Any Exchange Experts out There?
Discussion
Trying to compose a generic outlook.prf file and having a few problems. If anyone can help (or knows what the hell I'm talking about), I'd like to run an idea past you:
The Exchange server I've built needs the Alias field populated with a short user name, so I can't populate it with the users login id. Because of this, the %USERNAME% variable won't work in a prf file.
What I need to do is interrogate the NT4 SAM and extract the users full name, possibly via VB Script / API call.
Help!
Thanks,
Greg
The Exchange server I've built needs the Alias field populated with a short user name, so I can't populate it with the users login id. Because of this, the %USERNAME% variable won't work in a prf file.
What I need to do is interrogate the NT4 SAM and extract the users full name, possibly via VB Script / API call.
Help!
Thanks,
Greg
Plotloss said:
Dont know myself (does sound like you are trying to frig it though ) but I have fowarded onto my exchange man...
Too damn right I'm trying to frig it. If it means I don't have to sit at 700 NT workstations typing in Lastname, Firstname to get the damn profile working, then yes, I bloody well am frigging it!
GregE240 said:
Plotloss said:
Dont know myself (does sound like you are trying to frig it though
Too damn right I'm trying to frig it. If it means I don't have to sit at 700 NT workstations typing in Lastname, Firstname to get the damn profile working, then yes, I bloody well am frigging it!
I'm not sure I follow. Surely all you need is the Exchange alias, which should be the same as their logon name? Presumably Lastname,Firstname is the display name of the accounts? If alias <> logonname or their displayname from the AD is fairly easy in VB too.
edited to add: have you actually tried entering their logon name when setting up a profile manually, then trying to resolve it?
DJ
edited again to add: Re-read the original post. Am I correct in assuming that you use long usernames so the username cannot match the Exchange alias?
>> Edited by _DJ_ on Friday 27th February 16:29
>> Edited by _DJ_ on Friday 27th February 16:41
[quote=maddog[uk]]I know what you are talking about! Which version of Exchange do you have. Also are you running Nt4 domain, Active directory in native mode, mixed mode etc.[/quote]
His original question said NT, which pretty much makes it 5.5 and NT 4.0sp6.
To create the profile i'd:
Read the directory using LDAP on the exchange server. The primary Windows NT account on the mailbox should be set to the domain\%USERNAME%. So, you want to find that mailbox, read the display name/alias and use that in the profile. I wouldn't rely on last,first (incase there's 2 John Smith's or whatever).
Darren.
>> Edited by _DJ_ on Friday 27th February 18:47
His original question said NT, which pretty much makes it 5.5 and NT 4.0sp6.
To create the profile i'd:
Read the directory using LDAP on the exchange server. The primary Windows NT account on the mailbox should be set to the domain\%USERNAME%. So, you want to find that mailbox, read the display name/alias and use that in the profile. I wouldn't rely on last,first (incase there's 2 John Smith's or whatever).
Darren.
>> Edited by _DJ_ on Friday 27th February 18:47
Thanks for the replies guys.
Bit more info: The Alias field is populated with a "friendly" name (for example, JBLOGGS) as this field is used in conjunction with the CC:Mail connector. This is why I can't populate this field with the logon id (if I do it works a treat, BTW....grrr!)
Its Exchange 5.5, Outlook 98.
I've used the Office 2K Resource Kit utility to ceeate an EXE file that does everything else I need to do, apart from an engineer having to go into the Mail properties on the client, select Exchange Server and type in Lastname, Firstname and click "Check Name". Once this underlines you can click OK, exit and start Outlook. Job done.
This is fine as a workaround as it has cut 9 pages of Outlook config into a 2 page document. Would be nice to be able to do the whole thnig though....
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Greg
Bit more info: The Alias field is populated with a "friendly" name (for example, JBLOGGS) as this field is used in conjunction with the CC:Mail connector. This is why I can't populate this field with the logon id (if I do it works a treat, BTW....grrr!)
Its Exchange 5.5, Outlook 98.
I've used the Office 2K Resource Kit utility to ceeate an EXE file that does everything else I need to do, apart from an engineer having to go into the Mail properties on the client, select Exchange Server and type in Lastname, Firstname and click "Check Name". Once this underlines you can click OK, exit and start Outlook. Job done.
This is fine as a workaround as it has cut 9 pages of Outlook config into a 2 page document. Would be nice to be able to do the whole thnig though....
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Greg
OK, so can we assume that:
1) The user only has one mail profile
2) The users names are unique (only one Joe Bloggs etc?)
If so, the easiest way to do this is to use newprof.exe (which you're probably already doing) and use VBScript to:
- Get the username through the %username% variable
- Find the account using the NT ADSI provider
- Get the first name (givenname) and last name (sn)from the account
- create a .prf file for use by the app
The problem you'll have is using ADSI on your clients (its not installed by default on 98). You could write a script whichs runs on a machine with ADSI install to precreate a load of PRF's for your users and stores them on a share somewhere (called %username.prf or something) then modify the users logon scripts to get that prf and configure the profile.
Does that make any sense?
darren
1) The user only has one mail profile
2) The users names are unique (only one Joe Bloggs etc?)
If so, the easiest way to do this is to use newprof.exe (which you're probably already doing) and use VBScript to:
- Get the username through the %username% variable
- Find the account using the NT ADSI provider
- Get the first name (givenname) and last name (sn)from the account
- create a .prf file for use by the app
The problem you'll have is using ADSI on your clients (its not installed by default on 98). You could write a script whichs runs on a machine with ADSI install to precreate a load of PRF's for your users and stores them on a share somewhere (called %username.prf or something) then modify the users logon scripts to get that prf and configure the profile.
Does that make any sense?
darren
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