Office Web Applications (Office Web Apps) are web browser–based applications
that enable users to edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files
without needing Microsoft Office applications installed on client
machines. The Windows Live service
provides an Office Web Apps service for personal users and consumers,
and enterprise organizations may install Office Web Apps within the
SharePoint 2013 infrastructure.
SharePoint Office Web Applications (OWA)
no longer exists as a service application in a SharePoint farm.
Instead, OWA 2013 installs a separate server farm. You must now install
Office Web Apps Server on a different server from SharePoint 2013. This
has the advantage that you can maintain patches to OWA separate from
SharePoint and can maintain both farms differently from a user load
perspective.
Unlike SharePoint, the Office Web Applications installer does not include a prerequisites installer application. Make sure you install the following prerequisites before installing OWA 2013:
After completing installation of the prerequisites, open a new PowerShell window on the server and execute the following Cmdlets—for Windows 2008 R2:
Import-Module ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,Web-Security,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Console,Ink-Handwriting,IH-Ink-Support
Restart the server if/when prompted. If you are
running Windows Server 2012, execute the following PowerShell Cmdlets
instead of those preceding:
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices
Now, you are ready to install the OWA 2013 binaries.
Run the setup.exe file in the OWA installation media. If you have a
single IMG or ISO file, you may need to burn this to a DVD, or extract
the package using a tool, such as WINISO or WINRAR.
I recommend that you install the OWA language packs
if you plan to display multi-language documents from your OWA Server.
Installation of the language packs is straightforward and requires you
to run the installer.
Configuring OWA for SharePoint 2013
I hope that you have installed the Office Web
Apps prerequisites and binaries without error. If so, now you are ready
to configure OWA for SharePoint 2013. Simply installing OWA is not
enough, SharePoint requires configuration to communicate with the OWA Server, now that it is not an included service application with SharePoint.
- Create an OWA farm—execute the following PowerShell on the OWA Server:
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm –InternalURL " http://servername " –AllowHttp –EditingEnabled
Note If you receive 500 server errors when executing OWA Cmdlets, try the following command, followed by an IISRESET: %systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -iru.
- Verify the OWA Server is serving data via HTTP by navigating to http://servername/hosting/discovery.
- You should see some XML returned, which is the WOPI (Web app Open Platform Interface) discovery file.
- Ensure that your SharePoint web applications use Claims-Based-Authentication.
- Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell (PowerShell) as ELEVATED.
- Execute the following Cmdlet to bind SharePoint to the OWA Server;
if you forget the parameter to allow HTTP, the Cmdlet will assume
HTTPS:
New-SPWOPIBinding -ServerName <WacServerName> -AllowHTTP
- Run the following Cmdlet to determine the zone that SharePoint uses to connect to OWA:
Get-SPWOPIZone
- If the preceding Cmdlet returns the zone as internal-https, then change the zone to internal-http with the following Cmdlet:
Set-SPWOPIZone –zone "internal-http"
- Ensure that you can use OAUTH to communicate with the OWA Server with the following Cmdlets:
$config = (Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig)
$config.AllowOAuthOverHttp = $true
$config.Update()
- Test that you can open Office documents from SharePoint 2013 via OWA.
Of course, the previous steps should work fine
for a non-production environment, but for production deployment, I
recommend using HTTPS between SharePoint and your OWA Server. In this
case, drop the -AllowHTTP parameter in step 6, and use “external-https” in step 8.
