Updates to user data in Active Directory are not visible when the signature is appended by Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition

Relevant Product: Signature Manager Exchange Edition

Scenario

After updating the Active Directory information of a user, for example, to reflect a name change or new job title, the changes are not instantly visible the next time a signature is appended to an email sent from the user.

Reason

There can be more than one explanation for this behaviour, such as:

1. The updated user data in Active Directory has not yet been replicated to the Global Catalog.
   
   Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition will query the Global Catalog for the user data specified in Active Directory. If the changes have not yet been replicated, this will explain why the old user data is still appended to the signature.
   
   The Policy Tester in the Exclaimer console is a good indicator to identify if changes have been replicated to the Global Catalog. This is because tests performed using the Policy Tester are queried directly against the Global Catalog, rather than cached data.
   
   Note: Certain attributes may not be automatically replicated to the Global Catalog. Please refer to User data is not populated in the email signature article for instructions to ensure that an attribute is replicated in the Global Catalog.
   
   For more information, see What Is the Global Catalog?
   
   
2. Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition uses cached Active Directory data.
   
   Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition will cache user data from the Active Directory for up to 4 hours by default. After this time the cached data will be released and rebuilt.
   
   If you make any small change to the Exclaimer configuration in the Exclaimer console, then click Save - this will force the cache to be rebuilt instantly.
   
   You can change how long the cache is retained in the Exclaimer console by navigating to Exclaimer > Signature Manager Exchange Edition > Settings tab > Advanced button > AD Cache tab.
   
   Lowering the time to cache results will result in the Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition querying Active Directory more frequently.
   
   Note: Performing more queries to the Global Catalog in a shorter time frame could decrease performance. Increasing the frequency-time will result in greater performance. Additionally, the lowest value the time to cache results can be configured to is 60 minutes.