Troubleshooting Enterprise Vault with Outlook Web Access 2003

[Maverik]

Troubleshooting Outlook Web Access can be tricky at the best of times.  Add in Enterprise Vault and it becomes a little more complex.  Below are troubleshooting steps that will help you diagnose issues and if necessary supply support with to expediate the time to resolution of your issue.

Firstly you need to undertand the environment that Outlook Web Access exists in. This information would also be useful to support if you were to log a case.

• AD Forest/Domain Structure. Truest Relationships and trust types, such as transitive or non-transitive. • Exchange Topology/Cluster Configuration. Version of Exchange being used and the Service Pack Level/Hotfix Version. Location of these servers in terms of networking and routing. • Firewalls in use. ISA Server versions and service pack level. Load Balanced Front-End Exchange Servers to include load balance hardware/software in use. Document the IP address of these including the virtual address. • IIS - Virtual Servers configuration. Virtual Directories configured. Are Host Headers in use. Wildcards in use. 
•DNS - External/Internal Aliases.
• Version of Enterprise Vault in use including service pack level.

Troubleshooting Installation Issues
1: If you receive an "OWA Merge File Error" during installation, check the "EVInstall.log" and perhaps use "FCIV.exe" to check Checksums for files EV is trying to replace. FCIV.exe is a Microsoft utility Checksum Checker that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841290 .Enterprise Vault uses this utility as part of e installation of the EV Extensions. Within the installation media you will note there are controls folders such as 6.5.7638.1 which will contain a text file called "OWA_HFversion number_checksum_file.txt". This text file is used during the installation to check that the checksums we are copying to the Controls-Original C ied by EV are what we expect to see. If not you will receive the "OWA Merge File Error".
2. Run Process Monitor during the installation to perhaps identify a permissions issue. During installation EV unpacks items to the temporary file location for the user. Prcoess Monitor is available for download from Microsoft.
3: Ensure that Vault Service Account (VSA) is a member of the Local Administrators Group. 4: Check the EVInstall.log. this should exist in the temporary files location of the user you are installing Enterprise Vault extensions as. You can access this by typing %Temp% in StartRun. I believe however this is only available in version 7 and above of Enterprise Vault.

Troubleshooting running the Backend2003Setup.wsf. or FrontEnd2003Setup.wsf script on the Exchange Server.
1: Check in IIS that all the necessary virtual directories have been installed. These are listed below. -EnterpriseVaultExchange
-EVOWA
-EnterpriseVaultProxy
-EnterpriseVaultPublic (if applicable)

2: Check the Controls folder has been updated.  Navigate (by default) to C:Program FilesExchsrvrExchWeb(look for highest controls folder number for example 6.5.7638.1). The version number depends on what Microsoft patch level you have installed. Open the folder for example 6.5.7638.1 and you should see a folder named Originals Copied by Enterrpise Vault.  If these do not exist then the Enterprise Vault buttons will not appear in Outlook Web Access.

3: Check the Backend2003setup.wsf.log or FrontEnd2003setup.wsf.log did the setup finish with errors or warnings. Review the errors and warnings.  Locate the entries for system mailbox in the script.  Were these found, if not then the buttons again will not appear in Outlook Web Access.  Ususually running the script with the switch cscript backend2003setup.wsf /formregdomain: resolves the issue. Check the Proxy entries are correct shown in the log and taken from your EvServers.txt file as part of the install.  If these are incorrectly entered or appear as all question marks, then change the EVServers.txt file to Unicode rather than ANSI format and run the script again.  I would recommend the EVSrvers.txt contains both the FQDN and NETBIOS name of relevant servers.  If this is set incorrectly you will have issues recalling data that has been archived.

4: Use utilities such as "Fiddler" to help diagnose further issues with buttons appearing. Fiddler is like a trace or sniffer for HTTP activity and should be run from the PC or server where you are accessing OWA from. Download Fiddler from http://www.fiddlertool.com/Fiddler/version.asp . In Fig 1.0 below you can see the EVSettings.aspx being called correctly.

5: If there is still an issue set the Diagnostic logging and reproduce the issue as per below. • Diagnostics Logs - generated by going to program filesenterprise vaultowaEVBackend.ini and EVFrontend.ini which is applicable. Setting are exchangediagnostics, proxydiagnostics to 2. EVFrontend.ini can only log proxydiagnostics. Logfiles output to: program filesenterprise vaultowalogging.
Gather the IIS logs as well that correspond to the times of the Diagnostic logs. • IIS Logs from Exchange Servers. Are any errors recorded. Test on your environment and compare.

6: Check the Event Logs for any errors, such as with .NET? Check .NET is enabled as well as ASP.NET in IIS Manager.

Unable to Recall Archived Items or View Archive Explorer in EV

1. Ensure on Back-End Exchange servers the Custom Error Handling is set to "Custom error handling: 404 error mapped to proxy.asp" and on Front-End Exchange Servers set to "Custom error handling: 404 error mapped to feproxy.asp".
2. Ensure "EVANON" Virtual Directory exists on the EV Server.
3. Check ExchangeServers.txt has correct IP address of the Back-End Exchange Server. Include all Back-End Exchange Servers IP address in this file. 4. Check "EVANON" and "Properties" select "Directory Security" tab and check all the Back-End Exchange Servers have been granted access. 5. Delete and re-install the "EVANON" virtual directory as per the "Installation and Configuration Guide".
6. Check IIS logs to see if any errors are logged and the request has reached the server. 7. Check that Virtual Directory has been created as "EnterpriseVaultProxy" on Front-End Exchange server. If not check the EVFrontend.ini file for virtual directory name entered.

Always perform your test one test at a time.  So log directly on the Backend Exchange Server, does it work. If yes move onto FrontEnd Exchange Servers does it work? If yes perhaps move to External location and access.  If only does not work externally then likely to be an issue with your firewall configuration. Check the logs on this device. Even if you are unable to solve the isue with the above, you will have saved yourself hours in terms of time to resolution with support. 

Good Luck!!!!

[Rob_Wilcox1]

For your next article, you should add some examples :)  Good article though, and I like the mention of testing going directly to the Backend server, and seeing if the issue goes away.