How NOT To Redirect OWA On Exchange 2010

Updated about 12 yrs, 6 mths ago (August 30, 2011). Know a better answer? Let me know!

How NOT to redirect OWA on Exchange 2010

How to simplify the Exchange 2010 OWA address without causing all sorts of problems.

After having broken this myself, I post this on the off-chance this helps someone else... the moral of the story is, do not use IIS Manager.

Let’s say you want to perform a really simple task, redirect https://mail.yoursite.com to https://mail.yoursite.com/owa/ so that people can get to Outlook Web Access without having to remember to type /owa/ all the time.

Unfortunately, while this is simple to do in Exchange 2010, it’s also very stupid, and different to how it was done in the past.

There’s any number of guides on the internet showing you how to do it in IIS Manager – but don’t. It will almost certainly break something.

Instead, use the script from Redirecting the root web site to /owa and forcing SSL in Exchange 2010

And in case you already broke something, here’s two of the things I broke, and how to fix them:

First the offline address books stopped working. To fix this, follow this guide: OAB issues after simplifying the OWA 2010 URL

The other was that a redirect had been placed on the owa virtual directory, and removing this also removed the redirect from the Public virtual directory. Similarly, adding a redirect to the Public virtual directory added one to owa. So check that your owa virtual directory doesn’t have a redirect, and check that your Public, Exchange and Exchweb virtual directories do. If so, you’re all good. Otherwise, go here and do this: Redirect Virtual Folder

Note that you have to delete the <httpRedirect enabled="false" /> line and run the appcmd lines as shown in that thread.

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Updated about 12 yrs, 6 mths ago (August 30, 2011). Know a better answer? Let me know!

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User submitted comments:

Jaime, about 12 yrs, 8 mths ago
Sunday June 26, 2011 4:21 AM

Saved my bacon, dude! This was the ONE article I found which tells it like it is. Microsoft as usual only covers what's supposed to happen, not what actually does. If I could send you a beer I would.

Dave Dickinson, about 12 yrs, 4 mths ago
Tuesday November 1, 2011 9:56 AM

This article is the real deal......

Rob, about 12 yrs, 3 mths ago
Friday December 2, 2011 10:00 PM

Thank you, this was a simple solution to a seemingly complex problem!

Ian C., about 7 yrs, 2 mths ago
Wednesday January 4, 2017 12:56 AM

Unfortunately, the link to the script from ucblogs.net no longer works. Anybody got an archived copy?

Ian C., about 7 yrs, 2 mths ago
Wednesday January 4, 2017 1:00 AM

Thanks to the Internet Archive.org, the link to the script on ucblogs.net seems to redirect to http://www.ucunleashed.com/186 now.

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