How to make http://<servername> default to InfoView

server administration XI Server Discussion
1

Hi,

I’ve installed XI on a Windows 2003 server - running IIS.

Not specifically a Business Objects question I know, but how can I amend access to the web-site, such that when a user enters http:// - they automatically are routed to http:///businessobjects/enterprise11. I’m sure this can be done in IIS somewhere - but where?

Thanks,
Shakka

Shakka :uk: (BOB member since 2005-02-07)

2

Hope this helps or atleast gives you a starting point.
There needs to be a load balancer entry on your webserver to do a redirection from a small key word like http://bodev or http://boqa or http://botest etc based on your development, test and production environments.
Im not sure for IIS but we have done it in the Tomcat environment.
We have used this code snippet in the tomcat root page(index.html) to redirect to Infoview.

Sheshachala5 :india: (BOB member since 2004-01-09)

3

Thanks,

In IIS I went to the default web-sites properties. Ensured the default document is enabled in the Dcouments tab, created an index.htm document & added the following entry. Appears to work ok.

Click this link if the logo page fails to load http://servername/businessobjects/enterprise11/InfoView/logon.aspx/

Shakka

Shakka :uk: (BOB member since 2005-02-07)

4

We have the following lines in default.htm in our 6x env


<script language=javascript>
document.location = 'http://<server name>/wiasp'
</script>

prasad :india: (BOB member since 2002-08-19)

5

I normally make the Enterprise directory the default home page (i.e. the defualt website. Optionally I configure a DNS alias for the machine so users just type in http://reporting (where ‘reporting’ is the DNS alias for something like ADSVR001)

HTH

Blueprinter (BOB member since 2005-12-07)

6

Go into IIS right click the default site on that context menu click properties. Click on the documents tab in that box click the add button then add logon.aspx and make use it is on the top of the default documents list. That will make logon.aspx the first default page IIS looks for. Now also make sure that under the home directory tab you point to the location of the InfoView folder.

newTech (BOB member since 2005-12-10)

7

The bestway to address this issue without using the Routers/Load balancing devices is to configure the tomcat web server to run on port 80 instead of 8080 , this will eliminate the need for the XI R2 Infoview user to type 8080 next to the Infoview Site Name.

If the Webfiles are installed under local host on the tomcat web server (default XI R2 Installation) all you will need is to take the IP Address of the Web Server and to ask the Network Administrator to create a DNS Alias for the IP Address of the Web Server .

http://webservername:8080/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do.

becomes

http://companyname/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do.

If you like to take this a step further you can also include a redirection script which will redirect the users to the infoview homepage when they type the

http://companyname

becomes

http://companyname/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do.

EnterpriseArchitect :us: (BOB member since 2006-03-23)

8

Thanks Enterprise architect

niranjan_d (BOB member since 2003-11-21)

9

Hi Shakka,

If I understand your question right (if this is single server environment or multi-server with PM), you need to get to logon page when you type your server name in the URL. As yours is an IIS install, create an asp page as below and place it under your C:\inetpub\wwwroot directory. Open the IIS service manager and make this asp as a default doc (you need keep this asp file as first in the list in the document tab of your default web site). Now when you browse (right click on default website and select browse), it should open your logon page. Some organizations have server names such as ITBODEV1 for their servers. To make it more easy for the users, create an A name (like DNS name) for the the server as “BOdevelopment”. All the users need to do is to enter the “BOdevelopment” in the URL and hit enter and that should take them right to logon page.

ASP page:

<%@LANGUAGE=VBScript%>

<%

response.redirect “http://servername:8080/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do”
%>

Hope this helps…

boxir2Krish (BOB member since 2006-08-04)

10

Thanks Enterprise Architect for your suggesstions.

I asked my netwrok admin to create a DSN Alias on the webserver(we have everything installed on two machines which are clustered).

It worked for me .

But i have a small problem here.

out default url is:

http://duslexbusobj1:8080/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do

I tried to chnage the name to newly created DSN Alias name.,which is working

http://reporting-dev.lexmark.com:8080/businessobjects/enterprise115/desktoplaunch/InfoView/logon/logon.do

How can i remove port 8080 and just keep the machine name(alias name) in the URL.If i remove 8080 it is not working(page not found error)

Any inputs are appreciated.

