Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online

Topic Last Modified: 2012-10-13

A room mailbox is a resource mailbox that’s assigned to a physical location, such as a conference room, an auditorium, or a training room. After an administrator creates room mailboxes, users can easily reserve rooms by including room mailboxes in meeting requests. You can use the EAC or the Shell to create a room mailbox.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 2 minutes.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Recipients Permissions topic.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in the Exchange Admin Center.

Tip:
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

What do you want to do?

Create a room mailbox

Use the EAC to create a room mailbox

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Recipients  > Resources.

  2. Click New > Room mailbox.

  3. Complete the following boxes on the New room mailbox page:

    • * Room name   Use this box to type a name for the room mailbox. This is the name that's listed in the resource mailbox list in the EAC and in your organization’s address book. This name is required and it can't exceed 64 characters.

      Tip:
      Although there are other fields that describe the details of the room, for example, Location and Capacity, consider summarizing the most important details in the room name using a consistent naming convention. Why? So users can easily see the details when they select the room from the address book in the meeting request.
    • * Email address   A room mailbox has an email address so it can receive booking requests. The email address consists of an alias on the left side of the @ symbol, which must be unique in the forest, and your domain name on the right. The email address is required.

    • Organizational unit   You can select an organizational unit (OU) other than the default (which is the recipient scope). If the recipient scope is set to the forest, the default value is set to the Users container in the Active Directory domain that contains the computer on which the EAC is running. If the recipient scope is set to a specific domain, the Users container in that domain is selected by default. If the recipient scope is set to a specific OU, that OU is selected by default.

      To select a different OU, click Browse. The dialog box displays all OUs in the forest that are within the specified scope. Select the desired OU, and then click OK.

    • Location, Phone, Capacity   You can use these fields to enter details about the room. However, as explained earlier, you can include some or all of this information in the room name so users can see it.

    • Booking requests   Use this section to configure how the room mailbox handles reservation requests.

      • Automatically accept or decline booking requests    A valid meeting request automatically reserves the resource. If there's a scheduling conflict with an existing reservation, or if the booking request violates the scheduling limits of the resource, for example, the reservation duration is too long, the meeting request is automatically declined.

      • Select delegates to accept or decline booking requests   The delegates are responsible for accepting or declining meeting requests that are sent to the room mailbox. If you assign more than one resource delegate, only one of them has to act on a specific meeting request.

    • Delegates   If you selected the option requiring that booking requests are sent to delegates, use this section to select delegates. To add a delegate, click Add. On the Select Delegates page, select a user, click Add, and then click OK to return to the New room mailbox page.

      To remove a delegate, select the user and then click Remove.

  4. Click More options to configure the following fields. Otherwise, skip to Step 5 to save the new room mailbox.

    • Alias   Use this field to create an alias that is different than the one that you used to create the email address for the room mailbox. For example, if you create a room mailbox with an email address of ConfRoom1@contoso.com, the portion of the email address on the left side of the @ symbol is used as the alias by default. If you want the alias to be different, type it in this field.

    • Specify the mailbox database   Use this option to specify a mailbox database instead of allowing Exchange to select a database for you. Click Browse to open the Select Mailbox Database dialog box. This dialog box lists all the mailbox databases in your Exchange organization. By default, the mailbox databases are sorted by name. You can also click the title of the corresponding column to sort the databases by server name or version. Select the mailbox database you want to use, and then click OK.

    • Address book policy   Use this option to specify an address book policy (ABP) for the room mailbox. ABPs contain a global address list (GAL), an offline address book (OAB), a room list, and a set of address lists. To learn more, see Address Book Policies.

      In the drop-down list, select the policy that you want associated with this mailbox.

  5. When you're finished, click Save to create the room mailbox.

Use the Shell to create a room mailbox

This example creates a room mailbox with the following configuration:

  • The room mailbox resides on Mailbox Database 1.

  • The mailbox's name is ConfRoom1. This name will also be used to create the room’s email address.

  • The display name in the EAC and the address book will be Conference Room 1.

  • The mailbox is in the Conference Rooms organizational unit.

  • The Room switch specifies that this mailbox will be created as a room mailbox.

Copy Code 
New-Mailbox -Database "Mailbox Database 1" -Name ConfRoom1 -OrganizationalUnit "Conference Rooms" -DisplayName "Conference Room 1" -Room

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

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you’ve successfully created a room mailbox, do one of the following:

  • In the EAC, navigate to Recipients  > Resources. The new room mailbox is displayed in the mailbox list. Under Mailbox Type, the type is Room.

