How do I open the Global Address List (GAL) on Windows Server Essentials?

BradCMI 131 Reputation points
2020-07-27T15:30:12.193+00:00

I am trying to find the Global Address List on our server. We are running Windows Server Essentials which I am not that familiar with. My research so far has shown that you need to open Exchange Management Shell to Get the Global Address List (i.e Get-GlobalAddress List). However I cannot find Exchange Management Shell on our Windows Server Essentials install. Is Exchange Management Shell on Windows Server Essentials or just the full server versions? If not, does anyone know how to open the GlobalAddressList on Windows Server Essentials? Or run Exchange Management Shell?

Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
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Active Directory
Active Directory
A set of directory-based technologies included in Windows Server.
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  1. BradCMI 131 Reputation points
    2020-07-28T17:06:31.59+00:00

    Discovered the external contacts are coming from Microsoft / Office 365 > Exchange Admin Center > Contacts, so if I change there it updates the external contacts in GAL. Someone must have manually uploaded them at some point.

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  1. Andy David - MVP 142.3K Reputation points MVP
    2020-07-27T16:10:32.28+00:00

    You can open a remote session to the Exchange Server from the Essentials Server
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/exchange/connect-to-exchange-servers-using-remote-powershell?view=exchange-ps

    Note you don't "open" the GAL using Powershell, that only allows you to access its configuration properties.


  2. Jenny Yan-MSFT 9,326 Reputation points
    2020-07-28T06:18:16.957+00:00

    Hi,
    Did you deploy the exchange server on the essential server that you were looking for GAL?

    From what I found, the GAL was built-in list that's automatically created by Exchange includes every mail-enabled object in the Active Directory forest.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/email-addresses-and-address-books/address-lists/address-lists?view=exchserver-2019

    In the meanwhile, Essentials does not include Exchange Server as a component product but support running Exchange Server on a second server.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/archive/blogs/sbs/email-options-supported-by-windows-server-2012-essentials

    If Exchange server was running on second server, you could follow suggestion by AD-7973 to check from remote connection.

    Thanks,
    Jenny