Heard of the term "calendar concierge"? Look up http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/07/24/428390.aspx. In this blog post I am going to talk about what happened to Auto Accept Agent in Exchange Server 2007 and how you can define, schedule and manage resources easily and reliably.

Booking resources (e.g. conference room) in conjunction with a meeting frequently leads to multiple meeting updates, general confusion and lost productivity for both organizers and attendees. The system should enable organizers to reliably find and book an available resource in one attempt and later confirm the reservation while minimizing attendee confusion. This is accomplished in Exchange Server 2007.

1. Exchange Server 2007 helps the Information Worker quickly find a room at the right time and schedule it.
2. It helps minimize the effort that resource managers must undertake to manage a resource schedule.
3. Help resource administrators control who can schedule resources.

Existing Infrastructure

In Exchange 2003 there are two ways for customers to automate resource booking using Outlook and Exchange: Exchange 2003 Auto Accept Agent and Outlook direct booking.

The Auto Accept Agent (AAA) is a server-side store event sink available in the Exchange 2003 SP1 timeframe. It provides automatic server-side processing of meeting requests sent to resource mailboxes that have been registered with the agent. The Agent handles both requests and cancellations and sends responses to the meeting organizer. AAA uses EXOLEDB and CDOEX for notification of incoming messages and calendar item processing, respectively.

Direct booking is an Outlook-specific feature that uses the organizer's Outlook client (Outlook 2000 or later) to book an appointment directly into a resource mailbox schedule. The Outlook client of the person organizing the meeting performs all the necessary tasks, such as conflict checking and placing the reservation on the resource calendar. The resource mailbox must be manually configured with Outlook to support direct booking. It can be set up to allow automatically accept non-conflicting meeting requests and to allow/deny recurring bookings.

What is incorporated in Exchange Server 2007 Resource Booking?

Resource management in Exchange 2007 provides a reliable resource management solution that maps to information worker goals and increases organizational productivity. Exchange Server 2007 introduces changes to the resource booking architecture that address many of the concerns.

Resource management improvements have been made in the following areas.

• Booking and search services
  • Up-to-date Free/busy
  • Integration with Office Outlook 2007 meeting request process
• Schedule management services
  • Ability to delegate management of resource policy to users using Outlook Web Access
  • Policies and rules to control who can schedule and when they can schedule
  • Support for both manual and automatic approval
• Enterprise-wide resource management services
  • Ability to create and manage resource schema

Resource Booking Attendant

Exchange 2007 identifies meeting resources as either a room or equipment and includes special attributes for each of these types of resources. For example, a room resource includes a capacity attribute. Custom attributes, such as audio-visual capabilities can also be defined. The Resource Booking attendant provides the following features:

• Enforces maximum meeting duration
• Schedules meetings only during working hours
• Forwards out-of-policy requests to delegates for approval
• Provides conflict information for declined meetings

Feature Comparison

The below Table shows a comparison of the features available for direct booking in Outlook, using the Auto Accept Agent, and resource scheduling in Exchange Server 2007.

*Its per server in AAA and per mailbox in Exchange Server 2007

Steps to set up Resource booking

Before going further I want to explain a few points one should be aware while working with a resource mailbox in Exchange Server 2007. A resource mailbox has the same structure as a user mailbox – it is composed of an AD mailbox-enabled user object and an Exchange mailbox. The major difference between a user and resource mailbox is that the resource mailbox 1) always has special resource-specific properties set on the AD user object. 2) Typically has a disabled user account and grants logon privileges to one or more "resource managers". 3) May have a scheduling policy automatically enforced by the Resource Booking mailbox assistant. I will talk more above Exchange Server 2007/Exchange server 2003 environments and how legacy resource mailboxes can be converted to Exchange Server 2007 resources without interrupting the ability of legacy clients to send meeting requests to them later on. I am going to concentrate on a pure Exchange Server 2007 environment for now. Resource mailbox scheduling and administration in Exchange Server 2007 is primarily handled by the Resource Booking Attendant. The calendar and Resource Assistant interact with each other. The Resource Assistant provides a call that determines is a mailbox is a resource or not.

1. Create a new mailbox. This can be done either from MSH (Powershell/Exchange Management Shell) or from within the GUI.

a. To create a resource mailbox in the Exchange Management console, expand Recipient Configuration, select Mailbox, and then click New Mailbox in the Mailbox section of the Actions task pane. When you click New Mailbox, the New Mailbox Wizard will appear as shown in the figure.

If you click Existing User and then Browse, only disabled accounts are presented. Only disabled accounts can be used for Resource mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007. Re-enabling a disabled account on a resource mailbox is NOT a supported configuration.

b. From Management Shell, the command used is as follows:

[PS] C:\>New-Mailbox -Name:"Resource1" -Alias:Resource1 -OrganizationalUnit:Users -Database:"Database Name" -UserPrincipalName:"Resource1@domain.com" -DisplayName:"Resource Mailbox" -Room

This will create a new *disabled* user account that is set up as a room. Created from within the GUI, the end result is the same, and at the end, it actually shows you the MSH command that it uses.

2. At this point, the resource mailbox is not completely configured. If you attempt to book the resource it will not automatically accept the meeting. After creating a resource mailbox, you should configure it to auto-accept meetings to which the resource mailbox has been invited. Otherwise, the resource mailbox does not automatically accept meetings sent to it and meetings sent to it will sit in the calendar of the resource in a "tentative state".

At the command prompt type

[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox Resource1 |fl *resource*

IsResource : True

ResourceType : Room

Notice the ResourceType is Room.

Note: to learn more about |fl, please see this. Additionally, running |fl *resource* will display all the attributes of that mailbox whose name contains the word “resource”.

Also from the below command, when you do a Get-MailboxCalendarSettings (to configure the resource mailbox) on the resource mailbox, notice that AutomateProcessing is set to AutoUpdate by default. If AutomateProcessing=AutoUpdate (the property/parameter that controls the automatic acceptance of meeting requests), then the meeting organizer receives no response from the resource. In order to accept it, one would have to log into the resource mailbox with an account that has permissions to the resource mailbox and accept it.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 |fl

AutomateProcessing : AutoUpdate

3. Enable Auto-Acceptance for a Resource and Configuring Resource Mailbox Settings

You can automatically process meeting requests and cancellations via OWA or using Exchange Management Shell.

Using Exchange Management Console:

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 -AutomateProcessing:Autoaccept

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 |fl

AutomateProcessing: AutoAccept

Using OWA Options Page:

Log into the resource mailbox through OWA and using the Options page, you can configure a resource account to automatically process meeting requests and cancellations. What account do you use to log into OWA? Since the account for a resource mailbox is disabled, you can use either of the two methods to log into the resource mailbox using OWA:

1. Explicit OWA logon with credentials for an account that has FullAccess permissions to the Resource Mailbox. How do I give an account FullAccess permissions to the Resource Mailbox is my next question. In the Exchange Management Shell, run the following command to give FullAccess permissions to a user User1 for the Conference Room1 Resource Mailbox.

[PS] C:\>Add-MailboxPermission -Identity:Resource1 -AccessRights:fullaccess -User:user1

After User1 has been given FullAccess rights, in your browser, enter an explicit URL for the resource mailbox:

http://servername/owa/Resource1@domain.com. When prompted for credentials, enter the username and password for an account that has FullAccess permissions to the resource mailbox – In this case user1.

OR

2. Log into OWA using an account that has has FullAccess permissions to the resource mailbox and use the Open Other Mailbox feature.

Enter the normal URL for OWA:

http://servername/owa

When prompted for credentials, enter the username and password for an account that has FullAccess permissions to the resource mailbox.