Thanks
SUJAY

sujay_knotted (BOB member since 2005-09-24)

11

The issue with entering 8080 in the URL can be fixed by changing the port number from 8080 to 80 for the tomcat web server.

The Port number for tomcat can be changed by editing the following file
D:\Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat\conf\server.xml

Please change the port number in the server.xml file in the following line from 8080 to 80.

<Connector URIEncoding="UTF-8" acceptCount="100" connectionTimeout="20000" debug="0" disableUploadTimeout="true" enableLookups="false" maxSpareThreads="75" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" port="[b]80[/b]" redirectPort="8443"/>

EnterpriseArchitect :us: (BOB member since 2006-03-23)

12

Hello,

We want our client to use a simple URL to use Infoview. In IIS we created a DNS and we are trying to use this DNS, i wrote a redirect.html file to redirect any request to DNS to the long URL.

i.e when the user enters

http://reports

they were taken to

http://servername/businessobjects/enterprise115/Infoview/logon.aspx

our users are AD autheticated so they go straight to main.aspx

all this works fine, we want to keep the http://reports in our url when the users were redirected instead of the server name in the URL.

Thanks,
Paul

Paulantony (BOB member since 2003-02-14)

13

Hello,

How my above request can be done using IIS? experts please guide.

Thanks,
Paul

Paulantony (BOB member since 2003-02-14)

14

In IIS Web Server if the B.O Web files are installed under the local host the IP address of the Local host/default web site is the same as the Windows Server .

By creating a DNS alias you are giving are alternate name to the Default Web site address instead of users typing http://198.76.34.09 they might type http://reporting and they go the home page of the B.O Infoview portal site . http:// .

What you are asking for is URL masking and that can be done in several ways.

  1. Use a Cisco CSS Router Load balancer to mask the URL.
  2. Create a New Web Site in IIS with a dedicated IP Address and DNS Name called “reporting”. This is easier to accomplish , all you need is to ask the Network Admin for a IP Address for a Website with a DNS Alias for the IP Address called “Reports”.

EnterpriseArchitect :us: (BOB member since 2006-03-23)

15

Enterprise Architect,

Thanks for your suggesstions…

I changed the port from 8080 to 80 in the server.xml file and also restarted the tomcat.

but when i again open the page and try our fancy name in the url it says “page not found”.

one intresting thing is even the default url is not working now.

Any suggesstions on what went wrong?

Thanks
SUJAY

sujay_knotted (BOB member since 2005-09-24)

16

You might want to try deleting the Tomcat work folder (cache files).
\Business Objects\Tomcat\work and stop and restart tomcat.

Another thing to consider is that IIS is uninstalled on the windows server as IIS will also try to use port 80. If you are using tomcat there is no need to install IIS on the same server.

Another Alternative to disable port 80 usage for IIS webserver is to open IIS Manager -> Websites ->Default Web site -> Properties .
Under the Website Identification Section , change the TCP Port from 80 to 8081.

EnterpriseArchitect :us: (BOB member since 2006-03-23)

17

Hi EnterpriseArchitect,

We already have a DNS called reporting, our users were already able to use http://reporting and were AD authenticated and taken straight to main.aspx,

1.user enters http://reporting
2.users are AD authenticated and redirected to the long URL
3.now http://servername/… appears in the browser URL

we don’t want servername in the url instead we want reporting (the DNS name) in the URL.

Thanks,
Paul

Paulantony (BOB member since 2003-02-14)

18
  1. Request your Network Admin for an IP Address for creating a Website and also request him to have reporting assigned as the DNS Alias for the newly assigned IP Address.

In IIS Admin Manager
2 To Create a Virtual Server/New Website for Reporting
To create a virtual server/Website: 1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2b. In the console tree, expand ServerName where ServerName is the name of the server, right-click Web Sites, point to New, and then click Web Site. The Web Site Creation Wizard starts.
3. Click Next.
4. On the Web Site Description page, type a description for the Web site in the Description box, and then click Next.
5. On the IP Address and Port Settings page, do the following: a. Click the IP Address that you want to use for the Web site in the Enter the IP address to use for this Web site box.

