[Exchange 2003] 2 domain, 2 OWA sites... 2 RPC/HTTPS?

[Massimo]

I have an Exchange 2003 organization with a clustered back-end server and
two front-end ones.

The main company is creating a sub-company, so a new AD domain is being
created in the forest; the Exchange servers will remain the same ones, but
they will need to fully support the new domain's users and a new SMTP domain
("company-b.com"); users in the new company will ONLY have an-email address
in the new domain, while users in the main one will keep the ones they have
("company-a.com").

The AD part is already done, and Exchange's recipient polices and address
lists have been updated accordingly. I've been tasked with implementing OWA
and RPC/HTTPS for the new domain.

I followed the guidelines here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa995753(EXCHG.65).aspx.

Specifically, I created a new HTTP Virtual server in the back-end cluster
with its own IP address and the public site name
("webservice.company-b.com") as its host header, connected to the new SMTP
domain's mailboxes; I also created a new HTTP VS in each front-end server
using the same settings, loaded the certificate for the new site's name in
IIS end enabled SSL. Everything is working fine.

Now I need to make RPC/HTTPS work.

It already works using the main site ("webservice.company-a.com"), but the
customer doesn't like the idea of users having to connect to different
addresses for OWA and RPC/HTTPS, and also doesn't like users from company B
having to connect to a web server that so obviously belongs to Company A.

I tried creating the RPC/HTTPS virtual directories in the secondary OWA web
sites on the front-end servers, but virtual dirs don't seem to work there:
not only RPC-related ones, but each virtual directory that I try to create
just doesn't work, I keep getting 404 errors even if trying to open some
static HTML file on the local disk. It seems like Exchange took control of
this web site (its root is in fact pointing to BackOfficeStorage), and is
doing something in IIS that doesn't let me change its configuration in any
way. Also, even if the virtual dirs could work, I don't know if they would
be enough to make RPC/HTTPS work on something that's not the default web
site.

Questions:

- Is it at all possibile to make RPC/HTTPS work on a web site that's not the
default one? And how?
- If the answer to the first one is "yes", is it possible to make it work on
a custom Exchange 2003 OWA website? And how?

Thanks for any help.

Massimo

[Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]]

Create an HTTP VS on the Front Ends also. You seem to mention you only did
this for the Backend? That isn't necessary unless you are performing
customization, HTTP VS on the Front Ends is fine.

You have to manually copy the RPC virtual directories from the Default
Website to your second site in IIS manually. Otherwise RPC over HTTPs won't
work.

Oliver

[Massimo]

"Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]" <o.moaz...@spamfreenet.co.uk> ha scritto nel
messaggio news:OpmZQIGE...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Create an HTTP VS on the Front Ends also. You seem to mention you
> only did this for the Backend?

No, I mentioned it explicitly: I created it on both FEs, and assigned it a
certificate with the public site's name. OWA is working just fine.

> You have to manually copy the RPC virtual directories from the
> Default Website to your second site in IIS manually.

I'd really like to, but when I define vdirs in the second site, they don't
work! Even "normal" vdirs (not only the RPC ones) always give me a 404
error.

Massimo

[Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]]

> I'd really like to, but when I define vdirs in the second site, they don't
> work! Even "normal" vdirs (not only the RPC ones) always give me a 404
> error.

Is on the Front End? Does OWA on the second site work otherwise?

Oliver

[Massimo]

"Oliver Moazzezi [MVP]" <o.moaz...@spamfreenet.co.uk> ha scritto nel

messaggio news:ec9dVfGE...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

Yes to both questions.

OWA works great, but if I try to create any virtual directory in the second
web site (even pointing it to a local folder with static HTML files) I only
get 404 errors when accessing it.

I've just finished reproducing this behaviour in a clean test environment,
and can confirm it true.

Massimo