I’ve just completed a process where a customer needed to change their subdomain due to an organisational name change. This site has a pretty large install. CCM, Docs and also leveraged Windows Desktop SSO via SPNEGO.
The change was connections.OLD.sub.dom.au to connections.NEW.sub.dom.au
There is some documentation out there on how to change host names, but I wanted to compile a list for this specific task. So here you go.
Pre-tasks
SSL CSR created, new key created and imported into new KDB. Make available on IBM HTTP Server.
DNS change implemented, and points to existing IBM HTTP Server. Keep old record in place as well. Also ensure that the new record is resolvable on all Connections hosts.
Change the SSL Certificate over in IHS. (Change the following)
Keyfile D:\IBM\HTTPServer\NEWkey.kdb SSLStashFile D:\IBM\HTTPServer\NEWkey.sth
CellDefaultTrustStore as it shared a common root with the previous Certificate.
Connections changes
Change the LotusConnectection-config.xml file. Check out with wsadmin, change the references to OLD and replace with NEW. Check-in. Process here
While in wsadmin, change the Notifications file to reflect new mail domain. Change the Administration user that notifications come from. Check-in. Process here
Change and update Blogs
To update the URL’s inside blogs, there is an AdminTask. while still in wsadmin, execute the following.
execfile(blogsAdmin.py) BlogsAdminService.fixBrokenUrls(https://connections.old.sub.dom.au, https://connections.new.sub.dom.au)
Change LTPA to reflect new Domain.
In the ISC, select Global Security > Single sign-on
Update the Domain name field to reflect the new sub domain. i.e from .old.sub.com.au to .new.sub.dom.au

Re-sync all nodes, stop and restart the entire environment (DMGR and NODES).
Docs Changes
Docs is pretty straight forward.
The property files for Docs all need to be changed. They are found in: <WAS_HOME>/profiles/<DMGR>/config/cells/{cellname}/IBMDocs-config/
Change all instances of OLD url to NEW in the concord-config.json file, and the viewer-config.json file. Just to be safe, verify no instances of OLD url exist in the other .json files in the directory. If there are, change them.
Re-sync all nodes, stop and restart the entire environment (DMGR and NODES).
CCM Changes
For CCM, we only had to update the Activity stream widget. Follow this process
Update Scheduled tasks
Jump back into wsadmin, and run the following. Following is from the knowledge centre.
Scheduler.listAllTasks() Scheduler.clearAllTasks() Note: If Scheduler.clearAllTasks() does not clear tasks successfully, run clearScheduler.sql manually for each of the applications. For example: db2 -v -td@ -f activities\db2\clearScheduler.sql db2 -v -td@ -f homepage\db2\clearScheduler.sql The SQL scripts are in the following locations: AIX or Linux: connections_root/connections.sql directory.
Update Search
I planned on updating search, but I didn’t get any errors after the change while using the search. Just to be safe, I kicked off a new once off index task after the changes were completed.
SPNEGO SSO
- Customer created a new SPN for http://connections.new.sub.dom.au and provided the key tab.
- Create a new krb5.conf file, ensure it exists on all nodes.
- Create a new SPNEGO filter (From item 3. onwards in this link)
- Edit existing filters to point to http://connections.new.sub.dom.au.
- Re-sync all nodes, stop and restart the entire environment (DMGR and NODES).
…..and finally, a bit of a catch all
IBM HTTP Server rewrite – redirect OLD url to NEW
Add the following to handle any URLS that still come in using the old name. Replace your new server names below.
#Added to support redirect from OLD to NEW <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName connections.OLD.sub.dom.au RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/$ /homepage [PT] RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://connections.NEW.sub.dom.au/$1 [R,L] </VirtualHost> RewriteEngine off <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName connections.OLD.sub.dom.au SSLEnable RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^/$ https://connections.NEW.sub.dom.au/homepage [PT] RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://connections.NEW.sub.dom.au/$1 [R,L] </VirtualHost> RewriteEngine off SSLDisable <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName connections.NEW.sub.dom.au RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/$ /homepage [PT] </VirtualHost> RewriteEngine Off <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName connections.NEW.sub.dom.au SSLEnable RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^/$ /homepage [PT] </VirtualHost> RewriteEngine Off