We have been observing some strange behavior recently with our clients
accessing PF stores.

We have a mixed Exchange 2003/Exchange 2007 environment right now with
Exchange servers in various geographical locations.

There are no PF stores on Exchange 2007.

There are Riverbed Steelheads optimizing WAN traffic between locations.

We have been receiving calls from our WAN engineers saying "there are
a ton of RPC connections from all over the world connecting on port
58599 to the Exchange server in Geneva". Then the next day ""there are
a ton of RPC connections from all over the world connecting on port
1200 to the Exchange server in Zurich". Etc.

These client connections eat up all their Steelhead sessions and ruin
optimization.

When we examine the connections, it turns out that there are a bunch
of logons on the "victim" Exchange server's PF store from clients all
over the world - NYC, Amsterdam, Dublin, Sydney, Miami, etc.

It seems that they are all connecting to the "victim" Exchange server
for OAB downloads or Free/Busy. There is really no other PF replicas
for example on a Zurich Exchange server that the clients from Miami
may be possibly connecting to.

But why aren't they connecting to the OAB or Free/Busy replicas right
on their own Miami Exchange server?