We have two servers 1 Web running Windows SharePoint Services Web Application Central Administration 1 App running Excel Calculation Services Office SharePoint Server Search Windows SharePoint Services Search Project Application Service Windows SharePoint Services Incoming E-Mail We get a warning Web Front End servers in the server farm are not consistent in the services they run. But we only have one web front end server?!? Everything seems to work fine. Is there any recommendation for which services should go on which server?!?

You need to have MOSS 2007 on the front-end. Excel Calculation Services and all the rest are part of MOSS 2007. You can't mix WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 in the same farm. (and isn't Project Application Service Project Server 2007 only? if so this post should go to a Project Server forum) 2010 Books: SPF 2010; SPS 2010; SPD 2010; InfoPath 2010; Workflow etc. 2007 Books: WSS 3.0; MOSS 2007; SPD 2007; InfoPath 2007; PerformancePoint; SSRS; Workflow Both lists also include books in French; German; Spanish with even more languages in the 2007 list.

I don't really understand what you mean. I have MOSS 2007 installed on both servers I have just enabled and disabled the services as per above accross two servers to split the load. The full picture via central admin is Web Central Administration Started Document Conversions Launcher Service Stopped Document Conversions Load Balancer Service Stopped Excel Calculation Services Service running on server: MOSSAPP1 Stopped Office SharePoint Server Search Service running on server: MOSSAPP1 Stopped Project Application Service Stopped Windows SharePoint Services Incoming E-Mail Service running on server: MOSSAPP1 Stopped Windows SharePoint Services Search Service running on server: MOSSAPP1 Stopped Windows SharePoint Services Web Application Started App Central Administration Service running on server: MOSSWEB1 Stopped Document Conversions Launcher Service Stopped Document Conversions Load Balancer Service Stopped Excel Calculation Services Started Office SharePoint Server Search Started Project Application Service Started Windows SharePoint Services Incoming E-Mail Started Windows SharePoint Services Search Started Windows SharePoint Services Web Application Service running on server: MOSSWEB1 Stopped Everything works as expected I just get the error "Web Front End servers in the server farm are not consistent in the services they run" via _admin/checkfarmservices.aspx

try to stop "Windows SharePoint Services Incoming E-Mail" in app server. and start the service in web server.

Good shout but I still get the same message :-( As everything is working and no one seems to be suggesting that my setup is completely stupid I think I will just leave it alone!

The Web Application service needs to run on both servers. I would also recommend running the Central Admin site on the Application server. Regards, Aaron www.aaron-rendell.co.uk

Hi Aaron Thanks for the suggestion. Can you explain why? I don't have any load balancer so don't want to run a web application on both servers as one would never be accessed as there would be no DNS etc set up for it. I can see it creating a lot of errors in the log. Does this mean going forward we split sevices out further that the web application service needs to run on all boxes? E.g. if we create an index server or an excel calculation server. Cheers Dave

the link below may be helpful http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointsearch/thread/7f1c57b0-3dc5-471f-80f2-8183306ae94d/Manish Sati

Thanks Manish, However the index and query roles are not on different servers as per your link. Cheers Dave

Sorry, I would run the CA role on just the Application server, and leave the WFE just to manage user requests. What is creating alot of errors?Regards, Aaron www.aaron-rendell.co.uk

Nothing. There are no errors at all just the warning in the check service page. I was predicting that if I enabled the WFE on the application server I would have got a large number of errors as there would have been no DNS set up on this server to handel the multiple IIS web applications and no load balencing. Cheers Dave

SharePoint doesn't know what servers are load balanced - even after configuring a NLB or physical F5 LB for example, SharePoint still isn't aware. Reason being - the Application servers still needs to 'render' the web-sites so that they can be indexed - allowing the application server to take the load of page hits. Your see that the application servers host file has been configured with the IP address of the server, making sure that it indexes on the correct server.Regards, Aaron www.aaron-rendell.co.uk

I have several IIS web applications hosting various site collections. So for examples sake my web server is called web01 and it hosts the following web applications intranet departments projects all of which are web applications in IIS. These are all set up as DNS entries pointing at web01 all 3 applications run on port 80 and IIS uses host headers to distinguish between them. The app server running index is called app01 and does its indexing by crawling web01 it doesn't try and crawl itself. This all works fine. If I turn on the web application on app01 none of the DNS or host headers will be set up for the 3 web applications so I don't think it will work unless I set up DNS etc? Perhaps I am being daft but I don't think I can just turn on the web application on app01 without configuring the DNS and host headers on that server. Yes I could use the host headers to poitn app01 at itself when looking up intranet,departments and projects however I don't really see the point other than that the load when indexing will then be on app instead of web. Surely this is just architechture design decision rather than the cause of my issue?

Are both servers patched to the same level, and have both servers had the 'SharePoint Configuration Wizard' ran on each?Regards, Aaron www.aaron-rendell.co.uk

Yes both servers patched to the same level. I think it might just be a nonsense message to be honest as everything is working fine. Thanks for all your help. Dave

Hi David, Its strange you would usually not see this error unless both servers are had Windows SharePoint Services Web Application started. There are only a few Server Roles WFE, Index, Query, CALC, CA, InfoPath isnt a Role and SQL isnt a SharePoint Server. The algorithm seems to be a bit off and I assume its because the CA is on the WFE. Typically the CA is not out front but on one of the App Servers... In your configuration if this is the only notice (This is an informational notice) you receive and everything is working then its a non issue... Just curious When you say both servbers are patched do you mean that you have Updated them to the Latest CU and ran PSConfig? I would be interested in knowing what version of SharePoint your running. Just go to site settings in CA and ithe version number will be right above loook and feel... Cheers, -Ivan Ivan Sanders My LinkedIn Profile, My Blog, @iasanders.

Hi Ivan, We are not on the latest CU as we don't tend to do CU in our environment unless we are experiencing an issue that they resolve. Our Farm is patched to version 12.0.0.6504 This is WSS 3.0 and MOSS service packs 1 and 2 and the April 2009 Cumulative update. One thing that I didn't mention is that all our servers are 2008 Rel 2 which has caused a few issues along the way :-) Thanks Dave