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Unable to Access Administrative Domain Webmail
Problem reported by Pusparaj Raut - 4/29/2025 at 2:39 AM
Submitted

Hi,

We are currently using SmarterMail Enterprise Build 9238 with multiple customer domains hosted. Recently, we encountered an issue where we were unable to access the webmail interface for the administrative (primary) domain, while customer domain webmail interfaces continued to function correctly.

While reviewing the IIS bindings, we attempted to make changes but encountered the attached error (screenshot omitted here). To resolve the issue temporarily, we:

  1. Removed the existing SSL certificate

  2. Manually uploaded a new certificate

  3. Re-applied the binding

  4. Restarted the IIS service

After doing so, the administrative domain webmail became accessible again.

We normally use SmarterMail’s built-in Let's Encrypt integration for SSL certificate management. It seems like there may have been a conflict or renewal issue specific to the primary domain.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of issue? Are there any known bugs or configuration steps we should review to prevent this from recurring?

Any guidance would be appreciated.
Barry Russell Replied
4/30/2025 at 6:49 AM
We are currently dealing with a similar issue on Build 9245. Primary domains are showing as failed status under SSL Certificates. Checked ports 80 and 443 are accessible, geo blocking, content filtering, firewall rules, firewall logs, etc. and still cannot seem to get the Certificates to renew.
Zach Sylvester Replied
4/30/2025 at 7:20 AM
Employee Post

Hey Barry,

Just a heads up, for the Let's Encrypt issue, it’s worth checking if the server can directly access the domains it’s trying to generate certificates for. If those URLs aren’t reachable from the server (due to DNS, firewall, or proxy issues), the renewal will fail.

On the IIS binding error that Pusparaj Raut ran into, it looks like SmarterMail is handling the cert import, but this error can also pop up if the Centralized Certificate Store is enabled while trying to assign a dedicated certificate manually. That combo tends to cause conflicts in IIS.

If the problem sticks around or you run into anything else, I’d suggest opening a ticket with the support team so they can dig in further.

Kind regards,

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
Barry Russell Replied
4/30/2025 at 7:27 AM
The domain urls are accessible via browser ports 80 and 443 on server itself, from within the network, and from the Internet. I have opened a ticket with Tech support
Zach Sylvester Replied
4/30/2025 at 7:47 AM
Employee Post

Glad to hear you’ve opened a ticket. Our support team has extensive experience with SSL related issues and should be able to help you get this resolved quickly.

Kind regards,

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.
Pusparaj Raut Replied
5/5/2025 at 2:43 AM

We encountered the issue again with one of our customer's email services. After verifying the DNS records and IIS bindings, everything appeared to be configured correctly; however, we were still unable to access webmail.

To resolve the issue, we:

  • Manually removed the auto-installed SSL certificates from IIS.(Generated by Letsencrypt)

  • Imported the .pfx file from the  Certificate Folder Path.

  • Manually re-bound the certificate in IIS

After restarting the IIS service, the issue was resolved and webmail started functioning normally again.

please advise on why this happens and how we can prevent it in the future? 
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