Hello, Hope someone can help me sheer some light on the issue below. I have setup a separate exchange server that holds a certain amount of resources. This exchange server is in its own Forrest, and the idea is that external people can book the resources if they know the right SMTP addresses. problem is that when people from outside the domain books the resources they are not arriving with the same status they where sent with. Instead they are going into the calendar with a tentative state. So to summon up: - From the lan site everything is fine, -Resource Scheduling is accepting the meeting requests and the appointments are placed in the calendar of the resource. - However from the wan site, then bookings are tentative accepted. The original appointment where sent with the status busy. The following command where executed in the hope this whould resolve the issue: set-MailboxCalendarSettings -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages:$true TentativePendingApproval:$false Here are the details of a room. AutomateProcessing : AutoAccept AllowConflicts : False BookingWindowInDays : 180 MaximumDurationInMinutes : 1440 AllowRecurringMeetings : True EnforceSchedulingHorizon : True ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours : False ConflictPercentageAllowed : 0 MaximumConflictInstances : 0 ForwardRequestsToDelegates : False DeleteAttachments : True DeleteComments : True RemovePrivateProperty : True DeleteSubject : False DisableReminders : True AddOrganizerToSubject : False DeleteNonCalendarItems : True TentativePendingApproval : False EnableResponseDetails : True OrganizerInfo : True ResourceDelegates : {} RequestOutOfPolicy : AllRequestOutOfPolicy : False BookInPolicy : AllBookInPolicy : True RequestInPolicy : AllRequestInPolicy : False AddAdditionalResponse : False AdditionalResponse : <DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT></DIV> RemoveOldMeetingMessages : False AddNewRequestsTentatively : False ProcessExternalMeetingMessages : True DefaultReminderTime : 15 RemoveForwardedMeetingNotifications : False Identity : demo.xxxx.com/Resources/Car Any idea how i can assure that the rooms are automatically processed when booking from external with the status "busy" if this is how it where originally sent with... Thanks Rolf

Hi Rolf, I am able to reproduce your issue on my lab. After further researching regarding the issue, I notice that if Exchange 2007 is unable to match the incoming e-mail to an item in the GAL, it will not process the meeting request, and will treat it as you experienced (does not process, and moves it to deleted items without sending response, add the meeting to calendar folder as Tentative). Once I create a contact for the external sender, the meeting request is processed with no problem. Mike

Hello Mike, Thanks a lot for your reply, - my problem is that i don't know the senders email, and also we expect that the system will be used by a lot of different users from external companies. Having to create contacts for each of them would be a real pain. I think to remember that this worked for exchange 2003 and AAA. any chance that this could be resolved? Rolf

Hi Rolf, I am not able to find a solution regarding the issue. Actually, if I capture a trace when external sender sends a meeting request to room mailbox, I get the following information: InfoWorker.Assistants.ResourceBooking ResourceBookingProcessing Mailbox:2014Conf:63410b8c-3685-4694-a642-6efa1755fdbe:/o=lab/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=room1: It's a meeting request. InfoWorker.Assistants.ResourceBooking ResourceBookingProcessing Mailbox:2014Conf:63410b8c-3685-4694-a642-6efa1755fdbe:/o=lab/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=room1: Sender not in AD. Therefore, the meeting request is not handled by the Resource Booking Assistance. Mike

Thank you Mike, - its unfortunate that their is no solution apart from creating users in the GAL. I hope it will be possible in the future. It whould be cool to be able to provide some form of hosted services when talking resource mailboxes...

Hello Mike, I have been trying to explain the scenario to my management, and i have a little problem off explaining what the commend "-ProcessExternalMeetingMessages:$true" has of purpose/function? - My initial thought where that it would process external meeting requests. But from our talk i understand that this is not the case, so i need to understand what it does... Thanks

Hi Rolf, I think that the ProcessExternalMeetingMessages used to control whether the calendar assistant should process (add tentative, update tracking tab) meeting request or meeting response message for mailbox. For Resource Mailbox, resource booking assistant is responsible for processing (accept or decline) meeting request or meeting response message. For example, by default, the meeting request is added to calendar folder as tentatively accepted. Nevertheless, for meeting request from external sender, the meeting is not added to the calendar folder as tentatively by calendar assistant if we do not enable ProcessExternalMeetingMessages on the mailbox. Mike

Is creating a contact for external senders still the only answer to this question? I have the same problem.Thanks