Room Booking issues

Document Owner: Ekta Kaushik IBM

Situation

We are in midst of migrations of room mailboxes from Domino platform over to Exchange 2010.Since last week, we have been experiencing some random issues around room bookings/ free busy etc. post migration.While some of the issues are more by design, some seem to be due to coexistence. All these issues are independent to each other, but to end user they would seem like a single meeting room issue. The troubleshooting approach and resolu-tion for all are different and each issue is being dealt separately.

This document depicts all these different issues, there symptoms and work done so far on them.

Issue 1: Disabled rooms visible in Exchange 2010: Monitoring

Disabled rooms were by default hidden in Domino/Notes.In Exchange 2010, all these disabled rooms are visible by default. Example:

The free busy information for these would apeear as hash lines.If any user tries to book them, they get a decline :

P.20 team to work on removing the disabled rooms from the view in exchange 2010.

Impact:Users would see these rooms in the view, though they are un-bookable. Users may try booking and they will get a decline. It’s more of an inconvenience to users.UpdateProject team has run a script to remove disabled rooms from the view (Sep 02) - This would take effect from Sep 03 morn-ing, once the offline address lists are updated.The rooms removed from view are any disabled rooms within Exchange as well as Domino.List attached :

Sep 04Action items:Need a process for BAU for future activity.Updates :This activity should be part of provision and de-provision- This process is currently being worked out between IBM P.20 (Rita Falzon) and NAB ( Simon Thoday). The process change is due to changes on how mailboxes can now be directly provi-sioned on Exchange 2010.Rita has been notified to add this in the new process to be handed over to BAU. (i.e. if any room is disabled, it has to be hidden from the address lists).

Room Booking issues

Issue 2: Unable to book migrated rooms using Resource Reservation application: Expected behavior, user ed-ucation required.

Resource reservation is a Domino application which users can use to book rooms.( existing in resource reservation data-base)If any room is migrated to Exchange, users won’t be able to use this application to book those migrated rooms.

What users can do is:Regardless of the mail platform a user is on, he/she can book any Domino or Exchange based room or resource using his/her native mail client's calendar function.

1. Exchange users can book rooms defined in Exchange and Domino using their Outlook calendar2. Domino users can book rooms defined in Exchange and Domino using their Notes calendar

What users can't do is:Users (regardless of their mail platform) can't use the Domino application called 'Resource Reservation' to book for rooms that have been migrated to Exchange.This is simply the definition for that room would have been remove from Domino 'Resource Reservation' and created in Ex-change.They can still use the system to book rooms still remaining in Domino until they are eventually migrated across.

Sep 04Action itemsSteve to check with service desk around issues raised and check for any communications.Vimal/ Ekta to check possibility of a bannerUpdateA Banner can be put for this database with a text. A setting can be done to display this page every time a user accesses the database,Steve to confirm the text details.

Sep 05Steve has provided the below text to Vimal who will arrange for it to be uploaded to the Domino Resource Reservation database. Aft that every time someone opens the Resource Reservation application, they will be prompted with the text. Users can still acknowledge the message and continue to book a room, is they choose to. This arrangement does not pre-vent a user from booking a room that is still owned by Domino.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:Given most of us in NAB are now using Microsoft Outlook for email and calendars, Technology is moving all room and resource bookings to the Outlook system, building by building. While you will not notice the change you need to stop using Lotus Notes (Resource Reservation data base) for checking or booking rooms.

When is this happening?All rooms will be moved Outlook by 13 September. So please start booking rooms through Outlook now! If you continue to use Lotus Notes, you're likely to get a double booking.

How do I book rooms in Outlook?          Room bookings in Outlook guide         Check out this live demonstration as well.

These moves should help do away with many of the current issues we're having with room bookings.(While we move all rooms to Outlook, there may continue to a delay in receiving a response for a room booking request - which will have the most impact when booking rooms for immediate use.)

Issue 3: Meetings information (Subject/ organizer) available to everyone and not just free busy for 105 Miller street rooms: Monitoring/WIP

105 Miller street rooms were migrated on August 30th from Domino to Exchange.Post migration, the meeting information – like subject/owner got visible to everyone for these rooms. By default users should only be able to see whether a room is free or busy.

This is how it was appearing :

Room Booking issues

It was found that these rooms had slightly elevated Default permissions "Free/Busy, Subject, Organizer", instead of Free/Busy only.The permissions have been corrected manually. Below is a snapshot of meetings rooms post permission correction :

Sep03:There are still some rooms reported in 105, showing subject/organizer information.All those rooms details given to Project team.Ciraran from P.20 team is verifying those additonal rooms still reporting an issue..Sep04Action items- Check permissions again and see if they are intact.Update- All permissions are intact and good. Project team to monitor this.

