This morning, a user asked me if it is possible to use a DNS alias to point to a particular piece of content in a SharePoint 2010 site due to the unwieldy length of the URL and the universal access of the piece of content. I advised that it would be better to create a page to surface and link the content and I stick by this advise, especially since I see it as setting a dangerous precedent and administration hassle for both me and the DNS admin.
If this user is persistent, would I need to create an AAM pointing directly to the content and then create the DNS entry that maps the AAM like it does for the web apps? Can this even be done if AAMS and DNS aliases already exist for the parent web application?
To use an alias, which I’d never recommend using CNAMEs but instead always A records, you would have to have an Alternate Access Mapping as well as IIS site binding (which could get complicated depending on if you’re using SSL and what type of SSL certificate is in use).
Thanks for the replies. So it looks like AAMS and DNS are not a solution. I am a bit reluctant to introduce codeplex solutions into my environment but I will look at both suggestions.
Thanks again,
Had a user make the same request and AAM is only used to change the domain of the incoming request to ensure further URLs are rendered along the same path (in addition to auth methods)
This might work for you though:
http://spurlshortener.codeplex.com/
I am not sure but in our environment we downloaded a free add on for IIS call “URL rewrite” and we just put forwarding rules in this (which basically just stick an entry in the web.config).
http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite
