Entourage and Exchange Server 2007

We are slowly migrating everyone to Exchange Server 2007. I decided that I wanted to be the guinea pig for the Mac users, and Marty (our system administrator) moved my mailbox over to the new server. Getting Exchange Server 2007 to work with Entourage isn't too difficult, but there are a few things that you must do. It took Marty a week, a lot of searching and a few calls to get this working. Hopefully this will save some time for anyone with the same issue!

The first thing your system administrator must do is ensure that DAV and IMAP are enabled on the Exchange Server.

Once that is working and you try to configure Entourage manually (it won't auto detect) you will likely get the following error:

Verification Failed: "HTTP error. The resource is not found." (-18596 )

The secret here is that you must enter the Exchange Server details in a specific format. This format is:

https://exchange.companyname.com/exchange/ThisShouldBeEasier@microsoft.com

Note that you replace:

• exchange.companyname.com with the location of your Exchange 2007 Server; and
• ThisShouldBeEasier@microsoft.com with your actual email address.

Now that you have working email again you can once again write the MacBU and let them know that you want a real version of Outlook for the mac :P

Comments

[Andy Ruff]

Hey Ben,

You don't need IMAP to connect Entourage to Exchange. Also, a couple documents worth reading when configuring Entourage with Exchange in your environment.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech-synopses/304695-22.07-ExchangeAccount-Synopsis.html

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/resources.aspx?pid=resourcekits&rk=office2004

-Andy

[Ben Skelton]

Thanks for the info Andy!! If you need another beta tester for Entourage 2008 feel free to let me know ;)

[brian johnston]

Thanks Ben!! That changed worked just great with Exchange 2007

[Richard]

Hi Ben,

Very nice and interesting article you have here. We are dealing with the same problem, but we have activated an external certificate on our CAS server but the Entourage client doesn't seem to like this at all..We have changed the SCP internal/external URL (WebServicesVirtualDirectory EWS) to match the FQDN of our certificate. We are also using a split-dns to have this working. OL2K3 and OL2K7 are working all fine + with the outlook anywhere feature. Are you using the self generated certificate from E2K7 installation or an external one on your CAS server? Any hints are very appreciated! Keep up your good work! Kr Richard

[Ben Skelton]

Yikes! That is out of my league...

[Richard]

Hi Ben,

We found what was wrong with our set-up. For some reason there was manually inserted redirect for the default website in the IIS at the E2K7 server (holding the CAS server role) that pointing directly to the /OWA. It's alright to do so, but it shouldn't propogate the other subdirectories under the same site (for example exchange, exchweb etc). This and correctly entered details for the exchange server connection in Entourage 2004(https://exchange.companyname.com/exchange/ myname@mysmtpdomain.com) solved our problem!

/Richard

[Richard]

Hi Ben,

We found what was wrong with our set-up. For some reason there was manually inserted redirect for the default website in the IIS at the E2K7 server (holding the CAS server role) that pointing directly to the /OWA. It's alright to do so, but it shouldn't propogate the other subdirectories under the same site (for example exchange, exchweb etc). This and correctly entered details for the exchange server connection in Entourage 2004(https://exchange.companyname.com/exchange/ myname@mysmtpdomain.com) solved our problem!

/Richard

[Claus Bo]

I get a error message:

Verification Failed: "An unknown error (170) occurred."

- when trying to setup an account to our Exchange 2007 server. Any idea's?

/Claus

[Jeff]

Claus,

Had the same problem, the problem is with the Exchange 2007 install. There is an option to install legacy products, if this is not selected then only /owa will show on the Exchange console.

Since Entourage uses WebDav, IIS needs to see the /ExchWeb and /Exchange folders.

Using the Exchange shell program, your Exchange admin needs to create these folders and then you should be able to connect.

[jim]

I'm using Entourage with exchange 2007 and using your instructions above have been able retrieve my inbox from our exchange server but I can't send mail -- I get the following error:

"The mail account is configured incorrectly in Entourage. Review the mail account settings for typos and incorrect information (including your own email address). On the Tools menu, click Accounts. In Accounts, select the mail account and click Edit. The message has been moved to your Drafts folder."

