The Connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable - Exchange 2010 + Outlook 2010
When we first start Outlook 2010 it attempts to connect to our Exchange 2010 Mailbox server but fails to resolve the user name and give the error The connection to Microsoft Exchange is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action Lookinig at the Exchange properties shows it's trying to connect to the Mailbox server, not the Client Access server. If I change the server name to the Client access server, the name resolves and we're setup. How do I make this the default for all users connecting to Exchange?Orange County District Attorney
February 19th, 2011 2:38am

Outlook shouldn't be connecting to the mailbox server at all. All Outlook connections go through the CAS server on Exchange 2010. Therefore the first thing I can think of that would stop that is the CAS array hasn't been configured correctly. Do a query on get-mailboxdatabase |fl and look for the value of RpcClientAccessServer. It should be either a CAS server or a CAS array. It should not be a mailbox database. If you don't have a CAS array, then it might be a good idea to set one up, even if you don't have multiple CAS servers, as it can make life a lot easier down the line if you do add additional CAS servers, DAG etc. Simon. Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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February 19th, 2011 2:52am

Thanks for the info Simon. I ran get-mailboxdatabase and found that the RpcClientAccessServer was in fact our 2010 CAS server. So that part is good. For some reason the CAS piece is populating the user mail profile with the mailbox server name. I think I'll need to track down the reason why that is happening. One other thing that's probably helping to muddy up things is that we're a mixed Exchange 2007 and 2010 enviroment. My mailbox is on the 2010 side but new Outlook 2010 profiles are using the Netbios name of our 2010 database server.Orange County District Attorney
February 23rd, 2011 1:14am

Something isn't right with your setup. Somewhere the Mailbox Server is being handed out as the server name. Have you reused machine names at all? Anything setting up the profiles for you rather than autodiscover? Have you looked at what autodiscover is returning? Run the Exchange best practises tool from the Toolbox to ensure there is nothing flagged? Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.
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February 23rd, 2011 2:24am

Yes, you can say that. Part of my problem lies in the fact that we use a product from Scriptlogic called Desktop Authority manage our Desktop Configurations as well as Outlook profile creation. When we were a pure Exchange 2007 environment, we simply configured the profile creation with the Exchange 2007 mailbox server and all was well. Now in Exchange 2010 that's changed. I think that Desktop Authority is automatically filling in the mailbox server as it's not Exchange 2010 aware yet. Something we'll have to work around.Orange County District Attorney
February 23rd, 2011 2:39am

I am having a similar issue, but this is only happening to one user.
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March 15th, 2012 4:47pm

Had the same issue. However, the way I was able to resolve it was to start all of the Exchange services that weren't started. After all services were running, Outlook connected without further issue.
May 1st, 2012 7:12pm

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