Configure Internal and External URL in Exchange

After installing Exchange Server and configuring internal DNS, what’s next? The next step is to configure Internal and External URL in Exchange Server. Configuring the URLs can be done with Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or with PowerShell. Well, almost all parts can be configured with EAC, because one part (AutoDiscover) needs to be configured with PowerShell. In this article, you will learn how to configure URLs in Exchange Server.

Information Internal and External URL in Exchange

Important: Read the article Exchange namespace design and planning before you go further.

We have an internal domain named exoip.local and external domain exoip.com. In our example, we will configure the namespace mail.exoip.com. This way, we can buy a third-party certificate for Exchange Server. We will configure the internal and external URLs with the same name. Almost all the URLs will have mail.exoip.com in the configuration. That’s because the AutoDiscover URL will be different.

Service	Internal and External URL
AutoDiscover	https://autodiscover.exoip.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
Exchange Control Panel	https://mail.exoip.com/ecp
Exchange Web Services	https://mail.exoip.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
Exchange ActiveSync	https://mail.exoip.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
Offline Address Book	https://mail.exoip.com/OAB
Outlook Web App	https://mail.exoip.com/owa
MAPI over HTTP	https://mail.exoip.com/mapi
Outlook Anywhere	mail.exoip.com

Do you like to know how the current Exchange URLs are configured? Read the article Find Exchange Server URLs with PowerShell.

An architecture view of the Exchange namespace is shown below in the topology.

Configure internal and External URL in Exchange with PowerShell

Sign in to Exchange Server. Run Exchange Management Shell as administrator. Set the virtual directory for every component and verify it after. If you like to set the URLs on all the Exchange Servers, remove -Server EX01-2016 from each command.

In our example, we like to configure URLs on this particular Exchange Server, this is why we will use the -Server parameter.

Configure URL for Autodiscover.

[PS] C:\>Get-ClientAccessServer -Identity EX01-2016 | Set-ClientAccessServer –AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://autodiscover.exoip.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

[PS] C:\>Get-ClientAccessService -Identity EX01-2016 | Format-List Identity, AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri

Identity                       : EX01-2016
AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri : https://autodiscover.exoip.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

Configure URL for Exchange Control Panel (ECP).

[PS] C:\>Get-EcpVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-EcpVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/ecp -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/ecp

[PS] C:\>Get-EcpVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/ecp
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/ecp

Configure URL for Exchange Web Services (EWS).

[PS] C:\>Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

[PS] C:\>Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

Configure URL for MAPI.

[PS] C:\>Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-MapiVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/mapi -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/mapi

[PS] C:\>Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/mapi
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/mapi

Configure URL for ActiveSync.

[PS] C:\>Get-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

[PS] C:\>Get-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl


InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

Configure URL for Offline Address Book (OAB).

[PS] C:\>Get-OabVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-OabVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/OAB -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/OAB

[PS] C:\>Get-OabVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/OAB
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/OAB

Configure URL for Outlook Web Access (OWA).

[PS] C:\>Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/owa -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/owa
WARNING: You've changed the InternalURL or ExternalURL for the OWA virtual directory. Please make the same change for the ECP virtual directory in the same website.

[PS] C:\>Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/owa
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/owa

Configure URL for PowerShell.

[PS] C:\>Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Set-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/powershell -InternalUrl https://mail.exoip.com/powershell

[PS] C:\>Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List InternalUrl, ExternalUrl

InternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/powershell
ExternalUrl : https://mail.exoip.com/powershell

Configure URL for Outlook Anywhere.

[PS] C:\>Get-OutlookAnywhere -Server EX01-2016 | Set-OutlookAnywhere -ExternalHostname mail.exoip.com -InternalHostname mail.exoip.com -ExternalClientsRequireSsl $true -InternalClientsRequireSsl $true -DefaultAuthenticationMethod NTLM

[PS] C:\>Get-OutlookAnywhere -Server EX01-2016 | Format-List ExternalHostname, InternalHostname

ExternalHostname : mail.exoip.com
InternalHostname : mail.exoip.com

Configuring Internal and External URL in Exchange Server completed successfully.

Configure Exchange Server URLs with PowerShell script

A faster way to set all the internal and external URLs is with the Set-ExchangeURLs.ps1 PowerShell script. Save the script on the Exchange Server C:\scripts folder. If you don’t have a scripts folder, create one.

Ensure that the file is unblocked to prevent any errors when running the script. Read more in the article Not digitally signed error when running PowerShell script.

Another option is to copy and paste the below code into Notepad. Give it the name Set-ExchangeURLs.ps1 and place it in the C:\scripts folder.

Change line 1, 2, 3.

$subdomain = "mail" #enter subdomain
$domain = "exoip.com" #enter domain
$servername = "EX01-2016" #enter server name

Get-ClientAccessServer -Identity $servername | Set-ClientAccessServer -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri "https://autodiscover.$domain/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml"
Get-EcpVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-EcpVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/ecp" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/ecp"
Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/EWS/Exchange.asmx" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/EWS/Exchange.asmx"
Get-MapiVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-MapiVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/mapi" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/mapi"
Get-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync"
Get-OabVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-OabVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/OAB" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/OAB"
Get-OwaVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/owa" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/owa"
Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -Server $servername | Set-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -ExternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/powershell" -InternalUrl "https://$subdomain.$domain/powershell"
Get-OutlookAnywhere -Server $servername | Set-OutlookAnywhere -ExternalHostname "$subdomain.$domain" -InternalHostname "$subdomain.$domain" -ExternalClientsRequireSsl $true -InternalClientsRequireSsl $true -DefaultAuthenticationMethod NTLM

Run Exchange Management Shell as administrator. Next, change the path to the scripts folder and run the PowerShell script to configure the internal and external Exchange URLs.

PS C:\> cd c:\scripts
PS C:\scripts> .\Set-ExchangeURLs.ps1

That’s it!

Conclusion

You learned how to configure Internal and External URL in Exchange Server. Go through the services in the list and set the URL for each service. A faster way is to run the Set-ExchangeURLs.ps1 PowerShell script. Always verify that the URL is set correctly.

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