HOW TO: Convert a user mailbox to a resource mailbox

by Bharat Suneja

When creating a new mailbox (or a mailbox-enabled user) in Exchange Server 2010/2007, you have the option of creating a user mailbox or a resource mailbox — the latter for conference rooms, or equipment such as projectors, etc. to allow your users to book these resources.

If you’ve already created a user mailbox instead, and want to convert it to a resource mailbox, use the following command:

Set-Mailbox “MailboxName” -Type Room

This sets up the mailbox as a room mailbox. The following changes take place (perhaps not an extensive list):

  • IsResource: True
  • UserAccountControl: Yes, Exchange Server 2010/2007 resource mailboxes are disabled by default (displayed as “AccountDisabled” in the shell)
  • ExchangeUserAccountControl: AccountDisabled
    LinkedMasterAccount: NT AUTHORITY\SELF
  • RecipientTypeDetails: RoomMailbox
  • AddressListMembership: In addition to the Default GAL and All Users address lists, the mailbox is made a member of All Rooms address list

The Resource Booking Attendant and automated processing of meeting requests

The AutomateProcessing parameter in MailboxCalendarSettings is set to AutoUpdate. AutoUpdate sets up the mailbox to be processed by the Calendar Attendant. This processes meetings for users as they are received even if the user is not logged on. Calendar items (meetings) are placed on the user’s Calendar as tentative. As meeting updates are received, it marks the older instances as outdated.

The other choice here is AutoAccept, which sets it up for processing by the Resource Booking Attendant. It is similar to the Auto-Accept Agent (AAA) for Exchange Server 2003 (a separate web download), but has a lot more configuration options and doesn’t require an XML configuration file, as is the case with the AAA. This command sets up the mailbox for resource booking:

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings “MailboxName” -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept

In Exchange 2010, the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings cmdlet has been replaced by the Set-CalendarProcessing cmdlet.

On Exchange 2010, use this command to set up the mailbox for automated resource booking:

Set-CalendarProcessing “MailboxName” -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept

There are plenty of configuration options one can use with Set-MailboxCalendarSettings command. Look at these in the documentation to figure out if you want to change any of the defaults.

This command gets a list of all resource mailboxes:

Get-Mailbox | where {$_.IsResource -eq “true”}

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Bad Andy August 22, 2007 at 5:13 pm

Ever seen this before? I’m getting an error when trying to convert a mailbox to a room with this command:

[PS] C:\Documents and Settings\username>get-mailbox test12 | set-mailbox -type room
Set-Mailbox : The operation to convert mailbox “domain.contoso.com/OU/Users/Test12 70c0099e-a0b4-4c44-ad3a-8a163bd07468” from type “LinkedMailbox” to type “RoomMailbox” is not supported. At line:1 char:42
+ get-mailbox test12 | set-mailbox <<<< -type room I’ve verified that the ExternalAccount permission is no longer granted to the domain account, and is now granted only to SELF.

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shifty January 5, 2009 at 12:58 am

Why bother with this method? Just enter EMC, under Recipient Configuration choose Mailbox, highlight the account, choose “Disable account” from the Actions panel, then go into Disconnected Mailbox section, highlight the disabled account, choose “Enable mail” option, and from the resulting menu you will be able to set the mailbox type (Room, et al).

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Anonymous April 14, 2009 at 10:51 am

Seems that sending it to the disconnected mailbox folder takes some time for replication. I would not try this method if you have users who have already booked meetings under the old user resource.

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Anonymous April 22, 2009 at 10:54 am

Shifty, if you have to modify more than 1 account your procedure wouldn’t be that best one.
And through the console you can execute an script if needed.

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Anonymous August 11, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Works like a charm, many thanks Bharat, Ace

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Chris Gralike October 4, 2010 at 1:47 am

@shifty
Your method will also render the mailbox unavailable for a few seconds. Any mails send to that mailbox while being disabled will be NDRed.

The commandlet method is scriptable and clean, and it works like a charm. Also if your not sure what the correct mailboxname is, you might want tot use the get-mailbox commando in conjunction with the select function;
get-mailbox “abc*” | select “Name”

Rgrds, Chris

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Stuart May 11, 2011 at 7:40 am

After running the 2 commands is there any other configuration settings that are needed? Full control? Send As Permissions?

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kkcourntey August 21, 2014 at 5:01 pm

After converting a calendar/mailbox to a room, you may have the view issue where the subject gets removed and the creators name inserted in its place, this view issue will only affect the appointment creators view in the calendar

Resolution:
Exchange 2013 – 2010:
Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity -DeleteSubject $False -AddOrganizerToSubject $False

Exchange 2007:
Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -Identity -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept -AddOrganizerToSubject $False -DeleteSubject $False

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Rikard Strand January 24, 2012 at 5:42 am

Is it possible with Exchange 2007 to convert a “User Mailbox” to a “Linked Mailbox” without disable/connect the mailbox again ?

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