Exchange – Google Calendar Connector Sync Service Installation and Configuration

Posted on by Milan

Before You Install

Before you install and configure the connector, make sure your Windows environment meets the prerequisites, and that your Google Calendar and Exchange accounts are prepared for sharing data.

Prerequisites

  • A Google Apps Premier or Education Edition domain

To support the Sync Service, your Windows environment must meet these prerequisites:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003
  • Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or SP2
  • Exchange 2003 Native Mode or 2007/2003 Mix Mode Environment or 2007 Native mode with addition of public folders
  • ASP.NET 2.0 runtime

Google Calendar Account Setup

Create a dedicated Google Apps account and perform an initial login. The user name and password are required later when you populate the GoogleApps.AdminUser.Login and Password parameters in the configuration process. NOTE: This account does NOT need admin access to the Google Apps domain. If you use a non-admin account make sure you configure the SyncService.FreeBusy.DetailLevel to “BASIC” as the sync will fail for users who only share free/busy data if you don’t use the “BASIC” feed option. Before this account can be used with the Sync service you must login to Google Apps account and accept the standard terms of service agreement for the user account.

Instructions applicable when running IIS 7

If you are using a server OS using IIS 7 you will need to configure the /public website to accept double escaped content.

This needs to be performed on the server which is configured as the Free/Busy server. This server is by default defined by the setting Exchange.ServerName or Exchange.FreeBusyServerName value.

For details on how to allow double escaped content review this Microsoft Support KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942076/

Instructions applicable only for Exchange 2007

Sync Service uses public folders to store free/busy information of Google Calendar users in Exchange. If Exchange 2007 doesn’t already have public folders added and attached to mailbox databases, they should be added.

Run the following cmdlet in Exchange PowerShell to configure free/busy for Google Calendar users

 Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace -ForestName domain.com -AccessMethod PublicFolder  Example: Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace -ForestName pilot.domain.com -AccessMethod PublicFolder
  • Indicate to Exchange 2007 that the free/busy information for all Google Calendar users should be queried from public folders

If the free/busy information of other common calendar resources (like room resources) on Google Calendar need be provisioned on Exchange, the above cmdlet should be run with the ForestName value set to the SMTP domain of the resource’s email. Typically, this value would be resource.calendar.google.com. An additional Sync service instance also should be configured to publish these resources’ free/busy on Exchange (see Multiple Sync Service Instances section below for details on how to configure multiple instances of Sync service).

NOTE: If there is no default public folder database in Exchange 2007 follow these instructions for how to create the public folder store: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123687(EXCHG.80).aspx

Exchange User Mapping

Each Google Calendar user must have a corresponding mail-enabled Active Directory user, contact object or mailbox-enabled (Exchange 2003 only) user object.

See the Overview Guide for more information.

For instructions on how to create a mail-enabled users, see the Microsoft TechNet article, How to Create a New Mail-Enabled User.

For instructions on how to create an Active Directory contact, see the Microsoft TechNet article, How to Create a Contact in Active Directory.

Dedicated Windows Service Accounts

The Sync Service requires dedicated Active Directory role accounts for performing LDAP queries against Active Directory and performing free/busy reads and writes against Exchange.

Create these service accounts as described in this section, and reference the user names and passwords when configuring the Sync Service.

The required service accounts are itemized below:

Active Directory LDAP Query User

Create a dedicated user for performing Active Directory LDAP queries. The user name and password are required later when you populate the ActiveDirectory.DomainUser.Login and Password parameters in the Sync Service configuration file.

Exchange Query Admin User

Create a dedicated user for the Sync Service to read and write free/busy against Exchange. The user name and password are required later when you populate Exchange.GCalQueryAdmin.Login and Password parameters in the Sync Service configuration file.

The Exchange Query Admin user needs permissions to be able to read and write to the free/busy Public folder store. To configure the permissions for the query admin user:

NOTE: In the past “Receive As” permission was required for a GCC feature that is now depreciated, and thus no longer necessary.

