Things to consider when you use SSL termination with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and with Windows SharePoint Services (831106)

SUMMARY

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services do not support the conventional use of SSL termination. This article contains more information about SSL termination, and lists some issues that may occur if you use it with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services. This article also references a white paper you can use as a prescriptive guide to configure SSL termination with Windows SharePoint Services.

MORE INFORMATION

SSL termination is a configuration where an HTTPS request from the client is first processed by either a proxy server or a firewall, and then the request is forwarded to a Web server by using HTTP.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services build links based on the incoming URL. If you use SSL termination in a configuration with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services, the incoming HTTPS request from the client is received as an HTTP address by SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services. As a result, certain links to content on the portal site or on the Windows SharePoint Services site use HTTP, instead of HTTPS. For example, you may experience one or more of the following issues:

If you configure the Alerts feature in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services to send you an e-mail notification to notify you if content changes, you may find that the URL in the e-mail message uses HTTP and not HTTPS.
When you create a new site in SharePoint Portal Server 2003, the site is created correctly. However, you may find that the URL that is displayed for the site is incorrect.
If you are a member of the Contributors site group, you cannot upload a document to a document library. When you try to do this, you are prompted three times to enter your user name and password, and then you receive the following error message:
Access Denied

For more information about SharePoint Portal Server, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX010909721033

For more information about Windows SharePoint Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/sharepoint/default.mspx

To obtain a prescriptive guide for using SSL termination with Windows SharePoint Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sppt/wss/revproxy.mspx