Blimey! My recent post about worker processes generated a large number of follow up questions. Instead of answering all of these individually, this post will cover the details and perhaps be useful as a reference in the future.
Before I get started there is one thing which perhaps is obvious, but needs to be made clear: SharePoint 2010 is a beta release. It is always possible that things change come the final RTM release. That’s the point of a beta really!:)
I am going to assume the same setup characteristics from the example in the previous post.
What are the Application Pools that SharePoint 2010 creates?
This has been the most common question. My previous post deliberately ignored one and also skimmed over some details as well. Once we’ve installed SharePoint, run the Configuration Wizard and the Farm Configuration Wizard, we will have six Applications Pools in addition to those on the machine already. These are detailed below.
- SharePoint Web Services Root
Identity: LocalService
Status: Stopped
This guy hosts the SharePoint Web Services IIS Web Site and is on every machine in the farm. This is the host web site for Service Applications, it is analogous to the old “Office Web Services”. Service Applications WCFs are hosted in here as Applications which can (and should) be run in a different Application Pool. Whilst the IIS Web Site is important for bindings and other configuration, it’s absolutely OK that this Application Pool is stopped. If you try and browse the site, you will get a 503.
- SharePoint Central Administration v4
Identity: SharePoint Farm Account
Status: Started
This one is pretty straightforward. It’s responsible for Central Administration on the machines hosting it. It will include at least three applications (root, images, inc) plus an app for each Language Pack you have installed
- SharePoint Web Services System (which is named with a GUID)
Identity: SharePoint Farm Account
Status: Started
This guy hosts the Topology Service Application, which is known as the Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service Application.
- SecurityTokenServiceApplicationPool (which is named with a GUID)
Identity: SharePoint Farm Account
Status: Started
The guy hosts the Security Token Service Application, required internally even on a single server farm as well as for supporting inter-farm operations, and external Claims.
- SharePoint Web Services Default (which is named with a GUID)
Identity: SharePoint Services Account
Status: Started
This is the big daddy. It hosts all the other Service Applications. You will have as many applications in here as you do service applications deployed unless you configure their hosting manually.
- SharePoint – 80
Identity: SharePoint Services Account
Status: Started
This is the default application pool used to host end user Content Web Applications having used the Farm Configuration Wizard to get up and running quickly.
Should I stick with those, I should I do it “properly”?
It’s Beta – so yes, you should really, unless you are looking at “advanced” farm topology and other design aspects. If you are a developer, step away from the console! Also, be patient and wait for the real RTM guidance. But the bottom line is the first four are required. You don’t want to be fiddling about with them. The last two are what the Farm Configuration Wizard produces and in a real world deployment you would certainly not create the last one, and you would probably change up the service apps one as well.
What is up with the crazy GUIDs?
Horrible aren’t they! An IIS Application Pool can have but one unique identifier, it’s Name, for which uniqueness is enforced. It works perfectly. However SharePoint has decided to use GUIDs for this Name. Within Central Administration the Application Pools are displayed using a SharePoint only property – Name, which is actually a Display Name (e.g. SharePoint Web Services Default).
Moreover, the GUIDs used are, wait for it, yes – unique. These aren't “well known GUIDs” like class ids. They will be different on every installation. It would appear the GUID love from SQL server has found it’s way into IIS thru the back door.
One hopes this will be changed in the future. In the meantime if you want to find out which App Pool in IIS is which App Pool in SharePoint (crazy I know!) without fiddling around in the Internet Services Manager, you can do so with the following PowerShell:
Get-SPIisWebServiceApplicationPool | select Id, Name
Does SharePoint 2010 still “manage” aspects of the Application Pools such a recycle times?
Yes. This is the same. Avoid fiddling with these settings (e.g. Regular Time Interval) there are a couple dodgy blog posts out there by people who should know better recommending you change these settings. Don’t! They are in there for a reason and besides the SPF Web Application Service is responsible for their management. There are some settings which are tweak able, but it’s way too early for guidance here, and besides such tweaks are only useful in production environments.
Hopefully this helps address the questions I have had in response to the earlier post. I’ll be posting more on SharePoint 2010 process isolation in the future.
I’m honoured to be one of the speakers at the upcoming SharePoint Connections 2010 event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on the 18th and 19th January. It promises to be a great show with lots of great 2010 content and speakers. The general goal of the event is to deliver highlights from the SharePoint Conference earlier this year in Las Vegas to the European audience as well as offering significant networking opportunities. Its all going down at the RAI conference centre just outside Amsterdam city. The RAI isn’t a casino, but it is an excellent conference facility!
I will presenting the following sessions:
- MSC27: Claims Based Identity in SharePoint 2010
You will learn about the major investments in Claims based Identity in SharePoint 2010. You will understand how to use SharePoint in an heterogeneous identity environment for both sign-in and services (SOA). We will discuss the new identity architecture, learn about all the components and how to manage and operate them. In addition, we will go over the design decisions you will need to make as you plan the interop between SharePoint and external systems/web services. - MSC34: Implementing Multi-Lingual Solutions on SharePoint 2010
This session will discuss key success strategies for building multilingual Internet, extranet or intranet sites leveraging Variations and the new Multi-lingual User Interface. Key topics covered include: 1. Core technical concepts 2. Planning considerations 3. Information architecture and site structure 4. Hierarchy creation 5. Variations logic 6. Navigation and Web Parts 7. Multi-lingual User Interface benefits. - MSC12: Scaling SharePoint 2010 Topologies for Your Organization
Now that you learned about the new SharePoint Service architecture, come learn about how you architect Services for your organization. We will talk about various Canonical SharePoint deployment types (Internet Presence, Partner Collaboration via Extranets, distributed/consolidated data centers, medium sized organization etc.) and describe how you architect the Services logical topology. In addition to the logical topology, we will drill into how you scale-up/scale-out the physical topology to meet the scale expectations for your organization. Regardless of the nature and scale of your organization, SharePoint 2010 now offers a topology for you!
Along with my partner in crime, “The Doc”, Neil Hodgkinson, I will also be delivering an all day post conference workshop for IT Pros on the 20th January.
- MPS01: SharePoint Server 2010 Administration Workshop
Prepare yourself for the new world of SharePoint Server 2010 Administration! Come and spend a full day with SharePoint Certified Masters Spencer Harbar and Neil Hodgkinson as they cover the administration and operations fundamentals of SharePoint Server 2010. They’ll cover the gotchas of the install as well as potential pain points you might encounter when upgrading in your organization. After this workshop, you’ll have the key information you will need to install, upgrade, operate and manage SharePoint Server 2010 beta up and running in your organization.
There will also be a SharePint on the Monday evening to mingle with the SharePoint community, and also partake in some real beer. Yes, that’s right – real beer (made in Europe!) at a SharePoint event. Whatever next?! Check out the event site for more information and registration details.