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Simplify the Outlook Web App URL

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010

You can use Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to simplify the Microsoft Office Outlook Web App URL that users use to access their Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 mailbox.

The first procedure below configures a request that's sent to the root of the Web server (https://server name) to redirect to the Exchange virtual directory. For example, a request to https://server/ is directed to https://server/owa.

The second procedure redirects a request to http://server to https://server/owa. To help secure the information that's sent between the client and the server, the default Web site is set to require Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) at installation. To simplify access to Outlook Web App for your users, you may want to configure the Outlook Web App Web page, which is usually the default Web site in IIS, to automatically redirect users to https.

When you configure redirection from a top-level directory in Windows Server 2008, the settings are propagated to lower-level directories. For example, when you configure redirection on the Default Web Site to the /owa virtual directory, the settings that you configured also appear on the HTTP Redirect page of all the virtual directories, such as /Autodiscover, /Exchange, and /Public. Therefore, you must remove redirection from all the virtual directories except the one that you want redirected.

Looking for other management tasks related to Outlook Web App URLs? Check out Managing Outlook Web App URLs.

Use IIS Manager to simplify the Outlook Web App URL when SSL isn't required

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "IIS Manager" entry in the Client Access Permissions topic.

  1. Start IIS Manager.
  2. Expand the local computer, expand Sites, and then click Default Web Site.
  3. At the bottom of the Default Web Site Home pane, click Features View if this option isn't already selected.
  4. In the IIS section, double-click HTTP Redirect.
  5. Select the Redirect requests to this destination check box, and then type /owa.
  6. Under Redirect Behavior, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box.
  7. In the Status code list, click Found (302).
  8. In the Actions pane, click Apply.
  9. For the new settings to take effect, open a Command Prompt window, and then type iisreset /noforce to restart IIS.

Note

If SSL is required, you must redirect HTTP to HTTPS and then also redirect to the /owa virtual directory. If you don't do this, users will receive an error message when they try to access Outlook Web App without specifying the virtual directory. To do this, use the following procedure.

Use IIS Manager to simplify the Outlook Web App URL when SSL is required

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "IIS Manager" entry in the Client Access Permissions topic.

  1. Start IIS Manager.
  2. Expand the local computer, expand Sites, and then click Default Web Site.
  3. At the bottom of the Default Web Site Home pane, click Features View if this option is not already selected.
  4. In the IIS section, double-click HTTP Redirect.
  5. Select the Redirect requests to this destination check box.
  6. Type the absolute path of the /owa virtual directory. For example, type https://mail.contoso.com/owa.
  7. Under Redirect Behavior, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box.
  8. In the Status code list, click Found (302).
  9. In the Actions pane, click Apply.
  10. For the new settings to take effect, open a Command Prompt window, and then type iisreset /noforce to restart IIS.

Use IIS Manager to remove redirection from a virtual directory

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "IIS Manager" entry in the Client Access Permissions topic.

To remove redirection from a virtual directory, perform the following steps:

  1. Start IIS Manager.
  2. Navigate to the virtual directory.
  3. Double-click the HTTP Redirect icon in the Features view of the virtual directory.
  4. Clear the Redirect requests to this destination check box.
  5. In the Actions pane, click Apply.
  6. For the new settings to take effect, open a Command Prompt window, and then type iisreset /noforce to restart IIS.

You may not be able to use the procedure above to remove redirection from a virtual directory that doesn't have a physical path, such as /Exchange, /Exchweb, or /Public. Use the following procedure to remove redirection from a virtual directory that doesn't appear in IIS Manager.

  1. Open a command window
  2. Navigate to <Window directory>\System32\Inetsrv
  3. Enter the following command: appcmd set config "<web site>/<virtual directory>" /section:httpredirect /enabled:false -commit:apphost

Other Tasks

After you simplify the Outlook Web App URL, you may also want to Enable Explicit Sign-in in Outlook Web App.