You might experience this error during an Offline Address Book generation cycle:

Index : 94460
EntryType : Warning
EventID : 9327
Message : OALGen skipped some entries in the offline address list ‘Global Address List’. To see which entries are affected, event logging for the OAL Generator must be set to at least medium.
– Default Offline Address List
Category : OAL Generator
CategoryNumber : 13
ReplacementStrings : {Global Address List, Default Offline Address List}
Source : MSExchangeSA
TimeGenerated : 03.01.2008 11:35:31
TimeWritten : 03.01.2008 11:35:31
UserName :

After you set the event log level for the OAL Generator to at least medium, eg. by using this EMS command:

Set-EventLogLevel ‘MSExchangeSAOAL Generator’ -level Medium

You start seeing these errors:

Index : 94454
EntryType : Error
EventID : 9325
Message : OALGen will skip user entry ‘user1’ in address list ‘Global Address List’ because the SMTP address ” is invalid.
– Default Offline Address List
Category : OAL Generator
CategoryNumber : 13
ReplacementStrings : {user1, Global Address List, , Default Offline Address List}
Source : MSExchangeSA
TimeGenerated : 03.01.2008 11:35:27
TimeWritten : 03.01.2008 11:35:27
UserName :

As we can see from the error in the Event Log, OAL Generator claims that the SMTP address ” (blank) is invalid. This is not surprising, as a blank address can not be used for anything.

I have discovered one reason for this error, there might be more. If the user’s primary SMTP address does not match the value in the mail attribute in Active Directory, this error is generated. This happens if you change the primary SMTP address in EMC. EMC does not update the address in the mail attribute. To see if you have any recipients in your organization that have a mismatch between these two values, run these EMS commands:

get-mailbox -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ft –auto

get-distributiongroup -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ft –auto

get-dynamicdistributiongroup -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ft –auto

This should be possible to do with Get-Recipient as well, but I cannot make it work. Get-Recipient always return every recipient in the organization.

To remedy this situation, these EMS commands may be of interest:

get-mailbox -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ForEach { Set-Mailbox $_ -WindowsEmailAddress $_.PrimarySMTPAddress }

get-distributiongroup -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ForEach { Set-distributiongroup $_ -WindowsEmailAddress $_.PrimarySMTPAddress}

get-dynamicdistributiongroup -resultsize unlimited | where { $_.WindowsEmailAddress -ne $_.PrimarySmtpAddress } | ForEach { Set-dynamicdistributiongroup $_ -WindowsEmailAddress $_.PrimarySMTPAddress}

You should probably test these commands with the –whatif parameter added to the Set cmdlets.

A good pointer as to which recipients have a mismatch between these values, are those recipients who no longer have their Email addresses updated by a recipient policy. You can quickly list which recipients are in this state:

get-mailbox -ResultSize unlimited | where { $_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $false } | ft –auto

get-distributiongroup -ResultSize unlimited | where { $_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $false } | ft –auto

get-dynamicdistributiongroup -ResultSize unlimited | where { $_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $false } | ft –auto

Also recipients who are targets of E-Mail address policies (EAP), but where those policies have not been applied, are candidates for this error.

Lastly, you cannot set the mail attribute if a recipient is a target of an EAP.

Remember to set the Event Log level back to it’s original value after you have finished troubleshooting:

Set-EventLogLevel ‘MSExchangeSAOAL Generator’ -level lowest