Outlook Anywhere decided to stop working - OFFLINE
Windows 2008 SP2
Exchange 2007 SP2 RU5
Outlook 2007 SP2
Outlook works just fine internally (in the LAN).
OWA works just fine anywhere (on premises, offsite).
Outlook Anywhere worked fine about a week ago.
What changed? Latest windows updates were installed to the Exchange server. No other changes where made.
When I open Outlook offsite, Outlook does open but it is "Offline".
Another user noticed this as well (so two different Outlook clients, both 2007 SP2).
It worked for them before (let's say just over a week ago, before spring break - only noticed the problem this morning).
What I have done...
With Outlook open in the "offline" state, I have right-clicked on the Outlook icon in the taskbar and run the Autodiscover Test. This displays what apppears to be correct Autodiscover information. No error messages are shown.
Outlook /rpcdiag shows a brief attempt to connect and then a blank window (no information is provided).
Outlook remains in an "Offline" state.
Event Viewer has shown no errors for over a week (not since the windows update reboot which usually produces some transient ones).
No warning messages either, except for the maintenance period overlap discussed in another thread and almost certainly unrelated.
ExRCA
Outlook Autodiscover test passes (Green check)
Outlook Anywhere test fails - on last step:
Testing the Name Service Provider Interface (NSPI) on the Exchange Mailbox server.
Attempting to ping RPC endpoint 6004 (NSPI Proxy Interface) on server MailServer1.my.domain
The RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE error (0x6ba) was thrown by the RPC Runtime process.
However, looking at my notes, I've seen this fail before when Outlook Anywhere DID work. So I am not sure that is conclusive.
Test-* cmdlets show no errors, except the 1006 and 1013 error messages for Test-OutlookWebServices, which I have always had, even when Outlook Anywhere did work.
Outlook Anywhere is ENABLED (as opposed to DISABLED) - I just double-checked and triple-checked so I am sure of this.
Here is the edited output of:
[PS] C:\>Get-OutlookAnywhere
ServerName : MailServer1
SSLOffloading : False
ExternalHostname : mail.mydomain.org
ClientAuthenticationMethod : Basic
IISAuthenticationMethods : {Basic}
MetabasePath : IIS://MailServer1.mydomain.local/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Rpc
Path : C:\Windows\System32\RpcProxy
Server : MailServer1
AdminDisplayName :
ExchangeVersion : 0.1 (8.0.535.0)
Name : Rpc (Default Web Site)
DistinguishedName [...]
Identity : MailServer1\Rpc (Default Web Site)
Guid : 6a262cb5-4b08-49c3-b115-75b7bd194f52
ObjectCategory : mydomain.local/Configuration/Schema/ms-Exch-Rpc-Http-Virtual-Director
ObjectClass : {top, msExchVirtualDirectory, msExchRpcHttpVirtualDirectory}
WhenChanged : 9/4/2010 7:55:51 AM
WhenCreated : 9/4/2010 7:55:36 AM
OriginatingServer : [...]
IsValid : True
Outlook Client setting for authentication is also set for BASIC - just thought of that and checked as well.
Please advise.
Do I need to uninstall and resinstall RPC to make this work, or is there something else I can do?
April 26th, 2011 10:12am
Regarding steps outlined here (from document suggested by EXRCA and the end of the OUtlook Anywhere test results):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd439392(EXCHG.80).aspx
Registry entries are fine:
Open Registry Editor on the Client Access server or on the front-end server, and verify that the ValidPorts registry value exists under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Rpc\Rpcproxy. Also confirm that the key includes the NetBIOS and FQDN for all mailbox
servers and for each required port (that is, for ports 6001, 6002, and 6004).
To test endpoint connectivity, open a Telnet session on the Client Access server or on the front-end server, and then Telnet to each port on the mailbox servers (that is, on ports 6001, 6002, and 6004). If you cannot successfully Telnet to any of the ports,
and if there is a firewall between the servers, check your firewall configuration.
