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Google is bringing up nothing on this subject for me.

We had an administrator accidentally delete the "Default Web Site" rather than the virtual directories following these instructions http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883380. Now everything in ESM is grayed out when you right click the virtual server:

I recreated the "Default Web Site" and then tried the KB article method 1 again, but it didn't recreate the virtual directories in ISS and the virtual server is still grayed out. I've tried rebooting, I even tried reinstalling service pack 2 with no success. Why will Exchange not recreate the virtual directories? I assume it had some linking (maybe a registry setting) to the old "Default Web Site"?

Edit: I just tried method 3 in that KB article and no success either. Still just an empty "Default Web Site":

Edit 2: Solved (see comments).

Ryan Mortier
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  • I resolved this issue by right clicking the server name in IIS Manager, selecting All Tasks > Backup/Restore and then restoring the Initial backup done when the server was installed. I then restarted the Exchange System Attendant service and the virtual directories were recreated. If anyone knows how to manually fix this in the case we didn't have a backup, I'll still accept your answer. – Ryan Mortier Mar 12 '12 at 18:47

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I'm betting the issue was that "Default Web Site" was not using the identifier of 1. Even when you manually create a site and name it "Default Web Site" you'll notice in your Web Sites list that the identifier is random and Exchange is only looking for 1. Here's an example of a process (I've not tested but have used something similar in years past) that "gets you back to 1" on the default site... which your IIS restore did for you.

http://www.dotnetscraps.com/dotnetscraps/post/Did-you-know-How-to-recreate-e2809cDefault-Web-Sitee2809d-in-IIS-7-75.aspx

We all learn after making this mistake once, that the Default Web Site is special and unique and can't easily be recreated, so we leave it be :). Now your Administrator is one of us.

Bret Fisher
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