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How to use ABSConfig.exe (06-Sept-08) |
Its been
always an interesting topic to discuss about the scope
of users who would be shown in the address book search.
Suppose you have an organization where OCS is deployed
but not all of the users are enabled for OCS. You have
broadly three categories of users:
-
Users
which are enabled for SIP (they might be enabled for
email as well).
-
Users
which are having either telephone number, home
number or mobile number.
-
Users
which are enabled for email but not for SIP, and
these users don't have their contact number
configured in their Active Directory account.
If a
communicator user will be able to search only above two
types of users. The third category users which are
enabled for email but not for SIP and they don't have
contact number set in active directory account, will not
appear in address book search of Microsoft Office
Communicator.
An Active Directory user should have at least one of the
following attributes set before it appears in Address
book search.
You can
use ABS Configuration Tool (absconfig.exe), if
you want to
enable administrators to configure AD attributes and WMI
settings, related to ABS.
Using this
tool you can decide if you want any user with particular
AD attribute set, should appear in address book search
or not! Suppose any organization doesn't want non-SIP
enabled users to appear in address book search, you can
use ABS Configuration Tool to achieve that.
ABS Configuration Tool
ABS Configuration Tool is a graphical user interface
application that enables administrators to configure AD
attributes and WMI settings, related to ABS.
The primary scenarios for the tool are:
1.
To enable administrators to map attributes in the AD to
the attributes for Office Communicator.
2.
To enable administrators to specify the list of
attributes to be included in the ABS files.
3.
To enable administrators to configure WMI settings and
thereby all common tasks related to ABS files.
ABS Configuration Tool can be run only from a
domain-joined computer that has Microsoft Office
Communications Server installed. In the case of an
Enterprise Edition of Office Communications Server, this
tool can be run on either of the Front Ends that have
ABS enabled during setup.
ABS Configuration Tool can be started using
absConfig.exe file. The tool opens up with a User
Interface that shows two tabs. The first tab called
“Configure Attributes” can be used to map AD attributes
to the attribute fields for Office Communicator and also
to specify what users to include in ABS files based on
specific filters. The second tab called “Configure WMI”
can be used to specify values for WMI settings and also
to specify the normalization rules to apply to the phone
numbers for ABS files. The “Restore Defaults” button can
be used to restore all the ABS-related install time
default values.
If you get following error while starting absconfig.exe
:
Exception: System.ArgumentOutofRangeException: Value of '6/20/2008
1:30:00 AM' is not valid for 'Value'. 'Value' should be
between 'MinDate' and 'MaxDate'.
Parameter name: Value
at System.Windows.Form.DateTimePicker.set_Value(DateTime
value)
at ABSConfig.MainForm.WMIConfigInit()
Follow the kb….
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954749
As per
this kb, you need to contact Microsoft Support Center to
get the hotfix. This hotfix contains the new
absconfig.exe file what you need to use.
ABS
Configuration Tool is part of resource kit. If you
install the resource kit in 'C' drive, you will find
this tool (ABSConfig.exe) under following location.
C:\Program
Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007\ResKit
You need to
double click ABSConfig.exe to start it. By default
following attributes will be checked. You can configure
it as per the requirement what suits your organization.
You can also
apply include or exclude filters, and you can also
define what value of the phone number do you want to
include in the ABS files.
If you want to create address book files as per OU
(organizational Unit), you can do that as per following
image. In addition to that you can use this tool to
configure following Synchronization time and
Synchronization time interval.
This tool can also be used to configure normalization
rules. Actually you cant create normalization rules
using this tool but you can specify any one of the
following four options:
Apply both generic built-in-normalization rules and
company specific normalization rules.
Apply only generic built-in-normalization rules.
Apply only company-specific normalization rules.
Apply no rules.
You can also use this tool to specify to create a delta
file, if the ABS file is changed by specified
percentage.
After making
and applying the change in ABSConfig.exe, run ABServer -syncnow
command. It'll create a new Address Book file as per
change made by you. If you dont run ABServer -syncnow
command, wait till the next scheduled synchronization
time.
Related Links:
ABSConfig.exe behaving unexpected
