Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

[AlexOZ]

Can v11 and IIS share the same port? One of the difficulties I've had in the past is convincing clients with IIS servers the need for a separate server to host Alpha or to use the unintuitive solution of another port like :85. I checked the forum and the wiki to no avail. Alex

[totallycovered]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

I don't know how IIS could be configured to forward requests with particular headers to a different server program (Alpha Five) running on the server. This is what I have done as workarounds, with great success:

Workaround One (probably best for most people):
Set up a landing page for our Alpha Five app (standard page, served up by IIS, port 80). I don't know if I'm allowed to put URLs here, but for example, if someone goes to http://totallycovered.net/office there's a standard index.html page on there, served up by IIS (you can make it as pretty as you want, "welcome to our app, click here to begin"). The link on that page goes to http://totallycovered.net:88/OurApplicationDirectoryOnAlphaFive (basically, just add the port 88 to your URL). That way, nobody needs to "know" about the different port. It's up there in the URL, but not unintuitive, since nobody really even notices it.

Workaround Two (good if you just need a bit of data displayed, and a bit of interactivity, inside your existing site):
We also have a bit of our Alpha Five app running inside a standard Web page, in an iframe. So, the page served by IIS has a frame inside showing pages served by Alpha Five. If you want a glimpse (not much to look at, but as an example):
http://totallycovered.net/index.php?...d=12&Itemid=19
(the part from "Check Repair Status" to "Your pin is located..." are served by Alpha Five. You can enter PIN 3BBFB2 to test it.)
Derek

[Sparticuz]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

not sure exactly how to do this on IIS, but I've done something similar on apache. (with a different program)

It's called a Reverse proxy. You can set up alpha to be on :81, then set up iis to forward, for example, all requests to example.com/alpha to :81. this would be transparent to the end user.

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

If the server has more than one IP address, IIS and Alpha can both run on port 80, each on a different IP address. This is a TCP/IP limitation, not a limitation of Alpha or IIS.

[totallycovered]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

Great minds think alike? Not my mind, but this was also the recommendation of Matt, our server guru. Popping another network card into your server would be a quick and easy solution. To access your Alpha Five app from outside, you'd still need to either A) specify the port, so your router can forward the traffic to the appropriate internal IP, or B) get/use another/different external IP address and forward that to the IP address associated with Alpha Five on the server.

Derek

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

Great minds think alike? Not my mind, but this was also the recommendation of Matt, our server guru. Popping another network card into your server would be a quick and easy solution. To access your Alpha Five app from outside, you'd still need to either A) specify the port, so your router can forward the traffic to the appropriate internal IP, or B) get/use another/different external IP address and forward that to the IP address associated with Alpha Five on the server.

Derek

Actually there is no need to add a second network card - a single card can have multiple distinct addresses and will allow for multiple server instances. The only time two cards would be strictly required would be if you were trying to run each server on a different, and physically-isolated, subnet.

[totallycovered]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

Good to know, thanks Lenny!

[WayneH]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

Any outside security issues with this? Meaning, the whole wide world being forwarded to a port on your server. I then assume that the app is talking to MSSql or MySQL.
Any data risks in exposing the app server and potentially this data layer?

[totallycovered]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

While this is a standard setup for a cloud-based app server, there are security requirements. Everything will be behind a hardware firewall. So, you're only opening ports for specific services. For example, port 80 only goes to your Web server. A Windows server is quite secure if set up correctly and patched with Windows updates regularly. Then, your database (we use MySQL) only accepts connections from particular IP addresses, namely our internal servers. And, nothing is forwarded to it from the router (outside). There's also the issue of encryption via SSL if you're transmitting anything that shouldn't be visible to someone with a sniffer. And encryption of your database in case someone actually DOES break in.

Potential issues and best-practices could fill books. HOWEVER something to relax with: aside from SQL injection attacks, most data theft and break-ins are the result of malware: keyloggers, etc. If someone wants your data, they'll get you or an employee infected with something. Then, it's a matter of stealing your passwords, viewing your screen remotely, operating your computer remotely, etc. Point being, your data is just as easily stolen without putting your server "on the Web" using these methods.

Party on?

Derek

[sdkrahn]

Re: Can Alpha v11 and IIS co-exist on same port?

The wiki has an article with some tips on having both alpha and IIS on the same server, using different IP addresses - click here.

That article goes even further, talking about having more than one instance of the application server on one server. We needed a tip from that article about how IIS tends to take control of all the other IP addresses on the server, even when it has been told not to, and refers you to a Microsoft article on how to fix that.