The Free/Busy Connector performs free/busy lookups on behalf of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office Outlook users. This functionality allows users to check one another's availability when scheduling meetings, regardless of the other user's e-mail platform.
From Outlook to Domino
When an Outlook user performs a free/busy lookup for a Lotus Notes user, the Free/Busy Connector requests the information from a designated Domino server. The Domino server relays the request to the user's Lotus Domino mail server, which checks the busytime.nsf database and then sends the information back to the requesting Outlook user via the Free/Busy Connector.
If another Outlook user requests availability information for the same Lotus Notes user in the next 15 minutes (this value is configurable), the Free/Busy Connector uses the cached information rather than performing another request.
If an Outlook user is trying to retrieve information for a Notes user in a different Domino SMTP domain, that domain must be configured in the Free/Busy Connector as a ConnectedDomain. If the secondary Domino SMTP domain is listed in the Free/Busy Connector, the server that is running Microsoft Exchange queries the default Domino Free/Busy server, which then retrieves the Free/Busy information from a server in the other domain.
 Note: |
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| The Domino servers in the different domains must be cross-certified as necessary to allow the Domino Free/Busy server to send the request to the Domino server in the adjacent domain. |
From Notes to Exchange
When a Lotus Notes user performs a free/busy lookup for an Outlook user, the Domino Free/Busy add-in task (excalcon.exe) requests the information from a designated Exchange Server 2007 server. The Exchange server retrieves the information from the Calendar Public Folder, and then sends the information back to the requesting Lotus Notes user via the Free/Busy Connector.