Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2011-11-29

Address book policies (ABPs) allow you to segment users into specific groups to provide customized views of your organization’s global address list (GAL). When creating an ABP, you assign a GAL, an offline address book (OAB), a room list, and one or more address lists to the policy. You can then assign the ABP to mailbox users, providing them with access to a customized GAL in Outlook and Outlook Web App. The goal is to provide a simpler mechanism to accomplish GAL segmentation for on-premises organizations that require multiple GALs. To learn more about ABPs, see Understanding Address Book Policies.

Looking for other management tasks related to ABPs? Check out Managing Address Book Policies.

What Do You Want to Do?

Use the EMC to create an address book policy

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Address book policies" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Organization Configuration > Mailbox.

  2. In the action pane, click New Address Book Policy.

  3. On the Introduction page, complete the following fields:

    • Name   Use this field to type the name of the ABP. This field accepts a maximum of 64 characters.

    • Global address list   Click Browse to select a GAL to assign to this policy. Each ABP must contain one GAL.

    • Offline address book   Click Browse to select an OAB to assign to this policy. Users who are assigned to this ABP will download the OAB you specify. Each ABP must contain one OAB.

    • Room list   Click Browse to select a room list. The room list is used for room booking purposes. Each ABP must contain one room list. If your organization doesn’t use room lists, we recommend that you create one that doesn’t contain rooms, and then assign it to the ABP.

    • Address Lists   Click Add to add one or more address lists to the ABP.

  4. Click New to create the ABP.

  5. On the Completion page, review the following, and then click Finish to close the wizard:

    • A status of Completed indicates that the wizard completed the task successfully.

    • A status of Failed indicates that the task wasn't completed. If the task fails, review the summary for an explanation, and then click Back to make any configuration changes.

  6. Click Finish to close the wizard.

Use the Shell to create an address book policy

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Address book policies" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example creates an ABP with the following settings:

  • Name: All Fabrikam ABP

  • GAL: All Fabrikam

  • OAB: Fabrikam-All-OAB

  • Room list: All Fabrikam Rooms

  • Address lists: All Fabrikam, All Fabrikam Mailboxes, All Fabrikam DLs, and All Fabrikam Contacts.

Copy Code 
New-AddressBookPolicy -Name "All Fabrikam ABP" -AddressLists "\All Fabrikam","\All Fabrikam Mailboxes","\All Fabrikam DLs","\All Fabrikam Contacts" -OfflineAddressBook \Fabrikam-All-OAB -GlobalAddressList "\All Fabrikam" -RoomList "\All Fabrikam Rooms"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-AddressBookPolicy.

Other Tasks

After you create the ABP, you may want to assign it to a user. For details, see Assign an Address Book Policy to a Mail User.