Outlook Anywhere, formerly known as RPC over HTTP, allows Microsoft Office Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, and Outlook 2003 clients to connect to their Exchange Servers from outside the Organization. To deploy Outlook Anywhere in Exchange Server 2010 environment, it is required to enable Outlook Anywhere on at least one Client Access Server (CAS) role from the Exchange Management Console using Enable Outlook Anywhere wizard. The other advantage of using Outlook Anywhere is that we can use the same SSL Server Certificate and same URL and namespace that we use for Exchange ActiveSync.
One important point to remember while enabling Outlook Anywhere is that when we enable Outlook Anywhere on CAS server, all users having mailboxes on Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox server are enabled for Outlook Anywhere, by default.
There are few tools that can be used for troubleshooting Outlook Anywhere connectivity issues.
- Test-OutlookConnectivity cmdlet tests Outlook Anywhere and TCP/IP Connections.
- Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer tool displays detailed report of connections/errors and steps to fix them.
Below are the steps required for enabling Outlook Anywhere support in Exchange Server 2010:-
- Install a valid public SSL Certificate on the Exchange Server.
- Install RPC over HTTP Proxy component, if not installed, and
- Enable Outlook Anywhere feature
How to Install RPC over HTTP Proxy component
- Open the Server Manager from Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Server Manager.
- Select the Features node on the left pane and the click Add Features.
- On the Select Features page, select RPC over HTTP Proxy check box. If you are prompted for installing dependencies components, click Add Required Role Services.
- Click Next and Install to finish the setup.
How to Determine if Outlook Anywhere is Enabled or not
We can use Exchange Management Console or Cmedlets to know if outlook Anywhere feature is enabled or not.
From Exchange Management Console:
- Open the Exchange Management Console.
- Expand the Server Configuration node and select the Client Access.
- In the upper portion of the details pane, CAS server will be listed by default with its name, role, Exchange version and Outlook Anywhere status.
From Cmdlets:-
Syntax
Get-OutlookAnywhere [-Server ServerName] [-DomainController DCName]
Get-OutlookAnywhere [-Identity VirtualDirId] [-DomainController DCName]
A Usage
Get-OutlookAnywhere
Get-OutlookAnywhere -Server “Exch01”
Get-OutlookAnywhere -Identity “Exch01\Rpc (Default Web Site)”
How to Enable Outlook Anywhere in Exchange Server 2010
- Open the Exchange Management Console.
- Expand Server Configuration and then select the Client Access node.
- In the detail pane, you will see the CAS servers in your organization. Right-click on the server on which you want to enable Outlook Anywhere feature, and select Enable Outlook Anywhere.
- In the Enable Outlook Anywhere window, enter the external name for the Client Access server, such as mail.trenovision.com.
- Select any Client authentication method, Basic or NTLM authentication. NTLM authentication is more secure than Basic authentication.
- Select the Allow secure channel (SSL) offloading checkbox only if you have configured an advanced firewall server to work with Exchange Server 2010 to handle your SSL processing.
- Click Enable to save the settings and then click Finish.
How to Enable Outlook Anywhere from Cmdlet
Syntax
Enable-OutlookAnywhere -DefaultAuthenticationMethod {AuthMethod}
-ExternalHostName ExternalHostName -SSLOffloading <$true|$false>
[-Server ServerName] [-DomainController DCName]
Usage
Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server “Exch01” -ExternalHostName “mail.techpeoples.net” -DefaultAuthenticationMethod “Basic” -SSLOffloading $false
How to Disable Outlook Anywhere from Cmdlet
Syntax
Disable-OutlookAnywhere [-Server ServerName | -Identity VirtualDirID]
[-DomainController DCName]
Usage
Disable-OutlookAnywhere -Server “Exch01”
