Recipe 8.11. Using the OWA Web Administration Tool Problem You want to easily administer the Outlook Web Access parameters on your Exchange server, using Microsoft's Outlook Web Access Web Administration (OWAAdmin) utility. Solution Using a graphical user interface Log on to the machine within your domain from which you want to administer your OWA servers, using an account with administrative permissions. This machine must have IIS 5.0 or later, and it must have Version 1.1 or later of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Download the OWA Web Administration utility from Microsoft's download site at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4BBE7065-A04E-43CA-8220-859212411E10. Extract the installation package (OwaAdmin.MSI) from the download archive by running OWAAdmin.exe and choosing a target directory. Run OWAAdmin.MSI. When the Outlook Web Access Web Administration utility finishes installing, connect to the OWAAdmin server by launching Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or greater and opening https://machinename/owaadmin. If you only have one OWA server in the domain, it will open by default. Otherwise, you may select any of your domain's OWA servers from the drop-down list. Discussion The OWA Web Administration Tool provides easy access to advanced OWA features that previously had to be changed by editing the OWA server's registry. This graphical interface is so useful that it provides in one succinct interface almost all the OWA settings available in other recipes in this book! The tool uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) calls to make registry and metabase changes on remote Exchange servers, and presents a friendly interface to change advanced settings. The OWA Web Admin Tool must be installed on a machine running IIS 5.0 or higher that is a member of the OWA server's domain. If you are running the tool on a machine running SharePoint Team Services (STS), you must exclude the OWAAdmin virtual directory from the STS ISAPI filter. The OWAAdmin tool requires you to have a security certificate installed on the IIS machine, but not to worry: it will install a three-year certificate for you if one is not found during the installation process. The cert uses the NetBIOS name of the machine, so if you access the OWAAdmin site with the machine's IP address, you will get a security alert advising that the name doesn't match the certificate. The Customization settings allows for quick setting of some of the more tedious of configuration tasks for Outlook Web Access servers: selecting feature sets by segmentation, and setting a default color and font scheme. Table 8-3 contains a list of the settings available in the Outlook Web Access Web Administration Tool. Table 8-3. Pages in OWAAdmin and their capabilities Property page | Typical uses |
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Address Book | Specify the upper limit of how many names are returned on an address book query. | Attachment Handling | Specify which types of content are allowed. | Automatic Signature | Specify the maximum allowed length of a client's automatic signature. | Character Handling/Encoding | Specify which character sets are used by clients of this OWA server. | Client Notifications | Set intervals for checking for new messages or reminders. | Forms-based authentication | Set timeout values for public and private clients, and specify SSL acceleration device, if present. | Junk e-mail handling | Set the parameters OWA uses in handling junk email. | Public Folders | Specify OWA public folder limits and options. | Security Settings | Specify settings affecting OWA client logon and logoff security. | Spell Check | Set languages and limits for OWA spellchecking. | S/MIME | Configure over 20 S/MIME security options. | Tasks | Set length of work day and work week for tasks in OWA. | User Privacy | Force, disable, or allow client setting of "spam beacon" suppression by OWA client. | View Settings | Change the maximum allowable lines in an OWA view. | CustomizationApply a default theme to this server | Force a default "theme" of specific colors and font settings, rather than allowing users to choose. | CustomizationServer-wide Feature Support | Enable or disable OWA features (commonly referred to as "segmentation"). |
See Also Recipes in this chapter on individual OWA 2003 settings and MS KB 300432 (How To Promote a Member Server Running IIS to a Domain Controller Running IIS) should be followed if running the web administration tool on a Windows 2000 domain controller |