3.1 GroupWise Free/Busy Service Overview

The GroupWise Free/Busy service is installed into your Exchange system. Both your GroupWise system and your Exchange system must meet the system requirements of the Free/Busy service in order for it to function correctly.

3.1.1 Free/Busy Service Functionality

The GroupWise Free/Busy service provides the following functionality:

  • GroupWise users can perform Busy Searches on Exchange users.

    Exchange users have mailboxes in the Exchange system. Exchange users can use Outlook, Outlook Web App, or another email client to access their mailboxes.

  • Outlook and Outlook Web App users can use the Scheduling Assistant to display the schedules of GroupWise users.

IMPORTANT:This functionality is dependent on successful address book synchronization between GroupWise and Exchange, as described in Section 2.0, GroupWise/Exchange Address Book Synchronization.

3.1.2 GroupWise Free/Busy Service Architecture

The components of the GroupWise Free/Busy service (Handler, Redirector, and Interceptor) are installed on an Exchange server where the Client Access server role is installed. Each component interacts with a different component of your Exchange system. The following diagram illustrates these interactions:

The following sections explain each Free/Busy service component:

Free/Busy Handler

The Free/Busy Handler is an Internet Information Services (IIS) application that processes Microsoft Internet free/busy (.vfb) requests. The Free/Busy Handler is installed into the Exchange Availability service.

GroupWise users use Busy Search to make free/busy requests on Exchange users. The FB Handler receives the requests and calls the Exchange Availability service. The Availability service obtains the free/busy information from Exchange mailboxes, and returns that information to the FB Handler. The FB Handler returns the free/busy information to GroupWise for display in a GroupWise client or in GroupWise WebAccess.

Free/Busy Redirector

The Free/Busy Redirector is an Exchange Web Services (EWS) module that monitors Outlook free/busy requests that are made to EWS. The Free/Busy Redirector is installed into EWS.

Outlook users use the Scheduling Assistant to make free/busy requests through EWS. When a free/busy request includes a GroupWise user, the FB Redirector intercepts the response from EWS and fills in the missing information for the GroupWise user by contacting the GroupWise POA. The POA accesses the GroupWise mailbox, obtains the free/busy information, and returns that information to the FB Redirector. The FB Redirector returns the free/busy information to Outlook for display.

Free/Busy Interceptor

The Free/Busy Interceptor is an Outlook Web App (OWA) module that monitors Outlook Web App free/busy requests that are made to OWA. The Free/Busy Interceptor is installed into OWA.

Outlook Web App users use the Scheduling Assistant to make free/busy requests through OWA. When a free/busy request includes a GroupWise user, the FB Interceptor intercepts the response from OWA and fills in the missing information for the GroupWise user by contacting the GroupWise POA. The POA accesses the GroupWise mailbox, obtains the free/busy information, and returns that information to the FB Interceptor. The FB Interceptor returns the free/busy information to Outlook Web App for display.

Free/Busy Configurator

The Free/Busy Configurator is the program used to provide configuration information about your GroupWise and Exchange systems.

During installation, the FB Configurator is called by the GroupWise Free/Busy service Installation program, so that you can configure the Free/Busy service.

After installation, run the following program to start the FB Configurator when you need to modify the configuration of the Free/Busy service:

configurator.exe

By default, the FB Configurator program is installed to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Novell\FreeBusy Service