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Windows SBS - Having Issues with Exchange -> OWA

C

clearodef

Junior Member
Let me first point out that I'm colo'ing a server so I'd really hate to have to visit the datacenter to reinstall anything. Hopefully, someone with more experience, in particular with SBS, will be able to help me out. I've searched high and wide on the Internet and can't find a solution except for: reinstall, whic requires a visit.

Here's the scenario. On the server being colo'ed, I installed SBS Standard so it comes with Exchange, no ISA or anything. The problem: me thinking I'm mister hot-shot, went in and deleted the Default Web Sites in IIS and realized very soon after that Exchange Vir Dir's were also installed there. With every attempt to recreate it based on an Exchange2003/Windows2003 box at work, I've been unable to duplicate what I've deleted.

Is there any way to do a repair? This particular question is aimed at people with some SBS experience because the install comes on 4 discs. There isn't exactly an Exchange CD I could use to reinstall Exchange. Looking through Add/Remove Programs, I don't see how I can go about reinstall/repairing exchange either..?

Also, because it's SBS, I can't easily remove IIS (as suggested in other threads) as there is no "Manage Your Server" wizard you normally see with Windows2003 Standard/Ent installations. Regarding the IIS removal, someone suggested going through control panel, unchecking, apply and then rechecking the IIS in the Add/Remove Components. Is this in essence the same as using the "Manage Your Server" wizard?

Thanks in advance first for reading and hopefully responding!
 
Well, you can try this procedure..
Otherwise, it's time for a re-install.

As you realize now, SBS has a pretty complex structure, with a lot of stuff interweaved.

Don't EVER touch the default web sites or the wwwroot folder. It's one of those mistakes you only make once. Create new web sites and new folders for any new web sites.
 
Hey Mr. Brilliant. Good news is that it worked just great! I didn't have to visit because I had created images of the CD's and uploaded them to the server. I simply mounted the images when prompted so Term Serv rocks!

Bad news is I obviously don't know my IIS as well as I thought I did. Perhaps could you lend some insight? Or perhaps I just need to go back and read some more...either way, what help you've provided thus far has been thoroughly appreciated.

So here's my scenario: I created another website, say, abc.com. I really don't want to have to touch the Default Web Sites in anyway (as I've broken it before). What I want to see is:

abc.com/exchange -> OWA (<default>/exchange)
or
webmail.abc.com -> OWA (<default>/exchange)

For now, I don't want anyone access the default website in anway because the default website for SBS IIS is a Welcome page with links: My Company's Internal Web Site, Network Configuration Wizard, etc.... You're an SBS expert. You know already. Anything I can do here?

Do I make any sense to you?
 
If you just want to be able to type:
http://webmail.mydomain.com and automatically go to your OWA site, you don't have to do ANYTHING to SBS.

Go to your Domain's public nameserver and create an "A" record:

A ---- remote.mydomain.com ----- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Then create a WebFoward:
webmail.mydomain.com ----> <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://remote.mydomain.com/exchange"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://remote.mydomain.com/exchange">https://remote.mydomain.com/exchange</a></a>

There're other ways of doing it, too. But the WebForward, if it's a feature of your nameservers, is really easy.
 
My work around was to create a vir dir under abc.com called exchange. i made this vir dir redirect this pointed -> <default>/exchange. i changed the <default> to webmail.abc.com..the closes i can get to what I want. then I just moved all the files from the wwwroot so if you try to look at webmail.abc.com, you get "virtual directory listing denied"...

what do you think?
 
Your SBS Server should be your ONLY INTERNAL DNS server. All client PCs must point to the SBS Server's DNS service for all their DNS information.

Then, you set DNS forwarding on your SBS DNS Server to point to your ISP's DNS service for Internet name resolution. The SBS install wizards automatically set the forwarding for you.

Your PUBLIC DNS server is usually provided by your Domain Registrar or by another DNS service (like Zoneedit.com). This is where you tell the Internet where your various servers are located.
 
Well, it's only one machine doing everything. Does that sound like a bad idea? Maybe this sounds like terrible practice (am I'm unsure now) but for this particular case, my external DNS for this domain also happens to be the internal DNS. Again, it's the only machine so if it goes down, everything goes down.

There are no client PC's being added on to this domain, hence the reason for it being colo'd. Else, I would have hosted it in-house and done it proper with Win 2K3 Standard and Exchange. The business is very small and this is a start up server. Costs are tight so that's why I decided with SBS, my first.
 
correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that your SBS box can be doing external DNS - it should be directing requests to the ISPs DNS, as its not a top level DNS provider. This way, when joe smo tries to access your server, his ISPs DNS says, hey I know how to get to webserver.abc.com and directs him to your server.
 
Well, SBS COULD be an external DNS server, but people seldom do it that way. To do it, you have to open up TCP port 53 for incoming packets. That exposes your SBS box for things like DNS poisoning and other DNS server attacks. Most people consider it more secure to put their external DNS information on commercial DNS servers, which (hopefully) are well secured against attack.

Also, if you host your own public DNS records and your SBS server goes down, incoming mail servers will assume that your domain doesn't exist and will return the mail to the sender. If you use an outside DNS servers and your SBS server goes down, the incoming mail server will keep trying to contact you for a couple of days before returning the mail to the sender.
 
Originally posted by: clearodef
Well, it's only one machine doing everything. Does that sound like a bad idea? .
Click to expand...
SBS has been sold for nine years and works quite well. "Everything in a single box" is a proven concept that works well for many companies in the 2-75 client computer range. While adding servers is a nicety, the more servers you have, the more servers will break. Having just one server to back up, maintain, and troubleshoot makes life simpler in a lot of ways.
 
Well, I don't imagine the box would be down for more than a few hours. It's sort of my responsibility to maintain it and keep it up. I had a particular design in mind when I built the box so hopefully, I won't have those issues. Again, it's a small business I'm consulting for, that's why everything is currently just sitting on one box. I do have external DNS servers I could use but those are all work related (not consulting). I get what you mean by email and that is important. But I agree. I'll run that as a second DNS server. I'll use a separate "external" so email will continue to be delivered. Or perhaps setting DNS expiry dates longer will give me "buffer" time assuming things do go sour.

Regarding DNS poisoning, can you give me an example of how that might occur? I don't think anyone has permissions to update that box, if I remember correctly.

And also, port 53 was already open. I didn't have to do anything to "open" it.
 
I agree with ya regarding this. It is easier to manage one server for this particular client. At work, we have like 18 different servers (AD, Exchange, FS, etc). Way too many things to try to organize. And because this is only one box, if it ever goes down, I would imagine my downtime to be no more than a few hours to restore a working image. Hopefully, I won't be wrong about this.
 
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