Does SharePoint Web Services support Require SSL?

Question

I've been tasked with making all the sites on our SharePoint Servers require SSL connections. I've successfully bound our SharePoint Web Applications to https and enabled Require SSL for those web apps in IIS. Those work perfectly, as long as I do not require SSL for the SharePoint Web Services site.

However, when I try to enable Require SSL for SharePoint Web Services, the Security Token Service stops functioning and becomes unable to issue security tokens. Some User Profile jobs also start failing. SharePoint Web Services does have an https binding using port 32844, and I've verified that I can connect to that port. However, when I enable Require SSL then check the SharePoint logs, I see that the Security Token Service Application is continuing to try to connect to the HTTP endpoint on port 32843. I've tried editing the web.config file to see if I can force it to use HTTPS instead, but it always uses HTTP.

Am I stuck with HTTP? Can Require SSL be enabled for SharePoint Web Services, or is this option simply not supported?

Answer 1

SharePoint Web Services does support Require SSL. However, enabling Require SSL for SharePoint Web Services can cause issues with the Security Token Service and User Profile jobs. When Require SSL is enabled for SharePoint Web Services, the Security Token Service Application continues to try to connect to the HTTP endpoint on port 32843, even though there is an HTTPS binding using port 32844. This issue can be caused by the .NET trust level for the secure token service not being set to "Full" in IIS or the application pool for the secure token service not being started or using invalid credentials.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following possible solutions:

• From IIS Manager, click on the SecureTokenServiceApplication. In the "Features View", double click on .NET Trust Levels. Ensure that the trust level is set to "Full".
• From IIS Manager, ensure that the application pool for SecureTokenServiceApplication is running. By default, the name of the application pool is SecureTokenServiceApplicationPool.