Exchange 2003

  1. Open Exchange System Manager
  2. Browse to Folders | Public Folders
  3. Right Click and select show View System Folders
  4. Expand SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY
  5. Right Click on the EX:/o=First Organization/ou=First Administrative Group/ (This name may vary based on your setup)
  6. Select the Permissions tab
  7. Select Client Permissions
  8. Click Add
  9. Select the query admin user account you created
  10. Select Roles: Owner
  11. Click Ok
  12. Click OK

Exchange 2007

 Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity _Public Folder Identity_ -User Exchange.GCalQueryAdmin.Login -AccessRights Owner  Example: Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY\EX:/o=First Organization/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)" -User syncuser -AccessRights Owner
  1. Allow access to Exchange Query Admin role account to write free/busy into public folders (NOTE: the value of Identity flag may be different for different organizations)

 

Remounting the Exchange Information Stores

The Exchange Information store caches permissions data. To flush the cache immediately after setting new permissions, dismount and remount the appropriate information store or restart the Information Store service. Otherwise the changes will not take effect until Exchange rebuilds the permissions cache.

To dismount and remount the public folder store:

  1. Open Exchange System Manager
  2. In tree view, expand Administrative Groups, {Your Administrative Group}, Servers, {Your local Exchange server}, and {Your Storage Group}.
  3. Right click on the Public Folder Store, select Dismount Store and click Yes to continue.
  4. Right click on the Public Folder Store, select Mount Store and click Yes at the success message dialog.

To restart the service Microsoft Exchange Information Store:

  1. Open the services.msc
  2. In right pane view, locate Microsoft Exchange Information Store, right click and select Restart

Installation Checklist

3 Installing the Google Calendar Connector Sync Service

Task Completed? Notes
Verify that Windows environment prerequisites are met    
Create contact objects for Google Apps users in Exchange.    
Create dedicated Google Apps Sync Service user   User name and password:
Create dedicated Active Directory user   User name and password:
Create dedicated Exchange Admin user   User name and password:
Set Exchange permissions for Query and Admin users    

MSI Installation

The installer for the Sync Service is provided in the installation package file GoogleCalendarConnectorSyncService.msi.

To install the Sync Service:

  1. Locate and open the file GoogleCalendarConnectorSyncService.msi.
  2. In the welcome dialog, click Next.
  3. In the Select Installation Folder dialog, select the desired folder or accept the default value.
  4. In the Select Installation Folder dialog use the radio buttons at the bottom of the dialog to determine whether to install the service only for yourself, or for all users, and click Next.
  5. Click Next to begin the installation, and then Close when the dialog displays the message “Installation Complete”.

Multiple Sync Service Instances

If you need to sync more than one domain with the Google Calendar Sync Service you can use the following instructions for setting up multiple instances of the Google Calendar Sync Service on a single server.

  1. Install the Google Calendar Sync Service
  2. Copy the default installation of the Google Calendar Sync Service to a new folder, for example “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Calendar Connector Sync Service – domain.com”
  3. Run the sc command to create a new service entry for the new path and exe

NOTE: There is a single space after binpath= and start= 

 %WINDIR%\System32\sc.exe create "Google Calendar Sync Service - domain.com" binpath= "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Calendar Connector Sync Service - domain.com\GoogleCalendarSyncService.exe" start= auto
 mkdir C:\google\logs\Domain.com  mkdir C:\google\data\Domain.com
 <add key="GoogleApps.GCal.LogDirectory" value="C:\google\logs\domain.com\"/>  <add key="SyncService.XmlStorageDirectory" value="C:\Google\data\domain.com\" />  <file value="C:\Google\logs\domain.com\SyncService.log" />  initializeData="c:\google\logs\domain.com\SyncNetTrace.log"
 <add key="GoogleApps.DomainName" value="domain.com" />  <add key="GoogleApps.AdminUser.Login" value="user" />  <add key="GoogleApps.AdminUser.Password" value="password" />
  1. Create new logging folder paths
  2. Configure new logging paths: Update the new config file for the new domain with the following in the GoogleCalendarSyncService.exe.config adding the domain.com directory to each logging path
  3. Update the specific Google Apps Domain Values

4 Configuring the Google Calendar Connector Sync Service

Configuration settings for the Sync Service are stored in the configuration file GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config. You must edit this file and enter values appropriate to your setup.

Editing the Configuration File

The configuration file GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config is located in the installation directory for the sync service, by default “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Calendar Connector Sync Service“. The “appSettings” section of GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config contains configuration keys for setting up the Sync Service.

