Confluence IIS - Guide missing Domain and Website info

[Ryan Miller]

Hi there, I'm in the process of setting up a local Confluence Server on Windows Server 2008 R2.

It's currently running properly on the default localhost:8090, now I'd like to get it running on my local domain so that other computers on the network can access it.

I'm following this guide https://confluence.atlassian.com/kb/proxying-atlassian-server-applications-with-microsoft-internet-information-services-iis-833931378.html to make Confluence available throughout my local network using IIS. Something like www.mylocaldomain.com/confluence or even confluence.mylocaldomain.com.

Unfortunately there are a few steps in the guide that I can't quite act on!

1. The Prerequisites mention the following regarding DNS

DNS entries in place and configured for your domains
You should check, perhaps with your system or network administrator, whether the current DNS configuration for your organization will need changes to support the proxy topology you wish to set up.

This is too vague to be helpful. I know everybody's setup is different, and it can be difficult to accomodate that, but let's assume a fresh Windows Server 2008 R2 installation - What are the DNS configuration requirements? I don't know. 

2. "Part B Step 3. Add a new IIS website" is missing information on what the physical path should be. What folder do I point this to? 'None' isn't an option. The Microsoft Article linked is not helpful, I need to know what Confluence requires, not what Microsoft best practices are.

Capture.PNG

3. "4. Add a new URL rewrite rule", particularly step 5: "Rewrite URL: http://<JIRA_url:Port>/{R:1}" is confusing. I thought this was a Confluence tutorial? Does <JIRA_url> refer to the website I just created? Does it refer to localhost:8090? Something else? 

I'm ready to buy a Confluence licence but the software has to function as intended first. I'd appreciate any help you can spare, thanks a lot.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, I can do two of those.

1.  DNS is your network address system.  When you go to www.mylocaldomain.com/confluence, that's not its real address.  DNS tells computers that "server" is on a physical address.  Same way my 'phone knows that "Ring for Pizza" actually  means "ring +44(0)1933 123456".  There's nothing Atlassian can tell you about how your DNS is set up on your network, other than you need your servers to be entered so you can find them.
2. That's where I'm stuck - for a proxy, the physical directory of an application is nonsense.  At a guess, I'd say you might have missed something about telling IIS this site is going to be a proxy, not a set of files, but I really am guessing.  You could try entering the installation directory, but I suspect you'll end up with a list of the installation files, not the proxied application.
3. The article is about proxying all Atlassian applications, not just Confluence.  Nearly of them work the same, so you can just interchange them.  The string its asking for is the place where Confluence is running on your network.  If IIS is on the same machine, you can use localhost:8090, but if it's on another, it needs to be <that server:8090>

[Ryan Miller]

I'm still not able to get the DNS working the way I like, and suspect IIS is not the way.

I turned off all the IIS stuff outlined in the guide and configured Windows Firewall to allow domain traffic through port 8090, allowing everybody on the network to access the confluence server through the server computer's network name (or IP). It's not pretty, but it works!

Now I've just to figure out how to set up windows dns to point to a computer and a specific port number.