Q: I installed the System Center Service Manager 2012 web portal with a custom SSL certificate, so why is it that when I navigate to the website I see a blank screen?

A: System Center Service Manager 2012 is built using Silverlight SharePoint Web Parts, and it's encrypted with SSL. After configuring my portal with a domain-generated SSL certificate for the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the site, I navigated to the website and saw no content displayed in the results area (see the screen shot below).

The problem was Service Manager actually uses the NetBIOS format name in the IIS configuration, which didn't match the FQDN of my SSL certificate, so the content didn't display. The solution to this problem follows:

1. Start IIS Manager.
2. Expand Sites and select Service Manager Portal.
3. In the ASP.NET section, select Application Settings.
4. Select the SMPortal_WebContentServer_URL name, and change its value to use the FQDN of the site (see the screen shot below).
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click OK.

The website should now show correctly.

 

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