Ex2013 and 2016 co-existence- OAB the Operation could not be completed because an offline address book is not available

Question

hi All,

i am currently on Ex2013 and 2016 co-existence. All the migrated mailboxes, when it try the open the address book it will prompt the "the operation could not be completed because the offline address book is not available" once i click Ok and close and open address book, the error doesn't appears, however after few hours issue reappear. no issues on Ex2013 users.

I have checked the offline address book, and its on 2013. OAB virtual directories are configured with Ex2013 directories and Web distribution is enabled. Globalwebdistribution is disabled.

couldn't find any article to fix the issue. Only one forum discussion, i can find make the virtual directories to Null and enable globalwebdistribution $true.

Answer 1

hi David, Yao

issue is currently settled. we have not seen any firewall level drops when we are accessing the address list.

Registry keys on both Exchange & AD helps to fix the issue. but we are still monitoring.

Sanka

Answer 2

Move the arbitration mailboxes to Exchange 2016 if they aren't already .

Set-ADServerSettings -ViewEntireForest:$true  
Get-Mailbox –arbitration | New-MoveRequest –TargetDatabase <2016 DB>  

IF that doesn't work, try recreating the OAB on the Exchange 2016 Server and set it as the default:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/address-books/offline-address-books/create-offline-address-book

New-OfflineAddressBook -Name "OAB_Contoso" -AddressLists "\Default Global Address List"  

Then:
Set the mailbox database to use that new OAB:

Set-MailboxDatabase "Mailbox Database01" -OfflineAddressBook "OAB_Contoso"   

Then:
get-offlineaddressbook | update-offlineaddressbook

Then:

Restart the Mailbox Assistant service

Then:

Wait about 15 minutes, then try to download the Offline Address Book from Outlook client.

You can set as the default for the entire org:

Set-OfflineAddressBook -Identity "OAB_Contoso" -IsDefault $true

Answer 3

Hi Andy,

thanks for your response.

im still having the issue. Exchange is not install on a multi forest, hence i believe Set-ADServerSettings -ViewEntireForest:$true is not required.

Answer 4

hi Andy,

i am getting the below error when i execute the command.

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Test-OutlookWebServices -Identity sanka.perera@Piepel -MailboxCredential (Get-Credential)| fl

cmdlet Get-Credential at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Credential

RunspaceId : 619a034d-7461-46b0-a907-47456bb837dd
Source : xxxxxxxx
ServiceEndpoint : xxxxxxx
Scenario : AutoDiscoverOutlookProvider
ScenarioDescription : Autodiscover: Outlook Provider
Result : Failure
Latency : 0
Error : System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A
connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or
established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond xxxxx:443
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket,
IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Exception& exception)

Answer 5

@sanka perera
Hi,
Are you running the command on the Exchange 2013 server to test settings of sanka.perera@Piepel (which has been migrated to the Exchange 2016 server)?
According to the error message,there may be some network problems between the Exchange servers.
Please check if the Exchange 2016 server can be accessed.
Microsoft does not support restricting or altering network traffic between Exchange servers.

In addition,please also check the network status between the two servers when the problem occurs.

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