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Configure an environment for apps for SharePoint 2013

Summary One of the new features of SharePoint 2013 is the SharePoint Store. Similar to the Windows Phone

Marketplace and Google Play Store, this new feature gives site owners the ability to discover and

download apps for SharePoint from the store and install them on their SharePoint Sites. Furthermore, if

you are a developer for your company, you will need to setup your environment to host apps if you

want to test them.

The following are examples of apps for SharePoint that site owners could add to their sites:

An app that provides event planning tools.

An app that provides a shopping cart experience for a site.

An app that sends a note of recognition for good work (kudos) to someone in the organization.

When you install SharePoint 2013, by default this functionality is not supported and users will get the

following error when they try to install an application.

Sorry, apps are turned off. If you know who runs the server, tell them to enable apps.

This article will provide IT Professionals and Developers a step by step guide with screenshots

on how to make your SharePoint 2013 environment capable of using SharePoint Store

applications.

This is what you need before you start

Have a Farm Administrator account with the DBCreator and SecurityAdmin roles on the

SQL Server.

Have a Domain Admin account.

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Author

Vlad Catrinescu

Vlad is a SharePoint Consultant specializing in analyzing and deploying your perfect

SharePoint Infrastructure. He also specializes into designing and implementing High

Availability and Disaster Recovery SharePoint solutions as well as automating

everything with the magic of PowerShell.

Vlad is also known in the community for founding the biggest and most active SharePoint Community that

you can find at www.SharePoint-Community.net . Furthermore, he also blogs on his own blog at

www.absolute-sharepoint.com.

If you ever have any questions, want to connect, or just wanna say thanks, don’t hesitate to add

me on twitter @vladcatrinescu or add me on LinkedIn at the following link: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vladcatrinescu

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Table of Contents Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 1

Author ........................................................................................................................................................... 2

To create a forward lookup zone for the app domain name ........................................................................ 4

To create a wildcard Alias (CNAME) record for the new domain name ....................................................... 7

To verify the new domain name ................................................................................................................... 9

To start the Subscription Settings and App Management services in Central Administration .................. 10

To configure the Subscription Settings service application by using Windows PowerShell ....................... 11

To configure the App Management service application by using Windows PowerShell ........................... 11

To configure app URLs ................................................................................................................................ 12

To configure Internet-facing endpoints for apps ........................................................................................ 14

Creating a Web Application with no host header in order to avoid errors ................................................ 15

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To create a forward lookup zone for the app domain name

1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a local administrator on the domain

controller.

2. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click DNS.

3. In DNS Manager, right-click Forward Lookup Zones, and then click New Zone….

4. In the New Zone Wizard, click Next.

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5. In the Zone Type page, accept the default of Primary zone, and then click Next.

6. In the Active Directory Zone Replication Scope page, select the appropriate replication method

for your environment (the default is To all DNS servers in this domain), and then click Next.

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7. In the Zone Name page, in the Zone name box type the name for your new app domain name

(for example, ContosoApps.com), and then click Next.

8. On the Dynamic Update page, select the appropriate type of dynamic updates for your environment (the default is Do not allow dynamic updates), and then click Next.

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9. On the Completing the New Zone Wizard page, review the settings, and then click Finish.

To create a wildcard Alias (CNAME) record for the new domain name

1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a local administrator on the domain controller.

2. In DNS Manager, under Forward Lookup Zones, right-click the new app domain name, and then click New Alias (CNAME).

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3. In the New Resource Record dialog box, in the Alias name (uses parent domain if left blank) box, type *. 4. Next to the Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for target host box, type the FQDN of the server that

hosts the SharePoint sites.

For example, SharePoint.Contoso.com.

Or:

a. Next to the Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for target host box, click Browse and navigate to the Forward Lookup Zone for the domain that hosts the SharePoint sites.

b. And then navigate to the record that points to the server that hosts the SharePoint site.

5. Click OK.

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To verify the new domain name

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a local administrator on the domain controller.

2. Click Start, and then click Command Prompt. 3. At the command prompt, type ping followed by a subdomain of the domain that you created, and then

press ENTER.

For example, ping Apps-12345678ABCDEF.contosoapps.com

If the ping command returns the correct IP address, then your wildcard for the domain name was configured successfully.

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To start the Subscription Settings and App Management services in

Central Administration

1. Verify that you are a member of the farm administrators group in Central Administration. 2. In SharePoint 2013 Central Administration, click System Settings. 3. On the System Settings page, under Servers, click Manage services on server.

4. On the Services on Server page, next to App Management Service, click Start. 5. On the Services on Server page, next to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service,

click Start. 6. Verify that the App Management and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings services are

running. The following illustration shows the Services on Serverpage where you can verify that the App Management and Subscription Settings services are running.

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To configure the Subscription Settings service application by using

Windows PowerShell

1. Verify that you have the following memberships:

securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.

db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.

Administrators group on the server on which you are running the Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

2. Change the values that are in blue in the following script. You download the script from www.absolute-sharepoint.com

3. Open SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as an Administrator and run the script.

To configure the App Management service application by using

Windows PowerShell

1. Verify that you have the following memberships:

securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.

db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.

Administrators group on the server on which you are running the Windows PowerShell cmdlets.

2. Change the values that are in blue in the following script. You download the script from www.absolute-sharepoint.com

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3. Open SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as an Administrator and run the script.

To configure app URLs

1. In Central Administration, click Apps.

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2. On the Apps page, click Configure App URLs.

3. In the App domain box, type the isolated domain that you created for hosting apps. 4. In the App prefix box, type a name to use for the URL prefix for apps.

5. Click OK.

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To configure Internet-facing endpoints for apps

1. In Central Administration, click Application Management. 2. On the Application Management page, click Manage Web applications. 3. On the Manage Web Applications page, select the web application that you want to change. 4. On the ribbon, click Manage Features.

5. In the feature list, next to Apps that require accessible internet facing endpoints, click Activate.

6. Click OK.

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Creating a Web Application with no host header in order to avoid errors

Since all your apps run on your new domain and your IIS will not understand the new URL (Ex: accesing

xy.mcatrinescu.com and the apps in xy.mcatrinescuapps.com) you might have this error:

There is a simple way to fix it, by creating a web application and root site collection without a host

header!

Here are the steps:

1. Go into Central Administration and click Application Management

2. Go into Manage Web Applications

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3. Click on New, set the Port to 80 and do not enter anything in the Host Header

The rest is as usual:

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After that, you create a Site Collection using the Team Site

Now, we have to delete the Default Web Site from IIS!

1. Go into IIS Manager as an administrator, and expand your Sites.

2. Right click on the Default Website, and select Remove