SharePoint 2013 - Setup DNS and use FQDN to access SharePoint sites

In this article, you will learn how to create alternate URL for your SharePoint 2013 site. By default, you can access SharePoint site by using machine name, for example, if your machine name is MYCOMPANY, you can access SharePoint site using URL http://mycompany (provided you have a site collection set up at that URL). Now, suppose you want to have a meaningful URL for your site, for example, www.mycompany.com OR if you have different departments in your company and you want each department to access their site using their own URL, for example, http://hr.mycompany.com, http://finance.mycompany.com ,  etc., this can be achieved by configuring DNS. My assumption is that you have admin rights on the machine and you can add DNS role and configure it. To read more about SharePoint 2013 machine configuration, wait for my upcoming book on SharePoint 2013. I am just trying to finish up some new chapters. I may not wait till all chapters are ready and may release machine configuration part separately so stay tuned to this blog. In the steps below, you will add Active Directory Domain Services and set up a FQDN.

1.       Go to All Programs > Administrative Tools  and click Server Manager.

2.       Click Roles and then click Add Roles link.

3.       Click Next and then select the second check box Active Directory Domain Services and click Next >. Click Next again and then click Install. Installation will start and will take approx. 10 minutes to complete (depending on your computer’s speed). Click Close once the installation has completed.

4.       Click Active Directory Domain Services link. You will see following warning message:

This server is not yet running as a domain controller. Run the Active Directory Domain Services Installation Wizard (dcpromo.exe).

Click the link in this message to install Active Directory Domain Services.

5.      Click Next. Click Next again. Select the second option Create a new domain in a new forest and click Next.

6.      Provide a FQDN, for example, sp2013.com and click Next. I will use walisystems.com as that is my main domain. You will see this domain in the screenshots in this section.

7.      Select Windows Server 2008 from the drop down and click Next.

8.      Keep DNS server checked and click Next.

9.      You will see a warning message. Select first option Yes, the computer will use dynamically assigned IP address (not recommended). if you don’t want to assign a static IP to your computer  and click Next. If you want to make the change, assign static IP and run the wizard again.

10.  Next you may see this error:

 

 

Click Yes.

11.  You will be presented with another screen. Keep default values and click Next.

12.  Enter password for Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator Mode and click Next.

13.   Review your selections and click Next. DNS Installation starts.

14.  Click Finish after the installation has completed.

15.  Click Restart Now button to restart your machine.

16.   Open Server Manager again. Expand Roles. Expand Active Directory Domain Services. Expand Active Directory Users and Computers. You will see your domain listed there.

 

17.   Now you have setup the domain services, you can use multiple URLs to access SharePoint sites. As mentioned earlier, one way to access your SharePoint site is to use the machine name in the URL, for example, http://sp2013 (sp2013 is the machine name). With domain setup on your server, you can now access same site using URL like http://sp2013.walisystems.com. Please note that walisystems.com is the FQDN that we used while setting up DNS.

 

In the next article, you will learn how to add multiple URLs for different departments and configure Alternate Access  Mappings in SharePoint.

 

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