Exchange 2003: Free/busy problem

Correct, you will need to send a meeting to everyone and have then accept
it. You need to repopulate the PF. No worries if they don't respond,
eventually everyone will have a new meeting and thus accomplish the same
task.

Cheers,

Rod

MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://www.msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jon Doe
Hi,
All of a sudden as of a couple of days ago, when anyone in my exchange org
tries to invite people to a meeting, a message displays when they try to
check the other person's availability that says "No free/busy information
could be retrieved"
What I noticed that may have changed is that the public folder that
apparently used to house this information is gone. So I followed
instructions on microsoft's website to reset the system folders. Once that
was done, I restarted the info store on all the servers in the admin
group... but I still get the "no free/busy" message.
There was another article I found that suggested to repopulate free/busy.
It says that I will need to send a meeting request to all users at my
site, and they all must accept or free/busy won't repopulate. Now I have
about 2000 users and I'll bet not all of them would be able to respond, so
is there any other way? Can someone *please* help me out? I don't know
what else to do!

Jon Doe

2005-12-16 14:00:42 UTC

Ok, this morning I checked free/busy for a few users and noticed that I can
now see free/busy for at least one user. I know for sure this user's
free/busy wasn't showing up yesterday before resetting the system folders.
I've sent the user an e-mail asking if he accepted a meeting this morning...
but havent heard back yet.

So if it turns out that we can see his free/busy now because he accepted a
meeting, could that mean that if I send a meeting request out to all users,
we would be able to see free/busy for all those who respond? The article I
read gave me the impression that everyone must respond, or it won't work at
all for anyone.

Post by Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]
Correct, you will need to send a meeting to everyone and have then accept
it. You need to repopulate the PF. No worries if they don't respond,
eventually everyone will have a new meeting and thus accomplish the same
task.
Cheers,
Rod
MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://www.msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jon Doe
Hi,
All of a sudden as of a couple of days ago, when anyone in my exchange
org tries to invite people to a meeting, a message displays when they try
to check the other person's availability that says "No free/busy
information could be retrieved"
What I noticed that may have changed is that the public folder that
apparently used to house this information is gone. So I followed
instructions on microsoft's website to reset the system folders. Once
that was done, I restarted the info store on all the servers in the admin
group... but I still get the "no free/busy" message.
There was another article I found that suggested to repopulate free/busy.
It says that I will need to send a meeting request to all users at my
site, and they all must accept or free/busy won't repopulate. Now I have
about 2000 users and I'll bet not all of them would be able to respond,
so is there any other way? Can someone *please* help me out? I don't know
what else to do!

Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]

2005-12-16 14:27:57 UTC

It just needs some data to make it work. Where you accept or not, you get
data in calendar.

Cheers,

Rod

MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://www.msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jon Doe
Ok, this morning I checked free/busy for a few users and noticed that I
can now see free/busy for at least one user. I know for sure this user's
free/busy wasn't showing up yesterday before resetting the system folders.
I've sent the user an e-mail asking if he accepted a meeting this
morning... but havent heard back yet.
So if it turns out that we can see his free/busy now because he accepted a
meeting, could that mean that if I send a meeting request out to all
users, we would be able to see free/busy for all those who respond? The
article I read gave me the impression that everyone must respond, or it
won't work at all for anyone.

Post by Jon Doe
Hi,
All of a sudden as of a couple of days ago, when anyone in my exchange
org tries to invite people to a meeting, a message displays when they
try to check the other person's availability that says "No free/busy
information could be retrieved"
What I noticed that may have changed is that the public folder that
apparently used to house this information is gone. So I followed
instructions on microsoft's website to reset the system folders. Once
that was done, I restarted the info store on all the servers in the
admin group... but I still get the "no free/busy" message.
There was another article I found that suggested to repopulate
free/busy. It says that I will need to send a meeting request to all
users at my site, and they all must accept or free/busy won't
repopulate. Now I have about 2000 users and I'll bet not all of them
would be able to respond, so is there any other way? Can someone
*please* help me out? I don't know what else to do!

Jon Doe

2005-12-21 05:55:42 UTC

Thanks... that's all it needed. Reset system folders, updated the schema to
reflect new server (forgot the article I found that in), sent meeting
requests, and all the free/busy data is back (to those who accepted meeting
requests).

