exchange 2010 Shared Mailbox Calendar Replies

[limok]

Hi,

I need some advice on how to receive calendar replies to primary mailboxes that were sent from a shared mailbox (could have worded this better)

Currently users at two different sites (7000 miles apart) have access to a primary mailbox and a secondary shared mailbox that users can create calendar invites. The mailbox is located at site 1 and the trouble we're having is that users at site are having performance issues when trying to open the shared mailbox.

I tried to rectify the issue by removing the mailbox at site 2 and only giving calendar access but i later found that users weren't being updated if invites had been declined (as declined invites will be sent back to the shared mailbox)

So if you understood the above please advise on a possible solution or if you need more then please let me know.

If there isn't a solution i'm going to have the move the mailbox to site 2 as we have more users there than we do here (which i really don't want to do)

Thanks for your help!

[sc302 Veteran]

Why are users opening that calendar mailbox?  Users should not open the calendar mailbox at all unless you, the administrator, are giving users access to be able to create meeting with the use of that mailbox. 

 

I will give an example. 

 

We have a conference room, lets call it conference room A.  We give sally access to be able to schedule meetings in that conference room.  Sally creates a schedule with the conference room as a member and any other person she wants to include.  That conference room accepts the meeting invite automatically and everyone else will get it added to their own schedule.  The conference room holds the meeting in its own calendar, and everyone else has a meeting invite in their own calendar, the person scheduling the meeting has the ability to view all meetings in that conference room to be able to schedule around other meetings going on that other people have access to.  No one is opening the entire mailbox at all.  You should be running cached exchange mode as well within outlook, this will help with speed and will only cause your mail clients to download new data, not the entire thing everytime they open mail.

[limok]

I see what you're saying but that'll mean we will need to have a dedicated person that manages the mailbox which doesn't fit our requirements. We have many users that will create invites from the shared mailbox and will require notification whether an invite has been accepted or declined. I will however verify that the shared mailbox is cached as that would make sense (quick google search tells me Outlook 2010/13 cache secondary mailboxes by default but we're on 2007).

 

Thanks for your suggestion and I will update you on how this goes.

[sc302 Veteran]

It manages the mailbox by assigning who and how many people can schedule meetings to it. Those that schedule meetings to it can schedule and delete meetings.

[Anibal P]

The way we use it is that Sups and managers have access to the account and schedule meetings and users get the invites, accept and it gets added to their calendar, I've received invites from our location in CT, from RI, and MN without needing to open any extra mailbox, I do know we use Cached Exchange mode and we have have people using Office 2003/ 2007, and 2010, 

[Rohdekill]

Unless this community calendar involves reserving a conference room (to avoid double-booking), there is no need to use it at all. 

 

A person wishing to host a meeting merely opens THEIR calendar, creates a new meeting and adds the desired people.  Everyone invited can see who accepted, who declined.  If the appointment is updated or adjusted, everyone is notified and their calendars adjust.

 

For conference rooms, each location has a single conference room email.  The receptionist monitors this account and accepts appointments (oldest to newest) and declines or proposes a room change upon conflicting appointments.  It takes her all of 15 minutes to do this and our conference rooms are used a lot. All employees have view rights to the conference room calendars so if they need a room they can check for availability before sending the invite to the people + the conference room email.

[limok]

Unless this community calendar involves reserving a conference room (to avoid double-booking), there is no need to use it at all. 

 

A person wishing to host a meeting merely opens THEIR calendar, creates a new meeting and adds the desired people.  Everyone invited can see who accepted, who declined.  If the appointment is updated or adjusted, everyone is notified and their calendars adjust.

 

For conference rooms, each location has a single conference room email.  The receptionist monitors this account and accepts appointments (oldest to newest) and declines or proposes a room change upon conflicting appointments.  It takes her all of 15 minutes to do this and our conference rooms are used a lot. All employees have view rights to the conference room calendars so if they need a room they can check for availability before sending the invite to the people + the conference room email.

 

The way we have it set is that users will schedule meetings with other users that are offsite, once they are booked in everyone that has access to the calendar can have visibility of the offsite users' whereabouts. Again all I need is a way to receive to a notification to the person who has raised the invite via the shared mailbox informing them (primary mailbox) of an invitation being accepted or declined.

[Rohdekill]

The way we have it set is that users will schedule meetings with other users that are offsite, once they are booked in everyone that has access to the calendar can have visibility of the offsite users' whereabouts. Again all I need is a way to receive to a notification to the person who has raised the invite via the shared mailbox informing them (primary mailbox) of an invitation being accepted or declined.

That's just it, you don't need to do it this way.  By setting up proper delegation to calendars you can see everyone else's personal calendar.  People can set who can see their calendar and the amount of detail.

 

For example, I am invited to an appointment.  I can click on the appointment in my calendar, see everyone who was invited, how they responded to the invite and their availability.  I can then select view other calendar, choose that person and see as much detail as they delegated.  Some I  see just bars marking appointments, others I can read what those appointments are (and where the appointment is at).

[limok]

That's just it, you don't need to do it this way.  By setting up proper delegation to calendars you can see everyone else's personal calendar.  People can set who can see their calendar and the amount of detail.

 

For example, I am invited to an appointment.  I can click on the appointment in my calendar, see everyone who was invited, how they responded to the invite and their availability.  I can then select view other calendar, choose that person and see as much detail as they delegated.  Some I  see just bars marking appointments, others I can read what those appointments are (and where the appointment is at).

 

I see what your saying but it's not how I want it, this way we'll end up with users that have too many calendars open and would cause a minor inconvenience to users.

 

I'm going to go with sc302 suggestion and try cached mode (performance), if that doesn't then I'll move the mailbox to site 2.

 

Thanks for your help. 

[Anibal P]

I see what your saying but it's not how I want it, this way we'll end up with users that have too many calendars open and would cause a minor inconvenience to users.

 

I'm going to go with sc302 suggestion and try cached mode (performance), if that doesn't then I'll move the mailbox to site 2.

 

Thanks for your help. 

 

Users can only see calendars they have been delegated access to, like for me all I can see is mine, my team's, and my division's, as those are all the ones I need to see, I cannot see a coworker's calendar unless they grant me access, and the way Outlook syncs your meetings there really is no need for me to open more than just mine, everything I need to see and know about is already listed there