How to check the progress of the Exchange Recipient Update Service

This step-by-step article describes how to verify that the Recipient Update service is working correctly. In Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, a user may not appear in the Global Address List if the Recipient Update Service is not configured properly.

Verify the existence of the showInAddressBook attribute

Use ADSI Edit (Adsiedit.exe) to retrieve the properties of a known user and make sure it has the following attribute: showInAddressBook. If this attribute is present, the Recipient Update Service has correctly populated the information in Active Directory, and there is another issue that is preventing the user from appearing in the Global Address List.

ADSI Edit is available in Windows Support Tools. For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 Support Tools, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Warning If you use the ADSI Edit snap-in, the LDP utility, or any other LDAP version 3 client, and you incorrectly modify the attributes of Active Directory objects, you can cause serious problems. These problems may require you to reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, or both Windows and Exchange 2000 Server. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that occur if you incorrectly modify Active Directory object attributes can be solved. Modify these attributes at your own risk.

To use ADSI Edit to look for the showInAddressBook attribute, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand Domain NC [server_dc.yourdomain.com]
3. Expand DC=yourdomain,DC=com
4. Expand CN=Users
5. Right-click CN=User_Name and then click Properties.
6. In the Select which properties to view list, click Optional.
7. In the Select a property to view list, locate the showInAddressBook attribute.

Verify that the uSNChanged value is greater than the msExchServer1HighestUSN value

Use ADSI Edit to view the properties of the same user and to note the value of the uSNChanged attribute. This value must be greater than the value of the msExchServer1HighestUSN attribute in the Recipient Update Service object that is responsible for this user. To compare these two values, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Windows 2000 Support Tools, point to Tools, and then click ADSI Edit.
2. Expand Domain NC [server_dc.yourdomain.com]
3. Expand DC=yourdomain,DC=com
4. Expand CN=Users
5. Right-click CN=User_Name and then click Properties.
6. In the Select which properties to view list, click Optional.
7. In the Select a property to view list, click the uSNChanged value attribute, and then note the number in the Value box.
8. Expand Configuration Container [server_dc.yourdomain.com]
9. Expand CN=Configuration...
10. Expand CN=Services
11. Expand CN=Microsoft Exchange
12. Expand CN=Your_Exchange_Org
13. Expand CN=Address Lists Container
14. Click CN=Recipient Update Services.
15. In the right pane, right-click CN=Recipient Update Service (yourdomain.com), and then click Properties.
16. In the Select which properties to view list, click Optional.
17. In the Select a property to view list, click the msExchServer1HighestUSN attribute, and then note the number in the Value box.

Note You must obtain the properties of the Recipient Update Service object for your domain.

If the uSNChanged value is greater than the msExchServer1HighestUSN value, it means that the user has not been updated by the Recipient Update Service. The user will be updated during the next Recipient Update Service cycle if the Recipient Update Service is running.

Manually run the Recipient Update Service

You can manually run the Recipient Update Service to update the user information in the Global Address List. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Recipients, and then click Recipient Update Service.
3. In the right pane, right-click Recipient Update Service (yourdomain.com) and then click Update Now.

Set the default schedule setting for the Recipient Update Service to Always Run

To set the default schedule setting for the Recipient Update Service to Always Run, follow these steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Recipients and then click Recipient Update Service.
3. In the right pane, right-click Recipient Update Service (yourdomain.com), and then click Properties.
4. Click the General tab, and then click Always run in the Update Interval list.