Exchange Group Calendar version 3.0 - FAQ
 

A lot of issues have a simple cause. You must however enable logging (log to text file in the gcadmin console) and maybe restart the EGC service to get more information about the problem. Once logging is enabled you will find the logs in the installation directory of the EGC service.

When trying to add a group calendar you get error "Unexpected end of XML document"

Ø       Turn off .NET impersonation authentication on the EWS virtual directory and just leave Windows authentication.

When clicking "test credentials" you get "Autodiscover blocked a potentially insecure redirection to..."

Ø       Maybe the gcadmin service account password expired after the standard 30 days period.
Ø  Make sure the account has permissions to use OWA and Web Services in the exchange system console.

How can I display the Group Calendar Public Folders on my Iphone or other device

Ø       There's an Iphone app for that available here. Or use the light weight web solution by Lee Derbyshire

How to use the Master Category List so we see category colors in the Free/Busy viewer

Ø       In the GCadmin console, in the right bottom corner click "category management" to open the master category list.  Create categories with the format "CategoryName-ColorNumber" and wait (up to 20 minutes) until the EGC software has updated the category list in all users' Outlook. Outlook must be closed and reopened to load the new list. Create some new items in the personal calendar and select a category from the Master Category List. Then open the Free/Busy viewer (non full screen view) to select the (right bottom) "show category color" option.
You need Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2007 or higher for central category management as well as displaying category colors in the Free/Busy viewer.

     gcadmin console credentials check error. ("impersonation" error or "The Autodiscover service couldn't be located” error)

Ø       Often the internal domain name is different from the external domain name. (example domain.local and domain.com)
There are two things you can do.
1- Give the gcadmin account a primary email address in the internal domain. (gcadmin@domain.local) and match the User Principle Name (drop down box in the account tab of the mailbox) so it matches the primary email address.
2- Give the gcadmin account a primary email address in the external domain (gcadmin@domain.com) but make sure that the User Principle Name corresponds to that.
If the domain suffice is not available in the drop down box then you should add it in "UPN Suffices" in the AD domains and trusts tool. (right click the top tree object there to add it)

If this solution did not fix your problem it may be related to the complexity of the gcadmin user name. We had 2 support cases with a complex gcadmin user name (display name different from alias and email address or with dots and hyphens in the name). It turned out that creating a new service account with a simple username, display name and email address suddenly fixed the problem. We can only guess what the reason for this has been (http coding/conversion or even a bug in the Web services API)

Log file error: There was a problem connecting to the license server. Please make sure your firewall allows for connections to licmax.com

Ø       The software needs to be able to read the license from our license server over port 80 (standard HTML port) from IP Address 74.208.174.12.  For tight security environments, be advised that the software can be installed on any computer that is able to connect to your exchange server. Another point of interest is that the software connects to the internet as the account that runs the " EGC-Service " service. When using a proxy server, you may have to change that account to a domain account that has permissions to use the proxy server.

Log file error:  Impersonation error for user abc@def,com : Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.

Ø       Check the email address of the user. It may be typed incorrectly in Gcadmin.exe. It may also help to match the User Principle Name (drop down box in the account tab of  the mailbox) so it matches the primary email address. If the suffice is not available then you should add it in "UPN Suffices" in the AD domains and trusts tool. 

Log file error: Unable to cast object of type 'System.Int32' to type 'System.Byte[]'.

Ø       Was fixed after reinstalling service pack 3 of outlook 2003 on the client pc. Also seen on migrated calendar items created by Exmerge. Not fixable.

Log file error: Problem while trying to delete replica items: Object variable or With block variable not set.

Ø       Make sure the user has author permissions in the groupcalendars that he/she is member of.

Gcadmin console error on Exchange 2007 about impersonation while trying to add a new groupcalendar path to the list

Ø       This may be caused because the command that was entered in the Exchange shell did not set impersonation correctly on all required objects.

First try it with a exchange command shell command:

 Get-MailboxDatabase | Add-ADPermission -User gcadmin -extendedRights ms-Exch-EPI-May-Impersonate -InheritanceType none

If that does not fix it do the following to check and correct
a. Start AD Sites and Services
b. Click on the root node of the tree on the left hand pane and then choose View | Show Services Node (make sure it is checked).
c. Expand the Services node as follows:
Services/Microsoft Exchange/First Organization/Administrative Groups/Exchange Administrative Group/Servers/
d. Choose your CAS server (it should be a child of "Servers")
e. Right click on your CAS server and choose Properties and go to the Security tab on the property page.
f. Scroll through the list of users in the list box at the top and find your "gcadmin" account. If it isn't there, then the right wasn't stamped properly.
g. Assuming for a moment that the account is indeed there, select the "gcadmin" account in the upper list box and then scroll down the list of privileges until you get to "Exchange Web Services Impersonation". Make sure that is is checked (and not grayed out).
h. If the account was not there, then you need to add an ACE for that account. Click Add (under the groups/users list box), find the account and then go to step "g".

Do the same procedure from point C. for this path .. Services/Microsoft Exchange/First Organization/Information Store/First Storage Group/Mailbox Database
Right click on the Mailbox Data node in the left tree view and choose Properties and go to the Security tab. Find your "gcadmin" account just like before and make sure that the "Allow Impersonation to Exchange Personal information" is there and checked (and not grayed out).
 

Gcadmin console error on  Exchange 2007 : The server to which the application is connected cannot impersonate the requested user due to insufficient permission."

 Ø       Make sure you run the correct command shell command. There are two versions for 2007 (2 command lines) and 2010. The command must be one long line when you paste it in the shell. 

Gcadmin console error:  Unable to add a groupcalendar in the Gcadmin console. Message about exchange not supporting the version.

Ø     When on Exchange 2007, tick the box under the Gcadmin account credentials and try again. When on 2010 it should work without the box ticked. If it works when you do tick the box then install service pack 1 of exchange 2010.

Service refuses to start after fresh install or update.

Ø     Open RunEGCasService.ini and double check the paths. If the software is installed in c:\EGC then it should look like this
[Process0]
CommandLine=c:\EGC\ExchangeGroupCalendar_EWS
WorkingDir=c:\EGC

If you get error 5 in the log file (sc manager) it's a permissions issue. Start an elevated command prompt and run the INstallservice.bat from that.

"Error 401 Unauthorized" accessing Autodiscover url https://x.b.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml where server name is A.B.Com and OWA url is X.B.Com while having a valid SSL SAN certificates for both.

 Ø       http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

After it has been working fine for a while I added a lot of calendars and now the log is full of errors like "Impersonation error for user A@B.com : The Autodiscover service returned an error.
logon error for A@B.com "

 Ø       http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/08/27/456040.aspx shows that Exchange 2010 now ships with throttling ON. So it limits resources that one user (or application) can use.
 This may be the problem as it is limiting the EGC application resources. To remove that limit for your gcadmin account run this in the shell:

Ø     Assuming that you are running the command using an account with exchange administrative permissions the problem may be that the exchange commands have not been registered anymore in the shell. To fix this run this command:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010
in exchange 2007 that would be
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

 The user names in the group calendar items are too long.

Ø     Give the users an additional short email address. Remove the long address from the gcadmin console and add the short one. You can automate this in your Exchange server email policy

Private items from a mobile device

Ø     From a mobile device the calendar software may not have the option to set an item as Private. To work around that add the string ### to the body of the appointment. After synchronization with Exchange server the appointment will appear as a Private item in your Outlook calendar.