OWAS

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my How-To portion on how to install/configure/deploy Office Web Apps Server.

What exactly is Office Web Apps and how vital is it for Exchange 2013?

Office Web Apps is basically a web integrated version of office. It allows users of Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 etc. to view/edit office documents through the web browser without the necessity to install Microsoft Office on the client's computer. Pretty cool huh?

*UPDATE* - OWAS 2013 is no longer a free download as of November 2014.

This Office Web App Server (OWAS) in 2013 is a nice upgrade from previous versions. In the 2010 line of products (Exchange, sharepoint etc.) you needed one OWAS per product. Not the most efficient way of doing things.

In 2013, you can use the same OWAS to connect to all the products necessary and have those tools available in a much more resource-efficient manner.

Now the other part question... how vital is it? From an Exchange point of view not so much unless you're using Outlook Web Access. However for SharePoint it is a must. can you imagine going through a website with links to documents that the site doesn't recognize and forces you to work with your local office? what if you don't have office or any other plug-in required? Yeah! for SharePoint, OWAS is kind of vital in my opinion. Lync 2013? well, using Lync Web App is an extremely cool feature. so taking advantage of it definitely a plus. These are just a few examples. there are many!

I have done this documentation on a Server 2012 R2 environment. If you have other versions, there might be some variances that might not be identical to your needs, but at the very least it will provide a solid overview and help you understand what's happening.

Let's get started. Here is what you need in your environment to apply the steps I've provided:

• Domain Controller
• Certificate Authority
• Exchange 2013
• Server dedicated for the Office Web Apps (OWAS)

Let's set up the OWAS server:

1. Log into the OWAS dedicated machine and Install the necessary features:
2. Open Powershell and run the following command:
   Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices,NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-Core(On Windows 2012 R2 ensure you have .Net Framework 4.5.2 as well)
3. restart the server
4. Run setup to install OWAS software (download link is an ISO. Extract and run setup)http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35489
5. Install the update pack (wacserver2013-kb2810007-fullfile-x64-glb.exe)http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2810007
6. Install the language pack (wacserverlanguagepack.exe)
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35490
7. Reboot the machine to allow the Office Web Apps cmdlets to take effect.
8. Log into your Domain Controller or whichever server has the DNS management tool:
   (In this documentation the OWAS hostname is Core. we'll use a different name to show some customization. Let's choose OWAS as a hostname).
9.  In your DNS server create an A record of OWAS. or CName mapping to your OWAS

Lets create certificate from IIS

1. Log onto IIS on the OWAS server and Open IIS
2. On the Left pane click on the IIS server
3. In the middle pane click "Server Certificates"
4. Create a certificate request.
5. Call the .REQ file OWAS.req and save it in the c:\temp folder (C:\Temp\OWAS.req)
6. Ensure that in the name of the certificate you put owas.%domain%.com and that the friendly name is OWAS Cert
7. In CMD prompt or Powershell, Type the following command
   "certreq -attrib "CertificateTemplate:webserver" –submit c:\temp\owas.req"
   (you might need to transfer the file to your CA server and create it there)
8. Press OK when the pop up appears
9. Save the Certificate to c:\temp (c:\temp\owas.cer)

OK, certificate is generated. Now let's go back to IIS and complete the certificate request

1. If not still there, open the IIS management tool
2. In the left pane Click on the Server name.
3. in the middle pane double-click on "Server Certificate"
4. In the right pane click on "Complete certificate request".
5. When the pop up appears, in the first text box navigate to the certificate location and choose the certificate (C:\Temp\OWAS.cer)
6. Enter a friendly name in the middle text box
7. Ensure that "Personal" is selected in the 3rd box. Press "OK".
8. You will notice the certificate is successfully added to IIS

Now that we have a certificate created, OWAS installed, let's configure OWAS. OWAS works with Farms. keeping that in mind, we're creating a new farm and assigning URLs, Certificates and enabling Editing (this feature requires a proper serial number to work)

1. On the OWAS server, open Powershell and type: New-OfficeWebAppFarm -InternalURL https://owas.domain.com -ExternalURL https://owas.domain.com -CertificateName "OWAS Cert" -EditingEnabled
   
2. Once completed successfully, open a browser and type the following URL: https://%hostname%/hosting/discovery/. You will see as an output an XML file. which means everything worked OK.

See? 2 commands and it's up and running. By the way, since we didn't play with the AllowHTTP option, http traffic is disabled by default. if you type the URL in step 2 with HTTP instead of HTTPS, it won't work.

We have created a proper certificate, we have created a new OWAS farm, assigned the OWAS URLs and tested to ensure it's loading properly! Congratulations, you've set up OWAS.

Now that you have it running, you can integrate it with Various Microsoft products such as Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Lync 2013.

If you've encountered any issues or have any constructive feedback, it will be a privilege to hear from you!

Thank you,

Daniel Moscovici