Post by Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]
It just needs some data to make it work. Where you accept or not, you get
data in calendar.
Cheers,
Rod
MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://www.msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jon Doe
Ok, this morning I checked free/busy for a few users and noticed that I
can now see free/busy for at least one user. I know for sure this user's
free/busy wasn't showing up yesterday before resetting the system
folders. I've sent the user an e-mail asking if he accepted a meeting
this morning... but havent heard back yet.
So if it turns out that we can see his free/busy now because he accepted
a meeting, could that mean that if I send a meeting request out to all
users, we would be able to see free/busy for all those who respond? The
article I read gave me the impression that everyone must respond, or it
won't work at all for anyone.

Post by Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]
Correct, you will need to send a meeting to everyone and have then
accept it. You need to repopulate the PF. No worries if they don't
respond, eventually everyone will have a new meeting and thus accomplish
the same task.
Cheers,
Rod
MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://www.msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jon Doe
Hi,
All of a sudden as of a couple of days ago, when anyone in my exchange
org tries to invite people to a meeting, a message displays when they
try to check the other person's availability that says "No free/busy
information could be retrieved"
What I noticed that may have changed is that the public folder that
apparently used to house this information is gone. So I followed
instructions on microsoft's website to reset the system folders. Once
that was done, I restarted the info store on all the servers in the
admin group... but I still get the "no free/busy" message.
There was another article I found that suggested to repopulate
free/busy. It says that I will need to send a meeting request to all
users at my site, and they all must accept or free/busy won't
repopulate. Now I have about 2000 users and I'll bet not all of them
would be able to respond, so is there any other way? Can someone
*please* help me out? I don't know what else to do!

Johan Roselaar

2005-12-17 17:22:48 UTC

Start the outlook program with the option /cleanfreebusy and your problem is
solved

Johan

Jonathan Norris

2005-12-18 23:16:02 UTC

/cleanfreebusy is a good call.

Post by Johan Roselaar
Start the outlook program with the option /cleanfreebusy and your problem is
solved
Johan

Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]

2005-12-19 17:37:30 UTC

Not very practical for 2000+ users to do without some major hand holding.

Cheers,

Rod

MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jonathan Norris
/cleanfreebusy is a good call.

Post by Johan Roselaar
Start the outlook program with the option /cleanfreebusy and your problem is
solved
Johan

Jonathan Norris

2005-12-19 17:59:02 UTC

I always scripted it.

Post by Rodney R. Fournier [MVP]
Not very practical for 2000+ users to do without some major hand holding.
Cheers,
Rod
MVP - Windows Server - Clustering
http://www.nw-america.com - Clustering Website
http://msmvps.com/clustering - Blog
http://www.clusterhelp.com - Cluster Training

Post by Jonathan Norris
/cleanfreebusy is a good call.

Post by Johan Roselaar
Start the outlook program with the option /cleanfreebusy and your problem is
solved
Johan

unknown

2005-12-28 19:15:13 UTC

Put the command outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy in a login script for all users.
You can also add a tag file and make the script conditional so that it
checks the user's Home Directory for the tag file, if present then the
script does run, if not present, the script runs then creates the tag
file--- thereby making it a "run once" kind of thing. We have about 3000
users and had a planned rebuild of the free/busy. We came up with this idea
to repopulate the free/busy and it worked like a charm. In about a week you
can run a report off of the Home Directories and see how many users have not
gotten republished (# of Home Dir with no tag file) then do those manually
or ask them to log in or however you want to handle it.

Post by Jonathan Norris
I always scripted it.

Post by Jonathan Norris
/cleanfreebusy is a good call.

Post by Johan Roselaar
Start the outlook program with the option /cleanfreebusy and your

problem

Post by Johan Roselaar
is
solved
Johan

Post by Jon Doe
Hi,
All of a sudden as of a couple of days ago, when anyone in my

exchange

Post by Jon Doe
org
tries to invite people to a meeting, a message displays when they

try

Post by Jon Doe
to
check the other person's availability that says "No free/busy information
could be retrieved"
What I noticed that may have changed is that the public folder that
apparently used to house this information is gone. So I followed
instructions on microsoft's website to reset the system folders.

Once

Post by Jon Doe
that
was done, I restarted the info store on all the servers in the admin
group... but I still get the "no free/busy" message.
There was another article I found that suggested to repopulate free/busy.
It says that I will need to send a meeting request to all users at my
site, and they all must accept or free/busy won't repopulate. Now I have
about 2000 users and I'll bet not all of them would be able to

respond,