Poof Your Calendar - Really!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Craig — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:35:27 GMT

If you're creating the CalendarRecovery registry value manually:

- it is a DWORD data type

- if the \EXCDO and/or \Parameters keys don't exist you should manually create them.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

blake — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:59:17 GMT

Do we make this registry change on the backend servers or the frontend servers or both?

will your app make this registry change for us?

all our owa users' dst appointments are off by an hour after installing all the appropriate patches in the right order.

I also ran powerpoof on my profile and it doesn't seem to be updating my calendar when I view it in OWA.

Thanks!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:23:41 GMT

The registry key needs to be written on the mailbox servers. The sample application does not write the registry key - it only writes the string to the Calendar folder.

Perhaps you hadn't set the registry key properly on the server? Try doing the POOF manually - the sample is really better for doing a batch of mailboxes than for doing a single one.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Courtney — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:28:36 GMT

Stephen, Thanks for all you do! I need to know the last step in the manual process. After I create the registry keys on the exchange server on which my mailbox resides, then add the description to my calendar properties, then do I just open Outlook? Do I run something? When will it finish poofing my calendar?

Thanks so much! Courtney

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:37:00 GMT

Setting the description in the Calendar is the last step. Exchange spots this change and kicks off the task of reexpansion right then. Depending on the load on the server, the reexpansion should be done in just minute or two (if even that long).

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Theresa — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:39:59 GMT

Hi Stephen, thanks for this. I have issues with the sample script. I ran it against a bunch of mailboxes, it didn't set the text on the discription fields of their calendars. help...

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:54:21 GMT

After powerpoof sets the string, it then restores whatever was originally there. So don't expect to see the string in there when you look. If you want detailed output on what the tool did, use the -v switch. If it didn't report any errors, then it did it's part for triggering the poof.

If it did report errors, you can report them back here.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Shawn — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:53:24 GMT

Does PowerPoof remove the string from the Calendar Description once it's finished "poofing"? (I can't believe I'm using the word 'poof')

I have run PowerPoof several times, and once finished, I do not see the CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder string in the Calendar description.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:01:41 GMT

yep - see previous comment (or glance over the code if you're dev inclined!)

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Theresa Ebagua — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:27:14 GMT

The script worked. Thanks Stephen. You are awesome.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Rakesh — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:13:37 GMT

We added registry Key on server which has users mailbox

Added CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder for couple of users from outlook , unfortunately it didnt worked in my case.

Is there any logging i can turn on which will actually say that cache is deleted

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:31:47 GMT

It's quite possible the issue you're seeing isn't actually the issue described in the post.

Try going to one of the items in OWA that you think isn't rendering right and change the subject. Doing this from OWA will force re-expansion for the item. If that doesn't fix the problem for this item, then you're not seeing a problem that Poof would address.

If you want to verify the reg key is being read on the server, use regmon with a filter of "CalendarRecovery". The key should be read any time you set CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder on a calendar folder.

If you don't see the reg key being read, then it's possible ExCDO isn't starting on your Exchange server (which is a much bigger problem) - check the event logs for related errors.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

jlathem — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:01:22 GMT

Does this work for calendars stored in public folders, too? Or is it just for the calendar in the user's Inbox? If not, is there a similar way to force a Poof of a public folder calendar? Thanks!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:12:24 GMT

The Poof process should work on public folder calendars, but you'll need to do those manually. The caveat about cached mode applies if the PF calendar is cached.

The sample I wrote doesn't hit public folders, but you're welcome to write your own. :)

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Serhat — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:42:53 GMT

Hi There

I am running the PowerPoof script. But I still have some users complaining about their calendar being off by one hour. Mostly PDA users with intelli sync. Can you help me or let me know what i am doing wrong. I have followed your instructions to the dot from above.

Thanks again,

Serhat

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:56:14 GMT

Poof would only address instances where OWA and Outlook render the same recurring meeting differently. If the meeting is wrong in both Outlook and OWA, Poof won't fix it.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Srini — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:27:40 GMT

Hi, we are unable to poof public folder calendars even though we configure in online mode. Please help!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Dennis — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:30:08 GMT

Stephen...

I'm running PowerPoof : >powerpoof -P Outlook -S server > c:\Poof.txt ..

Is this tool just opening the calendar and put the syntax in the description field, then reading the reg key?

Thanks

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:55:51 GMT

It just puts the string in the calendar description. Exchange is monitoring for the string to be written. When it sees it, it checks the reg key to see that Poof is actually enabled, then performs the Poof if it is.

