3. About Spencer Harbar
Microsoft Certified Solutions Master | SharePoint
Microsoft Certified Architect | SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Certified Solutions Master | SharePoint Instructor & Author
Microsoft Certified Master | SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Certified Master | SharePoint 2007
Most Valuable Professional | SharePoint Server
SharePoint Patterns & Practices Advisory Board Member
Works with Microsoft’s largest enterprise customers
Works with SharePoint Product Group on Readiness
Author for MSDN & TechNet
4. Agenda
• Introduction to OWA Server 2013
• Installation
• Connection to SharePoint 2013 and
Exchange 2013
• Configuration
• Updates and patching
• Security considerations
• Troubleshooting
6. Office Web Apps 2013
Office Web Apps 2013 provides online,
browser based versions of Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and OneNote
7. Office Web Apps Deployments
Consumer Cloud
(OneDrive, Docs.com)
On Premises & Private
Cloud
Public Cloud
(Office 365)
Same core capabilities available in Consumer cloud, Public
cloud, and On Premises or Private Cloud (well that’s the
theroy!!!!)
8. OWA or WAC?
• Confusing Acronym Madness!
• OWA: Outlook Web Access
• WAC: Web Application Companion
• Original name for Office Web Applications!
• WAC is frequently used internally in the product
and with updates
11. Problems with Office Web Apps 2010
• As a SharePoint Service Application
• Tightly coupled with SharePoint Farm(s)
• Patched with SharePoint Cumulative Updates and Service Packs
• Albeit different update schedules
• Not all documents are in SharePoint!
• Large customers had numerous farms to manage
• Complex Upgrade and maintenance
• SharePoint service application not in-sync with Office Web
Applications on Public Cloud
• Docs.com, OneDrive, Facebook
• Strange licensing model
13. Office Web Apps Architecture Overview
• WAC is now an independent server product
No longer a service application
• Totally redesigned and implemented as a “stateless” appliance
• Simple Farm creation, high availability and disaster recovery
• One WAC farm can support multiple SharePoint farms
• Integrate with WAC from a number of different systems:
» SharePoint 2013 – NOT SharePoint 2010
» Exchange 2013
» Lync 2013
» File servers
» OneDrive, Yammer
• 3rd parties can integrate with WAC to provide access to
documents in their data stores e.g. EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet, OpenText, etc.
14. Office Web Apps Architecture Overview
• Advantages of WAC being a separate server product:
– Vastly simplified installation and configuration
– WAC can be scaled and managed separately from other Microsoft
server products
– One WAC farm can be used by multiple different other Microsoft
server product farms
• WAC farm version does not need to be in sync with
SharePoint farm
• There is no Administration UI for WAC
– 100% Windows PowerShell cmdlets
16. Feature Investments
• Superior browser and mobile device support
• External data in Excel supported
• Open Document Forum 1.2 support
• PDF viewer included (March 2013 Public Update)
• Human readable (and understandable) URLs
Much easier to share
• Possible to open files from file shares
Requires Office Web Apps account to have permissions
on the file share
17. Office Web App URLs
• URLs are now human readable (and understandable)
• Allows for simple and easy sharing of documents
Office Web Apps 2010:
Office Web Apps 2013:
18. New, Edit, View capabilities
• Office Web Apps 2013 can
now be used as source for
creation of documents
• Creation and editing of
documents require licenses
for end users
• Read Only use does not require licenses!
• Updated licensing policy for better usage
scenarios without Office client installation
requirements
20. Co-Authoring on Office 365
• Edit documents simultaneously
– Word Web App
– PowerPoint Web App
– Excel Web App
• Real-time presence shows
where co-authors are
working in the document
– Prevents save conflicts
• Auto-save changes
– See changes as they happen
22. Performance and scale
• Requires dedicated servers
– Can be also virtualized
• Can run on a single server
depending on requirements
• Add servers to meet demand
• No reason to have
separate farms
– Except security
23. Installing Office Web Apps
• Very simple and easy!
• Operating System
• Pre-requisites
• Office Web Apps
• Office Web Apps Language Packs
24. Farm creation and configuration
New-OfficeWebAppsFarm
New-OfficeWebAppsMachine
25. Connecting to SharePoint 2013
• Set once for the whole SharePoint farm
• Windows PowerShell only
• You can customize which Office Web Apps are registered
• Nothing is installed on SharePoint
• Removing is just as easy
Discovery Request
Discovery Response
>>New-SPWopiBinding –Server <serverUrl>
>>Set-SPWOPIZone –Zone <zone>
26. Say WOPI? Say what?
• Web Application Open Platform Interface
• “Open” (documented) protocol
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh622722(v=office.12).aspx
• Possible to
– create your own WOPI Hosts/Servers (e.g. SharePoint)
– connect to your own WOPI Apps/Clients (e.g. source
code viewer)
– http://www.wictorwilen.se/Tags/Open%20WOPI
29. Deployment Notes
• You cannot run any other server products on the
Office Web Apps server(s)
– Exchange, SharePoint., Lync, SQL, etc
– Installation is blocked, also will periodically remove IIS
applications
• Connecting your SharePoint farm to the Office Web
Apps farm includes many options
– Control over viewing/editing
– File Types, Extensions etc
• Licensing can be controlled (from within
SharePoint)
30. Secure Sockets Layer
• Use HTTPS for Office Web Apps!
– Security
• Office Web Apps uses a proprietary authorization protocol
• Passes access tokens across the wire
– Functionality
• Irritating Web Browser warnings about unsecure content!
• If SharePoint Web App is HTTP and HTTPS, HTTPS is required
• If SharePoint Web App is HTTP and WAC is HTTPS, no
warnings
• If SharePoint Web App is HTTPS and WAC is HTTP, user
warnings
31. Deployment Notes
• SSL: ensure cert includes FQDN for each WAC
server
• Use session affinity on the load balancer
• TechNet misses the WCF HTTP Activation pre-req
• Split farms
– Supported if extremely low latency
– Will degrade performance
– Not designed for this deployment model
33. Patching WAC
• Independent of SharePoint, Lync, Exchange
etc
• Create a new WAC Farm
• Disconnect old WAC farm from SharePoint
• Connect new WAC farm to SharePoint
• Disconnect and move one server at a time
to the new farm
34. Monitoring and Tools
• Performance Counters
– Office Web Apps Storage
– Office Web Apps: Open hosting interface
– ASP.NET counters
• ULS
– On SharePoint and WAC
• Event Logs
• Fiddler!
• WOPI Specs
35. Magic “Fix the farm” cmdlet!
• Repair-OfficeWebAppsFarm
• Erm, no!
• This just removes all unhealthy servers!
36. Common Issues
• Machines reported as Unhealthy
– Intra farm comms
– Certificates
– WCF HTTP Activation installed?
• Watchdog processes repeatedly crashes
– Check ASP.NET Perf counters are registered
• SharePoint connection issues
– Firewall/DNS lookups
– HTTP/HTTPS
– Correct WOPI Zone
38. Summary
• Office Web Apps is a key component of
enterprise collaboration
• Fully automated, scalable and stateless
design
• Windows PowerShell all the way
• Extensible via WOPI
