Autodiscover

Autodiscover information is stored in a so called SCP or Service Connection Point. You can view this SCP using Active Directory Sites and Services after you have enabled the “View Services Node”
When installing the Client Access Server (Autodiscover is part of this Server Role) the SCP is automatically created in Active Directory and configured with the default values. If you have multiple CAS Servers there will be multiple SCP’s as well.

Get-AutodiscoverVirtualDirectory |FL
Get-AutodiscoverVirtualDirectory | Select name, internalURL, externalURL
Get-ClientAccessServer | fl name, autodiscoversitescope       # to find out the present scopes
Set-ClientAccessServer –identity “Paris CAS Servername”–AutodiscoverSiteScope “Site1, Site2, Site3”

Exchange Server 2010 the properties related to these settings are configured during setup of the Client Access Server when entering the “this is an external facing Client Access Server” option. When you do not select this option, or in Exchange Server 2007 you have to configure these properties manually using the Exchange Management Shell:

Changing these properties doesn’t have the desired effect. For changing the internalURL settings you have to modify the Client Access Server properties. Enter the following command in an Exchange Management Shell:

Get-ClientAccessServer –Identity X2007SRV | Set-ClientAccessServer –AutodiscoverServiceInternalUrihttps://autodiscover.inframan.nl/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

Set-OWAVirtualDirectory –Identity 2010CASHUB02\OWA (default web site) -ExternalURL https://webmail.exchange14.nl/OWA

Set-OABVirtualDirectory –Identity 2010CASHUB02\OAB (default web site) -ExternalURL https://webmail.exchange14.nl/OAB

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory –Identity 2010CASUB02\EWS (default web site) -ExternalURL https://webmail.exchange14.nl/ews/exchange.asmx

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory –Identity 2010CASHUB02\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (default web site) -ExternalURL https://webmail.exchange14.nl/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

This setting is only valid for Exchange Server 2010:

Set-ECPVirtualDirectory –Identity 2010CASHUB02\ECP (default web site) -ExternalURL https://webmail.exchange14.nl/ECP

The last step is to configure the external DNS. Both the webmail hostname as well as the Autodiscover hostname need to point to the external facing Client Access Server.
When you start up Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 you can automatically configure your profile, just by entering your e-mail address and password. When Outlook is configured it can take some time before Outlook is synchronized, but after some time you should be all set. If all goes well you should be able to set your out-of-office settings and check other mailboxes free/busy information.

Commands:

• Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity CASServer -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://webmail.shudnow.localS/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml
• Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “CASServer\EWS (Default Web Site)” -InternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.local/EWS/Exchange.asmx -ExternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.net/EWS/Exchange.asmx -BasicAuthentication:$true
• Set-OABVirtualDirectory -Identity “CASServer\OAB (Default Web Site)” -InternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.local/OAB -ExternalURL webmail.shudnow.net/OAB -RequireSSL:$true
• Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server CASServer -ExternalHostname “webmail.shudnow.net” -ClientAuthenticationMethod “Basic” -SSLOffloading:$False
• Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity “CASServer\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)” -ExternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.net/Microsoft-Server-Activesync
• Set-UMVirtualDirectory -Identity “CASServer\UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)” -InternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.local/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx -ExternalURL https://webmail.shudnow.net/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx -BasicAuthentication:$true

CAS Array

And what role does the CAS Array play in the Autodiscover story? The CAS Array is implemented when you have multiple Client Access Servers in a load balanced scenario. Outlook clients connect to a Client Access Server instead of a Mailbox Server for retrieving Mailbox information. This is achieved using the RPC protocol and not using the HTTPS protocol. Think about Outlook 2003 which doesn’t use HTTPS at all. The CAS Array is also used as a ‘backlink’ from the Mailbox Databases to the Client Access Servers. Mailbox Databases have a RPCClientAccessServer property which links a Mailbox Database to a CAS Server. This is also based on the RPC protocol.
The first step is to create a NLB cluster on your Client Access Server and give the cluster a name, for example nlb.labs.local. If you are using Client Access Servers running on Hyper-V (or VMWare) you have to be aware of the MAC address issue. Hyper-V has a range of MAC addresses being used by Virtual Machine. When you create an NLB cluster a random MAC address for the NLB address is generated, and this MAC address is not recognized by the Hyper-V Servers. More information on how to configure this can be found in Microsoft knowledge base article 953828.
Now you can add the CAS Array to the Exchange configuration, and the only option is to use the Exchange Management Shell. Enter the following command:

New-ClientAccessArray -FQDN webmail.inframan.nl -Name CAS_Arrary

The CAS Array will be added to the Exchange configuration, and it Fully Qualified Domain Name is “webmail.inframan.nl”.
Your Outlook clients can now use “webmail.inframan.nl” as the Exchange Server using RPC.
Newly created Mailbox Databases will use the CAS Array as the RPC Proxy, but existing Mailbox Database will use the individual Client Access Servers as the RPC Proxy. To change the –RPCClientAccessServer property on all Mailbox Database in one time, open the Exchange Management

Shell and enter the following command:
Get-MailboxDatabase | Set-MailboxDatabase –RPCClientAccessServer “webmail.inframan.nl”