Exchange and Group Calendars

I'm posting this here because I know we have quite a few people using Microsoft Exchange.

I'm using Exchange 2007 with Outlook 2007.

Someone recently mentioned to me that they have a calendar specifically for their department which other people can view for event information. They are not technically inclined, but they do know they're using Exchange 2003. We share calendars now, but only on an individual basis. The user gets to decide who has access to their calendar. I also have resources setup such as meeting rooms (room mailboxes), projectors (equipment mailboxes), etc.

I’m curious how to implement the group calendar. Do you just set it up as a user and share the users calendar similar to the way a user would share their own calendar? You just don’t classify it as a resource and nobody actually logs onto the account? After you enable sharing of the calendar and set the appropriate permissions, does the user account stay active or do you disable it. I know that meeting rooms and equipment mailboxes are disabled...

I’ve recently received a request to create a calendar for a department and that is the only way I can think to do it off the top of my head. I’ve seen references to third party software to use in addition with Exchange (Exchange GroupCalendar), but I’d prefer not to purchase anything else if I don’t need to. I don’t have any formal training on Exchange other than what I’ve taught myself through the use of books, CBT videos and long nights of trial and error.

I had another idea on how to share the calendar. I created a folder in the Public Folders database and called it “Shared Calendars” and I was able to create a new calendar which gets stored in there. Then I can edit the permissions on that calendar. The only bad thing is that it won’t show up in the address list if people search for it. (File, open, other users folders, etc.) They will have to go to the public folder, right click on the calendar and select “add to favorites” in order for it to show up under the “other calendars” tab in the calendar view. I could see that being a pain for end users…

How do you approach this in your organization?

In exchange 2007 what you are describing is a "shared mailbox."

In 2003 you only had a resource mailbox. You did not have the resource concierge or the ability to create resources such as room booking, or TV/projector booking items.

So in 2007 MS has split these two things out, you have resource mailboxes(more for booking rooms, items, etc..), and you have shared mailboxes.

If a team needs to have a shared calendar that multiple people can access, but it is not "owned" by any one person I would create that as a shared mailbox. The other nice thing is that if all the clients are using 2007 you can have users in a totally different forest access that resource.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/16566

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb201749.aspx

If I understand correctly, you just want to create a new public calendar in exchange, right? Accessible by certain employees, departments?

I had to do this often in my last job -- It's weird, the only way to do it is to create the calendar from within Outlook, as you can't do it from Exchange System Manager oddly enough. Go into Outlook under your admin profile, expand Public Folders, and create the calendar there, configuring permissions accordingly.

I always thought that method was rather silly...

I don't think he wanted a public folder. You really should be moving off of public folders as the support for them, and ultimately public folders entirely are being phased out. Public folders were only added back into E2k7 because so many early adopters complained that they did not have the time or proper technologies in place to migrate off of them. Hence the major push to get sharepoint services integrated into outlook and OWA.