Adding existing Exchange subscribers to Unity 4.0

[mdeloach]

Odd behaviour noted-

If I try to add a user as an internet subscriber, the web/SA tool complains if I do not select an exchange alias.

If I try to add an existing Exchange subscriber, the tool complains that I have not provided the SMTP address.

To me it looks like the form validation has it's tests backwards. Is anyone else seeing this? I have a case open with TAC, but haven't heard anything yet.

[lindborg]

The import mechanism really _should_ pull in the primary SMTP address from the existing contact if it's there - but currently you need to provide one regardless - if it already exists it leaves it alone, if not it's added to the list of addresses for that contact.

I'm not sure what you're concern is for creating a new contact requiring an alias - you have to provide an alias when you create a contact in AD/Exchange, why would you assume you shouldn't have to when creating a new one via the SA? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you here...

[mdeloach]

I'm not creating a new AD/Exchange account, I'm adding a Unity account to an existing AD/Exchange account. I provide the extension number and click add, and I get an error that one or more required fields are blank (Alias, extension, or SMTP address).

We had a test 3.1 Unity server and when importing an existing Exchange account all I had to provide was the extension.

This is only a minor annoyance at the moment. Most accounts will be created with the bulk import tool, but future accounts will likely be created with AD, then added to Unity with web/SA.

[oliviers]

If you are importing an existing AD account that already has a mailbox (actually the SA import should ONLY let you import an account that has an email address), and the SMTP address is not automatically populated, that's certainly not expected. I'm wondering if there is some reason that property cannot be read.

If you're familiar with ADSIEDIT, you can check the "mail" attribute for that particular user you are trying to import. That's the AD property that Unity will fill into the SMTP address. If you do do that, make sure you check while logged on as the account that runs the AvDsGlobalCatalog service, since that's the guy that reads directory properties off of objects to be imported. Doing that could rule out any bizarre security issues.

[mdeloach]

The account that AvDsGlobalCatalog can read the mail attribute, verified with ADSIEDIT. All other fields are read in after selecting the user to import. First name, last name, Exchange alias, home Exchange server, etc.

I only tested Unity 3.1 briefly, but it pulled in the SMTP address, and if I recall the extension as listed in the Business Phone attribute. I can live with out the extension number, as it is in a format that needs to be changed anyways, but the SMTP address would be nice.

I'm curious if anyone else has started a 4.0 deployment using the release version of the media. I know we had a hassle getting a copy due to last minute 'issues' with QA. Perhaps this is one of them?

[mdeloach]

Update-

I just built three new Unity servers from scratch and they can import users fine.

The original server was upgraded from 3.1 and it still cannot import existing users unless the SMTP address is provided for an Exchange user.

The problem is not annoying enough to prompt me to rebuild the server, but is interesting that I see it on an upgrade, but not fresh installs.