Skype for Business Blog

13 MIN READ

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Tool: Address Book Service Configuration Tool

Brass Contributor

May 20, 2019

First published on TECHNET on Mar 11, 2011

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit tool, Address Book Service Configuration Tool, provides Active Directory Domain Services attribute changes and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) configuration updates to the Address Book Service (ABS) settings. This tool can be used to regulate which Active Directory attribute information is included in the contact information that the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 address book file contains. This tool also provides administrators with the flexibility to customize their address book information as needed.

Using Address Book Service Configuration Tool to modify the ABS WMI setting provides administrators with a way to coordinate Office Communicator 2007 R2 address book downloads to meet the needs of their Office Communications Server 2007 R2 network environments . You can download this tool and other Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit tools from the Download Center.

Author: Mike Adkins

Publication date : March 2011

Product version : Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

Introduction

Address Book Service Configuration Tool provides users with a graphical user interface (GUI). This allows them access to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes that define the Address Book server configuration. This interface also allows access to the Communication Server-enabled Active Directory user objects. This gives Address Book Service Configuration Tool the ability to define the contents of the Office Communications Server address book file according to the needs of the network’s Office Communications Server-enabled users.

Additionally, Address Book Service Configuration Tool can be used to administer how and when the address book file should be made available to the Office Communications Server users on the network. You can download this tool and other Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit tools from the Download Center.

Description

Address Book Service Configuration Tool at first glance is visually confusing. It provides a graphical view of the information that can be distributed with the downloadable address book file. User information such as first and last name, location, phone numbers, company name, e-mail addresses, and manager’s name are just a few of the user object attributes that can be changed to provide a user experience that is more suitable on the existing network environment that is hosting Office Communications Server services.

Address Book Service Configuration Tool manages a variety of Active Directory user information for Office Communicator 2007 R2 clients on the Office Communications Server-enabled network. This user information management is as follows:

Use custom field names to replace the default Communicator 2007 R2 attribute field names.

Filter address book downloads based on user object attribute values.

Select specific phone number information for the Communicator 2007 R2 user.

ABS relies on its WMI configuration for the management of phone number normalization, address book synchronization, and other address book file download and update choices.

Address Book Service Configuration Tool can be used to customize the Address Book Service’s WMI configuration for the following settings:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-enabled Communicator 2007 R2 client phone number normalization

Specifying when the address book file will be synchronized for the Office Communications Server-enabled network

Specifying the requirements for address book creation

Organizing address book distribution based on Active Directory design

Output

By default, the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit tools will use the following default installation path.

<local drive>\Program Files\Microsoft Office communications Server 2007 R2\ResKit folder

This is where the executable for Address Book Service Configuration Tool (absconfig.exe) is located. Use Windows Explorer to locate the absconfig.exe file, and then double-click it to begin using Address Book Service Configuration Tool.

As previously mentioned, this tool has a GUI that can be used to show the contents of the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file (as shown in Figure 1). The Address Book Service Configuration Tool GUI can also be used to access the Address Book server WMI property settings (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. Address Book Service Configuration Tool Configure Attributes user interface

Purpose

The purpose of Address Book Service Configuration Tool is to manage the customization of the default features of the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. Modifications to the design of the address book file allow the provisioning of user-related information that can be specific to an organization’s network environment. Following are examples of such modifications:

Office Communications Server can be deployed in a pre-existing VoIP infrastructure that requires the deployment of legacy phone number normalization policies to the Communicator 2007 R2 client. This allows the Communicator 2007 R2 client’s VoIP features to integrate with the existing VoIP phone network.

The phone numbers that are being used with user accounts on a pre-existing network can become part of the downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 address book file by using the phone number configuration options that Address Book Service Configuration Tool has to offer.

When Office Communications Server-enabled users are added to the network, the size of the address book file will get bigger. Each new Communicator 2007 R2 user must download a complete copy of the address book file. The size of the address book file can hinder deployment when Office Communications Server-enabled users are added to the network. In such cases, using the following Address Book Service Configuration Tool features can be used to manage the size of the first address book file to be downloaded for the new Office Communications Server users on the network (OU refers to organizational unit ):
- Partition ABS data by Organizational Unit OU and create individual ABS files per OU
- Which users do you want to include in ABS files?

Managing network bandwidth is a task that is oriented to a business’ schedule. The address book file’s Synchronization features provides straightforward way to set the time that address book file synchronization occurs.

Requirements

Windows Server 2008 operating system

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition operating system with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition operating system with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Permissions that are equivalent to a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group or the Domain Admins group in the Active Directory domain that hosts the Office Communications Server infrastructure

Examples

The following information provides a detailed description of the features in Address Book Configuration Tool. Also covered is how to use these features to manage the user information that is stored in the address book file and how to change the Office Communications Server Address Book server WMI configuration. Figure 1 shows the Configure Attributes tabbed page.

