Redirecting OWA Urls in Exchange 2010

One of my colleague (an EV Expert) asked me about the steps to redirect OWA url in Exchange 2010 and hence the post.

We have done it in all versions of Exchange to make it easier for users to use OWA. All they need to type in is email or mail (whatever you have set) and the browser will be redirected from http://email to https://mail.domain.com/owa (/exchange in legacy systems).

Things are easier in Exchange 2010, with the new version of IIS in 2008 R2. There is an option named “Http Redirect” which we will use to accomplish the task. Launch IIS Manager on the CAS server and navigate to “Default Web site”. Double click on “Http Redirect” under the IIS section on the right hand side.

Check the box for redirection and type in the url you want it to be redirected to. Make sure you check the last option as well. Click on “Apply” button on the top right hand corner.

IIS will push down this setting to any virtual directory underneath it, which doesn’t have the same setting explicitly defined. Hence, we need to remove the redirection from aspnet_client, autodiscover, ecp, ews, microsoft-server-activesync, oab, powershell and rpc.

Select each of the virtual directories and clear both check boxes (as in the screenshot below) & apply.

The legacy directories – exchange, exchweb and public should redirect to /owa. This is the default config, but do check. Don’t check the last option for these directories (see the screenshot below).

Next step is to disable the “ssl requirement” for the default website. Otherwise, when a user tries to connect using http://email, an http error will be displayed. This basically means that the user is trying an http connection to a site that has https enforced.

Select the “default web site” and double click the “ssl settings” under IIS section. Uncheck the box”Require SSL” and click the apply button on the top right.

Like the redirection settings, IIS will push this setting down to the virtual directories which doesn’t have this option explicitly defined. Hence, we need to check the “Require SSL” box for the virtual directories – autodiscover, ecp, ews, microsoft-server-activesync, oab, owa and rpc.

Don’t make changes to any other directories. Do an iisreset from the command prompt. Perform the same steps if you have more than one CAS server.

Your users will be redirected to the correct url from now on

Check Pat Richard’s article if you want the process to be scripted and Henrik Walther’s post for a related OAB issue once the redirection is in place.