Alternate Access Mapping(AAM) and SharePoint 2013 SSL web applications
In an environment exposing the web applications to the Internet, there is a need to have certificates installed either on SharePoint servers or through a load balancer.
Once certificates are installed some URLs are not translated as required which causes misbehaviour for SharePoint web applications, like when failing to publish an InfoPath form.
To resolve that we need to have Alternate Access Mapping Configured.
What is Alternate Access Mapping?
Alternate access mappings direct users to the correct URLs during their interaction with SharePoint 2013. Alternate access mappings enable SharePoint 2013 to map web requests to the correct web applications and sites, and they enable SharePoint 2013 to serve the correct content back to the user.
Each web application can be associated with a collection of mappings between internal and public URLs.
The three components of AAM:
- The public URL is the URL that the clients outside in the world knows
- The internal URL is the URL that the SharePoint Server understands. Many internal URLs can be associated with a single public URL in multi-server farms.
- A Zone is a container for a public URL with a property like "Extranet".
Each web application supports five zones (default, intranet, extranet, i.nternet, and custom). When the web application receives a request for an internal URL in a particular zone, links on the pages returned to the user have the public URL for that zone
How to Configure Alternate Access Mapping for Web Applications with SSL?
1. Navigate to Central Administration > Configure alternate access mappings.
2. From the Alternate Access Mapping Collection, select the Web Application that you have for the certificate installed.
3. Click Edit Public URLs.
4. Remove any URL in this screen.
5. In the Default field, enter the FQDN of the Web Application. Be sure to use the HTTPS. Then, click Save.
6. Click Add Internal URLs.
7. In the URL, protocol, host and port field, enter the FQDN of the Web Application. Be sure to use the HTTP. Verify that the Zone is set to Default and click Save.
8.Make sure to Update the IIS bindings if needed.
Does the same thing apply for Host Named Site Collection?
In Host Named Site Collection this is handled another way as AAM doesn't work with HNSC. Instead we add zones and URL mappings by using this PowerShell command:
Set-SPSiteUrl (Get-SPSite 'http://teams.contoso.com') -Url 'http://teamsites.contoso.com' -Zone Intranet
Note:
Crawlers work with Default zone.
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