I was helping someone decommission their Exchange 2003 server last week. They had not used this server in quite some time. But the time had come for the role to be removed.
During the decommissioning process I ran into a number of strange errors that I had never seen before. They all revolved around Public Folders. The error occurred when I tried to access the Public Folder hierarchy in Exchange System Manager.
Here was the first error I received when I just tried to expand the root level of the hierarchy.
The received certificate has expired. ID no: 80090328 Exchange System Manager
The fix seemed quite obvious. I opened IIS Manager, went to the Properties of the Default Website, selected the Directory Security tab and clicked the View Certificate button. It was quickly apparent that the SSL certificate had expired some time ago.
Knowing that the server was going to be decommissioned I decided to remove this certificate. To do this:
- Under the Directory Security tab select the Server Certificate button.
- This will bring up the Web Server Certificate Wizard. Click Next.
- Check Remove the Current Certificate and click Next.
- Click Next
- Click Finish
- Click Ok
I reopened ESM, attempted to expand my Public Folder Hierarchy and received a completely new error.
The handle specified is invalid ID no: 80090301 Exchange System Manager
Unlike before, this error was certainly more cryptic. I did a little research and my fix turned out to be an oversight on my part. I had left a checkbox enabled to Require Secure Channel (SSL). A difficult task when you have no certificate installed.
To fix I completed the following steps:
- Under the Directory Security tab, in the Secure Communications section, select the Edit button.
- Uncheck the box Require Secure Channel (SSL)
- Click Ok twice.
- You will likely need to repeat this process for the Exchange Virtual Directories under the Default Website as well (for example, Exadmin, ExchWeb).
At this point, one would have to assume that this was the last error. Eagerly, I jumped back into ESM, attempted to expand the Public Folder Hierarchy and bam! New error.
The operation failed due to an invalid format in the HTTP request. Verify that the host header is correct for the virtual server. ID no: c1030af0 Exchange System Manager
While still in the Properties for the Default Website, I checked the Host Header Value. I found that this field had been populated. I deleted everything under this column and this immediately fixed my problem. These are the steps I took.
- Under the Website tab, click the Advanced button.
- Under the IP Address column, you will have an entry named Default. Verify whether or not this entry has anything listed in the Host Header Value.
- If it does, double click Default.
- Remove everything from the Host Header Value text box.
- Click Ok on all open dialog boxes.
With the number of changes we have made to the IIS configuration, I would also recommend running IISRESET from the command prompt. This will restart all IIS services.
From here, restart Exchange System Manager and see if you can now expand all your folders in your Public Folder Hierarchy. Let me know whether this works for you or not by leaving a comment.
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