Hybrid Configuration Wizard fails with “Unable to connect to the remote server” in Exchange 2010 SP3

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This article describes the troubleshoot steps performed for error "Unable to access the Federation Metadata from the Microsoft Federation Gateway. "Unable to connect to the remote server" that occur in a hybrid deployment of on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server and of Microsoft Exchange Online in Office 365.

Problem: Set up Exchange Hybrid - Unable to access the Federation Metadata from the Microsoft Federation Gateway. "Unable to connect to the remote server"

Issue: Running Exchange 2010 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) fails with the following error:

New-FederationTrust : Failed to retrieve Federation Metadata from the Microsoft Federation Gateway. This operation will be retried in a few seconds. Last error: System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the  remote server
 
hybrid4.png

Troubleshooting steps:
 
  1. Observed IE was not working.
  2. Opened https://nexus.microsoftonline-p.com/FederationMetadata/2006-12/FederationMetadata.xml from firefox browser which was working fine.
  3. Able to resolve the domain name (nexus.microsoftonline-p.com, login.microsoftonline.com, ppsanamespace.service.microsoftonline-p.net) using nslookup from server.
  4. Did search on google and found this article https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/70baa989-87c2-4d3e-990a-0ff37a05c746/newfederationtrust-not-connecting
  5. Based on the article above and comments by Steve Goodman used telnet.
  6. Able to telnet (nexus.microsoftonline-p.com, login.microsoftonline.com, ppsanamespace.service.microsoftonline-p.net) on port 443 from the server.
  7. Turned off windows firewall.
  8. Uninstalled Antivirus application.
  9. Verified no proxy was configured by running netsh winhttp show proxy command.
  10. Verified no proxy was configured on Exchange server by running Get-ExchangeServer -Identity yourservername | select *proxy*
  11. Verified no proxy application installed on Exchange server.
  12. Verified server has direct internet connection through company firewall.
  13. Internet was working fine on server.
  14. Configured firefox as a default browser.
  15. Ran command in verbose mode "New-FederationTrust -Name 'Microsoft Federation Gateway' -Thumbprint 'thumbprint' -SuppressDnsWarning -Verbose" and got below error.
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Error:

New-FederationTrust : Failed to retrieve Federation Metadata from the Microsoft Federation
Gateway. This operation will be retried in a few seconds. Last error: System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the  remote server --- System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:14347

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   16.  Here the error is pointing to the internal reference.
 
Resolution:
 
  1. Went to registry.
  2. Searched for 127.0.0.1:14347 entry in registry.
  3. Found registry REG_SZ value "ProxySERVER" under HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
  4. 127.0.0.1:14347 is configured in REG_SZ value "ProxySERVER"
  5. Took a backup of the registry HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
  6. Deleted the REG_SZ value "ProxySERVER" under KEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
  7. Logged off and logged in back on the server.
  8. Executed hybrid deployment wizard and it was successful.

The error as shown in the screenshot was not allowing us to configure the Hybrid setup. Based on the error the listed troubleshooting steps were performed and the issue was fixed. 

Thank you for reading my article, feel free to leave me some feedback regarding the content or to recommend future work.
I look forward to hearing from you.
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Comments (1)

Commented:
Great article.  However i still cannot get this working...

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