We have a Windows 2003 server environment with Exchange 2003 Sp1. When I create a new user in active directory it takes up to three days before the new users mailbox is available in Exchange. In the interim other users in our company cannot find that user in the Outlook address list and any email sent to the new users address from the outside is rejected with an error saying that user does not exist. I have always thought active directory changes or additions/deletions took no more than 15 minutes. I have been searching for information on this issue without any luck in finding a solution. We are a small organization with a single domain and a single Exchange server, we also have three domain controllers, one in each of our three buildings. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Jean Douglass IT Manager Sur-Flo Plastics & Engineering, Inc.

The new user you are create it,is can be work online or not,now? The 3 Domain controller is also act Global Catalog Server? The 3 DC is in the same AD site or not? Before next step,suggest you use replmon tool(it in windows 2003 CD support tools) to monitor and check all DC replication is correct. And also suggest you apply Exchange 2003 Sp2 in your exchange server. Sometime this issue can be clear up, only restart MSExchangeSA service.

The new user can login as soon as the AD account is created and that user can setup Outlook to connect to the user mailbox in exchange right away. However, other users cannot send e-mail to that user, they get an error message indicating that the new user address does not exist. I have tested this with a test account and I have found that I can successfully send e-mail from the newly created test account but I cannot send to that same account. I can, however, reply to a message sent to me from that account. I just cannot create a new e-mail and send to that account. To me this appears to be an AD glitch.The Exchange server is also a domain controller and it is the first domain controller that was setup when we migrated from NT4. So this should be the global catalog server. We have two other domain controllers in our single domain. I'm not sure I understand your question completely but we have three buildings. Two of them, our headquarters site, are on the same property and connected with fiber. The other building is 5 miles away and connected via T1. All domain contrrollers are part of the same domain and the Exchange server is in our headquarters building. I have not applied Exchange Sp2 because I do not have the storage capacity for the larger Exchange database. With the number of e-mail packrats we have in our company I would rather they hit the 16Gb limit of Exchange Sp1 and cause a shutdown rather than cause the database to exceed the storage capacity of the Exchange partition. I've tried setting user limits but then they scream at me when Exchange harrases them for having too much in their inbox. But they are getting better at keeping their inbox sizes down after causing two shutdowns, one when I was on vacation.We are a small company with less than 100 users and I am the only IT person.

Exchange is set to generate the OAB only once early in th morning. Outlook must also download the OAB after it is generated and this does not happen very often, I think the maximmum time is once per 24 hour. so if you create a user in the morning Exchange will not add that user to OAB until early next morning and outlook may not attempt to download the new OAB until next day. try to run outlook in online mode and see if newly created mailboxes shows up in the GAL

I set up a test account yesterday morning in AD, in the afternoon it became possible to send e-mail to that new account even though it did not appear in the GAL. For several hours after the account was created any e-mail sent to the new account would be rejected by Exchange. Today the new test account still does not appear in the GAL. I always run Outlook in the online mode. I hadn't noticed this before because I have not run such tests. I became aware of this after several complaints from our user base saying that they could not send e-mail to new users or to newly created distribution lists. Is this normal behaviour for Exchange and Outlook? If so I think it's a problem that should be addressed. I just can't imagine having to wait two to three days for a new users account ot be fully integrated.Jean

How often is RUS triggered? Always means every minute and is default, but it could be set to something else.

I have seen problems with the Recipient Update Service getting hung up. This could be a bit of a pain, but can you restart the System Attendant on the server where the RUS is hosted. It might be a case of the RUS just being hung up. You could also try doing a full rebuild on the RUS (if your directory is not very big.)

Lasse Pettersson wrote: How often is RUS triggered? Always means every minute and is default, but it could be set to something else. At risk of sounding like an idiot, where do I find that setting?Jean

Jim McBee - Exchange MVP wrote: I have seen problems with the Recipient Update Service getting hung up. This could be a bit of a pain, but can you restart the System Attendant on the server where the RUS is hosted. It might be a case of the RUS just being hung up. You could also try doing a full rebuild on the RUS (if your directory is not very big.) Is there a utility for rebuilding the RUS? If so where do I find that?Jean

start ESM (Exchange System Manager) , go to Recipients|Recipient Update Services You should have minimum two RUS, one is for enterprise config and the other one is for domain configurations (mailboxes, groups, contacts) Right click on them and point them to an Exchange server and a Domain Controller. Select a DC network close to the Exhcange server you set. You also have the schedule configuration here. to rebuild right click on the domain RUS and select Rebuild

Lasse Pettersson wrote: start ESM (Exchange System Manager) , go to Recipients|Recipient Update Services You should have minimum two RUS, one is for enterprise config and the other one is for domain configurations (mailboxes, groups, contacts) Right click on them and point them to an Exchange server and a Domain Controller. Select a DC network close to the Exhcange server you set. You also have the schedule configuration here. to rebuild right click on the domain RUS and select Rebuild Ok, I found them both. The RUS is set to always for both Enterprise and Domain. They are both pointing to the correct server and DC. If I choose to rebuild the RUS is there any preference as to order such as Enterprise first them Domain? For that matter do they both need to be rebuilt. Considering that I have only one domain does it really matter. My guess is that rebuilding at the Enterprise level would effectively rebuild all domains in the enterprise, is that a valid assumption?There are only a little less than 100 mailboxes in our Exchange database, just the same I'll wait until the weekend to do the rebuild. This may be a good to time run a defrag on the database as well.Lasse & Jim,Thanks for all your help, I'll post here again after the weekend to let you know how this worked out.Jean

I dont see any reason to rebuild teh enterprise RUS, just go for domain RUS, and keep an eye on the application log while doing this