Manage Web Applications On SharePoint 2013 Central Administration - Part One

Welcome to an article on how to manage the web applications on Central Administration of SharePoint 2013. Here, we will see how the Central Admin controls management of the web application.

Let’s open Central Admin of SharePoint in your machine. On your Windows desktop screen, click Start >> Administrative Tools >> SharePoint 2013 Central Administration.

• Run it as an administrator to have elevated privileges.
  
• You will see the screen below.
  
  
  
  
• Central Admin is configured under the categories given below.
  
• Click on Application Management.
  
  
  
  
• You will see Web Applications.
  
• Click on "Manage web applications".
  
• You will see the following screen.
  
  
  
  
• Here, we can see various options to work with the web applications.
  
• Let’s see them from left to right in different parts of the article.

We have four categories where the events have been categorized.

1. Contribute
2. Manage
3. Security
4. Policy

Under "Contribute", we have "New".

• New
  • On clicking on ‘New’, you can create a new web application.
  • It opens a form to fill in and complete the configuration.

  

  1. IIS Web Site
     
     You can either choose an existing IIS web site or create a new one.
     If you choose the default one, just select it from the drop down above or create a new one by adding the name, port number, host header, and path to the IIS website.
     
     
  2. Security Configuration
     
     Allow Anonymous - You can allow or disallow access to anonymous users.
     User SSL - You can use SSL as per your requirement but if you use SSL, you need to provide an adequate certificate or else the web will not be accessible.
     
     
     
     
  3. Claims Authentication Types
     
     You can use three types of authentication.
     
     Windows Authentication
     
     
  1. Integrate
     You can integrate Windows authentication with NTLM or Negotiate/Kerberos, depending on your organization structure. If you choose Kerberos, the application pool needs to be on the Network Service whereas NTLM will work on any application pool.
     
     
  2. Basic
     Basic authentication will use the credentials in an unencrypted manner, to provide you access.
     
     
  3. Form Based
     You can also use form-based authentication which will allow users to enter the credentials on a form and validate accordingly.
     
     
     
  4. Sign-in Page URL
     
     You can choose if you want to have a sign-in page as default or custom. If custom, you have to provide a URL for the same.
     
     
  5. Public URL
     
     The public URL is the domain URL which will act as a front-end link for all SharePoint applications using the web.
     
     
  6. Application Pool
     
     Here, you can either choose an old one or a new application pool. This will help you identify the account that will be used to use this service.
     
     
     
     
  7. Database Names and Authentication
     
     Provide the Database Server and Name for the web application.
     
     Database Authentication
     Choose the authentication as Windows or SQL with the database.
     
     Failover Server
     Add a mirror database in case of a failed Server.
     
     
     
     
  8. Service Applications Connections
     
     You can add the service applications which will be connected to the web applications, like metadata, external data, services, and many more.
     
     
  9. Customer Experience Improvement Program
     
     You can allow or disallow sending the website analytics but be sure that this will be on the public internet.
     
     
• Once you complete the configuration, click "OK". The web application will be created.

In this part of managing the web application, we saw how to create a web application. There are more features under managing the web applications which we will see in the next article.

Until then, keep reading and keep learning.