How to Configure an Application

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When you configure an application, you specify properties that apply to all the Web servers that the application uses. When you add a Web server to an application, some properties are automatically populated from Internet Information Services (IIS) and stored in the Administration database. If the IIS properties change, you must synchronize the Administration database together with the IIS metabase by manually updating the new properties in Commerce Server Manager, or by clicking the Synchronize Values button on the Web Servers tab in the Properties dialog box of the application.

The Synchronize Values button is only activated when the Web servers in the application are using IIS option is selected on the General tab in the Applications Properties dialog box, and you have made changes using the IIS user interface.

When you click the Synchronize Values button, Commerce Server synchronizes the properties at the application level and the properties for all the Web server objects below the application. For the properties at the application level, Commerce Server reads the values of the first Web server. It assumes that all the Web servers are configured the same, which is required for servers in a Web farm.

Note

Clicking the Synchronize Values button does not synchronize the Administration database with the Data Warehouse.

For information about how to change the non-secured (or secured) host name of your application to the domain name set up on the Domain Name System (DNS) server (for example, www.microsoft.com), see How to Specify the Domain Name.

After you change the value of a property in Commerce Server Manager, you must restart all services that use that property.

To configure an application

  1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2 , and then click Commerce Server Manager.

  2. In the Commerce Server Manager console, in the left pane, expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Commerce Sites, and then click the site that you want to administer.

  3. Expand Applications, right-click the application that you want to configure, and then click Properties.

  4. In the <application> Properties dialog box, on the General tab, do the following:

    Use this

    To do this

    Nonsecure host name

    Type the DNS domain name to use for non-secured links in your applications. If you are using a port number other than 80, you must append that number to the end of the non-secured host name, for example, www.microsoft.com:81. To view or edit the port number, see the TCP Port box on the Identities tab in the Web Server Properties dialog box. For more information, see How to Configure a Web Server.

    IIS application path

    Type the path of the IIS application.

    Enable HTTPS

    Select this property to enable links to a HTTP host (SSL) in your applications. AuthManager uses this property; AuthFilter does not. If you are using AuthFilter, use the CS Authentication Login Form property to specify SSL for logon pages.

    Secure host name

    Type the DNS domain name to use for links that you want secured in your applications. If you are using a port number other than 443, you must append that number to the end of the secure host name, for example, www.microsoft.com:441. To view or edit the SSL port number, see the SSL Port box on the Identities tab of the Web Server Properties dialog box. For more information, see How to Configure a Web Server. AuthManager uses this property; AuthFilter does not. If you are using AuthFilter, use the CS Authentication Login Form property to specify SSL for logon pages.

    Autocookie

    Select this property to generate cookies for anonymous users. This property is set during the unpacking process.

    Authentication filter

    Select the type of authentication filter you want to use from the drop-down list. The options are as follows:

    • No filter

    • Windows Authentication

    • Custom Authentication

    Set cookie path to Application

    Select this option if you want to share cookies among the applications in a site.

    Number of shared domain levels

    Specify how many domain levels applications need in common in order to share a cookie. For example, for premier.microsoft.com and msn.microsoft.com to share the microsoft.com cookie, set the value to 2.

  5. On the Web Servers tab, click Synchronize Values to copy the properties from IIS to the Commerce Server Administration database, and then click OK. The Synchronize Values button is only activated when the Web servers in the application are using IIS option is selected on the General tab in the Applications Properties dialog box, and you have made changes using the IIS user interface.

See Also

Other Resources

How to Configure a Web Server

How to Specify the Domain Name

How to Restart IIS

Managing Commerce Sites and Applications