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As mentioned in my previous post on the subject of Autodiscover Service and Outlook Providers - I wanted to follow-up with the discussion of modifying the providers.

What is the impact when we change the Outlook provider configuration? In what scenarios the Outlook provider should be modified? Relatively few changes will need to be made in the Outlook Providers. Please also note that depending on the modification that was made, Autodiscover might stop working or prevent the client to connect to the Exchange server, so this should not be done lightly!

The cmdlet Set-OutlookProvider allows modifying related settings. As we can see in the table below, the parameters Server and CertPrincName only apply to Outlook EXPR provider - Outlook Anywhere clients. By default both values are set to $null.

Parameter	Optional	Description	Type
Identity	N	If RPC is used (Outlook Anywhere not selected in GUI), protocol is EXCH. If RPC/HTTP is selected, protocol is EXPR.	String
Server	Y	The value here specifies the name of the mail server to use for RPC/HTTP.	String
CertPrincName	Y	This value is only used for EXPR types. It specifies the SSL certificate principal name required when connecting externally from the Exchange topology and using SSL. For example, if SERVER were specified as "fourthcoffee.com" and CERTPRINCNAME were left blank the default value of CERTPRINCNAME would be "msstd:fourthcoffee.com".	String
TTL	Y	The value here specifies the time to live in hours that these settings are valid for. After that time has elapsed (from the time the settings were retrieved), the settings should be rediscovered via Autodiscover again. A value of 0 indicates that no rediscovery will be required. If no value is specified, the default will be a TTL of 1 hour.	Integer

We will consider a few scenarios and the impact if you the change Outlook provider configuration:

Scenario 1: Multiple AD sites where both CAS servers are Internet-Facing and Outlook Anywhere is enabled. Each Client Access Server has its own certificate installed. The User1 mailbox is located a Mailbox server on AD site 1, and User2 mailbox on a Mailbox server on AD site 2. Both Outlook clients are on the Internet, thus they will connect through Outlook Anywhere.

Note: Autodiscover is configured properly on the Internet as Autodiscover.fourthcoffee.com.

When the User1 connect to Autodiscover.fourthcoffee.com server, the Autodiscover service will identify the request comes from an Outlook client and then will return both InternalURLs and ExternalURLs.

In this scenario we will explain the importance of not changing Outlook providers. As the parameters Server and CertPrincName are $null. The Service Discovery will return to the client the best CAS for Outlook Anywhere, in this case mail1.fourthcoffee.com.

The same behavior will happen when the User2 connects to Autodiscover.fourthcoffee.com. The Service Discovery will return to the client the best CAS for Outlook Anywhere, in this case mail2.fourthcoffee.com. As the parameters Server and CertPrincName are set to $null, they will be populated with the same value as ExternalHostName.

Remember that the Outlook provider is a global setting in Active Directory. What would happen if you have modified the parameter Server to mail1.fourthcoffee.com?

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -Server mail1.fourthcoffee.com

This setting will force all Outlook Anywhere clients, User1 and User2 to connect to the same CAS server mail1.fourthcoffee.com no matter where the user mailbox is located, preventing the Service Discovery to provide the best CAS.

Another issue could result if you decided to change Outlook Anywhere ExternalHostName to Outlookanywhere.fourthcoffee.com. The setting on the EXPR Outlook provider set to mail1.fourthcoffee.com will prevent Outlook Anywhere to connect since the mail1.fourthcoffee.com is not longer available.

Scenario 2: Consider the same scenario as the above, however a wildcard certificate was deployed across the Client Access Servers - *.fourthcoffee.com. No change was made to the ExternalUrls and Outlook Anywhere ExternalHostName is set to mail1.fourthcoffee.com.

As the parameters Server and CertPrincName are $null. The Service Discovery will return to the client the best CAS for Outlook Anywhere, in this case mail1.fourthcoffee.com, and will configure the Certificate Principal Name to msstd:mail1.fourthcoffee.com. Given that the Certificate Principal Name setting does not match to the wild certificate installed on the CAS, it is required to modify the parameter CertPrincName.

Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -CertPrincName *.fouthcoffee.com

With this new setting the Service will always return to the Outlook client the CertPrincName set in the EXPR provider.

See: When Outlook Anywhere clients connect to Exchange 2007 and a wildcard certificated are deployed across Exchange Client Access servers.

