TMSXE sync with Outlook looses meeting organizer

bmcdonald · ‎02-23-2013

We have TMS 14.1.1 and TMSXE 3.0.2 connected sychronizing to Exchange 2010 calendars. Users book the tms using Outlook.

When the TMSXE syncs to an Outlook resource mailbox the calendar item looses the meeting organizer property. In fact the TMSXE seems to change the Outlook item from a meeting to an appointment. This is particularly problematic as end users viewing the resource calendar do not know who owns the meeting.

Anyone have a work around?

mahkrish · ‎02-23-2013

Hi, Can you confirm if the enduser is booking using one of the below mentioned client software ?

Client requirements

Cisco TMSXE supports booking with:

Microsoft Outlook 2007 SP2
Microsoft Outlook 2010
Outlook Web Access (Exchange 2007)
Outlook Web App (Exchange 2010)

BR,

Mahesh Adithiyha

bmcdonald · ‎02-24-2013

Client is Outlook 2010.

Kjetil Ree · ‎02-24-2013

Hi,

This is expected behavior when TMSXE replicates a booking from TMS to an Exchange resource calendar. There is no workaround.

Regards,

Kjetil

John Bousfield · ‎07-29-2013

I don't think this is a clear answer. We see this issue for lots of our meetings booked via Outlook, but don't see it for others. In some instances the meeting is changed to an appointment, in others it is not.

If this is expected behaviour, can you describe the distinction between those two types of outcome? What triggers the meeting to be changed to an appointment and lose the details?

If there's no workaround at least Cisco could assist in avoiding the issue by giving the cause.

Kjetil Ree · ‎07-29-2013

Hi John,

It could be that I misunderstood the original question, but when bmcdonald said that 'When the TMSXE syncs to an Outlook resource mailbox the calendar item looses the meeting organizer property,' I assumed that he meant bookings replicating from TMS to Exchange resource calendars.

In such cases, it is expected that bookings are no longer owned by the original organizer. The same applies to cases where the booking originated in Outlook and either an instance or the entire series later was changed in TMS; you would then also see that the bookings "lose the link" to the booking in the organizer's calendar.

The only clear case where bookings are guaranteed to stay in their original form (no change from meeting to appointment, and the organizer property is kept) is when all changes to the booking are made in Outlook using invitations sent to the resource calendars. In other cases, such as when they have been modified in TMS or someone has written directly to the Exchange resource calendars, one might see the behvior you describe.

Hope that helped.

Regards,

Kjetil

John Bousfield · ‎07-30-2013

Hi Kjetil

Thanks for the quick response.

The symptoms we've seen are exactly the same as described above, but our users explicitely do not use TMS to book from. All booking modifications are done by users' mailboxes via Outlook using room resource mailboxes, handled by TMSXE/TMS.

What you're saying is that in our instance we should not be seeing this behaviour, but we are. Not every time, but we are.

The only difference I can see between some of our examples is that User A is booking the original meeting on behalf of user B. Does the system support delegated meeting creation?

Regards

John

John Bousfield · ‎07-30-2013

After discussions with auser seeing this, I believe it looks like a delegated meeting is the issue:

1) User A allocates delegate permission to User B

2) User B creates the meeting on User A's behalf

3) User A modifies the meeting

4) User A is not regarded as the organizer, even though it is created on their behalf

5) Meeting is downgraded to Appointment, organizer and attendee details are removed.

If you concur then that seems like the issue we're seeing and we can recommend TMS bookings are not done by delegates where possible.

Next question: Is this something that will be resolved in future releases/patches?

Regards

John

md2tooetrade · ‎08-30-2013

I too am running into this issue. Our users only book through Outlook 2010 and intermittently meetings will lose the meeting organizer property. We see it more often with recurring meetings. A solution to this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

Matthieu LIENART · ‎10-31-2013

Same here. In fact in our case:

- both the organizer and meeting title disappear in Outlook

- in TMS we can only see the organizer, the title has disappear

TMS: 14.3

TMSXE: 3.1

Exchange: 2010

Like for other:

- the behavior seems random. It happen on some meetings, not on other, recurring meeting, one-time meeting doesn't seem to make a difference

- our users only use Outlook to book meetings. No booking nor booking changes are made on the TMS so the behavior explained by Kjetil Ree should not apply.

What we see is that in fact TMS changes the calendar object from "meeting" to "appointment" which is the reason why in in Outlook the organizer name disappear as there’s no organizer for appointment.

The meeting title going blank puzzle me too. On Telepresence endpoints touch screens, all meetings show up with no title, no organizer, nothing. So it's hard to know which meeting is which. The only information displayed is the time.

Did anyone figured that out ?

Regards,

Matthieu

Matthieu LIENART · ‎10-31-2013

Apparently the rooms mailboxes setting [DeleteSubject] is set to True on all mailboxes in Exchange which would explain the Titles being erased. I asked our Exchange team to change them all.

But the organizer going blank is still not normal...

daleritc · ‎11-01-2013

Matt,

Upgrade TMSXE to 3.1.2 and re-evaluate the missing organizer issue. I believe a bug fix in this latest and greatest release fixes that. Can't remember the bug number off the top of my head.

Rgds,

Dale

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

Matthieu LIENART · ‎11-04-2013

Upgraded TMSXE to 3.1.2 last friday and am in the process of testing. Will update with the results when fully checked

John Bousfield · ‎12-03-2013

Hi Matt

Did the upgrade to 3.1.2 make any difference for you with regards to this issue?

I couldn't see any reference to it in change logs and haven't upgraded yet.

Regards

John

Matthieu LIENART · ‎12-03-2013

It appears so. It's true that there's no information on such a bug fix in the official 3.1.2 but I think I saw something about it too somewhere but can't figure out where...

Since we applied the new version it seems that new meetings do not reproduce that error