Issue 4: Meetings information (Subject/ organizer) available to everyone and not just free busy for random in-dividual users: Expected behaviour.

This is similar to issue#3, with the difference that it is for some individual users.

Example:

This is not a global issue, but more of a setting a user has on his/her calendar. This can be changed easily by the user or an exchange administrator if requested.

Sep04Action: This is a user based setting so it depends on whether user has this has enabled. Steve to check with Nick whether we has any permission enabled.

Issue 5: Any meeting (single or recurring) booked (by delegate or manager) while room is in Domino, post mi-gration the meeting cannot be updated by the organizer or delegate. This happens when the update is made to subject/attendees etc. and time is kept same. –WIP

If a meeting is booked while a room is in Domino, post migration the meeting cannot be updated by either the organizer or delegate.

This is happening if the updates are done for any other property except the time. I.e. if time for meeting is kept same and the organizer/delegate makes updates around attendee list, agenda /subject or any other property, a decline would come.

Room Booking issues

Exchange is somehow treating these updates as a” new meeting” unable to determine this as “an update to original” and sends a decline thinking it is a conflict.The original meeting stays intact and the room is still booked with the old meeting.

Example :Test meeting on a room sent prior to migration.Room details : 23 Meeting Room 10/BRIS 100 Creek StOrganizer : Intisab Riazvi

Case 1Post migration, user tries to update the meeting( changes subject and add additional attendee but time is same, gets a decline)

Case 2If an update is sent, and time is changed, Exchange puts a new meeting with the new details in the room but the old meeting also exists. It’s not removed. So again exchange is not able to detect it as “an update” but treats this as a “new meeting”

Sep-03P.20 team is doing some additional testing on some machines that aren’t integrated with smart systems versus integrated with smart systems. Investigation is ongoing.

Sep-04ActionPossibly related to Quest migration tool. Call logged in Dell, need to understand options to fix. David to take a lead on this and have an update by Monday.Communications if required needs to be worked out.UpdateThe last update is the Quest migration tool is not migrating the tracking ID for meetings, resulting in this issue.The migration tool being used is version- 4.12.1Project team is working to get a new server with migration tool of updated version (4.7) and try some room migrations and test.

Room Booking issues

Issue 6: Tracking information in the meeting is not updated. : WIP

If a sender sends out a meeting, irrespective of the fact that recipients have accepted the meeting, tracking is showing as “none”

Example :Pascale on behalf of David Boyle books a meeting and invites multiple recipients.She gets an acceptance from the room she booked

The tracking information shows “ none” for the room

Room Booking issues

Sep 03The meeting room that doesn’t show correct tracking information is still in Domino.P.20 investigating to see if it’s a migration issue or a known coexistence issue.

Sep04ActionUpdate required on issueUpdateThis is not a migration issue, rather has been found out to be a coexistence issue.This issue is impacting only if an update to a meeting is made.Testing resultsIf a meeting is sent to multiple recipients (users, rooms on exchange, and rooms on Domino), the outlook tracking would show correct information at the first go.But, If an update is sent for the meeting, outlook tracking would not get updated for the rooms in Domino (so for instance even if the room in domino accepts the update, still outlook tracking shows as “none”). It gets updated for resources in Ex-change.

We are at a stage where domino rooms would be migrated to Exchange soon so this issue should not be relevant post all migrations are done.

Issue 7: Double bookings at 700 Bourke Street

700 Bourke street is still in Domino.There have been 2 examples provided around double bookings

Example-1

Gemma Blythe booked a room at 700, , 03:00PM- 04:00 PM September 03rd for which she got an acceptance. However Richard Skinner claimed he also had the room booked between 03:00PM & 03:45PM.

Room Booking issues

InvestigationExchange team checked and found Richard Skinner has only one entry in his calendar for 03/09/15. That entry is for a meeting between 8 & 9 am. Below data required for further investigation1. Where was the booking made? Exchange / Domino / Panel? 2. Did Richard book the room or someone else helped him to book the room - If it is someone else we need to check that person's calendar

Example-2Kari S's PA booked a room in Notes via Resource Reservation Database and got the confirmation. During the meeting an-other person interrupted the meeting to say he had the booking for that room.Notes Resource reservation database shows a clean booking schedule, no duplicate.Kari's PA Ruth had a booking from 10.30 to 12:00 and there are no conflicts showing in Domino.

Brijesh from Infosys has also mentioned they do not see any duplicate entry.Action itemsFor further investigation, details required as to who interuptted and confirmed another booking for the same room.Glenn/Shaun to do some testing at 800 and see if its an issue there