Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP3, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP1
Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-06

This topic explains how to edit the Web.config file to configure the error reporting settings for Outlook Web Access on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 computer that has the Client Access server role installed.

Error Reporting for Outlook Web Access

By default, Outlook Web Access displays a simple message to the user when an error occurs. You can configure Outlook Web Access to display a complete error message and to let the user send a copy of the error through e-mail. You can use the default error reporting address, which goes directly to a monitored address at Microsoft. Or, you can configure an address, such as the mailbox of your local Exchange administrator.

You must enable error reporting in Outlook Web Access before you enable reports to be sent. The keys are ShowDebugInformation and EnableEmailReports.

When ShowDebugInformation is set to true, users will see a detailed error report instead of a simple error message.

When EnableEmailReports is set to true, Outlook Web Access will provide a link on the error message that the user can click to send the error report. You can let the message be sent to the default monitored Microsoft e-mail address. Or, you can configure it to be sent to any Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address. To configure the SMTP address that error reports are sent to, you must add and configure the ErrorReportAddress key.

In addition to the error reports that are controlled by the ShowDebugInformation and EnableEmailReports keys, Outlook Web Access can send Dr. Watson reports to Microsoft when an error occurs. By default, a Dr. Watson report is sent to Microsoft whenever a server error occurs. You can configure Outlook Web Access to also send a Dr. Watson report when a client error occurs. The keys you use to do this are SendWatsonReport and SendClientWatsonReport.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated membership in the local Administrators group.

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To configure Outlook Web Access to display the full text of an error message to end users, display a link to send a report, or configure an SMTP address to send the report to, find the Outlook Web Access Web.config file and configure the ShowDebugInformation, EnableEmailReports, and ErrorReportAddress keys.

To configure Outlook Web Access error reporting by using Notepad

  1. Find the Outlook Web Access Web.config file on the Client Access server. The default location is <drive>\Program Files\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\ClientAccess\Owa.

  2. Make a backup copy of the file.

  3. Open the original file by using an editor such as Notepad. Do not use Internet Information Services (IIS) to edit the Web.config file.

  4. Find <appSettings>. Find the ShowDebugInformation key and either set its value to true to display detailed error information or false to display a simple error message.

    If the ShowDebugInformation key does not exist, create it by entering the following string between <appSettings> and </appSettings> and setting its value to true or false.

    <add key="ShowDebugInformation" value="true" />

  5. If you have set the ShowDebugInformation key to true, you can configure Outlook Web Access to include a link to send an error report. To show the link, find the EnableEmailReports key, and then set its value to true to send reports or false if you do not want reports to be sent.

    If the EnableEmailReports key does not exist, create it by entering the following string between <appSettings> and </appSettings> and setting its value to true or false.

    <add key="EnableEmailReports" value="true" />

    Note:
    By default, when you have set the ShowDebugInformation key to true, error reports will be sent to a monitored mailbox at Microsoft. You can also configure the ErrorReportAddress key to send error reports to a local mailbox.

  6. Find the ErrorReportAddress key and set its value to the SMTP address that you want error reports sent to.

    If the ErrorReportAddress key does not exist, you can create it by entering the following string between <appSettings> and </appSettings> and specifying an SMTP address to send error reports to.

    <add key="ErrorReportAddress" value=" sample@contoso.com " />

    Note:
    Replace sample@contoso.com with the SMTP address that you want error reports sent to.

  7. Save, and then close the file.

By default, a Dr. Watson error report is sent to Microsoft whenever an Exchange server error occurs. You can configure Outlook Web Access so that client Dr. Watson error reports are also sent. The keys that you use to control Dr. Watson reports are SendWatsonReport and SendClientWatsonReport.

To configure Outlook Web Access Dr. Watson error reports by using Notepad

  1. To configure Outlook Web Access Dr. Watson error reports, find the Outlook Web Access Web.config file on the Client Access server. The default location is <drive>\Program Files\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\ClientAccess\Owa.

  2. Make a backup copy of the file.

  3. Open the original file by using an editor such as Notepad. Do not use IIS to edit the Web.config file.

  4. Find <appSettings>. To configure Outlook Web Access to send server Dr. Watson error reports, find the key SendWatsonReports and set its value to true. Set its value to false if you do not want server Dr. Watson error reports to be sent.

    If the SendWatsonReports key does not exist, create it by entering the following string between <appSettings> and </appSettings> and setting its value to true or false.

    <add key="SendWatsonReports" value="true" />

    Note:
    By default, SendWatsonReport is set to true. If the key does not exist, a server Dr. Watson error report will be sent.

  5. To configure Outlook Web Access to send client Dr. Watson error reports, find the SendClientWatsonReport key and set its value to true. Set its value to false if you do not want client Dr. Watson error reports to be sent.

    If the SendClientWatsonReport key does not exist, create it by entering the following string between <appSettings> and </appSettings> and setting its value to true or false.

    <add key="SendClientWatsonReport" value="true" />

    Note:
    By default, SendClientWatsonReport is set to false. If the key does not exist, no client Dr. Watson reports will be sent.

  6. Save, and then close the file.

Caution:
Before you change the Web.config file, make a copy of the file, and store it in a safe location.