On the other hand, who cares about ports 6001-6004 since Outlook Anywhere uses 443??? So before installing the Telnet client on the mail server, I'd like to have someone confirm that those tests would prove something. Once again, OWA works fine and Outlook
works fine on premises.
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April 26th, 2011 11:37am
Other notes:
https://mail.mydomain.org/rpc/rpcproxy.dll
Results in a blank page (after apparently successful authentication).
There is no redirection on the RPC virtual directory.
As for SSL settings on the RPC virtual directory, we have this:
SSL - checked.
SSL 128 bit - checked.
Require client cert - IGNORE
April 26th, 2011 11:41am
No suggestions?
Uninstall and reinstall RPC/HTTP?
I've done this once before with directions provided by James Luo so if the problem does have the same cause, I can schedule some down time over the week-end and proceed from there.
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April 28th, 2011 2:52pm
Hi,
Did you try https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/ to see if all is successful there?
/Martin Exchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.
April 28th, 2011 3:06pm
Yes, in my first post there is a section about the ExRCA results, which is what
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/ is, if I'm not mistaken.
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April 28th, 2011 3:57pm
Yeah sorry about that.
I would try and disable and then enable the Outlook anywhere functionality.
/MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.
April 28th, 2011 4:03pm
I disabled and re-enabled OA the day of my first post, then tried OA and just now tried it again. No luck. So it looks like a RPC/HTTP feature reinstall is my next option.
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April 28th, 2011 8:44pm
Yeah looks like it.
/MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.
April 29th, 2011 2:31am
Hello,
Check the following registry on the CAS server.
[Check the 6004 port settings in registry]
==============================
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters
Value name: HTTP Port
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1772 (Decimal 6002)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters
Value name: Rpc/HTTP NSPI Port
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1774 (Decimal 6004)
[Check NSPI interface protocol sequences on GC]
==================================
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters
Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Name: NSPI interface protocol sequences
Value: ncacn_http:6004
Thanks,
Simon
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April 29th, 2011 2:43am
Simon,
First, thank you for assisting.
Second, it looks like I am simply missing this entry:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters
Name: NSPI interface protocol sequences
Here is a screenshot, with server and domain names concealed:
http://umxo8g.sn2.livefilestore.com/y1pNUZHD9U4PxwDl5D1eu7UHLBy1JhDW3dDEWR5aVKW3pXjVvKVkk_97o9S3RS3Tfmmm6fYykBWnyYMEmHcXs0RNzrIAntndFOj/No-NSPI.JPG?psid=1
Should I simply create the entry manually?
The entries on the CAS server look fine (just some more zeros in the hexadecimal notation of 0x1772 and 0x1774 - otherwise the same data as what you
posted above).
April 29th, 2011 2:27pm
I reinstalled the RPC/HTTP component.
That did not solve the problem.
Yesterday, another user mentioned she was NOT having problems accessing her mail via Outlook Anywhere from home.
So what was different between the users that could and those that could not?
Exchange Cached Mode (disabled for some because of a synchronization problem with their Blackberries).
When I re-enabled Exchange Cached Mode I could access my mailbox via Outlook Anywhere (from outside the LAN).
Is that a known limitation? Outlook Anywhere does not work if Exchange Cached Mode is disabled?
I see that it is recommended:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/exchangesvrdeploy/thread/b3e154b1-823b-4931-8d92-fa8087e00842
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April 30th, 2011 9:59am
Hi,
You can't use Outlook Anywhere without running it in cached mode, this is a limitation that is by design. If you do not have all you E-mails cached your client will be extremly slow when you access your mailbox over the Internet.
/MartinExchange is a passion not just a collaboration software.
April 30th, 2011 10:03am
Hello,
It is recommended to use cached mode via Outlook Anywhere because the connection speed is slow.
Thanks,
Simon
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May 2nd, 2011 9:21pm