This post will provide a description of each of the SharePoint Services in the “Services on Server” section of Central Administration, describing what it is for and anything you need to look out for.
Note that some of these also have a corresponding Service Application that you will need to create in order to use them.
| Service | Purpose | Comments |
| Access Database Service 2010 | Enables SharePoint 2010 Access Services functionality | |
| Access Services | Enables SharePoint 2013 Access Services functionality | Required for “Access Apps” |
| App Management Service | Manages SharePoint App licenses and permissions | Required for Apps to work |
| Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service | Determines which server to send Service Application requests to .. this is how SharePoint automatically balances load. | Fundamental SharePoint Service, defaults to “Round Robin”Can be extended with custom load balancing code if you are brave enough! |
| Business Data Connectivity Service | Enables BCS which provides External Content Types and External Lists. | Required if you want to sync external LOB systems with User Profiles. |
| Central Administration | Hosts the Central Admin Web Application | The default URL is set to the server-name of the first server SharePoint is installed on.If you want to run this on multiple servers you should consider Alternate Access Mappings with a DNS entry |
| Claims to Windows Token Service (C2WTS) | Used to convert SharePoint Claims back into Windows Tokens for Kerberos delegation. | Required for Kerberos when used with BI Tools. Requires some manual steps:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231678.aspx |
| Distributed Cache | Heavily used in SharePoint. Requires ICMP ports open between SharePoint Servers.
Numerous Gotchas:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613(v=office.15).aspx
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| Document Conversions Launcher Service | Enables an extension point to configure conversion from one document format to another. | |
| Document Conversions Load Balancer Service | Enables an extension point to configure conversion from one document format to another. | |
| Excel Calculation Services | Enables the Excel Services BI functionality | Significant RAM overhead (recommended 32GB) If you want to use “PowerView” in Excel then you also need to configure the SQL PowerPivot add-on.
Kerberos will require C2WTS. |
| Lotus Notes Connector | Allows you to connect Search to a Lotus Notes database to enable indexing and crawling of Lotus content. | |
| Machine Translation Service | Allows an API for developers to submit content to be translated into another language. | |
| Managed Metadata Web Service | Enables “Managed Metadata” taxonomies and term sets | Required for default navigation settings in SP2013 (navigation stored in Term Store)Required for User Profiles |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail | Enables inbound emails to be stored in Document Libraries. | Requires significant configuration including AD and DNS settings:https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262947(v=office.15).aspx |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Outgoing E-Mail | Enables outbound emails from the server | Needs to be configured in Central Admin |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service | Allows Sandbox Solutions to be used and executed. | Required for SharePoint Hosted Apps, Design Manager and “Save as Template” functions (SharePoint Hosted Apps use the Sandbox Code Service to provision features and content in the “App Web”). |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service | Manages subscriptions between Sites and Apps. | Required for Apps to work |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application | Hosts the Content Web Applications | If this is enabled, all of the Web Applications (except for Central Admin) will be deployed. Also determines which servers are deployed to when deploying a WSP which is Web Application Targeted. |
| Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Workflow Timer Service | Runs any SharePoint 2010 style Workflows | |
| PerformancePoint Service | Runs the PerformancePoint BI component. | Significant RAM overhead (recommended 32GB) Kerberos will require C2WTS. |
| PowerPoint Conversion Service | Enables an API for developers to convert PowerPoint Presentations to various different formats (e.g. PPTX / PDF / JPG / PNG) | |
| Request Management | Allows custom routing rules for requests made to Service Applications. e.g. to route Excel traffic from one Site to a specific server | If you turn this on without defining any routing configurations then everything breaks! |
| Search Administration Web Service | Servers that run search components | This service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. |
| Search Host Controller Service | Servers that run search components | This service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. |
| Search Query and Site Settings Service | Servers that run the query processing component | This service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. |
| Secure Store Service | Allows storage of credentials and other secure information. | Database is encrypted using a “Master Key” configured when the service is setup. Required for the BI Unattended Service Account configuration |
| SharePoint Server Search | Crawls content for the search index | This service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. Note – Cannot be stopped or started from the Services on Server page |
| User Profile Service | Manages the user profiles, creation of My Sites and SharePoint Social Features (and associated permissions and properties). | Required for “High Trust” Provider Hosted Apps to work |
| User Profile Synchronization Service | Used to synchronise data from AD (and other data sources) into the Profile Database. | Not necessarily required for User Profiles!If you are just doing the “Directory Import” option then this service is not required.
The definitive “how-to” guide:https://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx |
| Visio Graphics Service | Allows Visio diagrams to be deployed to SharePoint so they can be displayed in the browser. | |
| Word Automation Services | Enables an API for developers to convert Word Documents to various different formats (e.g. DOCX / PDF) | |
| Work Management Service | Allows task aggregation, particular bringing together Tasks from Exchange, Project Server and SharePoint. | Requires Search and My Sites. Tasks are stored in a hidden list in the user’s My Site. |
Any additional suggestions, comments or errors you’ve spotted please let me know and I’ll try and keep this updated.
Note – this list only includes the Vanilla SharePoint 2013 services and does not include services added through other installs like SQL Server: {PowerView, Reporting Services, PowerPivot}
For more detail, including some great technical detail you can also check this TechNet article out: Plan service deployment in SharePoint 2013
By Martin Hatch, Associate Principal SharePoint Consultant
www.martinhatch.com
