Free/Busy and Contacts in Outlook

[vshah]

We are currently doing a trial on the Network Edition, and Outlook usage is pretty important for our userbase.

[https only, using our own OpenLDAP directory to authenticate against]

I'm currently trying out the Outlook Connector and can't get the Free/busy options and contacts lookup to work (I did try searching the forums):

1. Free/Busy: I went to the Calendar Options and put in https://<servername>/service/pubcal/freebusy.ifb?acct=%name%@%server% as suggested in one of the threads. This consistently results in an error in Outlook saying that the lookup failed "An error occured while reading Internet free/busy data. General Failure." I can go to my browser and manually input the URL (after substituting the username and servername in the appropriate places) and it works. Any suggestions?

2. While trying to create a meeting request, I can't see any of the usernames from the Zimbra server. Do I need to setup the Contacts list somehow?

[Just a note: After I installed the Outlook Connector, and restarted Outlook, I did not get a dialog box asking me to configure my Zimbra account. I had to do it via the "Additional Server Types" option while creating a new email account in outlook.]


Thanks
Viren

[KevinH]

1) Did you install a valid SSL cert? Outlook will refuse to connect if your using the default self-signed cert. This is an Outlook requirement and there is no way around it.

2) Certain GAL syncs don't complete, there is at least one know issue for that.

http://bugzilla.zimbra.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5741

It will be fixed this week.

Which version of the connector are you using?

[vshah]

1. Ahhh. The server does not have a valid SSL cert. It's using the default one.

2. I can't access bug #5741 even after logging in.

The install file is named ZimbraOlkConnector-3.0.1_M1_158_3.0.775.msi
and "Add/Remove Programs" says: 3.0.775.0

[sam]

By default cert, do you mean the self signed cert that is created with an out of the box installation? If so, self signed certs are not "valid" as the can't be verified by a trusted CA.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by vshah

2. I can't access bug #5741 even after logging in.

It's a private bug, sorry. So only Zimbra internal or Zimbra customers can see it.

[kiwicmc]

This may be totally off base here but you can get at least one part of outlook working with a self signed cert by visiting the https site with IE and accepting the cert permanently when prompted. I do this all the time when configuring the Outlook client to work remotely over the HTTPS/RPC proxy. If you don't do this Outlook fails silently.

Now, looking up free-busy info may use a totally different mechanism but it's worth a try before you shell out the $$$ for a valid cert.

C

[vshah]

Unfortunately, going to the Zimbra site (and the free/busy URL) with IE and accepting the cert didn't make Outlook any more inclined to work with that cert. :-(
So it looks like we are probably going to have to get a SSL cert just for the trial (which is irritating since the cert will be useless if we do go into production) or figure out how to get Outlook to work with a self-signed one.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

[vshah]

So, I temporarily switched zimbra to mixed mode so that I could test the calendar free/busy information. It is working well. We'll test it again once we have the cert.

Kevin, is there any workaround to the GAL sync problem that you mentioned?


Thanks.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by vshah

Kevin, is there any workaround to the GAL sync problem that you mentioned?

Sometimes the 2nd or 3rd launch of Outlook will get the GAL. If not then you`ll need to wait for the code fix. We hope to have a new connector with this fix done soon.