Note: If you have already set up the Google Calendar Connector Web Service in your environment, the Sync Service should use most the same settings for the following subsections of appSettings:

  • Active Directory
  • Exchange
  • Google Apps
Configuration Key Description Default Value
ActiveDirectory.DomainController Specify the fully qualified domain name of a domain controller for your Windows Active Directory domain. This server is used for LDAP queries to retrieve user login and Exchange user attributes. For queries directly against a domain controller, prefix the machine name with LDAP://. For queries against the Global Catalog, prefix the machine name with GC://. For example: <add key="ActiveDirectory.DomainController" value="LDAP://HQAD1.corp.acme.com"/>  
Exchange.ServerName The full qualified domain name of the Exchange server that hosts a copy of the Public Free/Busy Information Store. For example: <add key="Exchange.ServerName" value="HQEXCH1.corp.acme.com"/>  
ActiveDirectory.DomainUser.Login The userPrincipalName for the user account used by the sync service to perform Active Directory lookups. Dedicated Windows Service Accounts for more information on this user account. For example: <add key="ActiveDirectory.DomainUser.Login" value="ADDomainUser@corp.acme.com"/>  
ActiveDirectory.DomainUser.Password The password for the user account used by the sync service to perform Active Directory lookups.  
Exchange.ServerName The full qualified domain name of the Exchange server that hosts a copy of the Public Free/Busy Information Store. For example: <add key="Exchange.ServerName" value="HQEXCH1.corp.acme.com"/>  
Exchange.GCalQueryAdmin.Login The userPrincipalName of the user account used when writing data to the public folder free/busy store. See Dedicated Windows Service Accounts for more information on this user account. For example: <add key="Exchange.GCalQueryAdmin" value="GCalQueryAdmin@corp.acme.com"/>  
Exchange.GCalQueryAdmin.Password The password for the user account used to write free/busy data to the public folder store.  
Exchange.MailboxURITrailingPath This key changes the trailing URI when accessing an Exchange user’s calendar. Typical URL for calendar web access looks like http://[Exchange.ServerName]/exchange/[user‘s primary email]/calendar/. However, when running localized versions of Exchange the trailing URI calendar is specific to the localized language and the value must be customized to match the localized string. (Ex. Calend%C3%A1rio on a Portuguese Exchange Server). Value of this key should be given the value of the trailing URI string (i.e. Calend%C3%A1rio). This key may need modification in only rare cases. calendar
Exchange.FreeBusyServerName This setting allows the definition of a specific Exchange server to use when reading and writing free/busy data. By default the value Exchange.ServerName is used. Use this value if the default Exchange server does not host a replica of the Free/Busy Information Store. To enable this setting remove comments and define the fully qualified domain name of the server to use. For Example: <<add key="Exchange.FreeBusyServerName" value="http://HQEXCH2.corp.acme.com"/> DISABLED
GoogleApps.DomainName The domain name used by Google Apps. For example: <add key="GoogleApps.DomainName" value="acme.com" />  
GoogleApps.AdminUser.Login The Google Apps user account name used for querying Google Calendar. This account must be a dedicated account in Google Apps setup for use with the Google Calendar Connector. This account does NOT need admin access to the Google Apps domain. For example: <add key="GoogleApps.AdminUser.Login" value="gcc_syncsvc"/> NOTE: If you use a non-admin account make sure you configure the SyncService.FreeBusy.DetailLevel to “BASIC” as the sync will fail for users who only share free/busy data if you don’t use the “BASIC” feed option.  
GoogleApps.AdminUser.Password The password for the Google user account used for querying Google Apps and Google Calendar.  
GoogleApps.GCal.EnableHttpCompression This setting determines whether or not to enable GZip compression with the GDATA API calls to Google Apps. The default setting is true for optimum performance. <add key="GoogleApps.GCal.EnableHttpCompression" value="true"/> true
GoogleApps.GCal.LogDirectory This setting defines the directory to write debug output for the GDATA API feed for each user account queried from Google Apps. An individual file is written out per user request. The output contains the calendar feed data for the specific user. If no value is defined no output is written. For Example: <add key="GoogleApps.GCal.LogDirectory" value="C:\Google\logs"/> DISABLED
