.NET Framework - exchange 2003 and PS

Asked By roge

10-Apr-07 07:02 AM

I need to write a simple VB.NET app that creates a exch 2003 mailbox. Used to
do this trough codexm but this no longer works on vista - so PS looks like
the way to go... So does anyone know how such a script should look like or
where to find the docs to read up on how to do this?

Regards,
Roger

10-Apr-07 07:35 AM

Powershell is supported natively by Exchange 2007, but not by Exchange
2003.

--
Thomas Lee
doctordns@gmail.com
MVP - Admin Frameworks and Security

10-Apr-07 08:02 AM

As Thoman mentions, PowerShell is supported natively in Exch 2003.  You
could still potentially use PowerShell though from what I've been able to
quickly google.

I've never heard of CDOEXM before, but it appears to be an Exch automation
DLL (COM object, if I'm using the right terminology).

I would think you could use PowerShell to load CDOEXM as a COM object then
call a method or property from it to do pretty much anything that object
would support.

That enough to get you going?

Marco

10-Apr-07 08:38 AM

Oops!  PowerShell is supported natively in Exch *2007*...

10-Apr-07 08:53 AM

It's Thomas and it's Exchange 2007 that's supported natively not 2003!

One place to start, Roger, is "Exchange Scripting: A Road Map"
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/exchange/exchange_ro
admap.mspx


Indeed - you can pretty much do _everything_ with PowerShell (well
nearly).


Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Management.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa142616.aspx

NB: these are gone in Exchange 2007
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332450.aspx


Correct.


See also:

Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 1):
http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Scripting-Exchange-VBScript-ADSI-Part1
.html

Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 2)
http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Scripting-Exchange-VBScript-ADSI-Part2
.html

Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 3)
http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Scripting-Exchange-VBScript-ADSI-Part3
.html

HTH

Thomas

--
Thomas Lee
doctordns@gmail.com
MVP - Admin Frameworks and Security

10-Apr-07 11:00 AM

Thomas & Marco:

Thanks for the replies - although I knew Powershell/Exchange features was
mailbox would be possible. As you mentioned CDOEXM is part of the Exchange
2003 management tools. It was a breeze to hook into it from a VB.NET app and
create new mailboxes in code. The insane thing I discovered after upgrading
to Vista is that MS has decided that the 2003 management tools can not be
used on Vista - efficiently breaking my code from running on administrators
Vista pc's. And testing and development has to be done on an XP pc until I
find an alternative solution to this. It has to be more developers out there
that did this through CDOEXM and has been fooled by this strange effect og
installing Vista.... :-((

I'll have a look at WMI to see if that can be the way to go......

10-Apr-07 12:43 PM

...

Well, it appears CDOEXM is just a set of DLLs...  I see no reason why you
can't hunt down the DLLs, and copy them over to Vista manually.  Might not
be supported, but I'd think it would work.  Easy to load them into
PowerShell after..


That should work too.

10-Apr-07 05:02 PM

You do not *HAVE* to use CDOEXM to create mailboxes via scripts... altho
it's the only way that Microsoft supports it. There is a set of AD Fields
that if you enter the correct data, the RUS will create the mailbox and
handle everything just fine. I've done it successfully in my lab and several
times in my production environment. It'll probably be this weekend before I
can dig out the code -- I'm in the middle of buying a house, so my time is
no longer mine :)

Gaurhoth

11-Apr-07 08:54 AM

I believe the required properties you need to set to have RUS create the
mailbox are:

msexchhomeservername
homemdb
mailnickname