Create or extend Web applications (Windows SharePoint Services)
Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Topic Last Modified: 2008-04-08
Before you can create a site or a site collection, you must first create a Web application. A Web application is comprised of an Internet Information Services (IIS) site with a unique application pool. When you create a new Web application, you also create a new database and define the authentication method used to connect to the database.
If you are in an extranet environment where you want different users to access content by using different domains, you might also need to extend a Web application to another IIS Web site. This action exposes the same content to different sets of users by using an additional IIS Web site to host the same content.
In this article:
Create a new Web application
Extend an existing Web application
Create a new Web application
Create a new Web application
In the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Application Management page, in the SharePoint Web Application Management section, click Create or extend Web application.
On the Create or Extend Web Application page, in the Adding a SharePoint Web Application section, click Create a new Web application.
On the Create New Web Application page, in the IIS Web Site section, you can configure the settings for your new Web application.
To choose to use an existing Web site, select Use an existing Web site, and specify the Web site on which to install your new Web application by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
To choose to create a new Web site, select Create a new IIS Web site, and type the name of the Web site in the Description box.
In the Port box, type the port number you want to use to access the Web application. If you are creating a new Web site, this field is populated with a suggested port number. If you are using an existing Web site, this field is populated with the current port number.
In the Host Header box, type the URL you want to use to access the Web application. This is an optional field.
In the Path box, type the path to the site directory on the server. If you are creating a new Web site, this field is populated with a suggested path. If you are using an existing Web site, this field is populated with the current path.
In the Security Configuration section, configure authentication and encryption for your Web application.
In the Authentication Provider section, choose either Negotiate (Kerberos) or NTLM.
Note
To enable Kerberos authentication, you must perform additional configuration. For more information about authentication methods, see Plan authentication methods (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Allow Anonymous section, choose Yes or No. If you choose to allow anonymous access, this enables anonymous access to the Web site by using the computer-specific anonymous access account (that is, IUSR_<computername>).
Note
If you want users to be able to access any site content anonymously, you must enable anonymous access for the entire Web application. Then later, site owners can configure how anonymous access is used within their sites. For more information about anonymous access, see Choose which security groups to use (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) section, select Yes or No. If you choose to enable SSL for the Web site, you must configure SSL by requesting and installing an SSL certificate.
Important
If you use SSL, you must add the appropriate certificate on each server by using IIS administration tools. For more information about using SSL, see Plan for secure communication within a server farm (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Load Balanced URL section, type the URL for the domain name for all sites that users will access in this Web application. This URL domain will be used in all links shown on pages within the Web application. By default, the box is populated with the current server name and port.
The Zone box is automatically set to Default for a new Web application, and cannot be changed from this page. To change the zone for a Web application, see Extend an existing Web application later in this article.
In the Application Pool section, choose whether to use an existing application pool or create a new application pool for this Web application. To use an existing application pool, select Use existing application pool. Then select the application pool you want to use from the drop-down menu.
To create a new application pool, select Create a new application pool.
In the Application pool name box, type the name of the new application pool, or keep the default name.
In the Select a security account for this application pool section, select Predefined to use an existing application pool security account, and then select the security account from the drop-down menu.
Select Configurable to use an account that is not currently being used as a security account for an existing application pool. In the User name box, type the user name of the account you want to use, and type the password for the account in the Password box.
In the Reset Internet Information Services section, choose whether to allow Windows SharePoint Services to restart IIS on other farm servers. The local server must be restarted manually for the process to finish. If this option is not selected and you have more than one server in the farm, you must wait until the IIS Web site is created on all servers and then run iisreset /noforce on each Web server. The new IIS site is not usable until that action is completed. The choices are unavailable if your farm only contains a single server.
In the Database Name and Authentication section, choose the database server, database name, and authentication method for your new Web application.
Item Action Database Server
Type the name of the database server and Microsoft SQL Server instance you want to use in the format <SERVERNAME\instance>.You can also use the default entry.
Database Name
Type the name of the database, or use the default entry.
Database Authentication
Choose whether to use Windows authentication (recommended) or SQL authentication.
If you want to use Windows authentication, leave this option selected.
If you want to use SQL authentication, select SQL authentication. In the Account box, type the name of the account you want the Web application to use to authenticate to the SQL Server database, and then type the password in the Password box.
Click OK to create the new Web application, or click Cancel to cancel the process and return to the Application Management page.
Extend an existing Web application
You can extend an existing Web application if you need to have separate IIS Web sites that expose the same content to users. This is typically used for extranet deployments where different users access content by using different domains. This option reuses the content database from an existing Web application.
Extend an existing Web application
In the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Application Management page, in the SharePoint Web Application Management section, click Create or extend Web application.
On the Create or Extend Web Application page, in the Adding a SharePoint Web Application section, click Extend an existing Web application.
On the Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site page, in the Web Application section, click the Web application link and then click Change Web application.
On the Select Web Application page, click the Web application you want to extend.
On the Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site page, in the IIS Web Site section, you can select Use an existing IIS Web site to use a Web site that has already been created, or you can choose to leave Create a new IIS Web site selected. The Description, Port, and Path boxes are populated for either choice. You can choose to use the default entries or type the information you want in the boxes.
In the Security Configuration section, configure authentication and encryption for the extended Web application.
In the Authentication Provider section, choose either Negotiate (Kerberos) or NTLM.
Note
To enable Kerberos authentication, you must perform additional configuration. For more information about authentication methods, see Plan authentication methods (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Allow Anonymous section, choose Yes or No. If you choose to allow anonymous access, this enables anonymous access to the Web site by using the computer-specific anonymous access account (that is, IUSR_<computername>).
Note
If you want users to be able to access any site content anonymously, you must enable anonymous access for the entire Web application. Then later, site owners can configure how anonymous access is used within their sites. For more information about anonymous access, see Choose which security groups to use (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) section, select Yes or No. If you choose to enable SSL for the Web site, you must configure SSL by requesting and installing an SSL certificate.
Important
If you use SSL, you must add the appropriate certificate on each server by using IIS administration tools. For more information about using SSL, see Plan for secure communication within a server farm (Windows SharePoint Services).
In the Load Balanced URL section, type the URL for the domain name for all sites that users will access in this Web application. This URL domain will be used in all links shown on pages within the Web application. By default, the text box is populated with the current server name and port.
In the Load Balanced URL section, under Zone, select the zone for the extended Web application from the drop-down menu. You can choose Intranet, Internet, Custom, or Extranet.
Click OK to extend the Web application, or click Cancel to cancel the process and return to the Application Management page.
For information about how to perform this procedure using the Stsadm command-line tool, see Extendvs: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).
Download this book
This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:
See the full list of available books at Downloadable books for Windows SharePoint Services.