How to configure apps environment for SharePoint 2016/2013

In this post, we will discuss how to configure apps environment for SharePoint 2016/2013.

In this particular example, we will see how to configure the apps environment for SharePoint 2016 or SharePoint 2013.

Configure apps environment for SharePoint

After installing SharePoint 2016, if you will try to add an app from the app store you will not be able to add it. It will message like “Sorry, we can’t seem to connect to the SharePoint store. Try again in a bit.”

Because we need to first configure the SharePoint On-premises environment for Apps.

Follow the below steps:

Configure Forward Lookup Zone

First, we need to add a forward lookup zone for Apps. In windows server 2012 r2, search for Administrative tools and then click on DNS. This will open the DNS manager.

In the DNS manager expand the server and then right-click on Forward Lookup Zones and click on New Zone… as shown in the fig below:

This will open the New Zone wizard like below, here click on Next.

Then in the Zone Type, select Primary Zone and select the checkbox “Store the zone in Active Directory (available only if DNS server is a writable domain controller)” like below:

Then in the “Active Directory Zone Replication Scope select “To all DNS servers running on domain controllers in this domain” option like below (you can choose according to your requirement):

In the zone, name type the zone name like below and click on Next.

In the Dynamic Update page, select Allow only secure dynamic updates (recommended for Active Directory) option. It should look like below:

In the last screen, it will display all the settings. Verify and click on Finish as shown in the fig below:

After this, if you will see in the Forward Lookup Zones, you can see the one entry there with the name we provided.

Create CNAME Record

Next, we need to create CNAME records for the newly created domain name, for this follow below steps.

Again go back to the DNS manager if you have closed it. Then expand the Forward Lookup Zone and right-click on the newly created domain name.

Then select “New Alias (CNAME)”.

If this option comes as disable, then just refresh once, it will automatically enable.

Then in the New Resource Record, in the alias name give *. It will auto-populate the Fully qualified domain name (FDQN). Then in the Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for target host: click on Browse… as shown in the fig below:

Then click on the Server name as shown in the fig below:

Then click on Forward Lookup Zones as shown in the fig below:

Then select the domain that hosts the SharePoint sites as shown in the fig below:

Then select the record that points to the server that hosts the SharePoint site like below:

After this the final New Resource Record window should look like below:

Verify if the newly created domain

To verify if the newly created domain configured successfully ping the domain name like below, Open PowerShell command and ping like below:

Start Subscription Settings and App Management Services

In the next step, we need to start Subscription settings as well as App management services.

Open SharePoint 2016 central administration. Then click on “Manage service applications” which is under Application Management.

Then check for App Management Serice, if it has not been started click on Start to start this. It should look like below:

The Subscription Settings Service can be configured from PowerShell commands only. So run the below PowerShell command like below:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
$account = Get-SPManagedAccount “MYSP\Administrator”
$appPool = New-SPServiceApplicationPool -Name SubscriptionServiceAppPool -Account $account
$serviceApp = New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplication -ApplicationPool $appPool -name “Subscription Settings Service” -DatabaseName “Subscription_Settings_DB”
$serviceAppProxy = New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplicationProxy -ServiceApplication $serviceApp

After running this command, if you will navigate to “Manage service applications” which is under Application Management, you can see the Subscription Settings Service should be activated like below:

Configure App URL

In the next step, we need to configure App URLs. For this Open SharePoint 2016 central administration, click on Apps and then click on Configure App URLs which is under App Management like below:

Then give App domain which we have created and an App prefix as shown in the fig below:

Then go to SharePoint 2016 central administration, click on Application Management. Then click on “Manage web applications” which is under Web Applications.

Then select the particular web application, from the ribbon click on Manage Features. And then activate “Apps that require accessible internet-facing endpoints” as shown in the fig below:

After this, if you want to add an app from the SharePoint App Store, it should add successfully.

You may like following SharePoint Apps tutorials:

• Display SharePoint List Items in Hyperlink in SharePoint Hosted Add-in or Apps
• SharePoint Hosted App: Get Data from Host Web
• SharePoint Hosted Apps: Create Choice Type Column in SharePoint Online Office 365
• SharePoint Hosted Add-in: Send Email to SharePoint group using visual studio workflow
• SharePoint Hosted Add-in: Send Email using visual studio workflow

In this tutorial, we learned how to configure the apps environment for SharePoint 2016/2013.