Troubleshooting MSExchangeSA 9386 Warnings and OAB Generation and Access Issues

The warning event MSExchangeSA 9386 indicates that offline address book (OAB) versions prior to version 4 cannot be generated because a public folder server containing a replica of the offline address book system folder cannot be contacted. (Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 contains version 4 of OABs.) As a result, users of some versions of Microsoft Office Outlook clients and Office Outlook Web Access are unable to view their Address Books.

This event may occur in the following situations:

* If at least one public folder store is not in an Online state in the Exchange organization, and the Enable public folder distribution option is enabled on the properties of the default Offline Address Book.
* If the OAB folder does not correctly exist or have a valid replica. This situation may happen in cases where an Administrator creates a new OAB, designates the public folder database on server "X" as the site folder server, and the designated public folder database is subsequently deleted incorrectly. For example, ensuring that replicas are moved prior to the deletion is an incorrect method. In addition, it is also incorrect to remove the public folder database object from Active Directory directory service by using LDP.exe or AdsiEdit.msc or, if the database is on a pre-Exchange 2007 server, by uninstalling the server.
* The OAB folder was created, but hierarchy replication or maintenance didn't occur. As a result, the OAB folder was actually not created but the OAB exists in Active Directory, which lists a deleted public folder database as the designated site folder server. As a result, OAB folders do not exist anywhere in the organization.

To fix these issues, perform one of the following procedures:

* If you do not require OAB support for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007, perform the procedure "To disable the "Enable public folder distribution" option."
* If you require OAB support for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007 and you already have public folders deployed in your Exchange organization, perform the procedure "To enable public folder distribution for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007."
* If you require OAB support for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007 and you do not have public folders deployed in your Exchange organization, perform the procedure "To create a public folder database and enable public folder distribution for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007."

Procedure
To disable the "Enable public folder distribution" option

1. Open the Exchange Management Console, expand the Organization Configuration container, and select the Mailbox sub-container.
2. In the center pane, select the Offline Address Book tab. This tab displays the Default Offline Address Book object.
3. Right-click Default Offline Address Book, and then select Properties.
4. Select the Distribution tab, and clear the Enable public folder distribution check box.
5. Click OK to save the changes.

To enable public folder distribution for versions of Outlook prior to Outlook 2007

1. Open the Exchange Management Console, expand the Organization Configuration container, and select the Mailbox sub-container.
2. In the center pane, select the Offline Address Book tab. This tab displays the Default Offline Address Book object and properties.
3. Right-click Default Offline Address Book, and then select Properties.
4. On the General tab, identify the Generation server attribute and make note of it.
5. Select the Distribution tab and confirm that the Enable public folder distribution check box has been selected. Also make sure that the appropriate check boxes in the Client Support section have been selected.
6. Click Apply, and then click OK to save the changes.
7. Next, expand the Server Configuration container, and select the Mailbox sub-container.
8. In the top center pane, select the Mailbox server that was previously identified as the OAB Generation Server.
9. In the lower center pane, identify the storage group that contains the public folder database, and click the database object.
10. Confirm that the status field shows a status of Mounted for the database. If the database is not in a Mounted state, click the Mount Database action in the right-hand action pane.
11. If the database does not mount, review any errors presented in the user interface, as well as those located in the Application event log, to identify the cause of the failure and resolve those errors. After the errors have been resolved, repeat step 10.