Exchange Server 2010 : Resources and Shared Mailboxes

3.3.1. Creating and Configuring Resource Mailboxes

Resource mailboxes allow users in your organization to book resources, such as conference rooms or equipment, using Exchange’s calendaring functionality. For example, if a user wants to book use of a specific conference room, a meeting request is set up, including all relevant attendees, and then the address of the room in which the meeting will be held in that request is included. Depending on how the resource mailbox has been configured, the room will automatically be booked for that meeting. The integration with Exchange calendaring means that other users will be able to check the availability of the room, with current room bookings being visible through the calendar. Exchange Server 2010 supports two types of resource mailbox:

• Room mailboxes Room mailboxes represent meeting locations such as conference rooms or lecture theaters.

• Equipment mailboxes Equipment mailboxes represent specific items, such as overhead projectors, scanners, or company hovercraft.

To create room or equipment mailbox, perform the following steps:

Except for the step where you choose a Room or Equipment mailbox, the basic setup process is the same. You create Room and Equipment mailboxes using the New-Mailbox cmdlet. For example, to create a new room mailbox named Conference-Beta that is hosted on mailbox database MBX-DB-ONE, issue the following command:

New-Mailbox -UserPrincipalName [email protected] -Alias conference-beta -Name
Conference-Beta -Database MBX-DB-ONE -OrganizationalUnit Users -Room

					  

The command for creating an equipment mailbox is the same except instead of using the Room parameter with the New-Mailbox cmdlet, you use the Equipment parameter. For example, to create a new equipment mailbox named Video-Camera that is hosted on mailbox database MBX-DB-ONE, issue the following command:

New-Mailbox -UserPrincipalName [email protected] -Alias video-camera -Name video-
camera -Database MBX-DB-ONE -OrganizationalUnit Users -Equipment

					  

Once you have created a resource mailbox, it is necessary to configure the resource mailbox. Some properties, such as Resource Capacity, which is configured on the Resource General page of the resource mailbox properties, can also be configured with the Set-Mailbox cmdlet. For example, to set the resource capacity of room mailbox Conference-Alpha to 40, issue the following command:

Set-Mailbox Conference-Alpha -ResourceCapacity 40

Note:

CUSTOM RESOURCE PROPERTIES FOR RESOURCE MAILBOXES

Exchange allows administrators to add custom resource properties to room or equipment mailboxes. For example, you could create a custom property for equipment mailboxes called Vehicle to represent company vehicles. Doing this requires modifying the resource configuration of the Exchange organization. To learn more about this process, consult the following TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201697.aspx.

The majority of other resource mailbox configuration tasks are performed from the EMS using the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet. You will learn about configuring additional resource mailbox properties throughout the rest of this lesson.

Note:

MANAGING RESOURCE MAILBOXES AND SCHEDULING

For more information on managing resource mailboxes and scheduling, consult the following TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124374.aspx.

1.1. Configuring Resource Policies

Resource policies determine how a resource mailbox can be booked. You can use resource policies to determine how far in advance a resource can be booked, the maximum amount of time the resource can be booked for, and which users are configured as delegates for the resource. You configure resource policies in the Resource Policy tab of the resource mailbox’s properties, shown in Figure 1.

The settings on the Resource Policy tab have the following properties:

• Allow Conflicting Meeting Requests Allows meeting requests that conflict with one another to be scheduled.

• Allow Repeating Meetings Allows recurring meetings to be scheduled, such as if a user wants to use a particular resource every Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM.

• Allow Scheduling Only During Working Hours Allows the resource to be booked only during working hours. Administrators configure working hours using the Set-MailboxCaldenarConfiguration cmdlet.

• Reject Meetings That Have An End Date Beyond The Booking Window Enabling this option means that bookings that exceed the booking window are rejected.

• Booking Window (Days) This figure specifies how far in advance the resource can be booked.

• Maximum Duration (Minutes) The maximum amount of time the resource can be booked for.

• Maximum Conflict Instances How many conflicts with other bookings can exist prior to a meeting request being automatically denied.

• Conflict Percentage Allowed If a booking is configured to be recurring and a certain percentage of those recurrences conflict with existing bookings, the booking is denied.

• Specify Delegates Of This Mailbox Allows you to specify users who control scheduling options for the resource mailbox.

• Forward Meeting Requests To Delegates Specifies whether meeting requests are forwarded to specified delegates.

You can configure the Resource Properties of a resource mailbox using the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet. For example, to set a maximum booking window of 50 days and a maximum booking duration of 2 hours for the Auditorium resource mailbox, issue the following command:

Set-CalendarProcessing Auditorium -BookingWindowsInDays 50 -MaximumDurationInMinutes 120

					  

1.2. Managing In-Policy and Out-of-Policy Requests

Exchange processes requests to use resources against the resource policy. In-policy request settings apply when a request that meets the resource policy is made. The in-policy request settings determine which users have their requests automatically approved and which in-policy requests for the resource will be subject to approval by the resource delegate. For example, if the in-policy request settings were configured as shown in Figure 2, where no users are set to have their in-policy requests automatically approved, all requests for the resource would be forwarded to the configured delegates for approval.

