Alternate Access Mappings On Web Applications In SharePoint 2013 Central Administration

In this article, we will see how to set up Alternate Access Mappings on the web applications in SharePoint 2013 Central Admin. This configuration helps us to manage the web application with an alternate mapping URL which can be used between internal and public URLs.

There have been many instances when we need to map an internal web application to a public domain and in a similar way, vice versa. In all those cases, we can use the alternate access mapping of the URL of web applications with public and internal domains.

Let’s see how we can configure.

How to configure?

Let’s open Central Admin of SharePoint on your machine. On your Windows desktop screen, click Start >> Administrative Tools >> SharePoint 2013 Central Administration.

Run it as an administrator to have elevated privileges.
You will see the screenshot given below.
Central Admin is configured under the categories given below.
Click on Application Management.

Go to Web Applications >> Configure alternate access mappings.
You will see the screen, given below.

Edit Public Zone URLs
Here, you can edit the public URL protocol, host, and the port number used for this resource in all of the zones available. The Default Zone URL must be defined which will be used as Intranet, Internet, Custom, and Extranet.

Once configured, the public zone will be configured to have the alternate URLs.
Add Internal URLs
Here, you can add the internal URLs and configure them to zones like Intranet, Internet, Custom, and Extranet. Once added, this URL will associate with the resource of the mapping.
Create External Resource Mapping
Here, if you have sites other than SharePoint, you can map the external URLs with their host and port details and the resource will get mapped to the defined web application.

Once you click on OK, the configuration selected by you will be mapped as alternate access mapping and the web will respond the way you have mapped.

In this article, we saw how to set alternate access mappings on the web application. There are more features under managing the Central Administration, which we will see in the next article.

Until then, keep reading and keep learning.