SharePoint Best Practices
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  • SharePoint Best Practices Library by SPDocKit
  • Configuration
    • App Configuration
      • App Services Configured
      • Apps Configured
    • Distributed Cache
      • Appfabric Patched
      • Cache Cluster State
      • Cache Running
      • SharePoint Distributed Cache Size 2013
      • Distributed Cache Collocation Compliance
    • Security
      • Farm Account is not Local Admin
      • Office Web Apps HTTPS
    • Solutions
      • Solution Assembly Deployment Valid
    • Servers
      • Expired Certificates
      • Loopback Disabled
      • Minrole Compliance
  • Databases
    • ModelDB
      • ModelDB Files Autogrowth
      • ModelDB Files Initial Size
      • ModelDB Recovery Model
    • TempDB
      • TempDB Files
      • TempDB Files Configuration
      • TempDB Recovery Model
      • TempDB Response Times
      • TempDB Size
    • Content Database Autogrowth
    • Content Database Capacity
    • Database Files
    • Disk Allocation Size
    • Max Degree of Parallelism
    • SQL Alias
    • SQL Server Memory – SQL Server Memory Allocation Best Practices
  • Hardware Requirements
    • Free Disk Space
    • SharePoint 2013 Server and Hardware Requirements
  • Maintenance
    • Backup
      • Content Database Backups
      • Farm Backup Configured
      • Farm Backup History
    • Misc
      • Farm Accounts Used Interactively
      • PDF iFilter Installed
      • Upgrade Ready
  • Monitoring and Logging
    • Diagnostic Log Path
    • Enable Usage and Health Data Collection
    • SharePoint IIS Log Path
    • Restrict Trace Log Disk Space Usage
    • Search Index Path
    • ULS Active
    • Usage and Health Log Path
    • Verbose Logging Enabled
  • Service Applications
    • Search
      • Crawl Account Search Permission
      • Incremental Search Configuration
      • PDF Extension Added to Search Application
      • Search Content Sources
      • Search Running
    • UPA
      • My Site Configured
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    • Web Analytics
      • Event Collection Configured
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    • Application Proxies
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    • Exchange Task Sync
    • Multiple Service Applications
    • Sandboxed Code Service
    • SharePoint 2013 Secure Store Service Configured
    • State Service
  • SharePoint Software Boundaries and Limits
    • SharePoint Software Boundaries and Limits Overview
    • Limits by Feature
      • Search Limits
        • Authoritative Pages
        • Content Sources
        • Crawl Components
        • Crawl Databases
        • Crawl Rules
        • Index Partitions
        • Managed Properties
        • Property Databases
        • Scope Rules Count per Search Service Application
        • Scope Rules Count per Search Scope
        • Search Topology Limits
        • Sharepoint Search Service Applications
        • Start Addresses
      • User Profile Limits
        • User Profile Count
      • Visio Services Limits
        • File Size of Visio Web Drawings – Max Web Drawing Size
        • Visio Services Cache Age
        • Visio Web Drawing Recalculation Time-out
      • Word Automation Services
        • Conversion Job Size
        • Conversion Start Frequency
    • Limits by Hierarchy
      • Content Database Limits
        • Content Database Size
        • Number of Content Databases
        • Site Collections per Content Database
      • Server Limits
        • Number of Application Pools
      • Site Collection Limits
        • Number of Site Collections
        • Site Collection Size
        • Web Site
      • Web Application Limits
        • Content Databases
        • Managed Paths
        • Number of Web Applications
        • Site Collections
  • Site Collection Health
    • Farm Features Duplicate IDs
    • Features Duplicate IDs
    • SharePoint Site Collection Upgrade – Upgrade SharePoint 2010 to 2013
    • Site Collections Duplicate IDs
    • Web Application Features Duplicate IDs
  • Updates
    • SharePoint
      • Build Revoked
      • Farm in Trial
      • Is SharePoint Up to Date
      • SharePoint 2013 Language Packs Up to Date
      • Office Web Apps Up to Date - Office Web App Servers
      • Product Supported
    • Servers
      • Sharepoint Server Upgrade Required
      • Windows Updates
      • Hotfixes per Server Role
        • Application Servers Hotfixes
        • DB Servers Hotfixes
        • Distributed Cache Servers Hotfixes
        • Failover Servers Hotfixes
        • Search Servers Hotfixes
        • WFE Servers Hotfixes
  • Web Applications
    • Caching
      • BLOB Caching Enabled
      • Object Cache User Accounts
      • Publishing Cache
    • AppPool User in Performance Log Group
    • Batch Compilation Disabled
    • Web Application in Debug Mode - Web.config Debugging How To
    • Web Application URL Check
    • Web Applications Without Sites
    • SharePoint Web.config Files Equality
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  • Issue description
  • Explanation
  • Solution
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  1. SharePoint Software Boundaries and Limits
  2. Limits by Hierarchy
  3. Server Limits

Number of Application Pools

Number of Application Pools best practices report by SPDocKit determines whether you have more than 10 IIS application pools per web front end server.

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Last updated 1 year ago

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Issue description

This check determines whether you have more than 10 IIS application pools per web front end server.

Explanation

Each SharePoint site collection is part of a SharePoint web application. Each web application has an equivalent IIS web site that is automatically managed by SharePoint Central Administration. When provisioning a new site collection, a SharePoint admin can choose whether a new web application will be provisioned for a new site collection or whether this site collection will be hosted as part of an existing web application. In addition, administrators can choose if a new IIS application pool will be spun up for the new web application.

An application is a group of one or more worker processes configured with common settings that serve requests to one or more applications assigned to that application pool. Because application pools allow a set of web applications to share one or more similarly configured worker processes, they provide a convenient way to isolate a set of web applications from other web applications on the server computer. However, since every IIS app pool that serves a SharePoint web applications consumes a lot of memory, we recommend that you keep the number of pools at 10 (this amount can be different depending on hardware setup).

Traditionally, SharePoint admins have created a new web application and new app pool for each new site collection that required a separate URL based on the business’s needs or technical requirements. With the release of SharePoint 2010 and the rise of SharePoint Online, a new feature was introduced known as host-named site collections. This new approach allows SharePoint administrators to host multiple site collections with unique URLs within a single web application.

Solution

Optimize the number of app pools per web server. If site collections can be hosted within existing web applications, it’s always best to take that approach. If you are using SharePoint 2013 or better, host-named site collections are also an option.

Consider your business requirements, security, pool configuration, and site collection growth predictions when deciding which site collections can share a web application or an application pool.

Additional information

Additional information can be found in the following articles:

Application Pools
Software boundaries and limits for SharePoint 2013
What Every SharePoint Admin Needs to Know About Host Named Site Collections
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