Extending Web Applications in SharePoint 2013

Why / when should we extend a Web Application in SharePoint 2013?

In any web application, we could see 2 type of users Internal or External. If we want to collaborate on the SharePoint site with both Internal and External users the best approach from Microsoft is Extend the Web Application. Once we extend the web application we can configure a different set of permissions to that users. However, both the web applications communicate the same Content DB.

Note: When you extend the Web Application SharePoint creates only a new IIS site in Application Pool and connects with the same content database.

Business example:

In an organization, we have 2 verticals Finance and BPO. If we need to share the same web application between verticals without breaking the permissions! The best way is Extending Web Application.

In this article, we are going to learn how to extend a web application in both
– Central Administration
– PowerShell Commands

Read some SharePoint 2013 tutorials:

• Configure Forward and Reverse lookup Zones in DNS
• Update User Email-ID using PowerShell in SharePoint 2013
• SharePoint online: Ultimate tutorial guide PDF download

Approach 1: Extending web application in Central Administration:

Follow the below steps to extend a web application in SharePoint 2013 through Central Administration.
– Log-on to Application Server with FARM administrator account
– Select the required web application under Manage Web Applications
Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Web Applications

– Click on Extend option as part ribbon control to extend the web application
– Provide all the details of new extending web application in the model dialogue window

Note:
In this model dialogue window do can’t see the below option which you see while creating a new web application as they carry forward from the original Web Application.
1. Database server name
2. Failover DB server name
3. Application services

Once you provide all the details click on OK at the end of model dialogue window to create the extended web application.

Approach 1: PowerShell Commands:

Follow the below steps to extend the web application using PowerShell commands.
– Log-On to Application server with FARM administrator account
– Open SharePoint 2013 Management Shell with FARM administrator account
– Run the below command to extend the desired web application

Syntax:

$ap = New-SPAuthenticationProvider -ASPNETRoleProviderName roleprovidername -ASPNETMembershipProvider membershipprovidername

Get-SPWebApplication -Identity <Existing Web Application> | New-SPWebApplicationExtension -Name <Web Application Name> -HostHeader <HostHeader> -Zone <Zone> -URL <URL> -Port <Port> -AuthenticationProvider $ap

Parameters:
<Name> is the name of the new IIS web site in the web application. – Mandatory
<HostHeader> is the hostname assigned to this zone of the web application. – Optional
<Zone> is the zone with which this new extension is to be associated. – Mandatory
<URL> is the public URL for this web application zone. – Mandatory
<Port> is the port on which this zone of the web application can be accessed. – Mandatory

Examples:
$ap = New-SPAuthenticationProvider -ASPNETRoleProviderName roleprovidername -ASPNETMembershipProvider membershipprovidername

Get-SPWebApplication -Identity http://contoso.sales.com | New-SPWebApplicationExtension -Name IntranetSite -Zone Intranet -URL http://intranet.conoso.sales.com -Port 9876 -AuthenticationProvider $ap

Tags: extending web application sharepoint 2013, extending web application sharepoint 2016, extending web application sharepoint 2010, sharepoint 2013 extend web application, sharepoint 2016 extend web application, powershell extend web application sharepoint 2013, sharepoint 2013 extend web application ssl, sharepoint 2013 extend web application extranet

Enjoy administration in SharePoint 2013 !!!