How to force HTTPS usage for Application Suite web access and gadgets for Jabber implementing a HTTP -> HTTPS redirect in IIS

Applies to:

Application Suite all versions
 

Description:

If you want that information going through your network to be protected from prying eyes, you can force all your users to use https instead of http to access the Application Suite web interface and for gadgets for Jabber.
To do this you can make a simple redirect of http requests to https withing the Internet Information Server on which the Application Suite is running.
Follow this guide to know how to do it.

How-to:

Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and identify the location where the "Default Web Site" store site files (Basic Settings | Physical path); it is usually in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\

In that folder open the file web.config and insert in <rules> section:

<rule name="RedirectToHttps" stopProcessing="false">
  <match url="(.*)" />
    <conditions>
      <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" />
    </conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}{REQUEST_URI}" redirectType="Temporary" 
              appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>

Restart IIS to apply the modification.

 

NOTES:

• REDIRECTTYPE
  Please double-check and be sure that you set "Temporary" and not "Found" as redirectType.
  Using "Temporary" will make IIS answer with HTTP 307, making you sure that the client will keep the original HTTP method and body when performing the request to the redirect target URL.

• CLUSTER (Application Suite Version < 2019.6.1.h2 )
  During the upgrade of an IAS cluster please temporary remove or comment the redirection rule on the master node, upgrade all slave nodes and then re-enable the redirection.
   
• XML SERVICES
  Applying this solution, the XML services will also be in https.
  Having such services working with CUCM is not out of the box, please refer to the solution:
  Configure Cisco XML Service in HTTPS