OWA for SP2013 Part-1(Introduction)

When used together with SharePoint Server 2013, Office Web Apps Server provides updated versions of Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App, and OneNote Web App. Users can view and, in some cases, edit Office documents in SharePoint libraries by using a supported web browser on computers and on many mobile devices, such as Windows Phones, iPhones, iPads, Windows 8 tablets, and Android devices.

Figure: The viewing and editing capabilities of Office Web Apps on different kinds of devices

Office Web Apps Server is now installed as a stand-alone server

Office Web Apps is not installed on the same servers that run SharePoint 2013. Instead, you deploy one or more physical or virtual servers that run Office Web Apps Server. Then you configure the SharePoint 2013 farm to use the Office Web Apps Server farm to provide Office Web Apps functionality to users who create or open Office files from SharePoint libraries.

Theory about Office Web App Server

Office Web Apps Server is an Office server product that provides browser-based file viewing and editing services for Office files. Office Web Apps Server works with products and services that support WOPI, the Web app Open Platform Interface protocol. These products, known as hosts, include SharePoint 2013, Lync Server 2013, and Exchange Server 2013. An Office Web Apps Server farm can provide Office services to multiple on-premises hosts, and you can scale out the farm from one server to multiple servers as your organization’s needs grow. Although Office Web Apps Server requires dedicated servers that run no other server applications, you can install Office Web Apps Server on virtual machine instances instead.

It is easier to deploy and manage Office Web Apps within your organization now that it is a stand-alone product. If you deploy SharePoint 2013, for example, you no longer have to optimize the SharePoint infrastructure to support Office Web Apps, which in earlier versions was tightly integrated with SharePoint Server 2010. You can also apply updates to the Office Web Apps Server farm separately and at a different frequency than you update SharePoint, Exchange, or Lync Server. Having a stand-alone Office Web Apps Server farm also means that users can view or edit Office files that are stored outside SharePoint Server, such as those in shared folders or other websites. This functionality is provided by a feature known as Online Viewers.

Differences between the Office Web Apps deployment models

How SharePoint 2013 uses Office Web App server for Viewing and Editing Office Documents

When used with SharePoint Server 2013, Office Web Apps Server provides updated versions of Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App, and OneNote Web App. Users can view and, in some cases, edit Office documents in SharePoint libraries by using a supported web browser on computers and on many mobile devices, such as Windows Phones, iPhones, iPads, and Windows 8 tablets. Among the many new features in Office Web Apps, improved touch support and editing capabilities enable users of iPads and Windows 8 tablets to enjoy editing and viewing Office documents directly from their devices.

The following illustration summarizes the viewing and editing capabilities of Office Web Apps on different kinds of devices.

Viewing and editing capabilities of Office Web Apps

Differences between Excel Web App and Excel Services in SharePoint

Excel Web App and Excel Services in SharePoint have a lot in common, but they are not the same. Excel Services is available only in the Enterprise edition of SharePoint Server 2013. Excel Web App is available in SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Foundation 2013. Both applications enable you to view workbooks in a browser window, and both enable you to interact with and explore data.

But there are certain differences between Excel Web App and Excel Services in SharePoint. For example, Excel Services supports external data connections, data models, and the ability to interact with items that use data models (such as PivotChart reports, PivotTable reports and timeline controls). Excel Services provides more business intelligence functionality than Excel Web App, but Excel Services does not enable users to create or edit workbooks in a browser window.

Deploy Office Web Apps Server

First, here are a few things you should NOT do when deploying Office Web Apps Server.

• Don’t install any other server applications on the server that’s running Office Web Apps Server. This includes Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server, and SQL Server. If you have a shortage of servers, consider running Office Web Apps Server in a virtual machine instance on one of the servers you have.
• Don’t install any services or roles that depend on the Web Server (IIS) role on port 80, 443, or 809 because Office Web Apps Server periodically removes web applications on these ports.
• Don’t install any version of Office. If it’s already installed, you’ll need to uninstall it before you install Office Web Apps Server.
• Don’t install Office Web Apps Server on a domain controller. It won’t run on a server with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

Make sure the following ports aren’t blocked by firewalls on either the server that runs Office Web Apps Server or the load balancer:

·         Port 443 for HTTPS traffic

·         Port 80 for HTTP traffic

·         Port 809 for private traffic between the servers that run Office Web Apps Server (if you’re setting up a multi-server farm)

Downloads, server roles, and features that are required for Office Web Apps Server

Download, server role, or feature	If you’re installing on Windows Server 2008 R2	If you’re installing on Windows Server 2012	If you’re installing on Windows Server 2012 R2
Download: Office Web Apps Server	Office Web Apps Server	Office Web Apps Server	Office Web Apps Server
Download: Office Web Apps Server SP1	Recommended	Recommended	Office Web Apps Server SP1
Download: Correct version of .NET Framework	.NET Framework 4.5	.NET framework 4.5 is already installed	.NET Framework 4.5.2
Download: Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition	Update for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition	Not applicable	Not applicable
Download: Windows PowerShell 3.0	Windows PowerShell 3.0	Already installed	Already installed
Server role: Web Server (IIS)	Here are the minimum role services required for the Web Server (IIS) server role. Common HTTP Features Static Content Default Document Application Development ASP.NET .NET Extensibility ISAPI Extensions ISAPI Filters Server Side Includes Security Windows Authentication Request Filtering Management Tools IIS Management Console The following options are recommended but not required: Performance Static Content Compression Dynamic Content Compression	Here are the minimum role services required for the Web Server (IIS) server role. Management Tools IIS Management Console Web Server Common HTTP Features Default Document Static Content Security Request Filtering Windows Authentication Application Development .NET Extensibility 4.5 ASP.NET 4.5 ISAPI Extensions ISAPI Filters Server Side Includes The following services are recommended but not required: Performance Static Content Compression Dynamic Content Compression	Here are the minimum role services required for the Web Server (IIS) server role. Management Tools IIS Management Console Web Server Common HTTP Features Default Document Static Content Security Request Filtering Windows Authentication Application Development .NET Extensibility 4.5 ASP.NET 4.5 ISAPI Extensions ISAPI Filters Server Side Includes The following services are recommended but not required: Performance Static Content Compression Dynamic Content Compression
Feature: Ink and Handwriting Services	Ink and Handwriting Services Ink Support	Ink and Handwriting Services Ink Support is not required.	Ink and Handwriting Services Ink Support is not required.

Deploying Office Web App Server involves installing some prerequisite software and running a few Windows PowerShell commands, but overall the process is designed to be pretty straightforward.