Configure Attributes Tabbed Page

Following are column headings for the Configure Attributes tabbed page:

AD Attribute Name Provides a default list of Active Directory attributes. These attributes can be used to customize the contact information for the Communicator 2007 R2 address book download. (AD refers to Active Directory .)

OC Field Name Provides a list of individual field names that are used for a custom tabular representation of each Active Directory user object attribute.

Is this Attribute Required? Provides selections for a specific Active Directory attribute. When selected, that user object attribute will become part of the address book file download.

Type of Attribute Provides a default list of seven Active Directory attribute types. They are as follows:
- None
- proxyAddress - Tel Only
- proxyAddress - SMTP Only
- proxyAddress - Tel or SMTP
- Phone
- Email
- Group

These types are used to categorize how a user object attribute is represented in the address book file download. A good example of this is how the user object’s proxyAddress attribute contents are added to the address book file. The proxyAddress attribute can contain more than one value; for example, the user’s SMTP address and the Tel or Phone extension. If you want only the user’s SMTP address added to the address book file, you would assign the SMTP Only Type to the proxyAddress attribute when using Address Book Configuration Tool.

Include in Devices Provides a list of values. When these values are selected, devices such as the Polycom CX700 IP phone, will be able to download the corresponding attributes as contact information for its address book file download.

The Address Book Service Configuration Tool GUI allows the addition of existing Active Directory user attributes as downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 contact information. This GUI also makes it possible to delete any of the Active Directory user attribute information that you don’t want to use as downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 contact information. This means that Office Communications Server administrators can customize the contents of their downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 address book files to match the design of their Office Communications Server and VoIP environments. In addition, removing unneeded Active Directory attribute information from the address book file provides a more compact Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. It provides efficient use of the Office Communications Server network’s bandwidth.

Which users do you want to include in the ABS files? (Specify Filters)

Using these filters provides Office Communications Server administrators with three types of filters. They can be applied to the contact information that is used to create the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. These filters are as follows:

Only include users that have a value for this AD attribute

Exclude all users who have a value for this AD attribute

Do not apply any include or exclude features (this is the default)

These filters allow Office Communications Server administrators to choose which users on the network can list their contact information in the downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. This is a good way to manage the amount of contact information that is added to the downloadable Communicator 2007 R2 address book file.

Which value of the phone number do you want to include in the ABS files?

These choices allow Office Communications Server administrators to define the format a contact's phone number in the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. These choices are as follows:

Use normalization rules and include the normalized number for the phone attributes This option processes the contact's phone numbers that are designated with the Phone "Type of Attribute" in the format that is provided by a matching address book service normalization rule. After it’s normalized, the contact's phone number is added to the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file.

Include the phone number value that is present in the ProxyAddresses attribute in the AD The Active Directory user objects host the proxyAddress attribute. It can list multiple, separate string values ; for example, SMTP address, SIP user URI, and a phone extension. The phone extension value can be added to the proxyAddress attribute by using the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Console or Management Shell. This Exchange user mailbox configuration feature allows an IP phone extension that is managed by a PBX to be integrated with a user's Exchange Unified Messaging (UM)-enabled mailbox.

Include phone number value that is currently present in the AD for the phone number attributes and the ProxyAddresses attributes This option adds each contact's normalized phone numbers to the contact information in the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. The only requirement is that the contact's phone numbers have either of these "Type of Attribute" choices applied to it—but not both:
- proxyAddress - Tel Only Filter
- Phone

Include the phone number value that is currently present in the AD If a contact's user object has a phone number value for the telephoneNumber attribute (also known as work number), the work number is added to the contact information in the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file.

Configure WMI Tabbed Page

The choices on the Configure WMI tabbed page, shown in Figure 2, allow modifications to be made in the Office Communications Server WMI that affect the ways Address Book Service Configuration Tool processes the address book contact information. The Office Communications Server WMI class, MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting , contains all the properties as configuration options.

Figure 2. Address Book Service Configuration Tool Configure WMI user interface

Organizational Unit (Configuration Option)

Partition ABS data by Organizational Unit and create individual ABS file share per OU This allows the Office Communications Server administrator to toggle the Boolean value for the MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:PartitionOutputByOU property between True or False . False is the default value for this setting. True allows the address book file information to be managed by organizational units (OUs) that contain Office Communications Server-enabled users. Separate file shares are created for the full and delta address book files for the corresponding user objects that are contained in each separate OU.

Synchronization (Configuration Options)

Scheduled time for daily synchronization of ABS data The default is 1:30 AM. The value is of the Integer data type and is entered as 130. When you update this, the change will be made in the Office Communications Server the MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:RunTime setting.

