XADM: Notifying Exchange/Outlook Clients of Password Expiration

• Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5
• Microsoft Exchange Macintosh client, versions 4.0, 5.0
• Microsoft Exchange Windows 3.x client, versions 4.0, 5.0
• Microsoft Outlook for Macintosh, Exchange Server Edition, versions 8.0, 8.1
• Microsoft Outlook for Windows 3.x, Exchange Server Edition, version 8.0

SUMMARY

Microsoft Exchange Server security is integrated with the Windows NT user accounts database. The Windows NT domain controller does not generate password expiration warnings for certain Exchange and Outlook clients. For example, Macintosh-based clients or Microsoft Windows 3.x clients using the NetWare Netx redirector. This causes administrators and Help Desk personnel to spend time resetting passwords. An application called PEWA exists that allows administrators to send password expiration notices to those clients.

MORE INFORMATION

The Password Expiration Warning Application (PEWA) was created for systems in which Microsoft Exchange Server supports clients running on different platforms. The application sends an e-mail message to each Microsoft Exchange client in the system when the Microsoft Windows NT account password associated with its mailbox is about to expire, regardless of the platform on which the client is running. The message text can be modified.

A small side effect of using PEWA, however, is that clients running on a Windows NT platform will receive two expiration notices-one from Windows NT and one from PEWA-because PEWA cannot distinguish between clients.

PEWA cannot be used in a non-Microsoft Exchange environment. The messaging server must have Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.x or version 5.x installed on it.

PEWA enumerates the accounts with expiring passwords in the domain and determines the security identifier (SID) for each of the accounts. The application then queries the Global Address List (GAL) for matches to the SIDs. If matches are found, PEWA then derives the e-mail names of these accounts and sends a message to the respective users notifying them that the passwords for their mailbox accounts are about to expire. PEWA sends each user an individual message to avoid replies to everyone.

PEWA version 1.0 is included in the Microsoft Back Office Resource Kit version 4.0.

Additional query words: expire

Keywords          : 
Version           : MACINTOSH:8.0,8.1; WINDOWS:4.0,5.0,8.0; winnt:4.0,5.0,5.5
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS winnt 
Issue type        : kbinfo 

Last Reviewed: March 15, 1999