Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 includes a new Exchange service named the Autodiscover service. The Autodiscover service configures client computers that are running Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. The Autodiscover service can also configure supported mobile devices. The Autodiscover service provides access to Exchange features for Outlook 2007 clients that are connected to an Exchange messaging environment. The Autodiscover service must be deployed and configured correctly for Outlook 2007 clients to automatically connect to Exchange features, such as the offline address book, the Availability service, and Unified Messaging (UM).
For more information, see the Exchange Server
TechCenter topic
How to Configure Exchange Services for the Autodiscover
Serviceat
Retrieving Outlook contacts, call
logs, and voice mail
Communicator Phone Edition retrieves Outlook contacts, call logs, and voice mails and displays them on the device. Communicator Phone Edition does this by accessing the Exchange Server 2007 Client Access Server (CAS) and retrieving the information by using Exchange Web Services (EWS). Communicator Phone Edition locates the Exchange Server 2007 CAS by using an A record that is in DNS. It uses the SMTP domain of the primary e-mail address for the user to locate the A record. The primary e-mail address is sent to the device during the sign-in process through in-band provisioning. The A record it is querying is in the following order.
https://<SMTP domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, https://autodiscover.<SMTP domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, and http/ https redirect.
Outlook 2007 uses Active Directory Service Connections Points (SCP) and DNS SRV records to locate Exchange Server 2007 CAS. However, the device does not support these additional methods.
The Autodiscover service finds and presents the various URLs that are used to interact with Exchange Web Services and information about how to connect Outlook 2007 to Exchange Server 2007. The device uses those URLs to retrieve the Outlook contacts, call logs, and voice mails from Exchange Server 2007.