I upgraded another client's SBS 2003 machine to SP1 this past weekend. It went remarkably smoothly, but we forgot to check their smartphones' access to Exchange til today. No connection, we checked the /OMA virtual directory, and got this error:
"A System error has occurred while processing your request. Please try again. If the problem persists, contact your administrator."
Much "jiggling" (yknow, rerunning wizards, regenerating the web certificate, etc), and googling got me no answer. I did see this error in the Application Log, though:
An unknown error occurred while processing the current request:
Message: The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden.
Source: Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider
Stack trace:
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.OmaWebRequest.GetRequestStream()
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.ExchangeServices.GetSpecialFolders()
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.ExchangeDataProvider.ExchangeServices..ctor(UserInfo user)
Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Source: mscorlib
Stack trace:
at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.InternalInvoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean isBinderDefault)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)
at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes)
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.UserInterface.Global.Session_Start(Object sender, EventArgs e)
Message: Exception of type Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.DataProviderInterface.ProviderException was thrown.
EventMessage:
UserMessage: A System error has occurred while processing your request. Please try again. If the problem persists, contact your administrator.
Source: Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.UserInterface
Stack trace:
at Microsoft.Exchange.OMA.UserInterface.Global.Session_Start(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule.RaiseOnStart(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule.CompleteAcquireState()
at System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateModule.BeginAcquireState(Object source, EventArgs e, AsyncCallback cb, Object extraData)
at System.Web.AsyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication+IExecutionStep.Execute()
at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
What a mess. But I recognized that "(403) Forbidden" as a web server error (although not on the actual OMA directory). Combining that with info from similar OMA issues, I checked the /exchange-oma virtual directory's settings, and aha! it was denying access to all IP addresses except 127.0.0.1 and one we don't use. It was not making an exception for the primary local address. So I added that and all's now good.
So when you're having OMA problems, try the usual stuff (including checking the OMA virtual directory), then also check settings on the exchange-oma virtual directory.
Lesson learned.
Update 2008-11-07:
Ha! I was troubleshooting for a customer, and found my own post (top of the google to ya, 3 years later!) It wasn't the same issue, but it was similar enough to set me on
the right track.