GoogleApps.GCal.DomainMapping This setting allows the definition of SMTP domain name mappings. Use this setting if your Exchange Primary SMTP address is different from the Google Apps SMTP domain name. When enabled the connector will properly map the external Google Apps SMTP domain name to the internal Exchange SMTP domain name. This setting by default is commented out in the config file. To enable this setting remove comments and define the External and Internal SMTP domain names. For example: <add key="GoogleApps.GCal.DomainMapping" value="acme.com,exchange.acme.com"/> To configure multiple domain mappings use “;” as the delimiter between the domain mapping values. For Example: <add key="GoogleApps.GCal.DomainMapping value="acme.com,exchange.acme.com;company.com,exchange.company.com"/> NOTE: This value is case sensitive. If the user’s SMTP domain does not match the case it will not match the mapping value. DISABLED
Exchange.DefaultDomain This setting prevents Exchange WebDav redirects to servers outside of the DNS domain defined. Enable this feature if the connector should not redirect Exchange server outside of this DNS domain. For example: <add key="Exchange.DefaultDomain" value=".corp.acme.com"/> DISABLED
SyncService.ErrorCountThreshold This setting specifies how many errors the service allows before aborting the current synchronization run. If the value is reached during a synchronization run it halts. Once the SyncService.RefreshTimeInMinutes has expired the counter is reset to 0 and a synchronization starts again. <add key="SyncService.ErrorCountThreshold" value="20"/> 20
SyncService.LDAPUserFilter This setting allows the option to define an LDAP filer which determines which users or contacts are included in the synchronizing of data from Google Calendar to Exchange. For example to include all members of an Active Directory Group: <add key="SyncService.LDAPUserFilter" value="(memberof=CN=GCAL_Users,CN=Users,DC=corp,DC=acme,DC=com)"/> NOTE: If left blank, all users in Active Directory are included in the sync process.  
SyncService.RefreshTimeInMinutes This setting specifies the interval in minutes to sleep between each completed synchronization before starting again. <add key="SyncService.RefreshTimeInMinutes" value="15"/> 15
SyncService.ThreadCount This setting specifies the number of threads to create when performing a synchronization from Google Calendar in to Exchange. The more threads the fast the sync will complete. NOTE: The more threads the more system and network resources the sync service will utilize. <add key="SyncService.ThreadCount" value="10"/> 1
SyncService.XmlStorageDirectory This setting specifies where the service stores data cached as XML documents. NOTE: The service needs write access to this directory. <add key="SyncService.XmlStorageDirectory" value="C:\Google\data"/> C:\Google\data\
SyncService.DirectorySearch.TimeoutInSeconds This setting specifies the LDAP query timeout for Active Directory queries, in seconds. 300
Configuration.EncryptOnNextRun If set to “true”, the configuration file is automatically encrypted the next time the application runs. See Encrypting the Configuration File for more information. false
SyncService.FreeBusy.DetailLevel If set to “Full”, enables distinguishing between tentative and busy in the Free/Busy lookups. Setting it to “Basic” treats both tentative and busy as busy. Full
SyncService.PlaceHolderMessage This setting allows for customization of the subject text placed in each calendar placeholder appointment when running the Sync service SyncService.FreeBusy.Writer in Appointment mode. For example: <add key="SyncService.PlaceHolderMessage" value="GCal Free/Busy Placeholder"/> NOTE: This property only applies to only new placeholder appointments being created. It will no go back and rewrite existing placeholder values. GCal Free/Busy Placeholder
SyncService.FreeBusy.DetailLevel This setting defines the gdata feed type to use when retrieving free/busy data from Google Apps. The setting has two values Basic or Full. The basic feed only contains free and busy blocks. This means a meeting in GCal marked as “Maybe” will display as “Busy” when viewing the free/busy data. The full feed contains much more detail and includes the user’s meeting response. Using this feed provides more verbose detail and reflects the free/busy status more accurately. If the value is set to full a meeting in GCal marked as “Maybe” will be displayed as “Tentative when viewing the free/busy data. For Example: <add key="SyncService.FreeBusy.DetailLevel" value="Full" /> Full

