Sticky Glue

In the previous Blog entry, we focused on the introduction to how Excel Services is managed in SharePoint 2010. In this post we’ll look at the a new concept in SharePoint 2010 – Managed Services. These are grouped under Service Applications, which is a farm-level resource that is shared across sites in the farm. It provides an endpoint to one or more services that run on an application server. In Excel Services for SharePoint 2010 installation, the Excel Services Service also requires a service application. The service application provides a run time context for querying and managing Excel Services data in the farm.

Is this post we’ll look at how an Excel Services Service is created and configured. In Later post we’ll look at other details of this Service Application.

1. How an Excel Services service application is created and configured

   Excel Services for a SharePoint 2010 installation must have at least one Excel Services service application in the farm. A service application is created automatically if you used the New Standalone Server installation option. Otherwise, if you used the Existing Farm installation option, you must create an Excel Services service application as a post-installation task.

   Creating a service application makes the service available and generates the service application database. Depending on options you select when creating the service application, a Excel Services service connection is added to the default service connection group. All SharePoint Web applications that subscribe to the default service connection group will get immediate access to the Excel Services service application automatically.

   You can create multiple Excel Services service applications. Although one service application is sufficient for most deployment scenarios.

   Creating additional service application introduces new requirements for managing service associations. Namely, it will require that you create and use custom service association lists for each additional service application that you create.

   If you do not have a specific reason for creating additional Excel Services service application, you should use a single service application for all of the Web applications in the farm.

To Create a NEW service application, follow the following steps:

1. In Central Administration, in Application Management, click Manage Service Applications.
2. In the Service Applications ribbon, click New.
3. Select Excel Services Service. If it does not appear in the list, Excel Services for SharePoint 2010 is not installed or was not installed correctly.

   

4. In the Create New Excel Services Service Application page, enter a name for the application. If you are creating multiple Excel Services service applications, a descriptive name will help other administrators understand how the application is used.
5. In Application Pool, create a new application pool for the application (recommended). Select or create a managed account for the application pool. Be sure to specify a domain user account. A domain user account is required if you plan to scale out the deployment to include additional service instances that will run under the same identity.
6. Optionally, select the checkbox for Add the proxy for this Service Application to the farm’s default proxy group. This adds the service application connection to the default service connection group.

   
   You must select this checkbox if you are creating your first Excel service application.
   Do not add the Excel service application to the default connection group if one already exists. Adding multiple entries of the same service application type is not a supported configuration and might cause errors

7. Click OK. The service will appear alongside other managed services in the farm’s service application list.

Configuring the NEW service application, follow the following steps:

A Excel Services service application is created using a default configuration. The default settings are recommended for most scenarios. Change them only if you encounter slow response time or dropped connections, or if you are varying Excel Services service configuration for specific SharePoint Web applications.

1. In Application Management, click Manage Service Applications. In the list of service applications, you should see the service application you just created and named.
2. Click the Excel Services service application. This opens the Excel Services “Control Panel”.

   

3. The “Global Settings” is where you set most of the the configuration options. (See Part 1 of these Posts)
4. In Unattended Account under Global Settings, you can specify a Secure Store Services target application that stores a predefined account for running Excel Services jobs. This account is created automatically if you used the New Standalone Server option in SQL Server Setup to install Excel Services for SharePoint. Otherwise, you must create this account manually.