Create a Web application (Windows SharePoint Services)

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Topic Last Modified: 2008-01-15

Before you perform these procedures, confirm that:

• You have read the topic Create, extend, or delete a Web application (Windows SharePoint Services).

Creating a Web application

You can use the following procedures to create a new Web application.

Create a new Web application by using Central Administration

1. 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.

2. On the Create or Extend Web Application page, in the Adding a SharePoint Web Application section, click Create a new Web application.

3. On the Create New Web Application page, in the IIS Web Site section, you can configure the settings for your new Web application.

   1. To choose to use an existing Web site, select Use an existing Web site, and then specify the Web site on which to install your new Web application by selecting it from the drop-down list.

   2. To choose to create a new Web site, select Create a new IIS Web site, and then either accept the default name provided for you, or type a new name for the Web site in the Description box.

   3. In the Port box, type the port number that 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.

   4. In the Host Header box, type the URL that you want to use to set the IIS host header binding. This is an optional field.

      Note

      In general, this field is not set unless you want to have two or more IIS Web sites using port 80 on the same server, and DNS has been configured to point multiple server names to the same server.

   5. In the Path box, type the path to the home 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.

4. In the Security Configuration section, configure authentication and encryption for your Web application.

   1. 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).

   2. 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. 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).

   3. 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).

5. 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 Create zones for Web applications (Windows SharePoint Services).

6. 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. Next, select the application pool you want to use from the drop-down list.

   1. To create a new application pool, select Create a new application pool.

   2. In the Application pool name box, type the name of the new application pool, or keep the default name.

   3. 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.

      Note

      It is recommended that you only use a Predefined account if Windows SharePoint Services is the only application on the server. Otherwise, you should use a Configurable account.

   4. Select Configurable to specify a new account to be 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.

7. 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 cannot be used until that action is completed.

   Note

   The choices are unavailable if your farm only contains a single server.

8. 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, accept the default. 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.

9. Click OK to create the new Web application, or click Cancel to cancel the process and return to the Application Management page.

Create a Web application by using the Stsadm command-line tool

1. On the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, open a command-line window and type the following command:

   cd %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin

2. To create a new Web application, use the following command, including any options that apply to your environment:

   stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url <URL> -ownerlogin <domain name\user name> -owneremail <someone@example.com> [-exclusivelyusentlm] [-ownername <display name>] [-databaseuser <database user name>] [-databaseserver <database server>] [-databasename <server name\instance>] [-databasepassword <database user password>] [-lcid <language identifier>] [-sitetemplate <site template name>] [-donotcreatesite] [-description <Web application friendly name>] [-sethostheader] [-apidname <application pool name>] [-apidtype {configurableid | NetworkService}] [-apidlogin <domain\user name>] [-apidpwd <application pool identity password>] [-allowanonymous]

   For more information, see Extendvs.

Additional references

For information about:

• Extending a Web application to another IIS Web site, see Extend a Web application to host the same content as another Web application (Windows SharePoint Services).

• Web applications and how to structure your logical architecture, see Logical architecture components (Windows SharePoint Services).