  • In the Shell, run the following command to display information about the new room mailbox.

    Copy Code 
    Get-Mailbox <Name> | FL Name,RecipientTypeDetails,PrimarySmtpAddress


Change room mailbox properties

After you create a room mailbox, you can make changes and set additional properties by using the EAC or the Shell.

Use the EAC to change room mailbox properties

  1. In the EAC, navigate to Recipients  > Resources.

  2. In the list of resource mailboxes, click the room mailbox that you want to change the properties for, and then click Edit Edit Icon.

  3. On the room mailbox properties page, click one of the following sections to view or change properties.

General

Use the General section to view or change basic information about the resource.

  • * Room name   This name appears in the resource mailbox list in the EAC and in your organization’s address book. It can't exceed 64 characters if you change it.

  • * Email address   This read-only box displays the email address for the room mailbox. You can change it in the Email Address section.

  • Capacity   Use this box to enter the maximum number of people who can safely occupy the room.

Click More options to view or change these additional properties:

  • Organizational unit   This read-only box displays the organizational unit (OU) that contains the account for the room mailbox. You have to use Active Directory Users and Computers to move the account to a different OU.

  • Mailbox database   This read-only box displays the name of the mailbox database that hosts the room mailbox. Use the Migration page in the EAC to move the mailbox to a different database.

  • * Alias Use this box to change the alias for the room mailbox.

  • Hide from address lists   Select this check box to prevent the room mailbox from appearing in the address book and other address lists that are defined in your Exchange organization. After you select this check box, users can still send booking messages to the room mailbox by using the email address.

  • Department   Use this box to specify a department name that the room is associated with. You can use this property to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups and address lists.

  • Company   Use this box to specify a company that the room is associated with, if applicable. Like the Department property, you can use this property to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups and address lists.

  • Address book policy   Use this option to specify an address book policy (ABP) for the room mailbox. ABPs contain a global address list (GAL), an offline address book (OAB), a room list, and a set of address lists. To learn more, see Address Book Policies.

    In the drop-down list, select the policy that you want associated with this mailbox.

  • Custom attributes   This section displays the custom attributes defined for the room mailbox. To specify custom attribute values, click Edit Edit Icon. You can specify up to 15 custom attributes for the recipient.

Delegates

Use this section to view or change how the room mailbox handles reservation requests and to define who can accept or decline booking requests if it isn’t done automatically.

  • Booking requests   Select one of the following options to handle booking requests.

    • Accept or decline booking requests automatically   A valid meeting request automatically reserves the room. If there's a scheduling conflict with an existing reservation, or if the booking request violates the scheduling limits of the resource, for example, the reservation duration is too long, the meeting request is automatically declined.

    • Select delegates who can accept or decline booking requests   Resource delegates are responsible for accepting or declining meeting requests that are sent to the room mailbox. If you assign more than one resource delegate, only one of them has to act on a specific meeting request.

  • Delegates   If you selected the option requiring that booking requests be sent to delegates, the specified delegates are listed. Click Add Add Icon or Remove Remove to add or remove delegates from this list.

Booking Options

Use the Booking Options section to view or change the settings for the booking policy that defines when the room can be scheduled, how long it can be reserved, and how far in advance it can be reserved.

  • Allow repeating meetings   This setting allows or prevents repeating meetings for the room. By default, this setting is enabled, so repeating meetings are allowed.

  • Allow scheduling only during working hours   This setting accepts or declines meeting requests that aren't during the working hours defined for the room. By default, this setting is disabled, so meeting requests are allowed outside the working hours.By default, working hours are 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday through Friday. You can configure the working hours of the room mailbox in the Appearance section on the Calendar page.

  • Always decline if the end date is beyond this limit   This setting controls the behavior of repeating meetings that extend beyond the date specified by the maximum booking lead time setting.

    • If you enable this setting, a repeating booking request is automatically declined if the bookings start on or before the date specified by the value in the Maximum booking lead time box, and they extend beyond the specified date. This is the default setting.

    • If you disable this setting, a repeating booking request is automatically accepted if booking requests start on or before the date specified by the value in the Maximum booking lead time box, and they extend beyond the specified date. However, the number of bookings is reduced so bookings won’t occur after the specified date.

  • Maximum booking lead time (days)   This setting specifies the maximum number of days in advance that the room can be booked. Valid input is an integer between 0 and 1080. The default value is 180 days.