In the upper right corner of the OWA page, click the dropdown next to the logged on username and then enter the name of the resource mailbox in the Open Other Mailbox feature

When you log into a resource mailbox, click on Options and notice "Resource Settings" on the left pane as an available option just for Resource Mailboxes. You can set "Resource Scheduling Options", "Resource Scheduling Permissions", "Resource Privacy Options" and "Response Message" via this page. Every single option via the shell is available here in a GUI format.

Scheduling a Room Resource

Exchange 2007 creates an "All Rooms" Address list as seen below from the screenshot:

In Outlook 2007, the "All Rooms" search feature transpires itself as shown below. Instead of clicking the "To" button, which is everything in the GAL, you can now click on "Rooms" and we come up with the "All Rooms" Address List. If you select a room, it automatically adds it in the "Resources" well. This should work if the Resource is added to the "Required" field.

Managing Resource Scheduling

If you want to lock down the resource booking options, you have the option to do so. Let's take a look at a few of the options available to lock down resource mailboxes.

Open up the shell prompt and type:

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 |fl

Take a look at the different parameters that can be set for a resource mailbox. Most of the parameters are self-explanatory. Let's focus instead on some of the policy-based settings, such as RequestInPolicy, BookInPolicy, RequestOutOfPolicy, AllBookInPolicy, AllRequestOutOfPolicy, etc

BookInPolicy: List of users/groups that can submit an in-policy request for automatic approval - Value is a String: SMTP address; series of SMTP addresses

RequestInPolicy: List of users/groups that can submit an in-policy request that is subject to approval by a resource mailbox delegate. - Value is a String: SMTP address

RequestOutOfPolicy: List of users/groups that can submit an in-policy request for automatic approval; Out-of-policy requests are subject to approval by a resource mailbox delegate. The RequestOutOfPolicy setting is good for situation where certain users (CEO for example) that should never receive an automatic meeting decline. - Value is a String: SMTP address

The default options allow all users to book resources if they are within the set policies (up to 180 days in the future, up to 1440 minutes in duration, etc.), and will reject all other meetings. In the context of resource mailboxes, InPolicy and OutOfPolicy simply mean whether or not the meeting invitation matches any restrictions enabled on the resource mailbox. For example MaximumDurationInMinutes value for the resource mailbox is 30 minutes, any meeting invitation longer than 30 minutes would be OutOfPolicy. Using the RequestOutOfPolicy field, you can manually add users that are allowed to request meetings that are not within the policy, and if you really want to lock things down, you can set the AllBookInPolicy value to False, and then manually add users to the BookInPolicy field, or more restrictive, to the RequestInPolicy field. By default, the BookInPolicy parameter is configured for Everyone. If you leave BookInPolicy with the default setting and you configure the RequestInPolicy parameter with one or more SMTP addresses, the BookInPolicy setting overrides RequestInPolicy (The meeting is automatically accepted if it is within policy). Compared to the options that were available with Auto Accept Agent, these settings are highly enhanced in terms of the ability to lock down and customize permissions.

You cannot use the Exchange Management Console to set resource booking policies. To run the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings cmdlet, the account you use must be delegated Exchange Recipient Administrator role.

How to Set Resource Booking Policies

To control who can schedule a resource, use the following parameters in conjunction with the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings command:

AllBookInPolicy, AllRequestInPolicy, AllRequestOutOfPolicy, BookInPolicy, RequestInPolicy, RequestOutOfPolicy, ForwardRequestsToDelegates, TentativePendingApproval, ResourceDelegates

To control when a resource can be scheduled, use the following parameters in conjunction with the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings command:

AllowConflicts, BookingWindowInDays, EnforceSchedulingHorizon, MaximumDurationInMinutes, AllowRecurringMeetings, ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkingHours, ConflictPercentageAllowed, MaximumConflictInstances

To control what meeting information will be visible on the resource's calendar, use the following parameters in conjunction with the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings command:

