Exchange 2013 – Redirect OWA to HTTPS/SSL

You can make it easier on your webmail users by automatically redirecting requests for http://owa.mailserver.com to https://owa.mailserver.com pretty easily using IIS Manager.

1) Open IIS Manager, expand Sites, and then click Default Web Site.

2) Double-click HTTP Redirect  and select the Redirect requests to this destination check box. Enter the full destination URL (i.e. https://owa.mailserver.com/owa)

3) Under Redirect Behavior, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory, select Found (302) as the status code, and click Apply.

4) Click on Default Web Site to take you back to the features view, and double-click SSL Settings. Uncheck the Require SSL box.

5) Open command prompt as administrator and run IISRESET.

Open a new browser and test going to http://mail.mailserver.com to see if it redirects you to https://mail.mailserver.com/owa automatically.

NOTE: I have seen issues with these changes not taking effect immediately, even if you follow the above 5 steps to a tee. The problem lies with the web.config file not updating correctly. If you’re sure you’ve done the above steps correctly and it’s still not redirecting properly, browse to C:\inetpub\wwwroot. Rename the web.config file to web.config.old. Run IISRESET and try it again. The file will recreate/rebuild itself and redirection should then work. It also appears that in some instances, applying any of the Exchange Cumulative Updates, will break the redirection making you have to re-perform this process.

Migrate DHCP Database To New Windows Server

Exporting the DHCP database from one Windows server to another using the GUI can sometimes be more of a headache than running two simple commands. I’ve had much more luck using the following method:

NOTE: This assumes that you have the DHCP Server Role already installed on your new server

1) Open command prompt as admin on the source server. Issue the following command:

netsh dhcp server export C:\dhcpdatabase.dat all

2) Open the services console and stop the DHCP Server service, and set it to ‘disabled’

3) Copy C:\dhcpdatabase.dat file from the source server to the same location on the new server.

4) On the new server, open a command prompt as admin. Issue the following command:

netsh dhcp server import C:\dhcpdatabase.dat

5) Restart the DHCP Server serivce on the new server and you should be good to go.