Microsoft Terminal Server

[cmoormann]

Hi,
i just wanted to ask, whether and in what ways the Outlook connector is supported to run in a terminal server enviroment, such as Citrix or plain Microsoft Terminal Services.

Installation and running it with an administrative account seemed to work, but i got different results when the connector ran with normal user privileges.

Has someone any experience in this?

[sam]

We've never tested under citrix, however I frequently use outlook under terminal services which seems to work. I am a local admin on the machine I term serv into.

[tbovingdon]

I have successfully used it in production terminal services environment.

We are having minor problems but here is what i have learned so far:

a) start with a FRESH terminal services profile (ie don't be dumb like me and migrate a windows profile.

b) there is an issue where when exiting outlook it crashes with a error in lsmssp32.dll

c) as it was a migration from exchange there were a few hiccups with address books as well.

Most of these problems i think are due to other causes... nothing to do with TS.

[cmoormann]

Originally Posted by tbovingdon

I have successfully used it in production terminal services environment.

We are having minor problems but here is what i have learned so far:

a) start with a FRESH terminal services profile (ie don't be dumb like me and migrate a windows profile.

I guess that's not possible, as we plan to migrate a few hundred existing users with existing profiles.

I got a few hints by tech support, especially concerning roaming profiles and their corresponding reg key, so every user gets his own Zimbra .db file, which works.

On the other hand, i still experience the following problems.


1. Outlook connecter installed with administrative privilegies.
2. I start Outlook with this account -> Configuration pops up, -> Everything works

1. Create the reg key, for the roaming db file
2. Start outlook on the same server with normal or poweruser privilegies
3. Nothing happends, ok, no big deal
4. Create a new email account, select "other" -> zimbra -> fill in the users credentials
5. Restart Outlook
6. Strange things happen
- Email works
- Calendar is not able to find published calendars or their corresponding users
- New Appointments however work, and i am able to find other users
- With my administrator account, the calendar works flawlessly.
- A standalone outlook works without problems, with the same user account

Has anyone an idea, what could cause this behaviour?

Chris

[tbovingdon]

what is the reg key u speak of?

Everything has worked for me with a fresh profile,

With a migrated profile some users experienced odd problems like you speak of...

one for me was the contact list is a folder not a contacts folder so addresses did not show up in outlook address book.

[cmoormann]

Originally Posted by tbovingdon

what is the reg key u speak of?

I don't have the url or reg key at hand and will post it tomorrow.

This registry key [i.e. HKEYCU/Software/Zimbra/<regkey> -> \\share\%username%] will create some subdirs for a roaming profile on a fileserver and the Zimbra DB at this location, though i do not understand why this should help, as we have the application data and other dirs allready set up roaming. Anyway this was recommended by the support.

Originally Posted by tbovingdon

Everything has worked for me with a fresh profile,

You are talking about the user profile, outlook profiles, the zimbra profile?
In general there was no zimbra profile present in testing, just other outlook mailboxes.

EDIT: I just saw your previous answer, a fresh terminal server profile will not be possible

With a migrated profile some users experienced odd problems like you speak of...

one for me was the contact list is a folder not a contacts folder so addresses did not show up in outlook address book.

I will have to check this, just took a short look into the GAL and this look all right

[cmoormann]

First of all the Roaming Profile registry Key:

We have recently introduced support for roaming profiles for the Outlook connector. Please see this bug entry for information:
http://bugzilla.zimbra.com/show_bug.cgi?id=9232

The relevant part is:
For 4.5.x, you can set a reg key (HKCU\Software\Zimbra\ZimbraZDBFolder) that
says where the zdb will go. You have to set this key prior to the creation of
the profile. So either customize the installer, or after the install (but
before you start outlook) you can edit/create the reg key. You cannot move an
existing zdb.

With 5.0.0, you can move an existing zdb. You can do this in profile editing
properties.

Setting this key prior to creating the profile should let the .zdb file go to the shared drive, and the initial sync to complete correctly. You also need to be sure the server and the Outlook connector are both the most recent version (4.5.3).

Anyway, as you stated, this is not a Microsoft Terminal Server problem.

The problem is somehow connected to the addressbook, which doesn't seem to work, if you just add the connector to an existing profile.

An empty profile with a new address book seems to solve almost all errors