HTTP to HTTPS Redirection Options in Forefront TMG and UAG

When publishing SSL-protected web sites such as Microsoft Outlook Web App with Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 or Unified Access Gateway (UAG) 2010, it is often desirable to allow clients to enter the URL of the site without specifying the HTTPS protocol explicitly. For example, when publishing Outlook Web App (OWA) 2010 where the full URL ishttps://mail.celestix.net/owa/, for convenience an administrator might want to redirect non-secure requests for http://mail.celestix.net/owa/ to use the secure HTTPS protocol automatically. This can be done in a number of ways, depending on which Forefront solution is used for publishing.

Forefront TMG

With TMG, HTTPS redirection can be enabled by opening the properties of the web listener used in the publishing rule and selecting Enable HTTPS connections on port: and Redirect authenticated traffic from HTTP to HTTPS.

Now when users request the non-secure http://mail.celestix.net/owa/ they will automatically be redirected to the secure https://mail.celestix.net/owa/.

Even more convenient is to redirect requests for the base URL http://mail.celestix.net/ to the correct path https://mail.celestix.net/owa/. The easiest way to accomplish this is to create a new publishing rule that denies requests to http://mail.celestix.net/ and redirects them to https://mail.celestix.net/owa/. To enable this functionality, use the Web Site Publishing Wizard to create a publishing rule that denies access to http://mail.celesitx.net/and redirects those requests to https://mail.celestix.net/owa/.

Be sure to place this rule before the publishing rule allowing access to the SSL-protected web site.

Now when users request the non-secure http://mail.celestix.net/ they will automatically be redirected to the secure https://mail.celestix.net/owa/.

Forefront UAG

Configuring Forefront UAG to redirect HTTP to HTTPS is even simpler. After you’ve created a trunk and published OWA, right-click HTTP Connections in the UAG management console navigation tree, select New Trunk, and then select the HTTP to HTTPS redirection option.