Tuesday 17 March 2009

Outlook Error – The name cannot be resolved and SBS 2008 with Vista Hosting

We had a user on our hosted SBS 2008 service accidentally copy a bunch of folders into the Outbox in Outlook 2007.

The call to us came in that they were unable to send anything and were not sure why.

Once we connected to the Vista VM, we found the folders nested in the Outbox.

We removed the folders from the Outbox but the Send/Receive dialogue was still stuck.

So, we deleted the Outlook profile, deleted the OST file, and attempted to reconnect to their mailbox, but were not able to do so:

09-03-17 Outlook - Name Cannot Be Resolved

Microsoft Office Outlook

The name cannot be resolved. The name cannot be matched to a name in the address list.

Currently, the SBS hosting services are low key for a few clients that do not have network infrastructure in place but need a secure desktop and data sharing experience for their Line of Business applications.

The Microsoft licensing is provided through SPLA.

When we initially run the SBS Add a new user account wizard, there were no problems with configuring the Outlook profile.

The problem came after the fact:

09-03-17 SBS 2008 - Exchange 2007 User Properties

Exchange 2007: Philip Elder Properties

Note the setting below the Alias: Hide from Exchange address lists. Once the user’s profile has been set up, we enable this setting to remove them from the GAL.

The error in this case was due to the Hide from Exchange address lists setting being enabled. Once we removed the check mark and clicked the Apply button, we were able to complete the Outlook profile set up.

SBS 2008 and Windows Vista Hosting

On the hosting side of the business, we have set up a custom User Role for new hosting users on the SBS 2008 server that tightens up the group membership and quota structures.

Access-based Enumeration is used for any needed shares to keep them hidden from users with no permissions to them and Standard User profiles are used on the Windows Vista VMs with no Network Discovery enabled to keep them isolated.

Customized GPOs are then used to tighten up the security settings on the desktops.

As this side of our business grows, we will look to incorporate another rung on the redundancy ladder by including OWN’s Hosted Exchange solution into the mix.

Scorpion Software’s AuthAnvil is also on the To Do list to incorporate another level of security for the hosting environment as we grow.

The key to making the SBS 2008 and Vista hosting viable for small business is catching the balance between the cost of installing a server setup for the client versus the low monthly cost of having someone else do it for them.

As a result, we need to partner up with key Cloud services providers to augment our own services to provide the best balance between cost and availability.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

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