Prev: Seperate forest for testing out restores
Next: availability servive or public folders
From: shanediaz on 1 Feb 2010 12:11
Good Afternoon,

I'm hoping that someone out there can give me some guidance on white space
in DL display names in Exchange 2007. In the past our IT team has used
Active Directory Users & Computers to create mail-enabled distribution
groups. Now that we are an Exchange 2007 only shop, it's my understanding
that these should be created through the Exchange Management Console, which
is no problem at all.

The problem is, in the past all of our groups were created with a leading
space in the display name, ie " Accounting Group" rather than "Accounting
Group". This was done at the request of administration to cause all the
groups to "float" to the top of the GAL so that they would appear before
individual users do in the list. This has created a two-fold problem in our
Exchange 2007 environment though:

-We are unable to put a leading space in when creating a DL from the
Exchange Management Console since it is not allowed.

-All of our existing DLs that were created with a leading space generate an
error when viewed through Exchange Management Console referring to the fact
that they have leading or trailing whitespace in the display name field.

Since the problem is two-fold I have two questions I could really use some
help with. Administration wants the groups to remain at the top of the GAL,
so does Microsoft have a best practice or way to have these groups float to
the top of the GAL since we can no longer use a blank space? I was thinking
a period would do the trick except it appears that they only recommend
periods if they have leading and trailing characters as well.

Secondly, any suggestions on the best method to clean up the existing groups
that have the leading spaces without impacting things?

I haven't been able to find a whole lot in researching online but would like
to stick to any MS recommendations as closely as possible while cleaning up
this mess. Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

-Shane
From: Mark Arnold [MVP] on 1 Feb 2010 12:17
On Mon, 1 Feb 2010 09:11:01 -0800, shanediaz
<shanediaz(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Good Afternoon,
>
>I'm hoping that someone out there can give me some guidance on white space
>in DL display names in Exchange 2007. In the past our IT team has used
>Active Directory Users & Computers to create mail-enabled distribution
>groups. Now that we are an Exchange 2007 only shop, it's my understanding
>that these should be created through the Exchange Management Console, which
>is no problem at all.
>
>The problem is, in the past all of our groups were created with a leading
>space in the display name, ie " Accounting Group" rather than "Accounting
>Group". This was done at the request of administration to cause all the
>groups to "float" to the top of the GAL so that they would appear before
>individual users do in the list. This has created a two-fold problem in our
>Exchange 2007 environment though:
>
>-We are unable to put a leading space in when creating a DL from the
>Exchange Management Console since it is not allowed.
>
>-All of our existing DLs that were created with a leading space generate an
>error when viewed through Exchange Management Console referring to the fact
>that they have leading or trailing whitespace in the display name field.
>
>Since the problem is two-fold I have two questions I could really use some
>help with. Administration wants the groups to remain at the top of the GAL,
>so does Microsoft have a best practice or way to have these groups float to
>the top of the GAL since we can no longer use a blank space? I was thinking
>a period would do the trick except it appears that they only recommend
>periods if they have leading and trailing characters as well.
>
>Secondly, any suggestions on the best method to clean up the existing groups
>that have the leading spaces without impacting things?
>
>I haven't been able to find a whole lot in researching online but would like
>to stick to any MS recommendations as closely as possible while cleaning up
>this mess. Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
>
>Thanks,
>
>-Shane

Seen lots of companie's use a Tilda instead of a leading space. Never
actually seen anyone use a space. Innovative though, leaves it tidy
but, err, problematic as you have found.
Two ways are to use ADSIEDIT or ADMODIFY.NET to fix them. There are a
brazillion other ways really.

From: Rich Matheisen [MVP] on 1 Feb 2010 13:58
On Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:17:33 -0500, "Mark Arnold [MVP]"
<mark(a)mvps.org> wrote:

[ snip ]

>Two ways are to use ADSIEDIT or ADMODIFY.NET to fix them.

Powershell should be able to fix them, too. So would a small VBS/Perl
script using ADSI.

>There are a
>brazillion other ways really.

Is "brazillion" someone from Sao Paulo with a lot of zeros? Or would
that be a "brazillionaire"? :-)
---
Rich Matheisen
MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: Seperate forest for testing out restores
Next: availability servive or public folders