I have a clean install of MOSS 2007 and would like to ensure that web apps that users will use are installed only on the WFE and not the App server including Mysites. In addtion, I would like to use Host Headers and have all the Web Apps reside on port 80 on the WFE. Can all of this be done when the Web App is created? Currently, if I use Host Headers while creating the Web App, it is installed on the App server by default. If I specify the WFE server in the Load Balanced URL option without using a Host Header it creates the Web App on both the WFE and APP Server. I realized this can be accomplished is a series of step by extending the web app but I would like to keep IIS clean on the WFE and I don't know if I can delete the old site after its been extended. I also realize that AAM will need to come into play but not sure when.

I would also like to mention that we have not implemented load balancing yet (F5) and all of my web apps are getting copied to both WFE's and App servers. Should I not worry about separating operatinal Web apps (CA, SSP) from user web apps until F5 is implemented and focus on moving web apps to port 80 with Host Headers? Thanks

I don't know if I can delete the old site after its been extended. You can use Central Administration > Application Management > Remove SharePoint from IIS Web site to achieve this; would like to ensure that web apps that users will use are installed only on the WFE and not the App server You can stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service for App Server in Central Administration > Operations > Services on Server

If I turn-off the SharePoint Services Web App on the Application server won't I lost my SSP or Central Admin site?

You will not lose your SSP and CA on the server if you stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application. You can check this in IIS Manager, you can find that the Office Server Web Services and SharePoint Central Administration V3 web sites are still there, other web sites corresponding to the SharePoint web applications you had created would be deleted, including the SSP Admin web application.

I don't think I want to lose my SSP Admin site can you suggest an alternative? Can I move just the SSP Admin to one of the two WFE's without having to rebuild the entire SSP? Thank You GuYuming for helping out.

Sorry, I may have not made it clearly: you won’t lose your SSP Admin web application. By default, SharePoint will create IIS web site for every web application, including the SSP Admin web application on every WFE on the farm. If you stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application, the IIS web sites on that specific WFE will be deleted, however, they still exists on other WFE. Please read http://mindsharpblogs.com/daniel/archive/2007/01/12/1473.html for detail.

If I understand you correctly. I can stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web App on the Application server which will remove the sites including SSP Admin from that server except for Central Admin. The SSP and sites will still reside on the WFE's which is great but how will the SSP know to go to the WFE to access SSP Admin? Is this were AAM comes in? Sorry to be a pain. I just want to make sure. Thanks