DeleteAttachments, DeleteComments, RemovePrivateProperty, DeleteSubject, DisableReminders, AddOrganizerToSubject, DeleteNonCalendarItems, OrganizerInfo

To customize the response message that meeting organizers will receive, you can use the following parameters in the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings command:

AddAdditionalResponse, AdditionalResponse

Here is how "Restricting who can book" will look like:

More information regarding booking policies can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996340.aspx

How to Customize the Response Message for Resource Scheduling

To use the Exchange Management Shell to customize the response message for resource scheduling, run the following command

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -Id ResourceMailbox01 -AddAdditionalResponse:$true -AdditionalResponse:<text>

As an example:

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -Identity "ResourceMailbox01" -AddAdditionalResponse:"<font color-red> Add your response</font>"

You can also set a custom response through OWA as mentioned previously.

How to Set a Delegate on a Resource Mailbox

In the context of resource mailboxes, the term delegate is used very loosely. You do not use the Delegates tab in the Outlook Tools – Options dialog box to configure the delegate even though the user(s) managing the resource mailbox might appear on the Delegates tab. These users appear on the Delegates tab because they have Send-on-behalf permissions to the resource mailbox. In scenarios where you are using the AllRequestOutOfPolicy, RequestOutOfPolicy, AllRequestInPolicy, or RequestInPolicy parameters you need to use a delegate to respond to meetings that are not automatically accepted or declined by the resource mailbox.

Note: If you do not want to forward requests to a delegate (ForwardRequestsToDelegates = False), then you can get away with just giving FullAccess permissions for the resource mailbox to a regular user. This user can respond to meeting invites from the Inbox of the resource mailbox.

Because resource mailboxes use disabled accounts in Exchange 2007, the steps to create a delegate for a resource mailbox are a little different than in earlier versions of Exchange. To configure a delegate for an Exchange 2007 resource mailbox, use the following steps.

Run a command similar to the following to specify the delegate for the resource mailbox.

[PS] C:\>Set-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 -ResourceDelegates:Delegate1

Note: Because of a bug in –ResourceDelegates, the complete permissions for the delegate are not added to the Resource mailbox. This is fixed in Exchange Server 2007 SP1.Therefore, you must also perform one the following methods to provide the necessary permissions to the delegate.

Use either of the following methods to provide adequate permissions on the resource mailbox to the delegate:

Method 1: Provide Full Access Permissions to the Delegate

• Run a command similar to the following to give full access permissions on the resource mailbox to the delegate

[PS] C:\>Add-MailboxPermission Resource1 -AccessRights:fullaccess -User:Delegate1

Method 2: Modify the Free/Busy Permissions for the Resource Mailbox

To modify just the free/busy permissions on the Resource mailbox, use the following steps:

• Run a command similar to the following example.

[PS] C:\>Add-MailboxPermission Resource1 -AccessRights:fullaccess -User:Admin1

• Create an Outlook 2007 profile for the Resource mailbox.
• Start Outlook with this new profile and provide the credentials of the Admin1 user when prompted.

Note: Giving the "Admin1" user Full Access permissions instead of the delegate is a technique you can use for central administration of resource mailboxes. This allows Admin1 to gain access to the resource mailbox while also allowing the delegate to process meetings for the resource.

• Right-click the Calendar folder and click Properties.
• On the Permissions tab, make sure the delegate (user different from Admin1) has at least Editor permissions to the Calendar folder. Click OK.
• Exit Outlook.

[PS] C:\>Get-MailboxCalendarSettings Resource1 |fl now shows

ResourceDelegates : {Delegate1}

The default setting for the ForwardRequestsToDelegates parameter is True. Therefore, meetings are forwarded to the delegates (listed under ResourceDelegates). If this is set to false, the delegate will not receive the forwarded invite.

Happy resource booking in Exchange Server 2007.

- Nagesh Mahadev