In Service Desk Express it is possible to install the application in a website(s) that is NOT the Default website in IIS. Using DNS entries this allows your users to access the core application and self-service via much shorter (easier to remember), resilient (i.e. servers can be renamed without application falling over) URLs. Whilst this is great for all us Service Desk Express users, this is not an option for Magic 8.0 and below. So what is the solution for them.
The easiest solution I have found is to open IIS Manager on the application server and create a new website called SDE. This should appear along side the Default Web Site NOT a virtual directory in the default web site. Call the new web site SDE and on the IP and Port Settings window select the IP address of the server rather than all and enter sde in the host header. Navigate to C:Program FilesBMCApplication Server or whatever the location is on your server. Select Run Scripts as well as the default Read and click finish.
Now the trick: Right click on the website you have just created and select properties. Click on the Home Directory tab and change the content to a redirection to a url and enter your http://servername/sde as the address. Click OK.
Finally, get your server admins to create a DNS entry (CNAME) pointing to the IP Address of the server or its name and you should now be able to type SDE into a browser window and automatically be taken there.
Obviously you can repeat this exercise creating another website for self-service etc.
As always, any feedback/comments always welcome.
JOATIT 
Hi,
I tries all the above mentioned steps on my virtual environment, but i still get the page cannot be displayed message.
Have i missed something?
Thanks,
Regards,
A. Robinson
Hi Ashit,
So on the workstation/server you are trying to access the website from can you ping the DNS entry using a command prompt.
Also make sure the DNS entry does not contain an underscore as that does not work.
Regards,
Alan
Hi Alan,
What i have done is..that i have installed sde 9.6 on vmware for testing purpose..then i came across ur post yesterday..hence i wanted try it on that virtual machine..and what i have done is create a website as u outlined step by step..thats it..i havent done anything related to DNS settings..as this is just a normal windows 2003 virtual test environment on my xp laptop..so in this case what do i do..shud i ping the new website from the cmd prompt within the virtual machine?
Thanks.
Regards,
Ashit
Hi Ashit,
That now makes much more sense. OK so the way this works is that when a user in a domain types say http://magic the DNS server in that domain tells the client (the user) which IP address that URL relates to. When the client then reaches that IP address the stuff that you have done on your SDE server tells it which web site on that server to open. Consequently, as you haven’t got a DNS server that is why it is not working.
What you can do is to modify your LMHOSTS file on your computer and enter the IP address of your server and the name of the website you have created and that should work even in a virtual environment.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Alan