SharePoint – The importance of the AAM

As you already know, AAM (Alternate Access Mapping) allows you to define different URL to reach SharePoint sites. The importance of the AAM is frequently reminded – at least in the context of SharePoint publication for external access.

While you still can access to SharePoint sites from these different URL’s while they are not registered as AAM on SharePoint, you may/will experiment bad side effects.

With the Service Pack for SharePoint 2010, these malfunction are becoming more disturbing.

The following examples of problem have been meet AFTER the deployment of the SP1; so, if you have these problems, start by checking the AAM configuration before going deeper in the diagnostic – as reminder, SharePoint problems diagnostics can be a complex and a time consuming operation.

In case of bad AAM configuration, the following event is logged in the Windows Application event log

Nom du journal :Application
Source :       Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Foundation
Date :         11/08/2011 10:34:40
ID de l’événement :8059
Catégorie de la tâche :Configuration
Niveau :       Warning
Mots clés :   
Utilisateur :  <user name>
Ordinateur :   <server name>
Description :
Alternate access mappings have not been configured.  Users or services are accessing the site <referenced and well known URL> with the URL <URL used to reach the site>.  This may cause incorrect links to be stored or returned to users.  If this is expected, add the URL <URL used to reach the site> as an AAM response URL.  For more information, see: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=114854"/>

Errors due to missed AAM configuration

Of course, these are only sample and are not exhaustive

• Activation of the feature SharePoint Server Publishing returns the error ‘File not found’ (Site Settings\Site Actions\Manage site features)

• Access rights level check gives the error ‘File not found’ (Site Settings\Users and Permissions\Site permissions – Check Permissions). The Check permission appears and you are able to fill the User/Group field, the error occurs after hitting the Check now button

• Site deletion operation returns the error ‘File not found’ after the site deletion confirmation