Configuring HAP+ for outside access

[Iamthelaw]

Hi all, apologies in advance if this seems a stupid question, alas I've searched around a fair bit for solutions and have become bogged down in documentation with no real semblance of due process seemingly clear to me...

 

I have been tasked with setting up HAP on a new school server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit, IIS 7.5 etc. I'd not come across it before, and haven't really dealt with IIS much , certainly not recently but followed the guides, the video, noted the hotfixes etc and so at this point HAP is installed on the server correctly and running, with links to mail setup, AD groups added and some work done on shares etc by intially pointing the url to localhost/hap/setup.aspx and completing the setup. Problem is now the guide is done with I'm struggling with the next steps.

 

The school has a website but is managed elsewhere, and they used to have RM easylink set up on the old server but again there is no access to this so the crux of the question is where do I go from here to set it up so that users can access it from outside the school. I've started looking into DNS Zones, and SSL and certification and what not but there's so much documentation about I can't seem to find a definitive way to proceed. Can I do it without having it bound to a site? Or am I going to have to use something like Easylink to set up folders and a URL? It's no longer an RM network so am hoping to find a simple vanilla Windows way round it all. (Yes, I know.. simple and windows..), but if anyone can point me to a guide that might make it easier to fathom (I have been coming across a lot of articles about setting up Intranet / extranet sites and am wondering if this is relevant) it would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[sister_annex]

We use an ISA server that acts as our proxy server that's use to publish the sites externally through our LEA

 

I would try this as a starter for ten, also speak to your LEA as they may be able to give you some valuable pointers.

[nickbro]

Another useful resource is The Official Microsoft IIS Site

[Iamthelaw]

Thanks guys. Alas our LEA doesn't exist as such any more, and I have looked at various IIS references , technet etc but am not having much luck. Looking at redirecting a default site / having an intranet setup in DNS to point to it but still no joy. Will keep trying!

[nickbro]

If you only have 1 external IP for both HAP+ and your school site, try this

 

Create a new DNS entry in your DNS provider (e.g. HAP.schoolname.tld)

 

Get an SSL Certificate for that, e.g. from StartSSL, see The Official Microsoft IIS Site for instructions on creating the Cert request and importing the cert

 

Create a new IIS Website, set it's external address in the bindings.

 

Create a default file at the root, e.g. index.html

 

In IIS, select index.html and tell it to redirect traffic to the /hap/ folder.

 

Create the HAP directory and other settings as defined in the documentation

 

and there we go

 

2 sites co-existing on 1 box.

 

Note HTTPS usually can only be assigned to one site

[Iamthelaw]

Thanks for that Nick, looks promising. I've got another 6-7 sites to set it up at so will definitely give that method a try once I'm past the initial stages.