Update a Web application URL and IIS bindings (Windows SharePoint Services)

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-15

In this article:

• About updating a Web application URL and IIS bindings

• Unextending and re-extending a Web application

• Additional steps for updating a Web application URL and IIS bindings

After you have extended a Web application into a zone with a set of IIS bindings and alternate access mapping URLs, you might decide that you want to use a different URL to reach the Web application. For example, you might have originally created a Web application to use HTTP and later decide to use SSL instead. Or you might create a Web application to use the host header, www.contoso1.com, and then decide to use the host header, www.contoso2.com, instead. This article provides guidance for changing the URL and IIS bindings of a Web application.

About updating a Web application URL and IIS bindings

Unlike typical IIS Web applications, you cannot simply use IIS Manager or other IIS metabase tools to modify the bindings of IIS Web applications that have been extended with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

If you modify the IIS bindings of a Web application by adding a host header binding or an SSL port, or by changing a port number, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not aware of these changes and does not update the Web application's alternate access mapping URLs. If you update the Web application's alternate access mappings to change a host header, switch to an SSL URL, or change a port number, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 will not automatically update your IIS bindings to match.

To update the URL or IIS bindings of a Web application, you must unextend and re-extend the Web application, and reconfigure alternate access mapping URLs or IIS Web site bindings.

We do not recommend reusing the same IIS Web site for your HTTP and SSL hosting. Instead, extend a dedicated HTTP and a dedicated SSL Web site, each assigned to its own alternate access mapping zone and URLs.

For more information about unextending a Web application, see Unextend a Web application (Windows SharePoint Services).

For more information about alternate access mappings, see Plan alternate access mappings (Windows SharePoint Services).

Alternate access mapping collections correspond to the following authentication zones:

• Default

• Intranet

• Internet

• Custom

• Extranet

Unextending and re-extending a Web application

If you need to change your IIS bindings, unextend the Web application from the zone that the Web application has been extended into (without deleting the Web application), and then re-extend the Web application into the same zone. Consider trying these migration procedures in a test environment before deploying them in a production environment.

Unextend the Web application from the zone by using the Remove SharePoint from IIS Web site link on the Central Administration Application Management page, as described in the following procedure:

Unextend a Web application

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Application Management page, in the SharePoint Web Application Management section, click Remove SharePoint from IIS Web site.

2. On the Web Application menu, click Change Web Application.

3. On the Select Web Application page, click the Web application you want to unextend.

4. In the Select IIS Web site and zone to remove list, click the IIS Web site and zone you want to remove. Because a Web application can be extended in up to five zones, make sure you select the correct IIS Web site and zone.

5. In the Delete IIS Web sites section, click Yes if the IIS Web site is only hosting SharePoint Products and Technologies content. If the IIS Web site is hosting other content, you might not want to delete the Web site. In that case, click No.

6. Click OK. This action does not delete the Web application, nor does it delete the content databases of the Web application.

After you have unextended the Web application, you can re-extend the Web application to the same zone, using your updated bindings.

Re-extend a Web application

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Application Management page, in the SharePoint Web Application Management section, click Create or extend Web application.

2. On the Create or Extend Web Application page, in the Adding a SharePoint Web Application section, click Extend an existing Web application.

3. On the Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site page, on the Web Application menu, click Change Web Application.

4. On the Select Web Application page, click the Web application you want to extend.

5. In the IIS Web Site section, if you have already created an IIS Web site with the appropriate bindings for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to use, click the Use an existing IIS Web site option and select the IIS Web site from the list. Otherwise, click the Create a new IIS Web site option.

6. In the Port, Host Header, and Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) fields, type the IIS bindings you want to use.

7. In the Load Balanced URL section, in the URL field, type the URL that end users will use to locate this Web application. If you are using a load balancer or reverse proxy, this is the URL of the load balancer or reverse proxy.

8. In the Load Balanced URL section, in the Zone list, click the zone that you previously selected.

9. Click OK.

Additional steps for updating a Web application URL and IIS bindings

To complete the process of updating a Web application URL or IIS bindings, you need to perform the additional steps listed in this section, after you have re-extended the web application into the same zone.

Update the alternate access mapping URLs for the zone

If you are using a load balancer or a reverse proxy, make sure that your internal URLs are updated in alternate access mappings to reflect the new IIS bindings. In addition, you need to update your load balancer rules, or your reverse proxy rules, to align with the new IIS bindings.

Apply an SSL certificate

If the new IIS bindings use SSL, apply an SSL certificate to the new IIS Web site assigned to your zone. For more information about configuring SSL, see Configuring Secure Sockets Layer (IIS 6.0) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110300&clcid=0x409).

Apply an authentication method

When you re-extend your Web application, the default Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 authentication method for the zone is Integrated Windows authentication. If you want to use an authentication method other than Integrated Windows, you need to explicitly apply the authentication method you want to use. For more information about authentication methods, see Plan authentication methods (Windows SharePoint Services).

For more information about configuring authentication for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, see Configure authentication (Windows SharePoint Services).

Redeploy solutions

When you remove Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 from an IIS Web site, if you are removing the last (or only) Web site that is associated with the Web application, any Web application solutions you might have deployed will also be removed. If you need to use these solutions, you must redeploy them. For more information about managing solutions, see Manage solutions (Windows SharePoint Services).

Update alerts

If there were any alerts for the Web application in the zone, using the original URL, the alerts will have to be updated to use the new URL. For more information about updating alerts, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936760: The URLs of alerts in e-mail notifications that you receive are incorrect after the URL of a Web application for a site in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or in SharePoint Server 2007 changes (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110487&clcid=0x409).

For more information about configuring alert settings, see Configure alert settings for a Web application.

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Planning and architecture for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, part 2

See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Windows SharePoint Services.