Question

OWA 2007/IIS problem

Asked by: Zenith63

Hi,

I put in a new Windows 2003 R2 x64 server for ourselves the other day.  Installed Exchange 2007 etc. and all seemed well.  During the install of Exchange I installed .Net Framework 2.0 and .Net Framework 3.0.

The other day I wanted to install some software that created a few virtual directories in IIS.  It was asking for .Net 1.1 so I downloaded and installed it.

I then noticed no pages would show up when I browsed to http://servername.  If I browsed to https://servername I'd get a certificate error, if I accepted that I'd just get an error, no page served up.  I asked here and eventually came across what I thought was the solution, something to do with the various versions of ASP.NET and IIS in 32bit/64bit.  So I folowed the instructions here - http://support.microsoft.com/?id=894435 - to use ASP.NET 2.0 64Bit.  (Note that MS article says not to use the instructions in using Exchange 2007, but they didn't offer an alternative so I tried it anyway)

IIS seems to be working better now.  However when I go to https://servername/owa I get a certificate error (normal), accept this, get to the logon screen, enter my credentials (tried all different varieties), press OK, get to choose language settings, press OK again and get

---------
http://ntserver05/owa/lang.owa

The page cannot be found

HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found.
Internet Information Services (IIS)
----------

I'm not sure now if this is an IIS problem or an Exchange 2007 problem, any help appreciated though!  I'm not even certain if OWA was working after I first installed Exchange 2007 as I didn't get time to try it before screwing up the .Net 1.1 stuff, but I'm sure it was probably working fine as it was a clean build.

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Asked On
2007-04-20 at 01:20:55ID22523312
Tags

owa

,

2007

,

exchange

Topics

Microsoft IIS Web Server

,

.NET Framework 2.x

,

Exchange Email Server

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Answers

 

by: busbarPosted on 2007-04-20 at 04:13:48ID: 18945396

try to reinstall exchange 2007, if this is not available try to remove the OWA virtual directory and then recreate it again

 

by: LeeDerbyshirePosted on 2007-04-20 at 05:42:59ID: 18945811

Have a look in IIS Manager to see which is missing, the OWA VDir, or the Lang.owa file that's supposed to be in it.

 

by: Zenith63Posted on 2007-04-20 at 06:46:31ID: 18946278

The OWA directory is there.  I don't see lang.owa there, but it isn't there on a working Exch2007 server either, so I reckon that file is generated on the fly or something like that?

I was hoping not to have to reinstall Exch 2007 for something like this.  I've never tried it, but if I just install over the top will it maintain data and settings?  If the problem is IIS related I reckon it may not solve the problem anyway?
The OWA directory has quite a lot of stuff in it, is it just as simple as delete and create again?  Is it not linked to Exch 2007 in some way that will make this procedure kinda risky?

 

by: busbarPosted on 2007-04-20 at 06:48:16ID: 18946290

nop it is safe to reinstall the E12, but try to recreate the cirtual directory first

 

by: LeeDerbyshirePosted on 2007-04-20 at 06:58:57ID: 18946382

The OWA VDirs are created using the powershell.  I don't have one to hand right now, but the commands are Remove-OWAVirtualDirectory and New-OWAVirtualDirectory .  There is some info here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998624.aspx

 

by: Zenith63Posted on 2007-04-23 at 01:53:12ID: 18956879

Excellent, removing and adding the owa directory worked perfectly!  Thanks guys!

Here are the commands I used from the Exchange Shell for future reference -

1.
Get-OwaVirtualDirectory
This gives a list of the OWA virtual directories, top one should be something like "owa (Default Web Site)".

2.
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "owa (Default Web Site)"
Deletes the default "owa" directory.

3.
New-OWAVirtualDirectory -OWAVersion "Exchange2007" -Name "owa (Default Web Site)"
Create the "owa" directory again.

 

by: ConbrioPosted on 2007-04-27 at 14:51:52ID: 18992429

I get an error message when re-creating:

New-OwaVirtualDirectory: An error occured while creating the IIS virtual directory 'IIS://..../W3SVC/1/ROOT/owa' on '....'

What is wrong with my server?

 

by: Zenith63Posted on 2007-04-30 at 14:13:53ID: 19004730

You'll need to create a new question, this thread is buried now so nobody will see it and be able to help.

 

by: UptimeSystemsPosted on 2008-07-30 at 16:17:19ID: 22125644

I had the same problem (posted by the original author) and put together these instructions from a combination of this post, other EE posts, and various microsoft articles.  Worked like  a charm for me.

1.      Open up the Exchange PowerShell command window.
2.      Run: Get-OwaVirtualDirectory

This will display a list of all OWA-related virtual directories under the Default Web Site.  Note that you may receive an error in red text on some or all of the virtual directories if they are not working properly (which is to be expected.)
3.      Run the following commands to delete each virtual directory:
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "owa (Default Web Site)"

Repeat this step for each virtual directory found after running Get-OWAVirtualDirectory in step 1, replacing the owa (Default Web Site) with each virtual directory name.
Example:
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "owa (Default Web Site)"
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "Public (Default Web Site)"
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "Exadmin (Default Web Site)"
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -identity "Exchweb (Default Web Site)"
4.      Run the following commands to re-create each OWA virtual directory:
New-OWAVirtualDirectory -OWAVersion "Exchange2007" -Name "owa (Default Web Site)"
new-OwaVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion "Exchange2003or2000" -VirtualDirectoryType "Mailboxes" -DomainController dc_name
new-OwaVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion "Exchange2003or2000" -VirtualDirectoryType "Exadmin" -DomainController dc_name
new-OwaVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion "Exchange2003or2000" -VirtualDirectoryType "PublicFolders" -DomainController dc_name
new-OwaVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion "Exchange2003or2000" -VirtualDirectoryType "exchweb" -DomainController dc_name

Where dc_name is the name of your windows domain controller.
Thats itthese virtual directories should be re-created, and OWA should function.

 

by: AdelaideHPosted on 2008-08-28 at 08:34:23ID: 22336140

ANOTHER SOLUTION:
For some, it is impossible to recreate the directory OWA.
What I have done:
1. Uninstall Framework 1.1
2. Installing Framework 2
3. Add Hostfix Framework 2
4. Delete the role Access Client (CAS) server via the installation CD Exchange: Start, Run, cmd: go on the CD, type: setup.com / mode: uninstall / role: CA
5. Installing the new role: setup.com / role: CA
6. Everything is back in order

 

by: premiumnzPosted on 2008-10-20 at 04:08:45ID: 22756438

Another fix for me...

Ensure that you DO NOT have Sharepoint 2.0 installed on the server.  If so, uninstall it.  You CAN have Sharepoint 3.0 just NOT 2.0.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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