VIEW ONLY in OWA. Cannot reply, cannot open attachments, cannot delete messages.Outlook Web Access on Windows Server 2003 Standard, Exchange Server 2003 Standard
While playing with SSL encryption, realized the issue was with the Front-End Exchange server and not the Back End. Checked exchweb folders on both BE and FE and found that BE had a folder 7651.9 that FE did not. Microsoft technet article: “Front-End and Back-End Server Topology Guide for Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server > Considerations When Deploying a Front-End and Back-End Topology > Service Packs: Upgrading Front-End and Back-End Servers” held the key, as it advises that the FE server should be upgraded before the BE server to ensure OWA does not break. The FE is what the user accesses for OWA and the FE contains all the Controls, but the Templates come from the BE for performance reasons. If the BE’s templates do not have matching controls on the FE then it will produce weird results as we saw here with missing graphics and broken links. The solution was to copy the 7651.9 folder from the BE to the FE. Tested correctly. SSL is setup and tested correctly as well. Follow-up includes checking Service Packs, patches, security updates etc and making sure everything is current.
NOTE: Apply updates to the FE before the BE.
