- July
- 10
- 2007
Which server the SharePoint Central Administration web site should be installed on and how to move it there.
Posted by johnwpowell
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The Central Administration (CA) web site is hosted on the first server you configure in your farm. Because it seems like a logical place to start, the first front-end web server is often the first to be configured. As a result, CA is often installed on a front-end web server. Microsoft recommends that you do not host the CA web site on a front-end web server! If you have a single-server implementation, you don't have much of a choice, but if your farm has a dedicated index server, the recommendation is to host the CA there. I believe the intent is to host CA on a box that isn't accessible outside your firewall.
Q: Because the CA web site is hosted on one server and I need the site to configure my farm, is it a single point of failure?
A: It is not a single failure because the configuration information and the CA web site content are stored in the database, not on the file system. If the server that hosts the CA web site goes down, you can configure another server to host the CA. web site The only caveat to this is that any customizations you made to the CA web site that are not stored in the database (IP binding, SSL certificate, web.config changes) will be lost. Your backup plan should include copying files from the CA web site and backing up the IIS metabase. But even if you lost those customizations, you would still be able to get the CA web site up and running enabling you to configure the farm.
Q: Can you load-balance the CA web site?
A: No. The CA web site can only be hosted on one server at a time. Yes! You can use extend the CA site on multiple servers in the farm using psconfig or the configuration wizard. Then you have to update the shortcut to Central Admin on each server using these instructions. Just keep security in mind. If you choose to put the CA website on the front-end servers, you are increasing your vulnerability surface area. I think when possible, CA makes the most sense on the index server. The only reason to load balance the CA web site would be for redundancy (not load), and the configuration information is stored in the database, not on the server. So if you are going to make anything redundant – make it your database server.
Update: the SharePoint Best Practice Analyzer has a rule which checks to ensure the CA site is running on multiple servers. If it is not, you will receive the following error:
| Title: | Highly Available Central Administration Capability |
| Severity: | 3 |
| Description:
Only one instance of the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration Web site exists in your installation. To make sure that you can administer the farm in the case of a failure of a server hosting SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, you should have SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration installed on at least two servers in the farm.
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Q: How do I move the CA web site to another server?
A: Use the SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard to remove the CA web site from one server and install on another server. Here are the steps:
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Backup the current CA web site. Backup the directory (C:InetpubwwwrootwssVirtualDirectories[CA port number]). If you backup nothing else, get the web.config. Backup the IIS web site (you can use IIS to save the web site as a file).
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On the server that currently hosts the CA web site, run the SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard. Click next until you see an Advanced Settings button. Select Do not use this machine to host the web site.
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On the server that you want to host the CA web site, run the SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard. Click next until you see an Advanced Settings button. Select Use this machine to host the web site.
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Restore any files / IIS customizations if necessary.
I hope you find this information useful.