Hi all I am doing a free/busy project between multiple active directory sites. There is no trust. I am able to hit the autodiscover.xml and get the 600 message which I see is normal. However; I am confused about the DNS entry. 1. Is there a need to have autodiscover.smtpdomain.XXX in internal DNS? Or 2. Is there a need to have autodiscover.smtpdomain.XXX in BOTH internal and external DNS? Or 3. Not needed at all. I appreciate your help.

Yes, you need to have host record. You can scenario in below article to understand it more. White Paper: Exchange 2007 Autodiscover Service: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332063(EXCHG.80).aspxAnil MCC 2011,ITIL V3,MCSA 2003,MCTS 2010, My Blog : http://messagingschool.wordpress.com

Hi, Short answer is YES, If Autodiscover service only access by internal user, then Add DNS host records on Internal DNS server only. If you need to provide availability and autodiscover service functionality from internet, then you have to also add DNS host records on External DNS server for Autodiscover service. Thanks, Vidyanand

There is no requirement for autodiscover.example.com to resolve internally unless you have clients on that network which are NOT members of the domain, or you are going to change the value on the Client Access Server for the internal autodiscover URI to use it internally. Externally, if you have clients using the same domain but two different independent forests, then you are looking at a whole lot of pain. Outlook queries a number of URLs, which cannot be controlled on a per user basis centrally. Therefore you will have to set an Autodiscover registry key instead and use the same URL internally and externally so it works everywhere. This will allow you to have two different URLs for autodiscover information, and will override the automatic lookup. This article explains the registry key that is required, although it is written for the Exchange online services. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/onlineservicesmigrationandcoexistence/thread/d6c69c69-6524-493b-a0c6-21c79e146ce7 Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources | In the UK? Hire Me.

For the cross forest free busy lookups each server will query the service binding url which is typically going to be your OWA namespace. To establish cross forest free busy you can read my blog, it was done using a trust but non trust is very simlar except different parameter when you set the set-availabilityconfig. Preserve Cross Forest Free Busy When Migrating to New Forest Feasible? http://msexchangetips.blogspot.com/2010/12/preserver-cross-forest-free-busy.htmlJames Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Hi thanks. the goal here is free/busy. These domains are not trusted so they do not see each other's resources by name. The actual autodiscover urls are different. They are something like owa.smtpdomain.xxx/autodisccover/autodiscover.xml. But I was reading that autodiscover.smtpdomain.xxx is looked up during look up. Would you please advise? Thank you

Hello, Yes, you need add the autodiscover record in the internal DNS. For more information about the cross forest availability deployment, you can refer to: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/03/04/3412075.aspx Thanks, Simon

Hi Why in the internal DNS? Local domains can resolve local autodiscover using SCP. Problem is that other separate forests/domains do not have autodiscover.smtpdomain.xxx. Some do have SRV records externally for autodiscover but If I am not mistaken; exchange 2007/2010 does not consult SRV records for autodiscover resolution.

That's correct last I read can't use srv lookups for cross forest availability. I did a trusted setup so was able to export the scp (since you can authenticate between forests) and didnt have to reply on autodiscover lookups and just needed to resolve the service binding url which is typically the owa urls for both forests. Your only option is to be able to do the complete autodiscover.domain.com lookup for all your forests.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Hello, You can use several method to lookup for Autodiscover. If you would like the clients to look up the autodiscover via SCP, you need to first run “Export-AutodiscoverConfig” to export SCP from the source forest to the target forest. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996849.aspx If you would like to resolved the autodiscover via DNS, you need to add the autodiscover.domain.com to the DNS manager. Generally, Outlook will use the four methods to find the autodisvoer in order: 1. SCP 2. DNS 3. Local XML file 4. SRV record Thanks, Simon