How To: Redirect or Customize the Default IIS Landing Page on a SecureAuth Appliance

Version Affected: Not applicable — this is an Internet Information Services (IIS) configuration change and is not tied to a specific SecureAuth Identity Provider (IdP) version.

 

Overview

This article explains how to change what appears when a user browses to a SecureAuth appliance's hostname directly, without a realm path (for example, https://secureauth.example.com instead of https://secureauth.example.com/secureauth1). By default, the Default Web Site in IIS isn't bound to any single SecureAuth realm, so instead of taking the user to a realm it falls back to a generic placeholder page — the "Default Appliance Page" on IIS versions before 8.5, or the Windows Server/IIS welcome page on IIS 8.5 and later.

• Use Method 1 to send users straight to a specific realm instead of showing this page.
• Use Method 2 if you'd rather keep a landing page but customize what it displays.
  
   

In this article

• Method 1: Redirect the Default Page to a SecureAuth Realm
• Method 2: Edit the Default Page Directly Instead of Redirecting
  
   

Method 1: Redirect the Default Page to a SecureAuth Realm

This method adds a meta refresh tag to the default page's HTML file so it immediately forwards visitors to the realm you choose. The file to edit, and its existing markup, differ slightly by IIS version.

1. Identify which file to edit for the appliance's IIS version: on IIS versions before 8.5, edit index.html in C:\inetpub\wwwroot; on IIS 8.5 and later, edit iisstart.htm in D:\inetpub\wwwroot.
2. Copy the file, then rename the original copy to a backup name (index-old.html or iisstart-old.htm) before pasting your working copy back in with the original filename. This keeps the original file available if the new configuration needs to be undone.
3. Open the file in Notepad as Administrator and find the existing Content-Type meta tag:
   On IIS versions before 8.5:
   <meta http-EQUIV="Content-Type" Content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
   On IIS 8.5 and later:
   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
    
4. Replace that tag with a meta refresh tag pointing at the desired realm:
   <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=<realm URL>" />
    
5. Save the file. Visitors are now redirected to the realm immediately.

6. To stop the placeholder content from flashing on screen before the redirect happens, remove everything inside the <body> tags and replace it with a minimal page containing only the meta refresh tag, for example:

   <!DOCTYPE html>
   <html>
   	<head>
   		<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=<realm URL>"/>
   		<title>Secure Portal Redirect</title>
   	</head>
   </html>

Method 2: Edit the Default Page Directly Instead of Redirecting

Use this method instead of Method 1 if you'd rather change what the default page shows — for example, replacing the generic Windows Server branding with your own — rather than send visitors elsewhere.

1. On the appliance, go to D:\inetpub\wwwroot.
2. Edit iisstart.htm to change the page's text, and/or replace its associated image file (referenced from within iisstart.htm) to change the graphic that's displayed.
   
   

SecureAuth Knowledge Base Articles provide information based on specific use cases and may not apply to all appliances or configurations. Be advised that these instructions could cause harm to the environment if not followed correctly or if they do not apply to the current use case.

Customers are responsible for their own due diligence prior to utilizing this information and agree that SecureAuth is not liable for any issues caused by misconfiguration directly or indirectly related to SecureAuth products.