This article is for those looking for a detailed and clear guide on how to create an offline address book in Exchange Server 2013.

The offline address book is designed so that Microsoft Outlook users can view the address book even when they are not connected to the Exchange server. In addition, offline address books can help reduce the load on Exchange servers.

This guide uses Exchange Server 2013 without implementing fault tolerance. Exchange Server roles are installed on one server.

Click “Start”, point to “Exchange” in the search bar, then right-click on “Exchange Management Shell” and select “Run as administrator”.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

Let’s see the existing address books using the command:

Get-OfflineAddressBook

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

Note that installing the Mailbox server role creates a default offline address book named “Default Offline Address Book”.

Let’s create a new offline address book using the command:

New-OfflineAddressBook -Name "VMKH Offline Address Book" -AddressLists "\Default Global Address List" -VirtualDirectories "ru-msk-vmkh-002\OAB (Default Web Site)"

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

To view existing address books and their main parameters, you can run the command:

Get-OfflineAddressBook | fl Name,Server, PublicFolderDistributionEnabled,WebDistributionEnabled,VirtualDirectories

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

The new offline address book was created successfully, and you can then set it as the default offline address book. Thus, it will be associated with all created mailbox databases.

Set-OfflineAddressBook -Identity "VMKH Offline Address Book" -IsDefault $true

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

Now we go to the server with Exchange Server 2013 installed and go to the Exchange Admin Center, which is located at the link https://ru-msk-vmkh-002/ecp, where ru-msk-vmkh-002 is the name of my Exchange server.

Specify the username and password to enter the “Exchange Administration Center” and click the “Sign in” button.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

Go to the “Servers” section, select the “Databases” subsection, then select the database and double-click on it with the left mouse button.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

In the Client Settings section, you must specify the new Exchange OAB.

Click on the “Browse” button.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

Select the new Exchange OAB and click on the “OK” button.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

The new Exchange OAB is listed.

Note that if you have multiple Exchange databases, you need to specify a new OAB for each database.

Click on the “Save” button.

Create an Offline Address Book in Exchange Server 2013

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Vladimir Mikhalev
I’m Vladimir Mikhalev, the Docker Captain, but my friends can call me Valdemar.

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