As noted in previous post titled “DST 2007: Understanding what needs to be done and how to do it“, Microsoft has released a hotfix for the Outlook Calendar Update Tool (aka “Time Zone Update tool for Microsoft Office Outlook”).
This addresses some key issues mentioned in the previous post, and adds some new command line options:
1. Avoid rebasing single-instance items created after DST 2007 updates are applied to the OS: Again, as noted in my previous post, if users create appointments after the OS gets its DST 2007 time zone update but before existing items are rebased, such new single instance items also end up getting rebased – wrongly so. (The same does not apply to recurring items, which do not get rebased wrongly – as explained in the previous post – Bharat)
After this new hotfix is applied to the tool, it provides two options to avoid that:
– you can use the patched TZMOVE.EXE with /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH option. The patched tool determines when the DST 2007 time zone update (KB 931836) is applied on the computer, and does not rebase any items created after that time.
– you can manually specify a time in UTC – the patched tool only rebases items created before that time. This is done using the /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH switch with a UTC time (the cut-off time when the OS possibly would have received the DST 2007 time zone update) in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ, so it looks like the following:
TZMOVE.EXE /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH:2007-03-01T18:00:00Z
(The above will rebase items created before 12:00 noon on March 1st, 2007. Since this uses the local computer’s time zone, Microsoft recommends that you do not use this option when running the Exchange Calendar Update Tool).
2. Force rebasing of calendar items and suppressing meeting updates (that occur because rebasing changes the meeting times):
– Why do we need to force rebase appointments? Well, by default, the rebasing tool will only update meetings for which you (or rather, the account being used to run the tool) are the organizer. The force rebase actually forces updates of all appointments, regardless of who the organizer is.
– The options are /FORCEREBASESUPPRESSALLUPDATES – does not send meeting updates to anybody, or /FORCEREBASESUPPRESSEXCHANGEUPDATES – sends meeting updates only to invitees/attendees who are not in your Exchange Org.
3. Rebasing of Public Folder calendar items: You can now update Public Folders from the command line.
4. Rebasing of calendar items in folders other than the default Calendar folder, from the command line.
5. Do a what-if analysis!: The patched tool lets you use a new /REPORTINGMODE option, which simply logs any changes that would have been made if you ran the tool in Update mode. Now you can look at the Application log and determine if it would have picked up/rebased all the items that required rebasing, or if it would have missed anything.
More details in KB 933146.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It appears that if you use the /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH switch, and you have not actually installed the OS patch, the Outlook tool fails with an “Operation Failed” error. Due to the script we are trying to write, this is causing problems for us. We would like the tool to only update items created pre patch IF the patch has been applied, and to update ALL items if no patch is detected. Have you seen any way to do this with the new hotfix? Thanks.
KB 933146 states:
“We recommend that you do not use the /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH command-line option with the Exchange Calendar Update Tool (MsExTmz.exe). The /ONLYCREATEDPREPATCH command-line option uses the local operating system as the basis for its logic. Therefore, all calendars would be rebased using the information from the computer where the Exchange Calendar Update Tool was run and probably would not apply to the user mailboxes that are being rebased.”
– rebasing should be done from a computer that does have 931836 time zone update applied to the OS
– MS recommends using the /CREATEDPREPATCH option when running the Outlook Calendar Update Tool (TZMOVE.EXE) only, not in tandem with the Exchange Calendar Update Tool, as the above KB excerpt says. In that case, the tool will not be able to determine if/when the time zone update is installed on client PCs other than the one that the tool’s running on.
– Having said that, it would be valid to expect it to run with the /CREATEDPREPATCH:utc time option to update only appointments created before a certain date & time.
Haven’t had a chance to test that scenario.
We’re running the script as a logon script, so it is OK that it’s checking the local OS as the basis for the logic. I don’t know which users will log onto which workstations and whether the workstation will have been patched or not. So I want it to run either way.
I’m wondering about those us that ran the tzmove before the hotfix switches were available? Users added appointments between the time the os was patched for the new dst rules and before we ran tzmove without switches. There are many appointments (especially in Public Folder Calendars)that are rebased incorrectly, i.e, appear an hour early. Is ther any recourse in getting those appointments to be rebased correctly? Thanks