I have IMAP4 enabled on my exchange server, any ideas on how to resolve this?

-jim

[Lorand R. Minyo]

Actually I have the same problem. I'm testing Entourage 2008 with Exchange 2007. The autoconfigure option obviously doesn't work, the manual configuration (no matter what options I put in) spits out the 107 error and when trying to verify the settings it says "Verification Failed: "Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password" (-17900 )".

I know for a fact that all the credentials are ok, since they are working perfectly in OWA.

It's been 3 days now reading forums and blogs, as well as Microsoft tutorials, but with no positive result.

Some say the autoconfigure feature never did work and probably never will, other say you need to redeploy with custom settings for Entourage.

Since the deployment is for a hosted environment, some say this won't work at all.

[Mike Willis]

Hey here is a heads up for all exchange 2007 admins with a stand alone 2007 server that was never part of a 2003 organization. By default the /Exchange virtual directory is not created. Instead /OWA replaces it. The /OWA will not work with Entourage 2008, it is looking for the legacy version of owa which is by default /Exchange. You must create a legacy virtual directory in IIS and enable WebDAV under "Web Service Extensions"

Cheat Sheet to create a legacy virtual directory in the Exchange Managment Shell.

This command will create a legacy Virtual Directory in IIS on the default Website

New-OwaVirtualDirectory -name exchange -OWAVersion Exchange2003or2000 -VirtualDirectoryType mailboxes

[Aron]

Thanks for this - the Management Console was the ticket.

[Michael Becker]

I spent a total of 15 hours trying to connect one of our clients mac and this post did it!

It turns out that since we have a brand new ex07 organization we needed to create the exchange 02/03 virtual directory.

Thanks again - I could find any of this stuff from the MS site.

Mike

[Phil]

Thank you all for this valuable information. Specifically Mike for posting the cheat sheet.

[Nick]

Hey Just wanted to say THANK YOU! It worked for me! The web is a beautiful place!

[BlackPixel]

Hi, thanks, work fine.
Entourage 2k8 is ok on my MacBook but what appen when I'm going in my organisation ? It no longer work, any one have a suggestion ?

[Gerry]

This works great if your Edge server is Exchange 2007 and your mailbox is on a Exchange 2003 server. But if your mailbox is on a Exchange 2007 server this configuration does not work. If someone has another idea that would be helpful I would definitely appreciate it.

Gerry

[David Maddocks]

Ben,

I spent 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft and 2.5 hours on the phone with my ISP -- neither could fix my problem after my ISP upgraded me to Exchange 2007 -- I use Entourage 2008. Your trick solved my problem instantly!

Thank you very much!

Dave

[John]

BEN......... I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR YOUR INPUT!!!!!! I REALLY THOUGHT I WAS LOOSING IT!

Those who read Ben's instructions are right on the money.... and i think i've tried everything else from EVERYONE'S blog....

Thanks Again

John

[digithead]

Bummer... went through ALL of this and still nothing works. I KNEW I should have used a BSD mail server...

[SGL3]

Exchange shell commands worked perfect for me. Followed all directions in the post including appending the e-mail address /user@domain.com and no problems.

Question though does the mail get cached on the Entourage client? Where do you control the settings as to where the mail is kept, synchronized etc.?

[Chuong]

Thank you. Still dont know how you able to find out that solution but it save my world.

[monique]

thanks this definitely fixed my problem!!!!

genius!!!!!!!!

[ali]

I am a newbie to Entourage.

We have an Exchange mixed mode environment (2003/2007 mailboxes). I have a dedicate CAS running win2k8.

I have tried every possible combination of settings in the New Account option on Entourage, however I can't seem to connect to a 2007 mailbox account. The progress bar just does not show. There are no error messages.

I am able to successfully access 2003 mailboxes ... is there any log which I can analyze to see what is going on??

Thanks