When the Entourage 2008 Account Setup Assistant is used to set up a Microsoft Exchange Server mail account, the Account Setup Assistant performs the following steps to locate the information it needs from the computer that is running Exchange server in the following sequence.
The Account Setup Assistant queries the DNS server for all DNS resource records for its domain name. It is looking for the global catalog server (LDAP server) for the Active Directory domain to which the user account belongs. To perform this query, the Account Setup Assistant uses a DNS server that is configured in Mac OS X under Network Preferences on the TCP/IP tab. If no DNS server has been configured, the Account Setup Assistant uses a DNS server that is assigned by DHCP. This query returns all of the resource records for the Active Directory domain controllers that are hosted by the DNS server. The Account Setup Assistant then uses the priority rankings that are returned by the DNS server to select the catalog server that it will use. After the global catalog server is found, the Account Setup Assistant authenticates to that server and then performs an LDAP query for the homeMDB attribute of the user account. This attribute provides the host name for the Exchange server that stores the user's mailbox. In addition, the global catalog server is set as the Directory Service server for the account.
If the query to the DNS server is not successful, the Account Setup Assistant tries to locate the Exchange server by using the name of the domain that the user entered for his or her Microsoft Exchange account. For example, if mydomain.microsoft.com was entered as the domain for a Microsoft Exchange account, the Account Setup Assistant creates a DNS query for the name mydomain.microsoft.com. The DNS resource records that are returned in response to this query include the records for the domain controllers in the domain, which then can be queried for the Exchange server information.
If the Account Setup Assistant cannot find information about the Exchange server, it provides the option to manually enter the information. The required information might include the name or address of the Exchange server and the name or address of the public folder server, which also provides the free/busy data.
NoteIf Entourage cannot find the homeMDB attribute, this is usually because Entourage could not find the user object in Active Directory. In this situation, you might find it useful to use the LDP.exe tool to connect from a Windows-based computer to the LDAP service that is returned by the DNS query. The LDP.exe tool is included in the Support Tools for Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003. Also, make sure that the user's Active Directory object is replicating properly to the target domain controller and that the homeMDB attribute is being returned correctly.
