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
      • UPA Up and Running
    • Web Analytics
      • Event Collection Configured
      • Web Analytics Services Started
    • Application Proxies
    • Authentication Providers
    • 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
  • Additional information

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  1. Web Applications

SharePoint Web.config Files Equality

Web.config Files Equality best practices report by SPDocKit determines whether web.config files on all servers in the farm are identical.

PreviousWeb Applications Without Sites

Last updated 1 year ago

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Issue description

This check determines whether web.config files on all servers in the farm are identical.

Explanation

Web.config files contain configuration parameters for an Internet Information Services (IIS) web application. They should be the same on all SharePoint servers for specific web applications and zones. If they are not the same, you may experience various issues.

SharePoint usually maintains the web.config files. When you perform a configuration change that requires a modification to the web.config file, SharePoint stores the change in the configuration database and triggers the timer job responsible for propagating the configuration change. The timer job(s) then run on all SharePoint servers and write the required changes in the web.config files.

However, some changes must be performed manually. A good example of this is activating the debug mode for web applications. No configuration option is available in the Central Administration or PowerShell cmdlet to handle this. Hence, we must implement the change manually. However, the change must be implemented on all SharePoint servers hosting a particular web application.

Solution

Verify that the web.config files are the same on all servers for the reported web application. To do so, open the Internet Information Services Manager, open the server branch in the tree view on the left side and then open Sites branch. Find the affected web application, right-click its name in the tree view and click Explore. Open web.config file with Notepad. Repeat this on all servers and find which elements are changed.

When possible, use a 3rd party, XML comparison tool to compare these files.

Additional information

Additional information can be found in the following article:

Web.config files are not identical on all machines in the farm (SharePoint 2013)
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