 

To edit the configuration file:

  1. Using your preferred XML or text editor, open GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config. The default location is C:\Program Files\Google\Google Calendar Connector Sync Service\.
  2. Scroll to the appSettings section and enter appropriate values for each of the required values shown in the table above.
  3. Save the file.
  4. Save or copy a backup copy of the file to a secure location.

Encrypting the Configuration File

Because some configuration keys contain user names and passwords in plain text, it is recommended that you encrypt these configuration parameters. To enable encryption, set the value of the Config.EncryptOnNextRun key to true. The next time the sync service starts, the appSettings keys will be automatically encrypted. This encryption method will encrypt the entire appSettings node of the configuration file, rendering it unreadable. Once encrypted, the settings are no longer in plain text on the file system. However, settings can still be changed through the IIS Manager.

HTTP Proxy Configuration Optional

The Sync Service can optionally be configured to work with an HTTP proxy. This configuration may be required if all out-bound communication is routed through a proxy. Configuring the HTTP proxy parameters in GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config would instruct the Sync Service to properly forward its communication through such a proxy.

Microsoft Support includes an overview of the same process and configuration in the following Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307220.

The table below outlines the configuration parameters located under the <system.net.defaultProxy> node of GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config:

Configuration Key Description Default Value
bypasslist.address Allows the Sync Service to bypass the proxy for additional, non-local addresses. As per Microsoft’s instructions, this field can contain a host name, or a regular expression.  
proxy.usesystemdefault Instructs the .NET client to either use the default system profile for access, or to use a custom proxy defined in proxy.proxyaddress. |To override the system default and configure a custom web proxy for the Sync Service, this variable should be FALSE True
proxy.proxyaddress The URL:PORT pair for your proxy server. For example: http://proxyserver.internal.yourdomain.com:3128  
proxy.bypassonlocal Allows the Sync Service to bypass the proxy for local addresses containing a “.”. True

Important Note: Please carefully consider whether your Microsoft Exchange server communication should be sent through a custom proxy. Including Microsoft Exchange servers in a custom proxy scheme could result in decreased performance and certain types of Windows authentication may fail.

5 Installation Success

Start the Google Calendar Connector Sync Service

  1. Open the Windows Services Management console.
  2. Select the “Google Calendar Sync Service” and right-click for properties.
  3. Click “Start” if the service is not already started.
  4. Browse to log file path as defined by GoogleApps.GCal.LogDirectory (i.e. C:\google\logs)
  5. Review the log file SyncService.log and verify success messages

6 Testing and Troubleshooting

The Sync Service logs debugging information to a text log file, which is configurable through the log4net.config node in GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config. For more information, see Logging Configuration.

Monitoring the debug output in the log files is the best way to troubleshoot issues with the sync service. It is recommended to use the freeware log file utility Baretail to monitor the file in real time.

Important Note: Please review Logging Configuration before beginning to test any of the functionality of the service.

Running Diagnostics Tests

The Google Calendar Connector Web Service contains a diagnostics page that can help diagnose issues. Diagnostics.aspx, located in the root of the Web Service virtual directory, contains the following diagnostic tests relevant to the Sync Service:

  • Verify free/busy data can be found in Google Calendar

This test attempts to retrieve free/busy information for a specific Google Calendar user. If the Sync Service and Google Apps are configured correctly, free/busy data should be returned.

  • Verify free/busy can be written to Exchange

The Sync Service is by default configured to write free/busy data directly into the Exchange public free/busy store. This test attempts to perform a free/busy write to the Exchange public store for the specified user.

To run diagnostic tests:

  1. Use a web browser to navigate to /Diagnostics.aspx in the root folder of the Web Service’s virtual directory.
  2. Select a test and enter any optional details in its text area.
  3. Click “Verify” to run the diagnostic and view its results.

Logging Configuration

The Google Calendar Connector Sync Service includes a configuration node named

<log4net>

in GoogleGCalExchangeSync.Service.exe.config which controls the logging behavior of the Sync Service.

To use logging to troubleshoot Sync Service issues:

  • Verify an appropriate log path
  • Increase the logging level for more information
  • Verify log file system permissions if the file is not created.

Verify Log Path

To change where the log file is stored, edit the node path configuration/log4net/appender/file and change the value attribute of the file node to the new location. Include the file name in the value attribute. NOTE: The SYSTEM account needs “Modify” access to the file system path.

Increase the logging level

There are four logging levels, with DEBUG providing the most output and ERROR only logging severe events:

  • DEBUG
  • INFO
  • WARN
  • ERROR

The Sync Service has many potential logging points for the DEBUG and ERROR levels. When logging is set to these levels, the size of the log file may grow very rapidly.

To set the Sync Service logging to a certain level, edit the node path configuration/log4net/root/level and change the value attribute to one of the four levels listed. Lower severity levels are inclusive of higher levels. For example if the Sync Service is set to INFO, it also logs WARN and ERROR but not DEBUG messages.

