Changing the SharePoint 2013 web application URL, removing the server name

deploymentiissharepoint

I have a server named sv002, and then I have created a SharePoint web application at the root of this server. So currently I am able to access the web application using the following URL: – http://sv002.

But our client have asked to change the URL to be http://compnayname.intra. So I went to the SharePoint Central Administration > Alternative Access Mapping. Then I define the URL (http://compnayname.intra) in the Intranet zone , while I left the Default zone as is (http://sv002).

I have the following two questions:-

  1. Is there any missing steps inside SharePoint that I need to do , for changing the server name?

  2. In my case i do not have real zones, as the intranet is only accessible within our network or using VPN. so inside the AAM should i have also changed the Default zones to be http://compnayname.intra, instead of http://sv002 ??
    Thanks

Thanks

Best Answer

The URL of your root web application e.g. http://sv002 is set in quite a few places in the SharePoint 2013 farm configuration. Fortunately for you, I had to help my customer do exactly this change and I carefully documented all the steps in detail which are transcribed below. In my case we built the farm originally with the root site collection at http://home.mbp.com (so as you read below, substitute sv002 where you see home in my instructions) and had to change it to http://intranet.mbp.com (so substitute "companyname.intra" where you see "intranet.mbp.com" in my instructions).

What follows are the detailed steps you must take to change the URL (host name) of your SharePoint 2013 site. For this example, the home site collection was originally http://home.bmp.com and these are the steps to change it to http://intranet.mbp.com. These steps include DNS changes, IIS Web Site changes, AAM, Loopback check, MySites and Search settings assuming your farm is configured with these features according to best practices. (For more SharePoint 2013 farm best practices, see my blog http://mcox13579.blogspot.com.)

To start, add a Host entry to DNS that maps host name "intranet" to the IPv4 address of the SharePoint web server. Add another for "mysite". 0.1 Log in to the Domain Name Server as the Domain Administrator 0.2 From Windows Server Manger in the upper right, select Tools --> DNS 0.3 From DNS Manager, select the Forward Lookup Zone that corresponds to your AD forest (mbp.com) 0.4 Make a note of the IPv4 address of the origianal host header ("home") 10.0.0.7 0.5 Create a new Host (A or AAAA) record Name = intranet IP_address: 10.0.0.7 0.6 click Add Host 0.7 Confirmation dialog: click OK 0.8 Create another new host record for the MySite host Name = my IP_address: 10.0.0.7 click Done. Exit DNS Manager.

  1. Extend the home.mbp.com web application to intranet.mbp.com 1.1 On the SharePoint Central Administration website, on the Application Management page, in the Web Applications section, click Manage web applications. 1.2 Click the web application you want to extend (home.mbp.com). On the ribbon, click Extend. 1.3 In the "Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site" dialog, in the IIS Web Site section, click the Create a new IIS Web site option. IIS Web Site Name = intranet Port = 80 Host Header = intranet.mbp.com Path = Security Configuration Allow Anonymous = No Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) = No Claims Authentication Types select Enable Windows Authentication Sign In Page Default Sign In Page Public URL URL = http://intranet.mbp.com:80 Zone = Intranet 1.4 Click OK.

1-B. Extend the mysite.mbp.com web application to my.mbp.com in the same way

  1. Verify the Alternate Access Mapping URLs for the zone are updated (step 1 should have done this) 2.1 Central Administration - Application Management - Configure alternate access mappings 2.2 It will show new entry Internal URL = http://intranet.mbp.com Zone = Intranet Public URL = http://intranet.mbp.com 2.3 If doing mysite also, it will also show new entry with internal URL = http://my.mbp.com.

  2. Update Hosts file (repeat on each WFE in your farm) 3.1 Login to the WFE 3.2 As Administrator, Edit the HOSTS file 3.3 Add an entry that maps the WFE IP address to the new host header: 10.0.0.7 intranet.mbp.com 3.4 If doing mysite also, add another entry: 10.0.0.7 my.mbp.com

  3. Update Registry entry BackConnectionHostNames if used to disable loopback check (repeat on each WFE) If the WFE server has loopback check disabled as many do, check if the BackConnectionHostNames registry entry was used to do this (method 1). 4.1 Regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0 4.2 if Multi-String Value "BackConnectionHostNames" exists, edit it and add intranet.mbp.com 4.3 if doing mysite also, add my.mbp.com 4.4 exit Regedit 4.5 reboot

  4. Update My Site settings 5.1 Preferred Search Center 5.1.1 Central Administration --> Manage Service Applications --> User Profile Service Application 5.1.2 On the Manage Profile Service: User Profile Service Application page, in the My Site Settings section, click Setup My Sites 5.1.3 In the My Site Settings page, edit the Preferred Search Center field changing "http://home.mbp.com/search" to "http://intranet.mbp.com/search" 5.2 My Site Host 5.2.1 In the My Site Settings page, edit the My Site Host location field changing "http://mysite.mbp.com:80" to "http://my.mbp.com:80" 4.3 OK to close My Site Settings

  5. Update Search start addresses 6.1 Central Administration --> Manage service applications --> Search Service Application 6.2 Content Sources 6.3 If your Local SharePoint Sites are configured for Continuous Crawl, you will need to disable continuous crawl before you can edit content sources 6.4 Click Local SharePoint Sites to edit Content Source 6.5 From the "Edit Content Sources" page, in the "Start Addresses" section, change "http://home.mbp.com" to "http://intranet.mbp.com" change "http://mysite.mbp.com" to "http://my.mbp.com" change "sps3://mysite.mbp.com" to "sps3://my.mbp.com" 6.6 Click OK to close the Edit Content Source page

  6. Update the Global Search Center URL in the Search Service (if it was a managed path under your old web application) 7.1 Do this if your Search Service has the Global Search Center URL configured in the Search Service at a URL that contains the web application host name 7.2 Central Administration --> Manage service applications --> Search Service Application 7.3 Next to Global Search Center URL, click the link that contains the out-of-date Search Center URL (e.g. http://home.mbp.com/search/Pages). 7.4 In the Search Center Settings dialog, edit the Search Center URL to the new URL e.g. http://intranet.mbp.com/search/Pages). 7.5 click OK

  7. Update the Search Center URL configuration in the Site Collection Administration Search Settings page of your Site Collections 8.1 You may have to repeat these steps for every site collection 8.2 Open the Home site collection (intranet.mbp.com) and click the Setting (gear) icon in the upper right corner to navigate to Settings --> Site settings 8.3 From the Site Settings page, under Site Collection Administration, click Search Settings NOTE: go to the “Site Collection Administration Search Settings” page, not the “Site Settings Search Settings” page (I know, it's a terminology train wreck) 8.4 From the Site Collection Administration Search Settings page, in the “Enter a Search Center URL” section, set the search center URL appropriately, e.g.:

http://intranet.mbp.com/search/Pages 8.5 Click OK. Be patient when testing: In my experience changes to this Site Settings page takes several minutes to propagate.

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