Scenario 3: Once the Outlook 2007 client has successfully created a profile, it will update by default every hour according to the parameter TTL set. This configuration can be modified.

Set-OutlookProvider -Identity msExchAutoDiscoverConfig -TTL 2

See: Duration that the auto-discovery settings are valid for the Outlook Provider.

I hope you have found this useful!

- Vandy Rodrigues

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To allow Autodiscover to function completely there is an important component in Exchange 2007 Server named Providers. Providers are components that are specifically related to the type of client that is trying to connect and be configured. When the Client Access Server role is installed, by default three providers are created: EXCH, EXPR and WEB. We will here discuss each one. In the second part of this blog post, we will talk about when and if those should be modified.

The Autodiscover Service and Outlook Providers

The diagram bellow explains the role of the Outlook Provider in the Autodiscover process.

When creating or refreshing an Outlook 2007 profile a request is placed to the Autodiscover service; the service determines which provider needs to handle the request. The XML request contains the necessary information for this to happen, such as the SMTP address and which client (MAPI client or Outlook Anywhere) made the request so the Autodiscover service can easily identify the provider the request needs to be forwarded to.

How does the Autodiscover service know which Outlook client is making the request?

1. The client posts an HTTP(S) request to the Autodiscover service including a XML request.

2. The Autodiscover service parses and validates the request so it knows which provider the request is targeted for. The XML request contains a reference to a schema as the first part of the opening <Autodiscover> XML tag. As you the see in the example bellow the portion "outlook" in the path of the "xmlns=" indicates that a request was made from an Outlook (MAPI) client.

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/outlook/requestschema/2006a"

3. If an Outlook Provider cannot be found, the requesting client is notified and the Autodiscover retrieval fails.

4. Once the Autodiscover service has identified the correct provider it will pass the request to it.

By default three Outlook Providers are used to configure settings individually for Exchange RPC protocol or internal clients (EXCH), Outlook Anywhere (EXPR) and WEB.

• The EXCH setting references the Exchange RPC protocol that is used internally. This setting includes port settings and the internal URLs for the Exchange services that you have enabled.
• The EXPR setting references the Exchange HTTP protocol that is used by Outlook Anywhere. This setting includes the external URLs for the Exchange services that you have enabled, which are used by clients that access Exchange from the Internet.
• The WEB setting contains the best URL for Outlook Web Access for the user to use. This setting is not in use.

Note: The EXCH and EXPR settings are vital for the proper configuration of Outlook. If not configured correctly, initial connections and configurations for your Exchange Server 2007 mailbox and server services may not function as expected.

5. The provider relies on the Services Discovery service (set of XSO API calls) to retrieve the stored URL settings from Active Directory. Services Discovery also determines which setting is the best to return, using the e-mail name passed along with the request. Services Discovery will decide which entry to return based on proximity.

6. The provider then processes the request and uses Services Discovery to compile all information configured for the requesting user, returns that to the Autodiscover Service which then forwards the response to the requesting client.

a. If the request is made by an Outlook Exchange RPC client, the EXCH provider will return the InternalUrl configured on the best CAS server for the following services: Availability Service, OAB virtual directory and Unified Messaging virtual directory. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332063.aspx

b. If the request is made by an Outlook Anywhere Exchange HTTP client, the EXPR provider will return the External URL configured on the best CAS server for the same services: Availability Service, OAB virtual directory and Unified Messaging virtual directory and ExternalHostName for Outlook Anywhere.

Note: If the ExternalUrl is not set, the CAS will fail-back returning the InternalUrl.

Note: The Internal and External URL for EWS, OAB and UM can be configured through the following cmdlets: Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory, Set-OABVirtualDirectory and Set-UMVirtualDirectory respectively.

Outlook Providers are global settings in Active Directory

The Outlook Providers are global settings in the Active Directory forest, thus there is no need to create an Outlook Provider; however, depending of your environment you might have to tweak their configuration.

The Outlook providers settings are in Active Directory, in the following location:

DC=<domain>, CN=Configuration, CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=<Organization Name>, CN=Client Access, CN=Autodiscover, CN=OutlookCN=EXCH or CN=EXPR

In a few days, I'll cover when and if you should make modifications to those providers. Stay tuned!

- Vandy Rodrigues

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Please go to our Mailbox Server Role Storage Requirements Calculator updates tracking page to see what is in this new version!

A blog post explaining the calculator (updated for this new version) is here.

Comments welcome!

- Ross Smith IV

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