Time interval in seconds to check for synchronization The default is 300 seconds or 5 minutes. If the ABS synchronization is scheduled to run at 1:30 AM, the synchronization process is probably delayed for up to 5 minutes or until the next interval for the synchronization polling occurs. When this configuration option is updated, the integer value stored in the MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:SynchronizePollingIntervalSecs setting will be updated with the new value.

Normalization Rules

ABS allows the use of two types of phone number normalization rules—generic built-in normalization and company-specific normalization. ABS uses a default WMI configuration that allows ABS to process both types of phone number normalization rules.

Following are brief definitions of the two types of phone number normalization rules.

Generic built-in normalization ABS provides by default a concise set of phone number normalization rules.

Company-specific normalization When they are made available to ABS, it will process a user-defined set of phone number normalization rules. The default installation of Office Communications Server places a text file that contains a list of sample phone number normalization rules into the ABS Files folder or share. This file is named Sample_Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt. ABS cannot process the phone number normalization rules that are contained in this by file until it is renamed to Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt. After this is done, ABS can provision the additional phone number normalization rules to the Communicator 2007 R2 clients on the Office Communications Server network.

Apply both generic built-in normalization rules and company-specific normalization rules This updates the Boolean value for MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting : UseNormalizationRules from False to True (its default value). Ensure that Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt is available in the ABS Files folder or share.

Apply only generic built-in normalization rules This turns off the availability of the ABS's company-specific normalization rules by setting the Boolean value for MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting : UseNormalizationRules to False , its non-default value.

Apply only company-specific normalization rules This turns off the availability of the ABS's generic built-in normalization rules by setting the Boolean value for MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting : IgnoreGenericRules to True , its non-default value.

Apply no rules This turns off the availability of both the ABS's generic built-in normalization rules and the company-specific normalization rules. This is done by setting Boolean values for MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:IgnoreGenericRules to True and MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:UseNormalizationRules to False .

Delta Files

Create a Delta ABS file, only if the ABS file is changed by specified percentage The occurrence of the Communicator 2007 R2 address book full file download can be determined by this WMI setting. The default setting for this configuration is 12.50 percent. This means that after the size of the Communicator 2007 R2 address book delta file download is 12.50 percent of the full file size, the next incremental delta file download is skipped. Now the Office Communications Web Components Server the Communicator 2007 R2 address book full file download is triggered by the ABS. Adjusting this setting allows Office Communications Server administrators to download a full Communicator 2007 R2 address book file with the frequency they need. When this option is updated, the MSFT_SIPAddressBookSetting:MaxDeltaFileSizePercentage string value is updated.

Troubleshooting Phone Number Normalization

Address Book Service Configuration Tool can be used to analyze issues that may be occurring with Communicator 2007 R2 contact’s phone number normalization. If you are experiencing this issue, use Address Book Service Configuration Tool to toggle between the options for phone number normalization.

Applying ABS’s use of phone number normalization rules is based on the configuration of the Office Communications Server WMI class instance for MSFT_SipAdressBookSetting . Use Address Book Service Configuration Tool to toggle between Apply only generic built-in normalization rules and the Apply only company-specific normalization rules phone number normalization choices. Be sure to download a new address book file to Communicator 2007 R2 clients with each configuration choice. This troubleshooting step can help reduce phone number normalization issues that occur when phone number normalization rules overlap each other.

Phone number normalization rules are tested linearly by ABS when it has to normalize a contact’s phone number. The first phone number normalization rule that is a match for the contact’s phone number is used. However, this could provide unwanted results. Using the step in the previous paragraph eliminates the use of the ABS generic phone number normalization rules or the use of the company rules phone number normalization rules. This helps determine the set of phone number normalization rules that contains the unwanted normalization rule. Address Book Service Configuration Tool has the following important caveats:

Apply changes applies the changes that are configured in Address Book Service Configuration Tool immediately—the operation cannot be canceled. If the applied configuration was not the correct one, the operation has to be performed again with the correct address book file configuration.

Restore defaults sets the configuration of the address book file to the defaults used by Address Book Service Configuration Tool and not the default configuration of ABS. This can result in the creation of address book files that contain no contact phone number information. This occurs because Restore defaults sets the Apply no rules phone number normalization option. Clicking Restore defaults restores the defaults immediately—the operation cannot be canceled.

Summary

Address Book Service Configuration Tool, part of the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit Tools group, simplifies the task of customizing the Communicator 2007 R2 address book file. By providing a GUI that can be used to manipulate the Office Communications Server-enabled users contact information that resides in the Active Directory domain and by simplifying access to the ABS MSFT_SipAddressBookSetting WMI class instance, the Address Book Service Configuration Tool makes a straightforward task out of what would be difficult Office Communications Server configuration tasks. This convenience makes this tool an invaluable choice for those who need to create an address book file that can match the design of their Office Communications Server network environment.