RPC Over HTTP on SBS 2003 »
Wow. That's a mouthful. For those who aren't aware, it stands for Remote Procedure Call (RPC) over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) on (Windows) Small Business Server 2003. Essentially, making an Exchange RPC connection via standard HTTP protocols, over a secure (SSL) connection.
I had been royally frustrated with this, as every document I seemed to find talked about installing this proxy server or that back-end server and this front-end server. In this install, I have a single server. It's the proxy, the front end and the back end. Though the pages I found said it could be done, I couldn't get it to happen.
Then I stumbled across this gem, surprisingly enough, at Microsoft. Naturally I didn't find it through Microsoft, but I found it nonetheless. I think I actually stumbled onto a Usenet thread through Google, which had a link to another knowledge base article, which in turn linked to this one.
And that's it. It's done. Simple as that. The only particularly difficult step was getting the certificate installed (it's self-issued). I had to load up the site in IE, then install the certificate, and Voilá. It worked the first time. Un-freaking-believable. I think I'll retire. Not for the night. Permanently. This will never happen again.
Update: Thanks to Ian Tomkins for pointing out that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to update their knowledge base and remove a useful page. Luckily, the Wayback Machine has come to our rescue with this copy of the original. Thanks Ian!
Comments (16)
don't suppose you want to know that the info was on your box to do this?
Posted by Susan | January 27, 2005 4:09 AM
Unfortunately, that page isn't accessible on my box. When I go to /remote, I do get a login screen, but no combination of any user and password (including administrator) on the system will work to log in. While I'm sure the documentation is there somewhere, and I can get to it through Explorer, and it was right under my nose, my nose, unfortunately, was encased in a Microsoft-supplied impenetrable box that wouldn't allow access. Luckily I don't have a head cold.
As to this link, the general information is there, but again it requires logging into the page in question. And if, for whatever reason, you cannot do that, it doesn't help. It also talks about exporting server certificates. The KB article I linked to in my entry gives you a much simpler option for that as well as detailed steps on configuring Outlook, in case - for whatever reason - the remote information isn't available.
Still, thanks for the information!
Posted by Chad Everett | January 27, 2005 6:00 AM
Open up port 4125 and the smallbiz page is just a web page. If you run the connect to internet wizard, it does the KB article steps... You have a SBS box and th KB article isn't SBSized and thus the post.
Did you run the connect to internet wizard?
Posted by Susan | January 27, 2005 10:20 AM
I'll keep in mind your comment about the port. Unlikely it will happen, but I'll keep it in mind nonetheless. It may prove useful sometime. Thanks for noting it.
Regardless, the problem is fixed. I hope perhaps everyone else will find the solution the "easy way", but if not, I know that they'll have this as a potential resource too.
As to the article I referenced, it is most definitely SBSized. Perhaps you missed the... "Configure RPC over HTTP in Small Business Server 2003 Standard or Premium" section.
Posted by Chad Everett | January 27, 2005 2:52 PM
Also check out the reg key in case that Outlook over http didn't show up. Seriously if you don't have 4125 open on your router, you are missing out on Remote Web Workplace
Posted by Susan | January 28, 2005 12:12 AM
Hello:
I am struggling with the same, to make RPC work over HTTP. Please help me how to deal with the certificates, I also have self-issued certificates.
Thanks a lot,
nish
Posted by Nishrags | February 7, 2005 12:54 PM
You should read the knowledge base article above. Essentially, just go to the appropriate page in IE, and when prompted, install the certificate. You'll need to do this on each PC accessing the connection.
Posted by Chad Everett | February 7, 2005 2:05 PM
I have a new one! Looked at a SBS03 upgrade, no reg. key entry on the client side HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook
and the RPC key is missing?? It seems SBS4.5 was upgraded to SBS03 on a new server, all users/computers/email were moved over with the migration tools. I can connect on the network with https://servername/remote, but when I try and use the connectcomputer for my laptop I see an error, Domain controller not available?? It looks like Outlook03 was installed on the client side from the folder on SBS03 and not through connectcomputer so none of the laptops are able to use rpc over http? Any input would be great.
Posted by roc | February 8, 2005 3:24 PM
I tried everything for RPC over HTTP. I still get the error message "Microsoft Exchange server is unavailable".
However if I use, VPN and then outlook 2003 it works great.
Any suggestion?
Posted by Nishrags | April 10, 2005 1:12 PM
Thanks for the pointers. Here are a few notes from my experience...
After struggling with the Certificate import for a while on the client side with my self-issued certificate, I decided to re-create the certificate on the server. I would tell IE to install the certificate, but I would keep getting the certificate trust error message. When I started to re-create the certificate, I noticed that I had previously used a capital letter in the URL. When I recreated the certificate (using the SBS Internet Connection Wizard) in all lowercase, it installed fine on the client. I don't know if there was something else wrong with the previous certificate or if the URL not being in all lowercase mattered, but Outlook connects fine over HTTP now. Cool!
Posted by Ryan | April 20, 2005 12:14 PM
Do you have to have a certificate to use RPC over HTTP?
Posted by Rishi | April 25, 2005 11:35 PM
I have not been able to get it working without. I cannot say if that means it is required, however - there may be some other way to do it without a certificate.
Posted by Chad Everett | April 26, 2005 5:34 AM
I was having the same problems with our SBS2003 server RPC over HTPP implementation...could not connect , kept getting "Exchange server not available". Went thru Q833401 to no avail. Then decided to recreate the web server certificate, noticed that I had used "server.domain.local". It actually states in the wizard to use FQDN ie server.company.com...ie the EXTERNAL dns name of the server. I created the new self-issued certificate using the FQDN...bingo!!! it all works fine now! YAY!
Posted by Joe | August 1, 2005 2:50 AM
Microsoft have removed all the useful information from the linked KB article and now just link to Technet, the SBS relevant bit is here.
You can also see the old version of the KB article here.
Posted by Ian Tomkins | January 10, 2007 5:49 AM
I sure wish I could get this working. I have 2003 SBS SP2, Exchange SP2, Outlook 2003 sp whatever (latest). I have a GoDaddy certificate. I have lost the better part of three days and my client is getting frustrated - I took them from hosted exchange to their own small business server. That's it, a single SBS box with a router, static DSL, and a certificate on the Default Web Site. Help??!!
Posted by SteveT | August 9, 2007 2:28 PM
Check that - I just got it. Go here for the final answer to this problem. In particular, my problem was merely the RPCProxy registry key. The article above includes a link to an awesome tool that makes me feel stupid and inadequate.
Posted by SteveT | August 9, 2007 3:32 PM