Exchange OWA 2003

If the virtual directory for exchange OWA 2003 becomes defective, you probably will need to rebuild it.  First, delete the Exchange virtual directory and follow these steps.  If you have any Blackberries you will need to go to the website of each user and re-establish their domain.com address and resend the Service Book.

Method 3: Edit the Metabase.xml file

To resolve this issue, you must modify the Metabase.xml file. The modified Metabase.xml file causes the Exchange Server-related virtual directories to be re-created when the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service is restarted. To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you edit the metabase incorrectly, you can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall any product that uses the metabase. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems that result if you incorrectly edit the metabase can be solved. Edit the metabase at your own risk.

Note Always back up the metabase before you edit it.

1.	Configure IIS to enable real-time editing of the metabase. To do this, follow these steps: a. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. b. Right-click ServerName (local computer) , and then click Properties. Note Replace ServerName with the name of the computer that is running IIS. c. Click to select the Enable Direct Metabase Edit check box, and then click OK.
2.	Modify the Metabase.xml file. The metabase is a database that resides in memory on the computer that is running IIS. When the computer shuts down, all the metabase settings are written to a file that is named Metabase.bin. You can modify the Metabase.xml file to cause the Exchange Server-related virtual directories to be re-created in IIS when the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service restarts. To do this, follow these steps: a. Open the Metabase.xml by using a text editor such as Notepad. By default, the Metabase.xml file is located in the following folder: %windir%\System32\Inetsrv b. On the Edit menu, click Find. c. In the Find what box, type 61472, and then click Find Next to locate the following area in this file: <IIsConfigObject Location=”/LM/DS2MB/HighWaterMarks/{79F81D41-A652-4375-85F0-41A16037CC85}”> <Custom Name=”UnknownName_61472″ ID=”61472″ Value=”207778″ Type=”STRING” UserType=”IIS_MD_UT_SERVER” Attributes=”NO_ATTRIBUTES” /> d. In this area of the Metabase.xml file, replace the Value entry with 0. For example, modify this area of the Metabase.xml file so that it appears similar to the following: <IIsConfigObject Location=”/LM/DS2MB/HighWaterMarks/{79F81D41-A652-4375-85F0-41A16037CC85}” > <Custom Name=”UnknownName_61472″ ID=”61472″ Value=”0″ Type=”STRING” UserType=”IIS_MD_UT_SERVER” Attributes=”NO_ATTRIBUTES” /> e. Save your changes to the Metabase.xml file. Then, quit Notepad. Note You can also use the Metabase Editor tool (MetaEdit.exe) to modify this value in the metabase. For more information about how to obtain MetaEdit, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 232068 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232068/) How to download, install, and remove the IIS MetaEdit 2.2 utility
3.	To restart the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, follow these steps: a. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK. b. Right-click Microsoft Exchange System Attendant, and then click Restart. c. When you are prompted to restart the dependant Exchange Server services, click Yes. Note When you restart the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service is also restarted. In this scenario, your Exchange Server users lose connectivity to their Exchange Server mailboxes.
4.	Restore the default IIS setting to disable real-time editing of the metabase. To do this, follow these steps: a. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. b. Right-click ServerName (local computer) , and then click Properties. c. Click to clear the Enable Direct Metabase Edit check box, and then click OK. The virtual directories are re-created. To verify that the virtual directories are re-created, start IIS Manager, and then view the Default Web site folder. Important If the virtual directories are not re-created after 15 minutes, restart the computer. Use a Web browser to verify that you can connect to your Outlook Web Access server. If you are also running other mobility services, verify that you can connect to these services by using an appropriate client.

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