Office Web App in SharePoint 2013

Document Preview in SP 2013

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Office Web App Server Overview

Office Web Apps Server is a new Office server product that delivers browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. A single Office Web Apps Server farm can support users who access Office files through SharePoint 2013, Lync Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013, shared folders, and websites.

Office Web Apps (OWA) is no longer a set of SharePoint Service Applications, and the deployment of a separate OWA farm is necessary.

General Guidelines

• To minimize the complexity of the deployment, install all office web apps roles on each server instead of distributing the roles on servers.

• Office web Apps 2013 does not require SQL database.

• PowerShell is used to define Office Web Apps topology, by using New-OfficeWebAppsFarm command with the master server (the first server in the farm) and by using New-OfficeWebAppsMachine command to join more machines to the farm.

• Also PowerShell commands are used to connect the SharePoint farm to Office Web Apps farm.

• In case of installing updates and patches , the Office Web Apps server should be disconnected from the Office Web Apps farm then joined again after finish the patching.

• SharePoint system account cant render office web apps (by design for security)

• NLB Tips
• Consider using NLB for high availability
• Make sure to enable NLB server affinity

Prerequisites

• Office web apps should be installed on a dedicated server (don’t install it on SharePoint servers, SQL Server , Domain Controller).
• The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter or Windows 2012 Standard or Data Center.
• Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 KB2592525
• .Net framework 4.5 to be installed http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30653
• Windows Management Framework 3.0 – Powershell http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595

Best Practice(s)

 Servers that run Office Web Apps Server must not run any other server application. This includes Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server, and SQL Server. If you have hardware constraints, you can run Office Web Apps Server in a virtual machine instance on one of these servers.

• Don’t install any other server applications on the server that’s running Office Web Apps Server
• Do not install any services or roles that depend on the Web Server (IIS) role on port 80, 443, or 809 because Office Web Apps Server periodically removes web applications on these ports
• Do not install any version of Office. You must uninstall Office before you install Office Web Apps Server.
• Don’t install Office Web Apps Server on a domain controller.
• Make sure all SharePoint 2013 web applications use claims-based authentication. Office Web Apps rendering and editing won’t work on SharePoint 2013 web applications that use classic mode authentication

Next Steps after installation

After installation, we need to run following cmdlets to create OWA Farm.

• New-OfficeWebAppsFarm –InternalUrl “http://OfficeApps” –AllowHttp –EditingEnabled – To create new OWA Farm
• New-OfficeWebAppsHost -Domain  - To Add your domain to the list of allowed hosts.
• New-SPWOPIBinding -ServerName <WacServerName> -AllowHTTP    -  Configure a connnection between SP Farm and OWA Farm
• Set-SPWopiZone –zone "internal-http"   – To set the zone
• Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm –EditingEnabled – Enabling Edit in Browser
• Change the AllowOAuthOverHttp setting in SharePoint 2013 to True
•  

Limitations:

1.       Only Supports Microsoft office Documents (Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote document).

2.       In order to enable this preview functionality, you must have a separate Farm. ( Extra Server(s))

3.       Not very lightweight as every document to be converted for each preview.

You installed the March CU for Office Web Apps 2013 (WAC) which supports rendering PDF files

File previews in SharePoint 2013 are handled by the script filepreview.js, and this script has not yet been updated to handle PDF files. You could either edit the file manually, which we know we should stay clear of, or add the following script snippet somewhere to be loaded on your page.

?

SP.SOD.executeFunc('filePreview.js', null, function () {     embeddedWACPreview.dimensions["pdf"] = embeddedWACPreview.dimensions["docx"] ;     filePreviewManager.previewers.extensionToPreviewerMap["pdf"] = filePreviewManager.previewers.extensionToPreviewerMap["docx"] ; } );

What the script does is copy the registrations for Word document previews, and attaching it to the PDF file extension. Good places to add this would be your master page, a script file always included on all pages or similar.

Planning of OWA Server

• Software, hardware, and configuration requirements for Office Web Apps Server
• Support for virtualizing Office Web Apps Server
• Firewall requirements for Office Web Apps Server
• Load balancer requirements for Office Web Apps Server
• DNS requirements for Office Web Apps Server
• Planning language packs for Office Web Apps Server
• Topology planning for Office Web Apps Server
• Security planning for Office Web Apps Server
• Planning for Online Viewers with Office Web Apps Server
• Planning updates for Office Web Apps Server

Prepare servers to run Office Web Apps Server

 

Hardware Requirement

Office Web Apps Server uses the same minimum hardware requirements as SharePoint Server 2013. You can find the full set of SharePoint 2013 requirements

Downloads, Server Roles and Features for OWA Server

Add more Office Web Apps servers to the farm

All what you have to do now for any additional office web server is to:

• Install Office Web Apps pre requisites
• Install office web apps
• Join the new server to the NLB Cluster (as described above)
• Run the following windows power shell command from a machine that is already part of the farm
• Firewall: If the machine joining the WAC farm cannot access the HTTP 809 channel the New-OfficeWebAppsMachine will throw a “The destination is unreachable error”.

New-OfficeWebAppsMachine –MachineToJoin ServerName

ServerName: is the name of the master machine (the first machine you added to the farm)

use the below command to make sure the new server is added to the farm

Get-officeWebAppsFarm

Remove Office Web Machine Server

On the server you want to remove run the below command:

Remove-OfficeWebAppsMachine

Tip: If, for any reason, you want to disconnect SharePoint 2013 from Office Web Apps Server, use the following command example:

Remove-SPWOPIBinding –All:$true

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219442.aspx

More Useful Links

1. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/meamcs/2013/03/27/office-web-apps-2013-multi-servers-nlb-installation-and-deployment-for-sharepoint-2013-step-by-step-guide/
2. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431687.aspx#Before
3. https://stevegoodyear.wordpress.com/sharepoint-2013-build-guide/office-web-apps-2013-server-install-and-configuration/
4. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219455.aspx
5. https://blog.blksthl.com/2013/10/15/a-quick-guide-to-setting-up-owa-with-sharepoint-2013-start-to-finish/