The external FQDN of the EV server should be used when setting up the 'alias'

I don't think you can rename it.  Some people have tried altering the entry in the ComputerEntry Table in the directory database, I think the column is ComputerAlternateName.  Great care should be taken if you go that route, as it's not really something I'd recommend - but it has worked for some people if I recall correctly.

In addition the whole Outlook Anywhere area is something that we are working on, to make it better with EV and Exchange 2007.  In the future it is possibly going to be "similiar" to the Exchange 2003 world where there is a proxy-type setup that can be used, and then the name spaces can be completely different, and will work.  It's not confirmed yet when this will be done though unfortunately.

Dare I say it.. you can use a hosts file in the meantime ..  yeucky though that is, many people have used it.

Hi Rob

Thanks for your comments, I don't see how the host file can work because it will be pointing to an external ip which will probably cause the connection to fail when the user returns to the LAN.

What will the affect be if I re-run the getting started wizard? will it allow me to give it a External FQDN?

I'm very disappointed that the product isn't fully functional.

TIA
Steve

A hosts file does and has worked for many situations, but you're right some companies don't allow you to hit their own servers by an external IP address.. I guess that really depends on the configuration of your firewall.

Not sure about re-running GSW.

In the documentation it does say that you should use "direct" if using RPC/HTTP (aka Outlook Anywhere) :

The installing guide points you to the Setting Up Exchange Server archiving guide, which on page 119 says you have to use "direct"...

My opinion is that it's not very clear, or very good.. and doesn't explain what will and won't work, or how to configure it in a "real world" environment..  this are the reasons that we are changing this area.

Hope that helps,

Hi Rob

I have tried the host file it didn't work, outside of the network OWA reports 

Network Error (dns_unresolved_hostname)

Your requested host "archive.******.local" could not be resolved by DNS.

For assistance, contact your network support team.

even though ping  resolved correctly

and within outlook anywhere I get directory unavailable 404 error

I also tried the ComputerAlternateName but this caused the EV services to Fail.

:-(

Steve

Hmm, I'm not sure I follow you exactly, but let me try to give an example, because I'm not sure we're on the same page....

My EV server is called :

evserver.internal.local

For Outlook Anywhere my  EV client will try to contact evserver.internal.local which when I'm outside the firewall isn't going to work.  So I have to :-

a) Add a hosts entry to the client machine :

10.14.55.123  evserver.internal.local

Where 10.14.55.123 is the IP address of my firewall.

b) Add a firewall rule which will take requests for things like http://evserver.internal.local/enterprisevault/clienttest.gif, and redirect them to my EV server.

Make sense?

Hi Rob

Thanks for sticking around for me :-) yes it makes sense I have used host files for similar reasons before and the above is the method that I used in this trial, but all i get is the DNS error above.

The other problem is configuring the firewall to redirect requests from inside the LAN I not blessed with an ISA server we have a cisco pix to configure here and the only rule I've added is external ip allow to nat internal EV ip for http

Regards
Steve

If you like, you could PM me the name you're using, and I'll try it remotely (to see if I can get DNS to work etc).  What I can't figure out from the post you made is whether the issue is with the domain name, or the server name?  It might be that you need to add an entry to your external DNS records for the name of your EV server.

Hi All

Quick update, don't take any notice of quote "The external FQDN of the EV server should be used when setting up the 'alias' for the Enterprise Vault Server.  This way when the default web app URL is formed, it will be resolvable from outside the organization (provided it is published appropriately at the firewall)."from this tech note http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/316191.htm because it is not possible to use the external FQDN of the EV server when setting up the 'Alias' for Enterprise vault server (new Install). I wasted my time starting over to do this even more annoyed now.

any ideas when this will be fixed I have it all working apart from Offline Cache using https over Rpc outlook anywhere, and no we are not prepared to use host files in any case this doesn't work when the user comes inside the network. It seems crazy to me that the software can be released with this flaw, offline cache wont update when your outside of the network??? isn't that the most likely place your going to be working offline.

When I say I have it working... it does until I apply a SSL cert to the EV IIS sites. then the opening up an email from OWA doesn't work tells me the the item is not currently available, I'm beginning to wish I had never purchased this product.

Regards
Steve

@Steve
There are a number of things that you can do to get this working.  Some of them depend on your version of EV, and some depend on your version of Exchange.  You are also interlinking two related usage scenarios, OWA and RPC/HTTP.

For the OWA SSL issue.

When you put the SSL certificate on the EV IIS site, did you change the site settings to HTTPS ?

For the RPC / HTTP issue

I assume from what you've written that you are using Exchange 2007?  If that is correct, the logic in the client is that it will try your default web app URL first of all, if that fails (which it most likely will in the outside world, because the DNS namespaces are going to be different) then it will try the proxy URL only if you have configured the policy to "Use proxy" (rather than direct).  Unfortunately though Vault Cache doesn't share the same logic as the majority of the rest of the client, and only "goes direct".

Until the issue is properly addressed in a future release the current workaround is to use a hosts file, which can work.  You say it won't work from inside the network, why is that?  Do you not allow client machines to connect to internal servers using an external address?

The best thing to do is to raise a support case, for this very issue (RPC / HTTP), and ensure it is a high severity and priority, this will help drive the future-fix to be released sooner, rather than later.  I've already walked through the solution which our development team have proposed, and it will work, but unfortunately at the moment there is no timescales on when the solution will be delivered (but the more customers that "demand" this, the sooner it will be - if that makes sense).

For the OWA issue, if you can answer the above we might be address that here.

Hope that helps,

HI Rob

Thanks for the response, I will raise the off line cache issue with support, regarding the OWA SSL issue can you explain what you mean by "did you change the site settings to SSL"

or with you can point me towards a tech note on the subject that would be great

Regards
Steve