The SSL certificate server name is incorrect. ID no: c103b404

May 6, 2008 by Paul Morgan-Roach 34 Comments

This error occurs when trying to view Public Folders in the Exchange System manager when he SSL certificate name differs between the FQDN and the local server name.  The Exchange System Manager will not allow you to view the public folders as it believes the folder name to be incorrect.

This can be resolved using a front-end, back-end scenario, but what if you are stuck with a single Exchange server (ie. SBS) in your environment?

On following a few blogs and sites, the solution seems to be to remove SSL requirement for that particular folder in the IIS Manager.  This didn’t work for me though – and I found a lot of people out there with unresoved issues on Experts Exchange etc.

The end solution was to use the ADSIEdit utility to manually stop the Exchange System Manager from using SSL.

The steps are as follows:

1) Install the ADSIEdit Utility (one of the Windows Server 2003 Support tools) from your SBS2003 CD (CD2) using suptools.msi

2) Run a Microsoft Management console (Start->Run->MMC)

3) Open the ADSIedit.msc (browse to the Support Tools folder)

4) Browse through to

Configuration > Services >  Microsoft Exchange > Domain Name > Administrative Groups >     First Administrative Group > Servers > Servername > Protocols > HTTP > 1 > Exadmin

5) Right click msExchSecureBindings, and click Properties

6) Highlight :443: and click Remove

7) Click OK

8) Restart the Exchange System Attendant and the IIS Admin service

Exchange system manager will now no longer try to use SSL when connecting to the service.

Filed under Active Directory, Exchange, Microsoft, SSL, Security Tagged with , , , ,

Enabling RPC over HTTPS on SBS2003

April 7, 2008 by Paul Morgan-Roach 2 Comments

Thanks go to Simon Butler for this (aka. Sembee on Experts-Exchange or http://www.amset.info).  His resources on this helped me iron out the problems and get this working beautifully!

I’d struggled getting RPC/HTTPS working for ages using a self -signed certificate, and while it’s still recommended using a purchased certificate, I needed to get a particular user working extremely quickly – within about 4 hours.  Waiting for appropriate DNS to propogate to get the cert approved wasn’t an option so the existing self signed cert I used for OWA was the only option…

NOTE:  THIS SOLUTION INVOLVES EDITING THE REGISTRY ON YOUR SBS SERVER – USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

First things first, the certificate needed to be installed in the Root Certification Authorities store on the client machine.  Note that adding the cert to the default store WILL NOT work.

Then create split DNS by adding the corresponding external DNS zone to your internal DNS server, and a host record for the SBS server.  Remember, if your external web site is hosted externally you need to ensure that there is an A record that points to the web servers IP address.

Next, a couple of Registry keys needed to be added (I would have never have sussed this if it wasn’t for the resources on Amset!). A reg key needs to be created on the SBS server as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters]
“NSPI Interface protocol sequences”=hex(7):6e,00,63,00,61,00,63,00,6e,00,5f,00,\ 68,00,74,00,74,00,70,00,3a,00,36,00,30,00,30,00,34,00,00,00,00,00

Copy and paste the above into notepad and save with a .reg extension, then run.  This will create a key that looks like:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters Type REG_MULTI_SZ Name: NSPI Interface protocol sequences Value: ncacn_http:6004

Next on the Exchange server (this will be the same machine if using SBS) a different registry key needs to be created:

NOTE: THIS NEEDS TO BE ON A SINGLE LINE AND EDITED TO SHOW SERVER SETTINGS FOR YOUR SERVER

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc\RpcProxy]
“ValidPorts”=”server:100-5000; server:6001-6002; server:6004;server.domain.local:6001-6002; server.domain.local:6004; mail.external.com:6001-6002; mail.external.com:6004;”

Save as a .reg file and run.

Then simply configure Outlook to use RPC over HTTPS and specify the FQDN of the server.  You can test the connection by holding CTRL and right-clicking the Outlook icon, then looking at the Connection Status in the taskbar.  If it is trying to resolve the external FQDN of the server then Outlook is configured correctly. Then just ensure that port 443 on your firewall is forwarded to the SBS server….

….sorted :)

Filed under Active Directory, Exchange, Microsoft, SSL, Samba, Security, Windows Tagged with , , , ,