Automatic Replies for Resources not working properly for mailboxes that reside on a specific database
Running Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 3 (v3) I was able to isolate the problem to one specific mailbox database (we have eight total). The problem may also extend to Out of Office replies as well. The Resource Booking Attendant is configured to automatically process requests for Room Resources. Any resource on this particular database will not send an acceptance or rejection message like is normally would (yes, it is configured to do this). The requests can be found in the Inbox of the resource, but they are not processed automatically as they are configured to do. This is the case for all resources on this particular database. I moved one of the problem mailboxes to another database. At first, it was still a problem, but the next time I tried on another day (after nightly processing), everything worked as it should have (with the resource now being on a different database). All of the other mailboxes that still reside on the problem database in question are still having the same problem. The Mailbox Assistant was restarted multiple times, which did not help at all. The log level for the Assistant was raised to expert, however, there is no indication of what is causing the problem. Attempting to repair individual mailboxes does not assist in any way with this problem. But eventually, moving the mailbox does it appear to resolve the issue... I have not verified that moving the mailbox back to the problem database would leave it functioning properly. At any rate, I shouldn't have to move hundreds of mailboxes around to try to resolve an issue such as this, which should definitely have an easier solution. I also found that an individual on this same problem database returned from vacation, and his OOF messages were configured as being disabled, however, new senders were still receiving the outdated out of office messages. Now the /cleanrules startup option may clean that up for that user, however, it could be that this problem is related to the auto-replies for the resources as well. Has anyone ever seen this issue, and/or have any suggestions on how to troubleshoot the problem with this specific mailbox database? All other functions for the mailboxes on this problem database appear to be working in the proper manner so far. Thanks!
April 2nd, 2012 1:23pm

Hi Jerry, It appears the mailbox assistant service has not been triggered when the invitation email arrives in Inbox of the problematic resource mailbox. Id suggest you run cmdlet below to collect configuration information and make a compare: Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity <the problematic mailbox address> | FL > C:\MS\Calendar1.txt Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity <the working mailbox address> | FL > C:\MS\Calendar2.txt Moreover, set the event log level below and reproduce the issue: Get-Eventloglevel -id MSExchangeMailboxAssistants* | set-eventloglevel -level expert Hope it is helpful. Fiona Liao TechNet Community Support
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April 4th, 2012 11:34pm

Fiona, Thanks for the response. As I stated, I set the log levels to expert already, and that yielded nothing. I know I wrote a lot up there so you might have missed some things, but this is not about the mailbox configuration as you would normally think, this is about the behavior on one database vs. the behavior on other databases. If the resource is on the one problematic database, it doesn't work. If I move it to another database, the next day it will work with no mailbox calendarprocessing changes. Running the get-calendarprocessing against working vs. non-working, yields no clues, as the settings are virtually the same for the most part, except identity, ownerid, meaningless option (such as DeleteSubject true/false). It's not about those settings like you might think, it's about why everything fails with resource mailboxes on this particular problematic database. This is also not a matter about which server is hosting the database. I've isolated the issue to being database specific from all evidence at this point. Jerry
April 5th, 2012 10:01am

I just performed another test, moving a perfectly working mailbox where the responses are fine, to the problematic database. When testing after the move, after updating OAB/allowing time for AD replication, the problem occurs. Clearly the issue is associated with the specific database. Jerry
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April 5th, 2012 11:32am

Well, this is one of those cases that at this point must be categorized in the twighlight zone. The problem went away after about 2 weeks, and there is no event that can be traced to associate with why everything started working again. Not database maintenance, not server failover, not system restarts (which did not happen), no manual administrative actions, and no hints in the application logs. There was an ExTRA log generated during the problem period that evidently didn't run long enough to gather enough related details. If the problem occurs again, at that point I will attempt to generate an ExTRA log again, but if not, this will simply remain an enigma. Jerry
April 10th, 2012 8:59am

Hi Jerry, Sorry for the delay response. It is an odd issue, like you said, no any record, and disappeared suddently. I am not sure if ExTRA log is helpful, a store trace log might be helpful since it appears to be related to mailbox database related issue. Fiona Liao TechNet Community Support
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April 11th, 2012 1:40am

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