Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007: Implementation and Administration

Chapter 10. Managing Resource Mailboxes

One of the biggest complaints that many Exchange administrators have had about Exchange is that it really has no clue what a resource is. Whether it's a user mailbox, a shared mailbox, a conference room calendar, or a slide projector calendar, Exchange 4.0/5.0/5.5/2000/2003 really has not a clue as to what the difference is between them. Sure, you could create a mailbox named Conference Room 1001 or Shared Plasma TV, but Exchange sees it as just another mailbox.

You could set Outlook up to automatically accept schedule requests for Conference Room 1001, configure the Exchange 2003 Auto Accept script to do this automatically, or give all users that need to schedule this room permissions to add to this mailbox's calendar (also known as direct booking). Still, Exchange would be indifferent to Conference Room 1001, not to mention that none of this would be particularly easy to configure.

That has all changed in Exchange 2007 with the introduction of the new Calendar Concierge feature set that is designed to make Exchange calendaring more accurate and make resource booking easier. In this chapter I will introduce the new concepts for Exchange 2007 resource mailboxes and how to configure these resource mailboxes. The following topics are included:

• Resource booking basics

• Creating and managing a resource mailbox

• Configuring a resource policy

• Converting existing resource mailboxes

Resource Booking Basics

When a resource mailbox is created, Exchange sets specific ...