It is generally best practice to use fully qualified domain names when creating web applications in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint server 2007.
I am a bit excused in our environment since I was not hired when the servers and web applications were installed.
Prior to going Live with a SharePoint solution for our global company, the URLs would need to change from local server names to Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN). This is however not as much trouble as it seems.
1: Change Alternate Access Mappings in Central Administration
Go to Central Administration -> Operations -> Global Configuration -> Alternate access mappings
Click Edit Public URLs.
Click Alternate Access Mapping Collection drop down list in the top right corner and choose a web application.
There is 1 entry for each web application and editing them all could be a good idea, but generally changing the url to central admin is not needed.
It is generally considered bad practice to give access to Central Administration over the Internet, but I still change the Url to it. I just don’t open up the port in the firewall. I just like to have uniform addresses.
Enter the FQDN instead of the servername.
You have several possibilities on how to go about this and what you choose generally comes down to how you want users to access the site. Our site is set up so that all users access it using our FQDN. You can’t enter it using hostname and ports. This is done so that when using google analytics you only need to setup 1 site.
If you want to access the website using both servername and FQDN:
Enter the external url under Internet and leave the servername in the default field.
If you want to access the website using only FQDN:
- Edit the default field to reflect the FQDN.
2: Change bindings in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
First we will recap on what the choices are when you create a web application.
In order for IIS and SharePoint to differentiate the web applications either hostname or portnumber must be unique for each web application. Offcourse both can be unique.
This means you can only host one web application that uses port 80 unless you use hostnames.
Later on if you want to create another website without hostname you will need to use another port number or use a hostname.
Normally everyone uses hostnames for normal websites and port 80, but portnumbers for central admin, mysites and SSP.
When you originally created the web application, then the bindings in IIS depends on how you created the website.
Hostname Portnumber
With port number only Empty 80
With hostname and port code-journey.com 80
Generally all websites should be hosted on port 80. It would be odd to have to write google.com:8080 to access google.
Hosting them all on port 80 means you need to use hostnames.
If you want to only access the web application using the FQDN then edit the bindings, and make sure the FQDN is entered under hostname. Also make sure there is the only item in the Bindings list.
If you want to access the web application using both servername and FQDN then just make sure only the port is entered in the Bindings or alternatively that there is a binding for both the servername and the FQDN.
Don’t panic when you can’t log in anymore using the old or new address. Read on.
3: Edit Local Loopback Settings
You have probably noticed by now that you are prompted for a login no matter what you type in as credentials now. That’s by design as you now log in to a local IIS site that has another adress than the servername. To fix it read this post
If you mess up the address to central admin and can’t access it, even after this fix, take a look at the binding, and then you can change the URL for it. Read this post.
4: IISRESET
Do an IISRESET now and make sure that you can access all the sites you changes url for.
If you can’t access some of them, check the bindings, and then check the Alternate Access Mappings.
5: Change SSP settings
Go to Central Administration -> SharedServices1 (or whatever you called it) ->
User Profiles and My Sites -> My Site settings
Change the urls for Preferred Search Center and Personal Site Services to use the FQDN.
If you have set up any mysite trusted locations go change those too.
If you are using BDC at all, then go to Excel Services Trusted File Locations and edit each line.
Update:
I should probably have mentioned that the domain you put in as the new address should be one your server can resolve.
If you are doing this on a developer machine then changes are it doesn’t know the domain. Add it to either the DNS service you might be running, or add the domain to your local hosts file in Windows.
Default path is: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (the file has no extention)
Add this to it:
127.0.0.1 your-non-existing-domain-name
If you have UAC running, then you might need to open notepad up as administrator and then browse to the file.
You should now be good to go with your new SharePoint Url.
Related posts:
- How to change Central Administration website URL – even after messing up AAM
- Clone SharePoint (MOSS / WSS) stand-alone developer virtual machine (Rename SharePoint Server)
- Change how long a listitem is considered a new item – (SetPropery – DaysToShowNewIndicator)
- Unable to edit / change existing Alert
- Quick intro to creating custom SharePoint (MOSS, WSS) site themes
I did follow your instructions but it did not work for me.
I did change the AAM setting in central admin and also changed the binding in iis
but it did not work for me
That’s a bit odd since that’s all SharePoint needs really. Oh and a valid domain.
Make sure you didn’t just make a simple mistake as so many before:
If it is a developer environment, then chances are you need to add this domain to either your DNS service or your local hosts file.
If you use DNS on the server, I will guess you know how to do it already, since you set it up, but here’s how to add it to your local hosts file (usually at: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc).
Add this to it:
127.0.0.1 your-non-existing-domain-name
If you have UAC running, then you might need to open notepad up as administrator and then browse to the file.