Note If you click (All Unassigned), the virtual server responds to all IP addresses that are not assigned to other virtual servers.
b. If you want to use a different TCP port than the default TCP port 80, type the port that you want to use in the TCP port this Web site should use (Default 80) box.
c. If you want to specify a host header for the virtual server, type the reporting in the Host Header for this Web site (Default: None) box.
d. Click Next.

  1. On the Web Site Home Directory page, specify the path of the Web content folder that you created earlier in the Path box. For example, C:\InetPub\FolderName. (Please refer to the B.O XI R2 Installation Guide , IIS Install Section)

If you do not want to allow anonymous access to the Web site, click to clear the Allow anonymous access to this Web site check box, and then click Next.
7. On the Web Site Access Permissions page, specify the permissions that you want for the Web site, and then click Next.
8. Click Finish.

The new Web site appears in the list of Web sites under Web Sites in the console tree. To modify settings for the Web site, right-click the Web site, and then click Properties.

Once You create a New Website in IIS with the host header Reporting , the User Site will constantly display Http://reporting through out the user interaction with the infoview portal .

The Reason it was defaulting the website name to the server name earlier is because the was also assigned as the DNS Alias for the Default Site Name IP Address. Reporting and Server name happen to the DNS Aliases for the same IP Address which is also shared by the IIS Default Website.

By Creating a New Website with a dedicated IP Address which has a DNS Alias called Reporting when ever the user interacts with the IP Address/host (reporting) is going to be preserved.

EnterpriseArchitect :us: (BOB member since 2006-03-23)

19

Hi Enterprise Architect,

Sorry, for the late response. I went to a conference and was not able to implement this. Here is what i have tried so far,

1.We have a dedicated IP address and the DNS alias as reporting

2.In IIS Manager

->ServerName(Local Computer) under this we have
Application Pools
Web Sites
Web Service Extensions

->Web Sites under this we have
Default Web Sites

Here is the prperties of the default websites,

->Web Site Identification
Description->Default Web Site
IP Address->Dedicated IP address for reporting, Click on Advanced->Dedicated IP address,TCP port 80,Host header value is reporting

->Directory Security
Authentication and Access Control->Click Edit->Clear Enable Anonymous Access->check Integrated Windows Authentication

->Home Directory
Path is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot

->Documents
check Enable Default Content Page, iisstart.htm is the first file in the list of files

iisstart.htm file is located under c:\Inetpub\wwwroot and it looks like

Default Web Sites->businessobjects->Enterprise115->Directory Security->Authentication and Access Control->Click Edit->Clear Enable Anonymous Access->check Integrated Windows Authentication

Here is some details from the Web.Config file under
C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\Web Content\

The bolded codes here are the extra code i added to implement SSO using Windows AD authentication,other than that everything is the default line of code generated.



Here is some details from the Web.Config file under
C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\Web Content\Enterprise115\InfoView

These bolded codes are the extra code i added to implement SSO using Windows AD authentication,other than that everything is the default line of code generated.





We also configured Windows AD authentication in CMC.

With all the above settings the users when they hit http://reporting were prompted for user id and password. I even tried changing the CMS name to reporting and replaced cms name to reporting in the web.config files.

Everything works when i change the IP address for the Default Web Site to Unassigned

->Web Site Identification
IP Address->Unassigned

and change the iisstart.htm to http://server1/… instead of http://reporting/… now when the users hit http://reporting they are not prompted for user id and password, they are authenticated succesfully using Windows AD and taken to main.aspx,but now http://reporting is replaced with http://server1/businessobjects/enterprise115/InfoView/main.aspx i.e back to the original issue.

I don’t know what i am missing here.Thanks again EnterpriseArchitect.

Thanks,
Paul

Paulantony (BOB member since 2003-02-14)

20

Hi all,

In other words,

BOXIR2 was installed on IIS server1 and ip address 174.16.1.23 was used. Now we need to use ip address 174.16.1.43 with the DNS alias reporting.

How i can make all the component of my XIR2 install to point to 174.16.1.43 and force it to use the DNS alias?

Thanks,
Paul

Paulantony (BOB member since 2003-02-14)