Publishing a Site (Externally) in SharePoint Server 2007

[royalmail]

OK, I have no formal training with SharePoint whatsoever and have just cobbled a server together with trial and error.

I have a basic site ready that I want to publish and make available to the outside world. It works fine internally. The server is sat on our DMZ.

For internal access, I can just use:

http://172.*.*.*:48894/sites/******/default.aspx

Now, for access from the outside I have the firewall open, but only port 80. I'm guessing this is my first mistake? Do I need to open port 48894 too? Or ONLY port 48894? Or am I totally on the wrong track here?

Also, for the NAT, do I need anything special? At the moment I don't have DNS set up as I just wanted to test with the global IP address.

Also, theoretically, if I am connecting from the outside, should I just use the exact same URL format as above, only replace the DMZ IP address with the global IP address?

Any help here would be appreciated. I don't really know what I am doing here and really don't have the time or motiviation to do more trial and error to get this sorted.

 

[cmv131]

See these articles. They talk about alternate address mappings and what you need to do to get it accessible from different URLs

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ar...w-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-1.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ar...ut-alternate-access-mappings-part-2-of-3.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ar...ut-alternate-access-mappings-part-3-of-3.aspx

 

[royalmail]

Thanks.

This almost makes enough sense for me to try it, but I'm so unfamiliar with the terminology / concepts here that I would appreciate clarification.

1) Port (internal port number)

In my case, this is 48894 and I'm stuck with it, right? That is the port number that got assigned to the site.

2) Host Header (Internal Hostname)

Can this be anything? I don't have a URL type internal hostname assigned to the site. If I wanted to set this, where do I do it?

3) Path

Presumably this has to stay as it is for the system to determine which site will be the target.

4) URL (Public URL)

As this is just for testing purposes right now, before DNS is changed, presumably I can just use the public IP here for now?

 

[cmv131]

Port -- Your internal port number is stuck, but that doesn't mean you can't use DNS to get around it. We have a site that is

http://servername:8000

that we used DNS and hostheaders to translate into

http://sharepoint/.

Host Header -- It really can be whatever you want. You need to add the URL you want to IIS on the server - Open IIS manager, expand websites Right click - Properties on the virtual directory you want. Website tab, click Advanced. Add the URL you want to port 80 from there. This will allow you to have your website answer to that port and not interfer with the default website that might also be on 80. Then add the entry into DNS as an alias.

Path -- You are correct

Public URL -- You would need to put the Public IP into AAM (I think), and use the port you have been using to test it out. SharePoint really only recognizes entries that are in its Address Mapping list in Central Admin. Add it in and give it a shot. If it doesn't work, you might have to add the DNS alias. I have never tried with just IP, as we can push DNS changes through pretty easily

 

[royalmail]

Thanks for your help.

A little later than planned, but I'm now having another crack at this.

You said, 'Add the URL you want to port 80 from there. This will allow you to have your website answer to that port and not interfer with the default website that might also be on 80. Then add the entry into DNS as an alias.'

At the moment the TCP port is 48894. Are you saying that I can change this to 80 without any adverse effect?

Also, the host header value below that is blank. Do you mean I can add any URL of choice into here? If so, what does the format need to be. Finally, once done, does that mean that provided I have DNS configured that incoming http requests to that URL will automatically be directed to that web site?

Thanks again.

 

[cmv131]

You can't exactly change it to port 80, but you can have the host header point to port 80.

In the host header, you put the entry you put into DNS for the server without

HTTP://.

In my case I put "sharepoint" and "sharepoint.companyname.com" and mapped it to Port 80. This is OK even if the main TCP port is another value.

Once you do that, you enter the http:// value in Alternate Address Mappings in SP Central Admin and you should be good to go

 

[royalmail]

Thanks again.

I'm pretty sure the IIS part is done now.

However, for Alternate Address Mappings I am rather lost.

I see the current entry for the site. It has this:

http://tokyoweb2:48894

??

http://tokyoweb2:48894

Do I edit this entry, or do I create a new entry?

If the latter, which of the 3 options to I pick?

I see Edit Public URL, Add Internal URL, and Map External Resource.

The options above are translated from the JPN version that I am using, so may not be 100% identical.

If you could give a more detailed description of what I need to do for this last step I would really appreciate it.

 

[cmv131]

You will want to add a new entry.

Click Edit Public URL
Choose the zone for the URL to be in (Internet in this case probably)
Add the URL you want

http://hostheadervalue/

If you have a SSL cert, you will also need an entry for

https://hostheadervalue/

 

[royalmail]

Many thanks for your time. Much appreciated.

As far as I can tell, that is all sorted.

Now all I need to do is set up external DNS for the URL I have just configured and test it out.

 

[royalmail]

Sigh.

Tested from home this morning, and while DNS works, and I even get to enter my user credentials to access the system, after that I just get a 404 error.

I think something simple is missing here.

I'm going to read through parts 2 and 3 again (above links) but part 1 just overcomplicates the matter for me because I don't have to bother with any of that reverse mapping stuff.

If you still have the motivation to assist with this, I'll clarify everything I have in place, step by step.