Site consolidation and Exchange Front End with two OWA certificates
Hello guys. I’m having and issue here. We need to consolidate our servers on one site, so we have 2 exchange and one front end on our primary site. This Frond End holds owa1.com certificate. We have a secondary site with another exchange and he holds owa2.com certificate. All our servers are Win 2003 Sta 32b So I need to move the server on the secondary site to the primary, and the idea is to use the same Front End server. There is not problem with the domain names and all related stuff with the Firewall. The only problem is to make my Front End to use both certificates, is this possible? Do I need to create another website on the IIS for this? If I need does anybody know the right procedure to create a secondary site for the Exchange? Thanks for your help, have a nice day.
May 18th, 2011 5:22pm

Hi El, To answer you question, I have to make a few assumptions: I assume you are using Exchange 2003, as you are talking about Front End server and 32b platform. I assume when you talking about "site", you mean AD site, those two sites are in the same forest? here is my understanding what you try to achieve: Consolidate all Exchange into one site. Publish your 2nd OWA through address e.g. mail.owa2.com through the primary site Front End server. Here is my answer: To publish owa2.com from your primary site FE Exchange server, the easist way is to create a DNS CNAME alias which redirect e.g. mail.owa2.com to mail.owa1.com. This way, you dont need a 2nd certificate. This will also affect your MX record. So on the Primary Site Exchange FE server, you will need to add owa2.com as accepted domain. You can actually trial this setup before the actual consolidation happening.
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May 19th, 2011 12:37am

Hi El Guayo, Any update for your issue? I am a little confused about your scenario, could I onfirm more information? you have two sites A,B site A: one FE, one BE site B: on FE right? And what do you mean the owa1.com and owa2.com, per your descriptin, you just have one domain forest, right? Or do you have two domain in the same forest? owa1.com owa2.com And what do you mean "There is not problem with the domain names and all related stuff with the Firewall.", do you mean that you have two smtp addresses configured on recepient policy of the exchange 2003 server? Which one domain is your public used, owa1.com or owa2.com? What is the purpose of using the two owa1.com and owa2.com certificates? Regards! GavinPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
May 23rd, 2011 5:31am

Hello, sorry the late. to answer your questions here is the info: 1) Yes, it is a FE 32b 2) Exactly, i mean AD Site both in the same Forest. Thanks for the information, i just have one question, if try this escenario, i think ill be having some problems when i test the DNS records with a tool like mxtoolbox.com? Like for example the reverse DNS? Another thing, actually, Ive already consolidate both sites, but i had to go with another plan. All servers are phisically on the same site now, but i had to leave both exchange on logical level at diferent site. Im using another public iP adress to public owa2.com. I know this is not the best solution but at least so i still want to do this in the right way. Do you recommend to keep trying to join both owa site on the Front End server? Or would you recommend to keep going like this? Thanks
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May 25th, 2011 11:21am

Hello, yes actually i have an update. Because i had to hurry with the consolidation, i have already moved the exchange from the second site to the first site. So phisically they are on the same site. But logically on the exchange infrastructe i leaved the exchange2 on his same Routing Group. I have the owa2.com on a diferent public IP adress too. And its working fine. To answer your questions: site A: one FE, two BE site B: one exchange for both mailboxes and OWA. About the forest we have several domains, but both of this servers are part of only one domain. But yes they have diferent owa domains, the reason is a long story. But to make it short. This servers were from different domains a long time ago. And what do you mean "There is not problem with the domain names and all related stuff with the Firewall.", do you mean that you have two smtp addresses configured on recepient policy of the exchange 2003 server? Ok what i meant with this is, that both server belongs to the same domain already, and that we knew how to do the configurations on the firewall when the change is made. (NAT, Policies, etc) Which one domain is your public used, owa1.com or owa2.com? Both of them are public. Long time ago this sites were different companies, and we have a lot of laptops with RPC configuration. The laptops from company1 have owa1 as RPC, and laptops from Company2 have owa2 as RPC. What is the purpose of using the two owa1.com and owa2.com certificates? to avoid changing RPC configuration on all laptops that work remotly or that we have no way to reach them. There are laptops with RPC owa1, and RPC owa2. Thanks for your help.
May 25th, 2011 1:51pm

Hi El, If you want to let the users use the two domain and exchange smtp address separately, I would not suggest that you use the same FE for the two ends. Because it may need create new website, bind new IP, port for it, and so on. And it will be good for you to do some troubleshooting when some issue occured, if they are used individually. I have not do some tests like the scenario you referred, If you do want, we could do some tests in the test lab to confirm it. Regards! GavinPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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May 25th, 2011 11:26pm

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