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
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.
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:
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:
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
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:
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.
Following are column headings for the Configure Attributes tabbed page:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
For more information, check out the following:
Keywords : absconfig.exe, address, book, WMI, contacts, file, Resource, Kit
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