What is host URL mapping?

Host URL Mapping in TeamForge Lab Management allows you to access web services running inside the TeamForge Lab Management environment from anywhere, using a simple and consistent URL, with optional SSL encryption services added on.

Host URL Mapping provides three major benefits:

Maintains a consistent URL even if the service is moved to a different TeamForge Lab Management node or different base URL.
Provides external access to resources that would otherwise be only accessible inside the TeamForge Lab Management environment. Because Host URL Mapping uses standard HTTP/HTTPS ports, you will not be blocked by firewalls that sometimes prevent port forwarding from working properly.
Allows you to transparently add SSL encryption to web services running inside your TeamForge Lab Management environment.

If your application mixes absolute and relative URL's, host URL mapping dynamically rewrites the absolute portions of your URLs to help ensure that your applications display properly when they are mapped. While not perfect, this feature has been tested with a number of web applications and found to be effective.

CAUTION:

Take the utmost care when exposing web services running on TeamForge Lab Management hosts to the outside world. Acquaint yourself with your organization's security policies, or develop them if you don't already have one, and make sure that all services that are exposed comply with these policies. Even better, work with CollabNet to establish access controls around the access to TeamForge Lab Management, so only authorized hosts from within your enterprise -- and trusted partners -- can access TeamForge Lab Management.

CollabNet strongly recommends that any web service that you expose be password-protected, or otherwise require authentication to access.

CollabNet Hosted customers: CollabNet performs regular scans of its network, and if we see a dangerous or vulnerable web service configured, we may take any steps necessary to protect the overall security of the TeamForge Lab Management customer environment, including disabling the offending service and the associated URL mapping.

Note: While you can convert non-SSL URL's into SSL using Host URL Mapping, you cannot map SSL URL's. You can use Port Forwarding to expose SSL URL's outside of the TeamForge Lab Management environment, however.