Alternative URL

Question

I have an internal farm (no external access) with multiple web apps:

• MySite  :8080
• Portal   :80
• BI         :81
• PHI      :82

My goal is to setup the urls for each web app/port so that:

• mysite.spsbx.test.com <loads> spsbx.test.com:8080
• bi.spsbx.test.com <loads> spsbx.test.com:81
• phi.spsbx.test.com <loads> spsbx.test.com:82

At this time, mysites can be accessed via these urls:

• http://spsbx.test.com:8080
• http://mysite.spsbx.test.com:8080 (via extended web app) - not sure if I need

However, I cannot access mysites via: http://mysite.spsbx.test.com as desired.

local hosts file includes:

• <wfe ip adress> mysite.spsbx.test.fyiblue.com

AAM's for the Mysite web app:

• spsbx:8080
• spsbx.test.com:8080
• mysite.spsbx.test.com

IIS bindings have not been changed

What am I missing?

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- Rick

Answer 1

As a matter of architecture, if these web applications are to be accessed primarily by the hostnames spsbx.test.com (portal), mysite.spsbx.test.com, bi.spsbx.test.com, and phi.spsbx.test.com, then I would suggest creating the web applications with these URLs.

As the farm is configured now, Alternative Access Mappings (AAM) should let you achieve your goal.  See the video How Do I: Configure an Alternate Access Mapping in SharePoint 2010? for creating AAMs.

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Jason Warren

Infrastructure Specialist

Habanero Consulting Group

habaneroconsulting.com/blog

Answer 2

with the AAMs in place, you still need to have DNS updated or have hosts file entries for each of those addresses. Default for windows is to check with DNS or Hosts when it is attempting to reach those names. The browser has no ideas that the sites are on the same server you are on. Also, if you want them to be accessable without having to specifiy the port number, you will need to make AAM's that do not include a custom port. Otherwise you need to create host headers for your sites which is usually done during the web app creation or during extension of the web app. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

James is right about the DNS names. Also, you'll likely need to configure the BackConnectionHostNames registry key to allow IIS to respond to requests for these hostnames. See KB 896861 (method 1)

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Jason Warren

Infrastructure Specialist

Habanero Consulting Group

habaneroconsulting.com/blog

Answer 4

"As a matter of architecture, if these web applications are to be accessed primarily by the hostnames spsbx.test.com (portal), mysite.spsbx.test.com, bi.spsbx.test.com, and phi.spsbx.test.com, then I would suggest creating the web applications with these URLs." - 

When you create a new web app, with a port other than 80, the web app url includes that port in the url. If I remove the port from the url when creating the web app, then it gets created on :80, which is already in use. Therefore, the new web app I created has the url of: bi.spsbx.test.com:81 (which does resolve, as I have added bi.spsbx.test.com to the hosts file. That does not resolve my issue with accessing the the web app without including ':81'...

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- Rick

Answer 5

I created a new Web app called BI on port 81.

I updated hosts file and verified AAMs (note no port number)(see below). I am still having the same issue...

BI Web App AAMs

• Internal URL                                        Zone                        Public URL for Zone 
  
• http://bi.spsbx.test.com                       Default                    http://bi.spsbx.test.com 

Hosts file entry:

• 10.130.144.70                   bi.spsbx.test.com

http://bi.spsbx.test.com:81 - works

http://spsbx.test.com:81 - works

http://bi.spsbx.test.com - does NOT work

Should I extend the new web app?

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- Rick

Answer 6

I have resolved this by creating the web apps on the standard port (:80) instead of non-standard ports, as well as adding host headers. 

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- Rick