Verify log file permissions

Verify that the following log file permissions have been set up properly:

In GoogleGCalExchangeSync.Service.exe.config\appSettings\:

  • SYSTEM should have “MODIFY” privileges to the GoogleApps.GCal.LogDirectory directory.
  • SYSTEM should have “MODIFY” privileges to the SyncService.XmlStorageDirectory directory.
  • SYSTEM should have “MODIFY” privileges to the install directory or the file GoogleGCalExchangeSync.Service.exe.config.

In GoogleGCalExchangeSync.Service.exe.config\configuration\log4net\appender\:

  • SYSTEM should have “MODIFY” privileges to path defined configuration \log4net\appender\file.

To grant “Modify” access to a directory do the following:

  1. Open Windows Explorer.
  2. Navigate to the directory root folder (i.e. C:\Google\Data).
  3. Right click on the folder and select Properties.
  4. Select the Security tab and click Add, type SYSTEM and click OK.
  5. With the SYSTEM user highlighted, check Allow for Modify privileges.

7 Known Issues

 

Comment by David.Su…@gmail.com, Jul 14, 2009

This says it requires Exchange 2003, will this work with Exchange 2007?
Comment by ad…@scorela.org, Nov 1, 2010

ok
Comment by hank.bo…@gmail.com, Dec 15, 2010

We are in the process of running a pilot to migrate from exchange to google apps. We’ve migrated 100 users, and they are running in a co-existence (both outlook on exchange and google mail) environment. For the most part the test is going well. The connector is installed and diagnostics verify it’s working properly.

we are experiencing a very sticky problem with the calendaring piece of the puzzle.

what happens, is when using the outlook client to add attendees to a meeting (when viewing in scheduling view) we are having some conflict between google free/busy status and exchange free/busy status. Intially, we get the “right” information pulled from the google calendar, but within seconds, the information is overwritten by exchange data. Does anyone have any clues about this? We are running Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2007 and 2010 clients.

thanks,

Hank
Comment by duncan.n…@gmail.com, May 11, 2011

Latest version of sync service no longer supports the appointment writer i.e. google fb data is now only written to Exchange public folder schedule plus FB store rather than an option to write into a mailbox that represents the google user.

Exchange 2007 now also provides the availability service where by when an outlook web access or Outlook 2007 client does a free/busy lookup it uses the availability service and looks at the users mailbox appointment data rather than the FB public folder store

there is a registry hack on the client to force Outlook 2007 client to use the FB public folder store rather than the availability service. but Outlook web access and Outlook 2010 clients can’t do this.

basically this kind of make the sync service redundant as the exchange users basically can’t do a lookup of a google users fb.

we have a client looking at using this but are heavy users of Outlook web access.

Can you offer any advice?
Comment by msmon…@gmail.com, Jul 14, 2011

Can you tell us why the support for appointment writer was abandoned? Are there some inherent drawbacks to updating FB details in the mailstore?
Comment by jaideepg…@google.com, Jul 19, 2011

The intent of this tool is to sync only free busy info. Appointment writer creates complete appointments. This was in testing phase only and had some issues, so we abandoned it.
Comment by dragon…@gmail.com, Oct 14, 2011

Need help working with self signed SSL cert on the exchange server. Is there any way to bypass the cert check?
Comment by project member dk…@google.com, Oct 14, 2011

First connect the site with IE and view the cert details and export the cert. Then using certmgr.msc you should be able to import the self signed cert into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.

I believe the default user account the sync service runs under is “Network Service”, so via certmgr.msc import the cert and select the cert store for the user “Network Service”.

You can test this process first in using your normal user account, import into your user’s account Trusted Internet Root Authorities store then reconnect to the server with IE and the SSL session should be considered trusted.

DO NOT let certmrg determine the “right path” to import the cert as it won’t put it in the proper place for what you want to accomplish.

This site http://www.hackaapl.com/how-to-trust-self-signed-certificates-in-windows-7/ has the basic step by step except the user account you use is based on what the Sync Service is configured for in the services.msc tool.
Comment by dragon…@gmail.com, Oct 15, 2011

Thanks dk.. that worked great. One last question for the list. Is there a trick to updating public email-enabled calendars?
Comment by fabianor…@gmail.com, Jan 18, 2012

This solution for proxy issues is too much complicated for final users. Google Calendar Sync lacks easy proxy settings for dummy users like me. I’m not able to configure the HTTP proxy parameters in GoogleGCalExhangeSync.Service.exe.config
Comment by project member jaideepg…@gmail.com, Jan 27, 2012

These are typical .Net proxy settings. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sa91de1e.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/31465c77.aspx

Network