0.0.4221 | 
+---------------------------+
| Pstprx32.dll | 9.0.3929.0 | 
+---------------------------+
| Bjablr32.dll | 1.0.3.26   | 
+---------------------------+
| Bjlogb32.dll | 3.2.0.26   | 
+---------------------------+
| Bjsrch32.dll | 1.0.3.26   | 
+---------------------------+
| Emablt32.dll | 1.0.3.26   | 
+---------------------------+



WORKAROUND
==========

To work around this issue, perform a full offline Address Book download.

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Outlook 98 and
Microsoft Outlook 2000. This problem was first corrected in Exchange Server 5.5
Service Pack 4.

MORE INFORMATION
================

There is an architectural limitation in the offline Address Book differential
download mechanism. This section describes how the offline Address Book works
and how this limitation is manifested.

On the server, the Exchange Server system attendant creates an offline Address
Book and places that offline Address Book in a public folder. To do this, the
system attendant calls the Oabgen.dll file. This file contains all of the
functions to create and update an offline Address Book. On the server, the
offline Address Book is completely contained in an e-mail message as
attachments. This e-mail message is placed in a public folder so that all
clients can retrieve this e-mail message. To create the offline Address Book,
the Oabgen.dll file scans all the entries in the global address list and builds
the list from the global address list. In the offline Address Book, a PDN block
is created that has all of the container names that have e-mail objects in the
global address list. The following is an example of a PDN:

  /o=Organization/ou=Site/cn=Recipients

An offline Address Book also contains relative distinguished names (RDNs). This
is the user's directory name in the Exchange Server Administrator program. The
following is an example of an RDN:

  /cn=TestUser

The offline Address Book organizes a user by joining the RDN with the PDN, so
that the user is actually the following:

  /o=Organization/ou=Site/cn=Recipients/cn=TestUser

To put the two pieces together, there are pointers in the records that indicate
that the address Test User is composed of the RDN at offset x, which is
/cn=TestUser, and the PDN at offset y, which contains
/o=Organization/ou=Site/cn=Recipients.

When an offline Address Book generation is run, two messages are created in a
public folder: a message that contains a full download and a message that
contains the changes after the last full download message was created. If there
are new containers in the global address list after the last full download
message was created, the PDN block is updated alphabetically with the new entry,
and the new RDN to the changes message is included. When this new RDN is added
to the changes message, a pointer to the PDN block offset is included.

If a user requests a differential download at this point, Outlook locates the
changes message, and incorporates the changes into the current offline Address
Book that is on the client. It is at this point that the limitation of the
offline Address Book is manifested. Because the client only retrieves the
changes message, and not the full download message, the client has an out of
date PDN block. The PDN block that the client now has may not have a PDN for the
new RDNs that were just merged, or if a container was removed, the PDN on the
client still may contain that container.

If a new user was just merged, the user's offline Address Book may point to a PDN
block that does not exist. This incorrect pointer can cause NDRs if the user
tries to send a message to that user. The only way to make the user's PDN block
match the server's PDN block is to perform a full download. The full download
uses the full download message from the public folder, and therefore obtains the
correct PDN list. This enables future differential downloads to work with the
updated PDN block. This offline Address Book works correctly until the container
structure changes.

Offline Address Book corruption can appear somewhat random because the PDN block
is sorted alphabetically. If an entry is added to the PDN block, old pointers in
the user's offline Address Book point to a totally incorrect place in the PDN
block. Similarly, if an entry is removed from the PDN list, the pointers are
incorrect.

What the Fix Does
-----------------

Microsoft has developed a resolution for the preceding issue. In this fix, both
the server and the client have been modified. This section describes how this
fix addresses this issue.

On the Server:

On the server, the Oabgen.dll file has been modified so that if the PDN list must
be modified, the Oabgen.dll file does not post a changes message. This choice
leverages behavior that the client exhibits if the changes message is absent,
which is explained in the following section.

On the Client:

On the client, the Emsabp32.dll file has been modified to locate one of the
following registry keys:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider
  Value: Allow Full OAB Prompt
  Type: REG_DWORD
  Data: 0 is disabled, 1 or nonzero is enabled

  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\Exchange Provider
  Value: Allow Full OAB Prompt
  Type: REG_DWORD
  Data: 0 is disabled, 1 or nonzero is enabled

NOTE: The HKEY_CURRENT_USER value overrides the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE value if both
values are present.

If either of the preceding registry keys are enabled, a user requests a
differential download, and the client cannot find the changes message in the
public folder, a dialog box is displayed that contains the following text:

  Outlook is about to download a full version of the offline Address Book.
  Would you like to continue?

The user can click Yes or No in this dialog box. If the user clicks No, nothing
is downloaded, and the user can continue to use the current offline Address
Book. This behavior is necessary to ensure that if users are connected over a
slow link, those users can stop a full download from occurring. This way, a user
can schedule a full download when a full download is convenient.
If the Emsabp32.dll file does not find the registry keys, or the registry values
are set to zero, Outlook reverts to the default behavior of the Emsabp32.dll
file, which downloads the full offline Address Book if the changes message is
not found. Also, there is no indication to the user that a full download is in
progress. In some cases, a full offline Address Book download can take several
hours.

If the user clicks Yes in the dialog box, a full offline Address Book is
downloaded. This keeps the user's PDN list up to date with the server's PDN
list.


Additional query words: OAB GAL

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Keywords          : kbExchange550preSP4fix kbOffice2000preSR2fix kbExchange550sp4Fix kbExchange2000SP1Fix 
Technology        : kbOutlookSearch kbOutlook2000Search kbOutlook98Search kbZNotKeyword3
Version           : :
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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