Relevant Products: Signature Manager Outlook Edition
WARNING! The following products were discontinued on 30 September 2022:
- Exclaimer Signature Manager Outlook Edition
- Exclaimer Signature Manager Exchange Edition
The end of Support for these products is 30th September 2024.
For more information, please see the Discontinued Questions and Answers page.
Scenario
You are using Exclaimer Signature Manager Outlook Edition. You see an error similar to the one below in the Exclaimer event log, and the user's signature is not deployed to the deployment share or their workstation.
An example of the full error is displayed below:
Error: Processing Outlook User: Karen Green Started: 09/12/2016 00:01:12 Status: Error 00:01:12.779: Error: Processing Outlook User: Karen Green 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: Checking policy: Outlook Signature Policy 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: The policy has no date and time applicability. 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: 'Karen Green' successfully matched the condition list. 00:01:12.779: Information: Any of the conditions in the list must be met for the overall condition to be met 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: The Outlook user 'Karen Green' is a member of the Active Directory group 'Exclaimer Signatures'. 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: 'Karen Green' did not match the exception list. 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: There were no exceptions in the list. The overall condition is not met 00:01:12.779: Information: PolicyMatched: All conditions for applying the policy were met. The policy will be applied. 00:01:12.795: Information: Checking next policy. There are no more policies to apply 00:01:12.779: Information: The user Karen Green will be assigned the Outlook signature 'Default Signature'. 00:01:12.795: Error: The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters. 00:01:12.795: Information: System.IO.PathTooLongException: The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters. at System.IO.Path.LegacyNormalizePath(String path, Boolean fullCheck, Int32 maxPathLength, Boolean expandShortPaths) at System.IO.Path.InternalGetDirectoryName(String path) at Exclaimer.Connectors.OutlookSettings.Implementation.PostProcessSubmittedObject(PipelineOperand operand, PipelineSubmissionArgs args, Exception e) at Exclaimer.PolicyProcessingEngine.Pipeline.ProcessingPipeline.PostProcessSubmittedObject(PipelineOperand operand, PipelineSubmissionArgs args, Exception e) at Exclaimer.PolicyProcessingEngine.Pipeline.ProcessingPipeline.Process(PipelineOperand operand, PolicyImplementation startPoint, PipelineSubmissionArgs args)
Reason
This is an issue with file naming.
The Organizational Unit (OU) structure in the Active Directory is used to generate the file path, and the user's display name is required for the signature zip file in the deployment share.
If the deployment share path, together with the OU path and filename exceeds limits imposed by Windows, the signature cannot be deployed.
Resolution
To resolve this issue:
- Reduce the length of the path by reducing the length of the deployment share path.
For example, you might change:
\Server\ExclaimerSignatureDeploymentShare
...to:
\Server\Sigs
The deployment share is a Windows shared folder.
To change the path, the Windows share must be updated in the Exclaimer console. For further information, please see The anatomy of a signature deployment policy - signature creation.
You may also need to reduce the length of your OU path by shortening one or more OU names. The directory name must not exceed 248 characters, and takes the form:
\Server\SharePath\AD structure
In practice, this is:
Server\SharePath + \Domain Extension\OU structure
For example:
\Server\Sigs\local\users\UK\Marketing
The full OU path and filename must not exceed 260 characters, and takes the form:
\Server\SharePath + \Domain Extension\OU structure + \Display name.zip
For example:
\Server\Sigs\local\users\UK\Marketing\Karen Green.zip
The OU path must be changed in the Active Directory, via the Active Directory Users and Computers administrative tool.