Can't open pending-archival items in OWA.

Alan As the "normal" archived items work, I don't think it's a configuration issue, but rather a bug. I'd open a case @ SYMC for this one. To get rid of it now as a workaround (and general suggestion), I'd advise you to backup EV right after your archiving window. This way, your users should not see the "pending" items very often. Cheers

That is not a bug as I do not get the behavior that you describe. There is a difference is the openinbg of the item as when the item is in pending we call openpending.aspx but when the item is an archived item open.aspx is called. So essentially what you need to do is switch on exchangdiagnostics in the evbackend.ini file on your BE server by giving it a value of 2 and then pasting the log or create a case with use and send it in for analysis. The log is created in the C:\Program Files\Enterprise Vault\OWA\Logging directoy on your BE server.

Thanks guys.

We allow users to archive items immediately to free up mailbox space, so we can't really wait until the daily backup...

I've installed EV8.0 on another system and I have the same problem. What's common in the two scenarios is that they are upgrades from EV7.0 or 7.5 to EV8.0. (BTW in both cases, we had to reboot the EV servers several times after the upgrade to be able to list mailboxes in the enable mailbox/disable mailbox diallog.)

I've switched on the logging and noticed one curious thing. The EV OWA virtual directory is given as "enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange" (see below). So when I open the pending archival item, it looks for http://exchange01/enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange/user/Inbox/mymessage.EML?cmd=open which returns a 404 not found error. If I type that manually in IE, I get the same error; if I type http://exchange01/enterprisevaultexchange/user/Inbox/mymessage.EML?cmd=open it prompts me for a password and displays the Inbox and an empty message frame. The EV virtual directory is called "enterprisevaultexchange", not "enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange" so is that normal?

5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: Mailbox: jdoe
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: EV Owa virtual directory: enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::GetEvOwaHost] Returning: 10.0.0.123
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::GetEvOwaUrl] Returning: http://10.0.0.123/enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange/jdoe/Inbox/mymessage.EML
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::GetEvOwaOleUrl] Returning: http://10.0.0.123/enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange/jdoe/Inbox/mymessage.EML
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OpenPending::OnPreRender] Method started
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OpenPending::OnPreRender] Opening mailbox item
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::GetEvOwaHost] Returning: 10.0.0.123
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::GetEvOwaUrl] Returning: http://10.0.0.123/enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange/jdoe/Inbox/mymessage.EML
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::ActionOnShortcut] Sending request to url: http://10.0.0.123/enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange/jdoe/Inbox/mymessage.EML?cmd=open
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::ActionOnShortcut] Set accept language header: en-gb,EV
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::ActionOnShortcut] Set Cookie header: sessionid=a1046f07-5707-0800-0000-fd4f9e3c6d51:0x809; ASP.NET_SessionId=trnyqh551kyep0ufzdfry545
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::ActionOnShortcut] Set User-Agent header: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OWAPage::ActionOnShortcut] IWA authentication, using DefaultCredentials
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: [OpenPending::OnPreRender] Exception caught: System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.CheckFinalStatus()
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
at KVS.OWA.OWAPage.ActionOnShortcut(String sAction)
at KVS.OWA.OpenPending.OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
5/26/2009 8:40:43 AM: ************ Request logging finished ************

I will open a call but just want to see if it's anything obvious first.

Thanks,

- Alan.

This is not normal ;)
Could you try to uninstall the EV OWA Extensions, and install them again?

Cheers
Michel

Done that. Still the same.

 Can you run backend2003setup.wsf /remove - then uninstall the extensions.

Then check in ESM under HTTP virtual directories, that the EntepriseVault* VD's are gone - if they aren't can you delete them manually.

They should then replicate to IIS - once it has - run the installation again.

Thanks to the advice, we finally found the cause of the problem.

We use 20+ working languages internally so for technical support reasons, we need the interface to be in one language everywhere. To do that, we followed the MS article at the link below to force the language in OWA to always be English:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310599

That kb tells you how to create an ISAPI filter to hardcode OWA to a specific language. However, using the filter causes EV to set the EV Owa virtual directory to "enterprisevaultenterprisevaultexchange" instead of "enterprisevaultexchange" when EV-pending items are requested. That makes the hyperlink invalid. It also seems to slow down EV in OWA.

Think we'll open a call now with Symantec to ask for a patch... there are workarounds but we need this to keep working.

Thanks again to everyone for the great advice, much appreciated.

Cheers,

 Alan.