You may get this message when you open up Exchange Management Console (EMC) for Exchange 2010.

"Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client received an HTTP server error status (500), but the remote service did not Include any other information about the cause of the failure. It was running command 'Discover-ExchangeServer -UseWIA $true ..."

And you may also not be able to connect to your Exchange server from Exchange Management Shell together with the following error message:

"VERBOSE: Connecting to servername.domainname.local New-PSSession : [servername.domainname.local ] Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client received an HTTP server error status (500), but the remote service did not include any other information about the cause of the failure."

(the same shows up 3 times)

1. Reboot the server, usually fixes this error.

2. Make sure your authentication settings on your virtual directory for PowerShell is correct.

>Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, <Servername>, Sites, Default Web Site, PowerShell and in the right panel, scroll down to the Authentication module

Make sure that Anonymous access is disabled and Windows Authentication is enabled.

3.

a) Make sure the current logged in user has remote powershell enabled. Should return “True” if enabled.

(Get-User <username>).RemotePowershellEnabled

b) Enable remote powershell for a user with the below cmd in “Exchange Management Shell”

Set-User “User Name” -RemotePowerShellEnabled $true

I read most of the above on the following site, but I still couldn’t access my EMC, EMS or OWA.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/02/04/453946.aspx

My solution which I seem to be alone with wasn’t covered anywhere on the web but I solved it eventually.

4.

a) If you still can’t access EMC or EMS then go ahead below with caution. (Write down your custom settings for the “PowerShell” and “OWA” Virtual Directory in IIS)

b) Start Windows PowerShell as administrator

c) Load snapin for ex2k10:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010

d) Display a full list (fl)

Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory |fl

e) Delete your failing PowerShell virtual directory, one of these two commands should work:

Get-PowerShellVirtualDirectory | Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
Remove-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -identity "powershell-vdir "

f) Restart IIS:

iisreset

g) Create a new IIS PowerShell virtual directory

New-PowerShellVirtualDirectory
Name: PowerShell

h) Restart IIS once more:

iisreset

j) Disable “Require SSL” Setting on the virtual directory.

Set-PowerShellVirtualDirectory -identity "powershell-vdir" -RequireSSL:$false

You may also go ahead and set SSL settings manually on the virtual directory “PowerShell” in IIS 7.

>Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, <Servername>, Sites, Default Web Site, PowerShell and in the right panel, scroll down to SSL Settings.

Untick Require SSL and set to Ignore. Apply.

If you get this error when visiting OWA together with a Forms Based authentication:

"The Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service on server localhost can't be contacted via RPC. Error 0x5."

5.

a) Then remove your OWA virtual directory and re-create it with default settings:

Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory

b) Restart IIS:

iisreset

c) Create a new OWA virtual directory:

New-OwaVirtualDirectory

e) Restart IIS once more:

iisreset

Now go ahead and see if OWA works. It all worked fine for me.