Exchange 2010 offline address book does not update

Question

On our companies Exchange 2010 server, the most recently created mailboxes do not show up in the offline address book. I found that the oab is distributed via IIS's default website under 'oab'. When i look in this folder (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\OAB) on the IIS server, I see a folder with date modified today, but the files in this folder have all modified date a few months ago ? is this right ?

Ive also found a folder (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ExchangeOAB) which contains more recent files but not from today when i updated the offline address book via the exchange management console

What am i missing ?

Answer 1

In Exchange 2010 it takes even longer to synchronize the changes in the OAB than Exchange 2007. After the OAB is updated, which by default is once a day, it may take up to 8hrs for the OAB to be available to the client. The reason is that the OAB is generated in the MAILBOX role and needs to be copied to the CLIENT ACCESS role. The CLIENT ACCESS role checks for changes every 8 hrs. On top of these delays, if a client does not close/open his or her Outlook, it can take even longer for a change to take place.

Take a look at my blog post to resolve the issue. http://www.jasoncoltrin.com/?p=77

Also you can read up on how the OAB is distributed and the scheduling of that distribution here: http://www.jasoncoltrin.com/?p=312

Answer 2

It's the Exchange CAS not updating the Offline address book file:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\OAB\Something-Something-Darkside\oab.xml

I just restarted the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution service on the CAS server and it updated.

Then force outlook clients to update the OAB.