Getting to OWA without having to put /OWA in URL?

R.O.S.S.I · 18 Apr 2012 at 12:04

Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows how I can make it so that users of our Outlook Web Access system don't have to put /OWA at the end of the URL to access it?

i.e. https://mail.company.co.uk/OWA is there anyway to make it so they can just put https://mail.company.co.uk ?

visibleman · 18 Apr 2012 at 17:35

THIS might help, alternatively you could just create a new CNAME record and point it to your current OWA URL.

Deleted member 77746 · 18 Apr 2012 at 18:11

visibleman said:
THIS might help, alternatively you could just create a new CNAME record and point it to your current OWA URL.

Best way, this is what we do. CNAME in DNS > IP > IIS redirect.

PistolPete · 18 Apr 2012 at 19:20

How do you get a CNAME to resolve a URL? DNS deals with FQDNs, not URLs with trailing subfolderss

Surely this is a HTTP redirect.

Deleted member 77746 · 18 Apr 2012 at 19:26

PistolPete said:
How do you get a CNAME to resolve a URL? DNS deals with FQDNs, not URLs with trailing subfolders.

Sorry changed to the correct terminology, was rushing about.

In your DNS add a CNAME to point to your server, with IIS there are settings (I forgot where now) but you can configure an alias and what url to listen for / redirect.

to;
mail.website.com > website.com/exchange

Once you have created your CNAME wait for propagation and do an nslookup. Make sure your mail.website.com is pointing to the correct URL and you should be good to go.

HungryHippos · 18 Apr 2012 at 19:46

Don't know why CNAME records are coming into this, IIS redirect on the default web site to https://url/owa will do it!

Deleted member 77746 · 18 Apr 2012 at 19:53

Eulogy said:
Don't know why CNAME records are coming into this, IIS redirect on the default web site to https://url/owa will do it!

Will that work externally though outside the network? I never knew this.

HungryHippos · 19 Apr 2012 at 09:38

If the main URL works externally then yes.

The problem the OP is talking about is that when you have a default install of Exchange the OWA url does not auto redirect from rootdomain to rootdomain/owa and people need to type /owa on the end.

Whether the URL is accessible externally is more a case of is the Exchange server address published to the internet and does the Firewall have the right ports opened to allow it.

I guess this was done so that if the Exchange server happenned to be running some kind of other web app it would not conflict.

visibleman · 19 Apr 2012 at 10:17

PistolPete said:
How do you get a CNAME to resolve a URL? DNS deals with FQDNs, not URLs with trailing subfolderss

Surely this is a HTTP redirect.

Yup, my bad. Skim read the OP and missed the subdirectory.

Eulogy - So you create the subdomain (eg - mail.domain.com) A record on your domains DNS to point to the servers IP, then change the redirect (mail.domain.com/owa to mail.domain.com) for OWA under IIS?

Skidilliplop · 19 Apr 2012 at 10:41

visibleman said:
Yup, my bad. Skim read the OP and missed the subdirectory.

Eulogy - So you create the subdomain (eg - mail.domain.com) A record on your domains DNS to point to the servers IP, then change the redirect (mail.domain.com/owa to mail.domain.com) for OWA under IIS?

Yep, Once the OWA site is established in IIS you can do whatever you want to it. As far as IIS knows it's just any other website content.

HungryHippos · 19 Apr 2012 at 16:54

visibleman said:
Yup, my bad. Skim read the OP and missed the subdirectory.

Eulogy - So you create the subdomain (eg - mail.domain.com) A record on your domains DNS to point to the servers IP, then change the redirect (mail.domain.com/owa to mail.domain.com) for OWA under IIS?

yes, but don't forget this DNS name would need to be registered in your Exchange UCC certificate or you will get a cert error when visiting it!

R.O.S.S.I · 20 Apr 2012 at 09:06

Hmmm going to have a look into this this afternoon! I just followed the guide at the top for changing the HTTP Redirect to the absolute URL of the https://mail.earlybreak.co.uk/ but it hasn't worked!

Deleted member 77746 · 20 Apr 2012 at 13:26

R.O.S.S.I,

You have the DNS part right as mail.earlybreakco.uk goes to your server. There should be a setting in IIS for incoming urls.

clade · 26 Apr 2012 at 18:52

http://morgansimonsen.wordpress.com...tlook-web-access-urls-on-windows-server-2008/

This is the method I use at work without issue.