Global Address List (GAL)
General Information About GAL and OAB
Each Exchange domain has a Global Address List (GAL), Address List (AL), and Offline Address Book (OAB). The GAL is compiled on-the-fly by the Exchange server and is available for you as the "Global Address List" in Outlook, as long as it is connected to server (online mode). As soon as any changes are made to your organization, the GAL will reflect this. An Organizations AL represents the same set of mail-enabled objects as the organization's GAL, but is designated to provide the address book service in cached mode. Each AL has a corresponding OAB that holds all real data. The AL is not available for clients until the corresponding OAB is downloaded. In cached mode, Outlook will show the AL first in the Address Book window, by default.
Usually the OAB rebuild happens immediately after a change to contact information has been made through the control panel. The rebuild process can take up to 5-10 minutes to complete depending on the organization size. For our typical clients it takes less than a minute. After the rebuild is completed, it could take up to 4 hours for the new OAB to be propagated to all servers and be available for Outlook clients (native Exchange 2007 OAB distribution mechanism). For Outlook 2003 clients, a new version of OAB is available immediately after a rebuild in the system public folder (legacy OAB distribution). We rebuild OABs every day at 6AM ET for organizations who made changes to their users, contacts, or distribution lists during the previous 24-hour period.
Update contact information for Users in the Global Address List
The Hosted Exchange Email service supports the ability to update the contact details for all Exchange Users in your Global Address List. This can be completed in the Control Panel.
Professional POP3 users can update their contact information in the Global Address List either from the Control Panel. After logging into your control panel, click on the Exchange tab. Under the End-User Management section, locate the user you wish to update the information for and click GO under Manage Account. Next, click on Update Contact Information to update the details for that user.
For Professional users, this can also be completed by logging into Outlook Web Access (OWA) and clicking on My Email Settings in the left navigation bar. You can then click on Update Contact Information to update your details.
Adding external email addresses in the Global Address List
The myhosting.com Hosted Exchange Email service supports the ability to add External Contacts in your Global Address List. This can be completed in the Control Panel.