Licensing / Support

1. What methods may I use to purchase ERM? ERM may be purchased and delivered electronically using either Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. For an additional $25 processing fee, you may use this online system to generate a price quote and purchase order for ERM. Once the purchase order and payment are remitted to Simpler-Webb, we will generate and return the appropriate license keys to you. 2. How is Exchange Resource Manager licensed? A: Licenses must be purchased for each Exchange Server hosting ERM managed resources based on the number of resources that that server will manage. Correctly identifying the number of ERM-managed resources that will exist on each Exchange server is important to determine the number of resource licenses needed for each server. When installed onto a cluster, an ERM license is necessary for each Exchange virtual server that will host resource mailboxes managed by ERM. 3. Can I add resources to my existing server license? A: Yes, it is possible to add additional resource licenses to ERM at any time by purchasing additional resource packs. Contact Simpler-Webb for more information on adding resources to an existing license. 4. What type of support will I receive when I purchase Exchange Resource Manager? A: You receive 30 days of email support with the purchase of ERM. Also available to all ERM customers is an online Support FAQ and an online Support Forum where questions and answers are posted by your peers and Simpler-Webb Support staff. Additional support options are available for purchase. 5. Can I use Exchange Resource Manager for resources on multiple servers? A: Yes. Since an ERM license is necessary for each server hosting resource mailboxes, you simply need to know the number of servers that will host ERM-managed resources and the number of resources that will exist on each. 6. Can I evaluate Exchange Resource Manager? A: A: Yes. When unlicensed, ERM supports a maximum of 2 resources with no limitations in functionality. This “free” version can be used in small environments or for users that wish to evaluate it in larger environments. The free version is easily activated to support additional resources by purchasing a license. 7. Is a license necessary to use the free version of ERM? A: No. It is not necessary to have a license file to use the free version of ERM. Without a license it is possible to manage up to 2 resources with no limitation in functionality.

Usage / Administration

1. Can resources be invited as attendees in a meeting request? A: Yes. Scheduling with ERM is as simple as inviting a resource as a required attendee, an optional attendee, or as a resource in a meeting request. ERM treats all three types of invitation status the same. 2. What versions of Outlook and Outlook Web Access are supported by Exchange Resource Manager? A: Yes. ERM is a server-side solution and is not dependent upon Outlook. It supports Outlook 97, 98, 2000, XP, 2003 and Outlook for Macintosh, as well as Outlook Web Access. 3. We have double-booking problems when using other resource scheduling products. Does Exchange Resource Manager differ from other products that use free/busy status to determine the availability of a resource? A: Yes. ERM eliminates double-booking problems by checking against the actual calendar of the resource rather than the published free/busy information to determine availability for meeting requests and scheduling. 4. Will I need to configure each resource individually? A: No. ERM comes with a default global configuration that you can use as is or modify to suit your requirements. For example, you can customize the response text to include the meeting organizer's name, e-mail address, or both. Once resources are ERM-enabled, they inherit the global configuration and are ready for scheduling immediately. Customizing individual resource configuration settings allows you to override the global configuration settings. 5. Can I customize certain individual resources, but not others? A: Yes. Once a resource is ERM-enabled, you can customize the configuration to uniquely suit your business needs.  Here are some examples of the ways resource customization can help in a business environment: Meeting response text – Change the response text for accepted, declined, modified, and cancelled meetings to provide helpful information about the status of a resource. Recurring meetings – Select the maximum number of months users can reserve a team room.  Scheduling restrictions – Allow or restrict scheduling of of resources to select users or groups. Meeting notification – Send the Facilities group emails on any meeting transactions for VCRs and TVs. 6. Will ERM affect my Active Directory schema? A: No. ERM uses a database on its host server to store global and resource configuration information. Additionally, ERM writes to an existing attribute of the Active Directory to indicate an ERM-enabled resource. 7. I would like to restrict booking of a certain resource to certain individuals or groups. Can Exchange Resource Manager do this? A: Yes. ERM allows the specification of users and/or groups that are allowed to or denied from scheduling each resource. 8. Can I log when transactions were executed? A: Yes. Logging levels are adjustable so you are in control of the level of logging that appears in the ERM log files. 9. I was using direct booking. What happens to it when I use ERM? A: Direct booking is automatically disabled for a particular resource when ERM is chosen to manage the resource. 10. What rights do users need to have to schedule an ERM-managed resource? A: Users do not require any rights to the resource mailbox. The ERM Service Account is the security context in which the events are processed. The Service Account is granted owner rights to the resource mailboxes as part of the "Manage" process. 11. What type of permissions do I need set on my resource mailbox when I run ERM? A: ERM does not require or affect any specific resource mailbox permissions. Those should be set according to your business requirements. The Manage process adds full access rights to the mailbox for the ERM Service Account. These rights should not be removed. 12. Can I use a public folder as a resource? A: No, not at this time. 13. Will my Exchange server performance decrease when running ERM? A: We understand the criticality of the Exchange server environment and are very diligent in our efforts to avoid negatively impacting server performance. We are not aware of any performance degradation as a result of running ERM, though memory utilization is dependent on the number of concurrent messages being processed by ERM-managed mailboxes. 14. How big will the ERM database get? A: The ERM database uses a very small amount of disk space. 100 records use approximately 1.5 Megabytes of storage space. 1000 records use approximately 1.7 Megabytes of storage space. 15. What Exchange Service Packs are required by ERM? A: ERM requires Exchange 2000 running Service Pack 3 or later. ERM is fully supported on Exchange 2000 SP3 or later or on Exchange 2003. 16. I don't see a new service running. How does ERM work? A: ERM responses are based on the Exchange 2000 store event sink object model. An event registration item is created in the Inbox of the mailbox as an "associated item". The event registration is not visible with Outlook, but can be seen with MDBVue32, OutlookSpy, or the regevent.vbs script from the Exchange SDK. There is not a "service" in the sense of a Windows 2000 service that appears in the Services MMC. There is, however, a registered COM+ application that is visible in the Component Services MMC. This component is called by the Exchange Event engine when triggered by an item that matches the event registration criteria. More questions?