My sample does not read or write the reg key - it has to be written manually to the Exchange server.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Efrain — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:19:46 GMT

Sweet... just sweet! Works like a charm! You-the-man!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Dennis — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:51:20 GMT

Stephen Griffin...

Thanks!! PowerPoof worked perfectly!!!

Dennis-

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Tom — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:45:31 GMT

Stephen,

I went into the registry but can't find the EXCDO. We are running on exchange 2003 enterprise SP2. Thanks

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Kevin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:59:22 GMT

The poofing fixed entries that were off, but it created duplicate entries for all recurring appointments. Dupes are not visable through Outlook, only OWA. Please help!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:04:51 GMT

Kevin - you might try the Poof again. I've not seen that happen before.

Tom - you need to create the key. Craig pointed that out earlier.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Joe — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:13:12 GMT

Stephen,

Thank-you for this tool!! Can you elaborate on how to fix Public Folders. I am not sure what you mean by "do it manually".

Thanks

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:23:27 GMT

You'll have to set CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder on the description of the Public Folder calendar folder using Outlook. The sample does not operate on Public Folders.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Jennifer — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:32:53 GMT

ok...I'm a little confused.

I did the reg key...but am unsure where to do this

Next, in the description field of the properties of the Calendar folder, set the following text:

CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder

I thought I did it througgh outlook, but it's not working...what am I missing?

Is there anothe rplace to set this text?

thanks!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:39:25 GMT

Assuming you're not running into the cached mode issue I identified above, it's possible whatever issue you're experiencing with the Public Folder calendar isn't the issue described in the blog.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Jennifeer — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:49:03 GMT

*doh*

never mind...I was putting the reg key in the wrong place

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Jennifer — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:32:35 GMT

can someone give me an example of what legdns.txt should look like? I'd really appreciate it.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

john — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:30:45 GMT

Getting an error running powerpoof with the -P ans -S switch

It seems it can't locate the calendar for all the mailboxes. Any ideas?

INFO: 0x8004010F - ProcessMailbox failed to locate Calendar

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

john — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:35:35 GMT

I guess it is a permissions issue. What permissions does the user account need? Full permissions to all the mailboxes?

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Jennifer — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:47:37 GMT

so I've got the script worked out a bit, but quick question

I'm trying to verify that the script is working by look into the properties of the calendar in question (in this case, mine)

But I do't see the string there. Does it happen so quickly that I won't...or does this mean the script is not working?

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

aaron — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:39:01 GMT

We have a user that has all of her calendar appointments off by several hours. I mean these appointments are well after the 3 week time period. They were thrown off after TXMove was ran. Do you have a fix for this?

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

skyh00k — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:56:28 GMT

I created a couple of PowerShell scripts that actively monitor for 8230 events on remote servers and execute PowerPoof against the suspect mailboxes.

The corrupt calendar item issue had been creating some havoc just after migrating all of our mailboxes to the 2007 servers. disk utilization and transaction log creation would spike and actually crippled our server once (I'm not sure because we have another issue that is causing denied connections). :(

Anyway, try the code if you like. The links are on my blog.

skyh00k

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

tjbruins — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:11:29 GMT

Stephen,

I created the regedit keys and value on the server manually. When I try to add the CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder in the Description field of the Calendar Properties for the user and hit Apply I get an "Unknown Error" box. Any ideas?

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:03:53 GMT

Interesting - you should look on the Exchange server and see if any events were written in the Application log when you did that.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

tjbruins — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:33:42 GMT

There are many EXCDO Error Event ID 8209 & 8201

Calendaring agent failed with error code 0x8000ffff while cleaning up the calendar.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Carol — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:49:38 GMT

Does Poofing work in Exchange 2007? What is the filter to use with Process Monitor (v. 2.8)? Thanks!

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:10:21 GMT

Yes - poof applies in Exchange 2007. I don't know why you'd be using Process Monitor here.

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Michael — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:37:35 GMT

@Carol: In the Process Monitor filter, use Path / contains / CalendarRecovery.

@Stephen Griffin: Sysinternals no longer provides Regmon since Process Monitor does everything Regmon did and more.

Also, I can see a SUCCESS entry in Process Monitor when I set the CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder description on the calendar, but the description text is never removed from the calendar when I check it later, and it does not fix the issue, either. I'm not sure what else to do. Only once did I get some other EXCDO error (27 minutes my last poof attempt), which was Event ID: 8218 "A transaction failed during initialization". Any advice?

re: Poof Your Calendar - Really!

Stephen Griffin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:18:36 GMT

Forgot I had mentioned Regmon. :)

You might want to open a case to have this investigated.