Does Microsoft even do product testing?

[alan]

I mean seriously...

I have an absolutely typical business scenario: a dozen or so users of
Macs in the creative department of my client have Macs which are bound
to active directory with access to them via accounts on the domain
with network home folders hosted on a Mac OS X server.

And Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition -- the version that is
supposed to be for businesses using Exchange -- fails spectacularly.
Since the update to EWS, no one can run "My Day" or "Microsoft Office
Reminders" when Entourage is running. They two support apps will
bounce for a moment in the Dock and then crash.

Just as soon as I can do it, I'm moving everyone to Apple Mail, iCal
and Address Book on Snow Leopard. They couldn't possibly work any
worse than MICROSOFT'S OWN PRODUCT WORKS WITH ITS OWN SERVER in a
perfectly normal business configuration.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I mean seriously...
Yes.

I have an absolutely typical business scenario: a dozen or so users of
Macs in the creative department of my client have Macs which are bound
to active directory with access to them via accounts on the domain
with network home folders hosted on a Mac OS X server.

And Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition -- the version that is
supposed to be for businesses using Exchange -- fails spectacularly.
Since the update to EWS, no one can run "My Day" or "Microsoft Office
Reminders" when Entourage is running. They two support apps will
bounce for a moment in the Dock and then crash.

Well I can, so it's not a generalized issue.

Now you have to realize that fixing a bug has a cost. I'm sure MS does
crazy math with a bunch of parameters like how many users will be
affected, hoiw many man-hour to fix, etc before they decide whether to
address the issue immediately or not.

Corentin

 

[David Marcovitz]

Well I can, so it's not a generalized issue.

Now you have to realize that fixing a bug has a cost. I'm sure MS does
crazy math with a bunch of parameters like how many users will be
affected, hoiw many man-hour to fix, etc before they decide whether to
address the issue immediately or not.

Corentin

And that's assuming that they even know about it. From these two messages it
appears it is not a consistent error. There might be something different
about your configuration than what is typical so that Microsoft never
experienced this problem in its testing.

--David

 

[alan]

Well I can, so it's not a generalized issue.

Do you have a network home folder, or is your home folder local on
your machine?

 

[alan]

And that's assuming that they even know about it. From these two messagesit
appears it is not a consistent error. There might be something different
about your configuration than what is typical so that Microsoft never
experienced this problem in its testing.

It's about as typical an office setup as you can imagine:

Macs bound to Active Directory with home folders residing on an Xserve.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

It's about as typical an office setup as you can imagine:

Macs bound to Active Directory with home folders residing on an Xserve.

Yeah, but there are still a LOT of parameters there. Especially when it
comes to the Exchange server itself.

Corentin

 

[alan]

Yeah, but there are still a LOT of parameters there. Especially when it
comes to the Exchange server itself.

But the Exchange server isn't involved in the problem at all.

This is a problem with the files that Entourage creates in the
identity folder and it is independent of whether or not an Exchange
server is involved.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

This is a problem with the files that Entourage creates in the
identity folder and it is independent of whether or not an Exchange
server is involved.

Yes and no.... You use an Exchange server with AD and it could have
something to do with the issue.

Though, looking back, I believe you're the first report I see here in
this group telling my that MyDay and the reminders both systematically
crash.

It could be that your database is corrupted (launch ENtourage pressing
the Option key down to rebuild) or maybe the preferneces for these two
files are corrupted.
In any case, that sure isn't typical *at all*.

Corentin

 

[alan]

Yes and no.... You use an Exchange server with AD and it could have
something to do with the issue.

Though, looking back, I believe you're the first report I see here in
this group telling my that MyDay and the reminders both systematically
crash.

It could be that your database is corrupted (launch ENtourage pressing
the Option key down to rebuild) or maybe the preferneces for these two
files are corrupted.
In any case, that sure isn't typical *at all*.

I tried using the Database Utility. It didn't work and if you really
read my initial message, you'd have seen that it happened to a whole
group of users. It's unlikely in the extreme that they all would have
got database corruption simultaneously.

This problem can be reproduced with a brand new, empty identity.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

I tried using the Database Utility. It didn't work and if you really
read my initial message, you'd have seen that it happened to a whole
group of users. It's unlikely in the extreme that they all would have
got database corruption simultaneously.

Get the network home folders out of this equation and test to see what
happens. Set up a test machine that is still bound to AD but keeps the
home folders local to the machine. Does the problem continue?

To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft doesn't support keeping the
Entourage Databases on network home folders, but then again, they don't
really come out and say "don't do it" that I can recall.

Have you tested syncing home folders between the server and the
workstations rather than working directly off the server?

--

bill

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