COMPATIBILITY

CONTENTS

• Problem
• Solution
• Step by Step Instructions
• Issues
• Summary

Problem

For quite some time, customers have requested that we support Wildcard Host Headers in IIS. IIS 10 now supports Wildcard Host Headers.

Solution

Wildcard Host Headers enable admins to setup a webserver for a domain, e.g. contoso.com and then have the webserver serve requests for any subdomain. For example the following would all be valid hosts:

• intranet.contoso.com
• private.contoso.com
• blogs.contoso.com

Step by Step Instructions

ADDING A NEW SITE WITH A WILDCARD HOST HEADER

To add a new site with a Wildcard Host Header in IIS you need to follow these simple steps:

1. Open Internet Information Services Manager on the server your site is hosted on:
   1. If you are using Windows Server Technical Preview:
      1. On the taskbar, click Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
   2. If you are using Windows Technical Preview
      1. Hold down the Windows Key, press the letter X and then click Control Panel.
      2. Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
   3. Select the server on which you wish to create your site, from the list in connections.
   4. Click the “Add Website..” option in the Actions Pane
2. Enter configuration for your site, in the text box for Host name enter your Wildcard Host Header e.g. *.contoso.com and click OK.
3. Your new site has been configured with a Wildcard Host Header

4. ADDING A WILDCARD HOST HEADER TO AN EXISTING SITE

   To configure and existing site to make use of a Wildcard Host Header in IIS you need to follow these simple steps:

   1. Open Internet Information Services Manager on the server your site is hosted on:
      1. If you are using Windows Server Technical Preview:
         1. On the taskbar, click Server Manager, click Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
      2. If you are using Windows Technical Preview
         1. Hold down the Windows Key, press the letter X and then click Control Panel.
         2. Click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
      3. Select the server on which your site is deployed, from the list in connections.
      4. Select the website (.e.g. Default Web Site) you wish to configure from the list of sites.
      5. In the Actions pane select Bindings:
   2. Select the binding you would like to edit (e.g. http) and click Edit…
   3. In the text box for Host name enter your Wildcard Host Header e.g. *.contoso.com and click OK
   4. Now you can see the Wildcard Host Header value in the list of bindings:
   5. Click close to return to IIS Manager.

   6. TESTING A WILDCARD HOST HEADER

      Once you have configured a Wildcard Host Header you will need to configure DNS for the domain and then you can test traffic to your website. In the below screenshots we have used three different subdomains to route to the site which we configured with a Wildcard Host Header (*.contoso.com). The demonstration asp.net application we deployed to this site renders the host name requested on the home page.

      

      Issues

      Summary

      IIS 10.0 has added support for Wildcard Host Headers in bindings.