Out-of-policy request settings determine which users are able to submit out-of-policy requests that are subject to approval by a resource mailbox delegate. If a user is not on the list of users who can submit out-of-policy requests, the request will be automatically denied. In the case of the Resource Out-of-Policy Requests tab shown in Figure 3, Oleg Anaskhin is able to submit out-of-policy requests, though these requests will still require approval from a delegate.

You can configure the Resource-In-Policy Requests and Resource Out-of-Policy Request settings using the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet with the AllBookInPolicy, AllRequestInPolicy, AllRequestOutOfPolicy, BookInPolicy, RequestInPolicy, and RequestOutOfPolicy parameters.

Note:

CONFIGURING AUTOMATIC BOOKING POLICIES

To learn more about configuring automatic booking policies, consult the following link on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124542.aspx.

1.3. Configure Delegates on Resource Mailboxes

Delegates are able to control the scheduling options for resource mailboxes. You can configure a resource mailbox so that all requests for the resource that the mailbox represents are forwarded to the delegate. As you learned earlier, you can configure a delegate for a resource mailbox through the EMC on the Resource Policy tab by specifying their mailboxes and enabling the Forward Meeting Requests To Delegates option.

You can configure these properties through the EMS using the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet. For example, to configure Kim Akers as a resource delegate for the Auditorium resource mailbox and to ensure that all booking requests for the resource are forwarded to her, issue the following command:

Set-CalendarProcessing Auditorium -ResourceDelegates "[email protected]"
-ForwardRequestsToDelegates $true

Note:

CONFIGURE DELEGATE ON A RESOURCE MAILBOX

For more information on configuring a delegate on a resource mailbox, consult the following link on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124973.aspx.

1.4. Configuring Automatic Booking

Once you have configured resource booking policies, you need to enable the Resource Booking Attendant. The Resource Booking Attendant enables automatic booking of resources functionality on a resource mailbox. If the Resource Booking Attendant is not enabled, the configured resource mailbox delegate must approve or decline all booking requests. The Resource Booking Attendant is enabled by selecting the Enable The Resource Booking Attendant check box on the Resource General tab of the Conference-Alpha Properties, as shown in Figure 4.

To enable the resource booking attendant from the EMS, use the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet with the AutomateProcessing parameter. For example, to enable automatic booking on the Conference-Alpha room mailbox, issue the following command:

Set-CalendarProcessing Conference-Alpha -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept

Note:

ENABLE AUTOMATIC BOOKING ON A RESOURCE MAILBOX

To learn more about enabling automatic booking on a resource mailbox, consult the following TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123495.aspx.

2. Shared Mailboxes

A shared mailbox is a mailbox accessed by multiple users that is not associated with an enabled Active Directory user account. Although it is possible to share access to normal user mailboxes through delegation, Exchange provides shared mailboxes specifically for the shared role. This special type of mailbox appears in the recipients list with an icon different from that of other mailbox types. The Active Directory account associated with a shared mailbox is always disabled. All users that need access to the shared mailbox are delegated Full Access and Send As permissions after mailbox creation.

It is possible to create shared mailboxes only from the EMS. You create shared mailboxes using the New-Mailbox cmdlet with the Shared parameter. The following EMS command creates a shared mailbox named Shared-MBX on the MBX-DB-ONE mailbox database:

New-Mailbox -UserPrincipalName [email protected] -Alias Shared-MBX -Name Shared-MBX
-Database MBX-DB-ONE -OrganizationalUnit Users -Shared

					  

Once the mailbox has been created, you can delegate Full Access and Send As permissions through either the EMS or EMC.

3. Converting Mailboxes

You can use the Set-Mailbox command to convert one type of mailbox to another type. One reason that you might want to convert mailboxes is when transitioning from an Exchange 2003 environment to an Exchange 2010 environment. In Exchange 2003, you can use shared mailboxes to represent resources. If you migrate these mailboxes to Exchange 2010, you will want to convert them to resource mailboxes. Although it is not possible to perform a mailbox conversion using the EMC, you can perform the following types of mailbox conversion using the Set-Mailbox command in the EMS:

• User mailbox to shared mailbox

• User mailbox to resource mailbox

• Shared mailbox to user mailbox

• Shared mailbox to resource mailbox

• Resource mailbox to user mailbox

• Resource mailbox to shared mailbox

For example, to convert the mailbox named Hovercraft from an Equipment mailbox to a Room mailbox, issue the following command:

Set-Mailbox Hovercraft -Type Room

Note:

CONVERTING MAILBOXES

For more information about converting mailboxes, consult the following page on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201749.aspx.

Note:

Understand the difference between a user mailbox, a shared mailbox, a resource mailbox, and a linked mailbox.