  • Maximum duration (hours)   This setting specifies the maximum duration that the room can be reserved in a booking request. The default value is 24 hours.

    For repeating booking requests, the maximum booking duration applies to the length of each instance of the repeating booking request.

There’s also a box on this page that you can use to write a message that will be sent to users who send booking requests to reserve the room.

Contact Information

Use the Contact Information section to view or change the contact information for the room. The information on this page is displayed in the address book.

Tip:
You can use the State/Province box to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups, email address policies, or address lists.
Email Address

Use the Email Address section to view or change the email addresses associated with the room mailbox. This includes the mailbox’s primary SMTP address and any associated proxy addresses. The primary SMTP address (also known as the reply address) is displayed in bold text in the address list, with the uppercase SMTP value in the Type column.

  • Add    Click Add Add Icon to add a new email address for this mailbox. Select one of following address types:

    • SMTP   This is the default address type. Click this button and then type the new SMTP address in the * Email address box.

    • EUM   An EUM (Exchange Unified Messaging) address is used by the Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging service to locate UM-enabled recipients within an Exchange organization. EUM addresses consist of the extension number and the UM dial plan for the UM-enabled user. Click this button and type the extension number in the Address/Extension box. Then click Browse and select a dial plan for the mailbox.

    • Custom address type   Click this button and type one of the supported non-SMTP email address types in the * Email address box.

      Note:
      With the exception of X.400 addresses, Exchange doesn't validate custom addresses for correct formatting. You must make sure that the custom address you specify complies with the format requirements for that address type.
    Note:
    When you add a new email address, you have the option to make it the primary SMTP address.


  • Automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy applied to this recipient   Select this check box to have the recipient's email addresses automatically updated based on changes made to email address policies in your organization.

MailTip

Use the MailTip section to add a MailTip to alert users of potential issues before they send a booking request to the room mailbox. A MailTip is text that’s displayed in the InfoBar when this recipient is added to the To, Cc, or Bcc lines of a new email message.

Note:
MailTips can include HTML tags, but scripts aren't allowed. The length of a custom MailTip can't exceed 175 displayed characters. HTML tags aren't counted in the limit.

Use the Shell to change room mailbox properties

Use the following sets of cmdlets to view and change room mailbox properties:Get-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox cmdlets to view and change general properties and email addresses for room mailboxes. Use the Get-CalendarProcessing and Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlets to view and change delegates and booking options.

  • Get-User and Set-User   Use these cmdlets to view and set general properties such as location, department, and company names.

  • Get-Mailbox and Set-Mailbox   Use these cmdlets to view and set mailbox properties, such as email addresses and the mailbox database.

  • Get-CalendarProcessing and Set-CalendarProcessing   Use these cmdlets to view and set booking options and delegates.

For information about these cmdlets, see the following topics:

Here are some examples of using the Shell to change room mailbox properties.

This example changes the display name, the primary SMTP address (called the default reply address), and the room capacity. Also, the previous reply address is kept as a proxy address.

Copy Code 
Set-Mailbox "Conf Room 123" -DisplayName "Conf Room 31/123 (12)" -EmailAddresses SMTP:Rm33.123@contoso.com,smtp:rm123@contoso.com -ResourceCapacity 12

This example configures room mailboxes to allow booking requests to be scheduled only during working hours and sets a maximum duration of 9 hours.

Copy Code 
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox')} | Set-CalendarProcessing -ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours $true -MaximumDurationInMinutes 540

This example uses the Get-User cmdlet to find all room mailboxes that correspond to private conference rooms, and then uses the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet to send booking requests to a delegate named Robin Wood to accept or decline.

Copy Code 
Get-User -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox') -and (DisplayName -like 'Private*')} | Set-CalendarProcessing -AllBookInPolicy $false -AllRequestInPolicy $true -ResourceDelegates "Robin Wood"

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you’ve successfully changed properties for a room mailbox, do the following:

  • In the EAC, select the mailbox and then click Edit Edit Icon to view the property or feature that you changed. Depending on the property that you changed, it might be displayed in the Details pane for the selected mailbox.

  • In the Shell, use the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to verify the changes. One advantage of using the Shell is that you can view multiple properties for multiple mailboxes. In the example above where booking requests could be scheduled only during working hours and have a maximum duration of 9 hours, run the following command to verify the new values.

    Copy Code 
    Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'RoomMailbox')} | Get-CalendarProcessing | fl Identity,ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours,MaximumDurationInMinutes