A Method to Configure Outlook Web Access Redirection in SBS 2008

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Wayne McIntyre ]

The URL for OWA in SBS 2008 is https://remote.contoso.com/owa if a user attempts to access this page without specifying “https” they will receive a 403.4 forbidden this site must be accessed over SSL.  Today we will discuss an easy method to configure HTTP to HTTPS redirection so users do not get this error, and instead are redirected to the proper OWA URL.  The below steps will walk you thru configuring this type of redirection.

1. Open IIS Manager from Administrative Tools and expand the SBS Web Applications web site then click on the OWA virtual directory.  Locate the Error Pages icon in the right pane.

clip_image001

2. Open the Error Pages configuration and click on Add on the far right window pane.

clip_image002

3. Add an HTTP error response for status code 403.4 select the response action of Respond with a 302 redirect, and enter the HTTPS URL for the OWA site e.g. https://remote.contoso.com/owa

clip_image003

4. Click Ok and now you should see the custom error page for 403.4 with a redirect to the HTTPS URL for Outlook Web Access.

clip_image004

Note: Please test from a client machine, custom errors are disabled by default on the server and this redirection will not work.

Note: The above process should not be used on any other SBS included virtual directory/web site.   Remote Web Workplace (RWW) includes its own method for HTTP to HTTPS redirection.